Last modified 10/09/2023

The presentation letter:

Many people ask themselves why it is useful to send a presentation letter to a company, if they are already enclosed in the Curriculum Vitae.
Even when this is true, the final goal of the letter is to gather other aspects that are not shown in the CV and, in a certain way, contribute with the person in charge of the selection been interested in you, which will help you getting an interview.

When you are making your presentation letter, it would be good if you take into consideration if it will be sent to some newspaper ad, to a magazine, to the employment market, or if it will be a spontaneous presentation.

If what we send is in response to an ad, in the first paragraph of the letter, you should comment in which media (New York Times, The Post, etc.) you have found the working proposal, the day it was published and for which position we are applying. Let’s not forget to mention in both, the letter and the envelope, which is the reference made in the ad.

In the second paragraph, we must put our presentation. In it we must include not only our professional backgrounds, but also our working experience (in which company we have worked, the position we used to occupy and the activities we used to develop there). This paragraph must be strategically thought, because in function to the search, one is able of highlighting certain aspects more than others (preparation in the exterior, responsibilities, been in charge of people), locating the company’s needs and the possible contributions you might perform in there.

In the third paragraph, it should be stated which are our interest areas and which will be our contributions to the company (ability to manage work teams, orientation towards concrete goals).

An important point is the answer about the expected salary. In 80% of the published ads, this is a required point, by both, the companies and the consultants. It is advised not to make this point obvious with ambiguous answers such as “it goes according to the market’s values”, because nowadays, we can find ourselves in very similar positions and very different salaries.

If the ad requests you to send a handwritten letter, it must be presented in a plain paper, with no stripes and written with a pen or a ballpoint pen, because what is going to be evaluated is the slope of the letter, their size, the location and the connection between them, because they are going to analyze the handwriting of the letter.

Last but not least, we should say goodbye and request a personal interview, in which the sent information can be extended, and do not forget about the signature of the letter, enclosing our telephone number and e – mail address, in this way they will be able to get in touch with us.

In the case we sent the letter through a spontaneous presentation, we should mention that we intend our CV to be part of the company’s data base for further searches they could perform, without mentioning how much we intend to earn, because we do not know which the position might be.

Additional tips for writing a good presentation letter:
• Try making your presentation letter not so long or tedious, because if it is, the selectors will skip it and they will go directly to the CV.
• Use short and confident phrases.
• You must make sure that you know the name of the person to whom you are sending the letter to, and also the charge he or she might be developing in the company.
• Express different aspects from the ones you are mentioning in your Life Sheet.