Glossary of Letters

T-Letter

Easy to write, read and quickly grabs the reader’s attention.  2 in 1 letter: Use when an advertisement lists four or more requirements. Can also be reoriented for responding to, but not answering an advertisement. This letter combines brevity and utility in a synopsis of career experience, achievements, knowledge areas and credentials.

Executive Recruiter Letter

Use this letter to point out your target markets and save the recruiter time and guess work. This is most effective as an e-mail correspondence. If accompanied by a résumé it should be a chronological resume due to the ease of viewing background and accomplishments saving the recruiter more time and guess work.

Informational Interview Letter
Use to request an informal meeting/interview and to show interest, demonstrate your "savvy" and develop personal relationships in target industry.  The letter makes very clear that the job searcher simply wishes to meet and learn about the referrals or influential person's experiences, and gain advice and counsel, NOT looking for a job.  Few people decline the opportunity to discuss themselves, their field and their interests.  If someone refers you to a person or company you can also use this letter as a Referral Letter to request an informational interview.

Influential Contact Letter

This is similar to the Informational Interview Letter but slightly reoriented to help you acquire specific names, information on types of positions, what may be involved in working in the field and what, that is of interest to you, may be evolving.  If a person is an influential person they are also very busy.  This letter is crafted with great care to show you are respectful and will not waste their time 

Cover Letter Plus

A multi-use, customizable Cover Letter that communicates your interest in the company showcases you qualifications for the job and helps to quickly establish your “brand”; all in limited space and thus presenting you as an adept communicator as well.  This tailored letter highlights the relevancy of the job searchers experience and capabilities to the company’s business events and challenges. 

Letter Résumé

Preferred by many when writing your “best fit” opportunities.  Requires no résumé for it combines your résumé and cover letter in one document. This is a very useful approach because it meets the employer demand for a chronological format but very quickly highlights and communicates relevancy.  This is also very useful if you are self-employed or re-entering the workforce after some time or if you are business owner or professional such as an attorney, accountant or physician.  

Direct Contact Letter

The most frequently used letter in the job market place.  Specific skills and competencies selected from your résumé that are most likely to “sell” you, standout in the letter as bullets.  These easy to read bullets are your product "value-mix" and your "branding".

Unpublished Opportunity Letter

Use this letter to turn any article, event, market activity (i.e. roll-outs; expansions, mergers; IPO; corporate restructuring...) that triggers a hiring pattern, into a potential job opportunity query BEFORE it becomes common knowledge.  This letter links together how the job searcher is a "solution provider" to anticipated hurdles, obstacles, challenges that will potentially occur as a result of the events and gains the candidate quick and early access to decision-makers at the highest levels.

Proposition or Proposal Letter

This takes the Unpublished Opportunity Letter and brings it to the next level by including information that presents you are a "personalized solution provider".  Job searchers differentiate themselves and STANDOUT from their competition by providing specific details to an identified business challenge to decision-makers, executive recruiters and other persons of influence.Use to thank the interviewer/employer. When used after the formal job interview, it can help determine where you stand in the hiring process; when used after the informational interview or unpublished opportunity meeting, it can help to re-sell your qualifications and/or value-proposition.

Post Interview Follow-up Letter
Use to thank the interviewer/employer. This is a very positive letter that shows professional courtesy and appreciation. When used after the formal job interview, it can help determine where you stand in the hiring process; when used after the informational interview or unpublished opportunity meeting, it can help to re-sell your qualifications and/or value-proposition. 

This is one of the subtler of follow-up letters.  Use this if your first letter did not get a response and you are not able to or inclined to follow-up by phone. The tone of this letter is very impoirtant because it may not be a 'no response' after all - that the company is just painfully slow in responding.

Personalized Thank You Letter

Like the Post Interview Letter this is a very positive letter that shows professional courtesy and appreciation and is used after any meeting.  It gives you an opportunity to re-sell yourself and bring up points you may have left out during the interview and keeps your name in the forefront of the employer's consideration.  This is one of the most important of letters, yet statistically, very few job searchers actually use one. 

Response Letter to Rejection