Cover Letters -
Speculative Agency
Applications
Sometimes, it's necessary to send a
speculative job application to a recruitment agency.
Recruitment agencies will keep speculative job applications
on file for anything up to five years and during that time,
will consider your application against any vacancies that might
arise now or in the future.
As already discussed, recruitment agencies are largely
automated and use software to do their initial search against a
client vacancy, so it is extremely important that you include
keywords in your job application cover letter as well as your
CV.
The reason for this is that recruitment agency software
works in a similar way to some Internet search engines.
This means that if a recruiter types in the keywords, "sales
executive", "Leeds", "construction" because he has a vancy for
a sales engineer in Leeds with construction industry
experience, then his search will come back with results of all
candidates with those keywords present in their
applications.
If you have been careful to include the same keywords in
your cover letter AND your CV, then your application will
appear to be more relevant that a candidate who didn't, simply
because the same keywords appear in both documents, so you're
doubling your chances of success and will automatically (at
least on paper) look like the stronger candidate.
Creating a good job application letter for a recruitment
agency isn't hard. Done correctly, using email, you can
massively increase your chances of being noticed.
Here is an example speculative cover letter to a recruitment
agency:
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Your Address
Address 2
Address 3
Address 4
Postcode
Your Telephone Numbers
Agency Name
Agency Address
Agency Address 2
Agency Address 3
Agency Postcode
Dear Sirs,
I am currently employed as
a Sales Engineer with XYZ
Construction Products Ltd and am seeking
an alternative position in a similar
capacity.
I would be grateful if you
would consider for any client requirements that
broadly match my skills and experience which
includes:
-
x years sales experience
-
Solid knowledge of construction
plant and equipment
-
Customers include large
construction firms, local
authorities and road builders
-
Typical sales value to around
£1.5million
Ideally, I am seeking a sales
or sales management role in an expanding
company. Location is not really an issue as I
am willing and able to relocate at short
notice, assuming my expenses for doing so are
met.
Further details can be found on
my CV and of course, I will be pleased to
answer any questions that you might have. I can
be contacted on my mobile telephone at any time
and at home after 6p.m. or at weekends.
I look forward to hearing from
you and would be very grateful if you could
contact me prior to making any application on
my behalf.
Yours faithfully,
Your Name
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A cover letter like this covers most of the bases. You'll
notice that this one requests that no application is
made until contact has been made.
This is vitally important, as many recruiters these days
send speculative applications to all likely employers without
any kind of pre-qualification whatsover.
Unless you specify prior contact being made, your details
could end up on the desk of somebody you don't want it to and
could jeopardise other applications being made on your behalf
by other recruiters.
The last thing you want is a situation where more than one
recruiter has sent your application, as this only makes the
employer think that you are not being selective about your job
applications.
©Hollywood Internet Ltd -
Speculative job application cover letters to recruitment
agencies
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