"Why are you applying for this job"

ryan86uk

Mistral001 wrote: »

Sorry your were turned down. The original answer to the question was too rambling and gave the impression that you were not quite sure why you wanted to apply for the job in the first place and were avoiding the question.

Keep it simple. If you cannot do that then you probably have not a clear idea why you are applying for the job in the first place.

Argh, I never thought it was rambling

Could you give an example of what you think would be a suitable covering letter / "Why you want the job?"

Thanks in advance :-)

tizerbelle

ryan86uk wrote: »

Argh, I never thought it was rambling

Could you give an example of what you think would be a suitable covering letter / "Why you want the job?"

Thanks in advance :-)

These are two seperate things and one answer will not fit both.

A covering letter is sent with a CV and is there to persuade the recruiter that reading your CV is something they want to do/worth doing. So a CV is a taster of what you can offer the company in relation to the role you are applying for. It is not (primarily) about why you want the job although 1 paragraph out of 4 could cover this but briefly.

Why you want the job is exactly that and presumably in an application form (you wouldn't have this in a cv) you have already detailed who you worked for, your roles and reasons for leaving. So why do you want the job. It's the opportunity to:

utilise the skills and experience you have gained from past employment in a new and challenging environment;
develop new skills and knowledge in a market leading organisation;
build on your skills framework to continue playing a leading role in the implementation of strategic change for business success (this is a real bs reason and will only work for a few roles!!)
take on a new challenge to further develop your career aspirations
etc
etc
etc

As someone else said earlier they are looking for "garbage" not entirely true but think about why you want that job, write that down and then turn those personal reasons into professional reasons that will show a benefit to both you and the business. Recruiters don't often care why you want a job - they want to know what can you do for the business, why should they hire you.

You can add reasons such as restablishing yourself within the local community; quality of work-life balance (especially if job nearer to home/family/fewer hours etc) but these should be secondary to the other answers which although they are about why you want the job they put it in such a way as to still answer the quesition "why should they hire you to work for this business"

kiddy_guy

OP - you've not told the prospective employer why you want to work for THEM. You've said why you are suitable, capable and why you want to move jobs, but not what (for want of a better expression) what turns you on about the new company or what interests you about the new role; it's a step up, but your covering letter basically sounds a bit me me me to be honest.

Incidentally this role is within my field, and yours by far isn't the worst covering letter i've seen. I'd drop your comments about current role being not enjoyable and tighten it up, but it's certainly okay.

ellieellieellie

ryan86uk wrote: »

I regrettably was forced to resign from my employment in the Middle East due to job location and other personal circumstances. Although currently employed, and thankful for it, I have little passion with regards to my current position.

I think this paragraph is a little negative. You might want to try something more along the lines of:

I was employed as XXXXX in the Middle East for XX years, but resigned as I wanted to move back to the UK. Although I enjoy my job [NEVER say you hate it], I feel there is little opportunity to develop my current role, and so am looking to move on [This ties in with what you said in the previous paragraph about taking a step up].

You might not want to use that exact wording, the point is to avoid sounding in any way negative.

Other than that, who knows what employers are looking for?!

Good Luck!

dawyldthing

add that you are looking for a new challenge in a role that you have previously done so that you can further your skills and training

lincroft1710

ryan86uk wrote: »

I wish to transfer the skills I have gained in the military

Which skills, OP? Killing people? Digging latrines? Peeling spuds?

You need to make clear what you learned whilst in the services which would make you the ideal candidate.

trooperdog

Im feeling your pain dude. But since you seem to be going for a management position, I agree with lincroft, I would emphasise on things like 'Leadership, management, Calm and decisive under pressure' could be more the lingo in CivDiv!! or not but good luck mate!

scheming_gypsy

Somebody forwarded this to me today, although it's about tech CV's it could be about any job, and could cover a lot of points people have said... it's about what they look for and how they read CV's that they receive.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/10/your_cv/