Résumé Transmittals: Introducing Yourself
Guidelines and Alternate Phrases
Be specific about what job you want, referring to how the position came to your attention.
I am very much interested in the Boston plant manager’s job advertised July 6 in The Wall Street Journal.
I’m enclosing my résumé in response to your July 6 advertisment for a newsletter editor. With 15 years’ experience in preparing brochures, journal articles, and proposals, I think I can contribute just the skills you need.
In a conversation last week with Dr. Sylvia Brown, I learned about an opening in your research and development department. Upon her recommendation, I’m enclosing my résumé.
Please consider me for the sales position at your Boston office. An acquaintance of mine mentioned a position would be opening there at the end of the month.
I recently learned of an opening for an administrative secretary in your accounting area. Would you please consider me for that position?
I saw your ad for a receptionist in yesterday’s Star Telegram and have enclosed my résumé for that position.
Joe Burke in your Chicago office suggested I contact you about the program analyst position that will be vacant at the end of this month.
Your organization keeps coming to mind as an excellent place to work. Would you please consider me (résumé enclosed) for a position in your accounting area?
If you want to increase your visibility in the oil and gas industry, I think my skills as a trade association manager can contribute to that goal.
Have you given thought to having your basic wordprocessing needs handled by a freelancer who pays his own salary and benefits? If that idea sounds appealing, I would welcome the opportunity to talk to you about such a freelance arrangement, whereby I would pick up and deliver daily your reports, correspondence, and proposals.
Summarize your education, key work experience, and skills or traits that specifically apply to the job.
I’ve had 12 years’ experience in….
As an engineer at Exxon, I had full responsibility for designing….
I enjoy this kind of work and am…(analytical, conscientious, agreeable, detail-oriented, organized, alert, dependable, energetic, dedicated to a cause, competent, artistic, creative, good with figures, pleasant, tactful, ambitious, reliable, communicative, quick, adaptable, action-oriented).
Emphasize benefits of your experience to the employer rather benefits you expect to gain.
Such a job calls for persistence and self-discipline—both of which are just part of my makeup.
That first impression on the phone with a client is crucial to the sale; I have always taken such calls very seriously.
Long hours, travel at a moment’s notice, and attention to detail present no problem whatsoever to me.
I would be eager to see that you had the monthly financial information on a timely basis and in a form you could easily interpret and immediately use—whether in written report form, in graphs, or in oral presentations to management.
The strategic plans you mentioned on the phone sound extremely exciting and challenging to me. The work you want done in the international setting, of course, directly relates to my experience at Huffco.
With 14 years’ experience in corporate law, I think I could contribute significantly to your company’s positioning itself as legal advocate for the causes we discussed yesterday.
My excellent sales record, my selection as this year’s Storman Award recipient, and my position on the board of directors for the AEEC, I think, evidence my commitment to customer service.
It’s not unrealistic to expect that I could increase your media exposure by placing two or three articles per month in various industry journals.
My academic credentials, I feel, would be an impressive part of a BVI proposal to prospective clients.
My willingness to travel, my flexibility on job assignments, and my communication skills with clients could pay off tremendously in a widespread operation such as BVI’s.
My four-year work history with no direct supervision served as a training ground for the position you now have open.
My time-management skills and my organizational skills should be directly useful in coordinating the consultants’ schedules among so many job sites.
Avoid mentioning salary unless the ad or interviewer insists that you do so.
I’d be happy to discuss salary during our interview.
As to salary, I’ll have my past salary history with me at the interview.
My salary requirements are negotiable, and we can discuss those as we review the exact nature of the job.
My salary requirements are flexible, depending on the chance for advancement in the company and the cost of living at the work location.
If there’s a good connection between the job and me, I feel sure we can also get together on salary.
Suggest an interview.
May I talk with you further?
I will welcome the opportunity to respond to more specific questions you may have in a personal interview.
No letter, of course, can adequately convey all the details of my experience, but if the above qualifications are in line with the job you’re trying to fill, I’d appreciate a personal interview. My number is 457-2345.
May I have an interview?
I’ll take the liberty of calling you when I’m in Dallas next week to see if we can arrange an interview at your convenience.
If this experience is on-target for the kind of trainer you need, let’s talk further.
I’ll phone next week to see if we can talk further about your BVI plans for the coming year.
I’ll call in a couple of days to see when we might get together to discuss the job and my qualifications in more detail.
I would be happy to fly to Houston for an interview at your convenience. I really want to work for an organization with the reputation yours has in the industry.
Would you please phone me at 344-6789 so we can talk further about the job possibilities?
I’d very much like to join your organization. I’ll hope for a positive response for an interview when I phone you Thursday.
May I visit with your selection committee personally to discuss how we can work together?
I’ll be in Philadelphia for the entire month of May and will phone to see when you have a few moments to talk about your plans for this position.
Please consider this résumé carefully in light of your current needs and let me know if you see a match with my experience.
I’ll look forward to scheduling an interview with you.
Make sure your name, address, and phone number are included either in the body of the letter or on the stationery heading.
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