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A Speculative Letter Looking for Employment

By: Jeff Durham - Updated: 25 Aug 2010 | comments*Discuss
 
A Speculative Letter Looking For Employment

Many people have obtained employment by making a speculative approach to a company. One of the advantages of applying in this manner is that you are far less likely to be competing with other people for just the one vacancy than when you're taking the more conventional approach of responding to an advertisement in the newspaper.

However, making a speculative approach isn't guaranteed to be successful. You may have many relevant skills and personal qualities which the company you are approaching could very well use but there might simply not be any current vacancies at the time. That said, even if the company can't employ you at the time you approach them, they may keep your details on file for when a vacancy does occur and you may find that they get in touch at a later date.

The key ingredients to making a successful speculative written approach for work are research, preparation and presentation.

You're not likely to succeed at all if you simply send a letter to a company saying, "Have you got any jobs?" It's far better to do some homework first.

Consider your strengths. What sort of work have you done previously? What qualifications do you have? What sort of environment do you prefer to work in? What kind of work do you enjoy? What kind of work do you think you are best suited to?

Jot down all these questions and write down some key bullet point answers underneath each one. Then, once you've established the kind of work you think you'd enjoy and are best suited to, find out the companies which are likely to offer that kind of role and working environment in the location in which you want to work.

Once you've done that, get hold of their contact details and call them all up and ask the receptionist for the name of the HR Manager or Personnel Manager and, if they don't have either, ask them for the name and address of the person in charge of recruitment.

How to Write it

Then it's time to write your letter. You should explain why you've decided to write to them specifically. Tell them about the kind of role (or even a specific role) that you are interested in and make sure it relates to their business activities. Try to give examples of previous similar types of roles you have performed previously. It's also useful to give some kind of indication that you have done your research thoroughly by demonstrating that you know a little bit about the company, about what they do and why you feel you could give them added value.

It's surprising just how many people have got an employment offer by simply writing a speculative letter.

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