Application for Admin / receptionist

Southend1

Denning. wrote: »

It is quite clear what I meant by the different types of jobs. Sorry but if someone thought I was so dense they ought to write a paragraph to explain a supermarket cashiers role to me I would be irritated. Especially if they had a few other jobs which were much more relevant where further explanation is appropriate.

This isn't an exam. If you write too much for the job it just won't be read.

You would be irritated, but quite possibly out of a job. All the recruitment training I've attended over the years emphasised matching the applicant's competencies with the requirements of the role. If someone can demonstrate in a short paragraph that they are aware of the competencies required and can apply their previous experience to demonstrate these competencies then they are more likely to get a look in that someone who just puts down that they were a cashier for 3 years.

It's not an exam, no. It's a sales pitch. It needs to be to the point and concise. But concise does not mean so short that there's no room to demonstrate that you can do the job.

Southend1

sniggings wrote: »

I could turn all that back on you

I have explained, that cover letter is rambling, it contains info that should be in the CV.

IMO the cover letter should be a taster to get the employer interested enough to look at the CV, heck they have listed the job on a site that doesn't even allow cover letters, if they wanted the mother of all cover letters, they picked the wrong site to list the job on :rotfl:

I agree the OP's original letter is wordy and needs some work. I also agree about it being a taster of why the applicant deserves the job. I disagree that this means it needs to be shorter. I would say about 3/4 of a page of A4 is about right for a receptionist post, the rest of the page being taken up with addresses, signature etc.

The danger is that by writing not enough or too much, OP is not interesting to the recruiting manager. My opinion is that cover letters which simply say "please find enclosed my CV" are lazy and a wasted opportunity.

sniggings

Southend1 wrote: »

You would be irritated, but quite possibly out of a job. All the recruitment training I've attended over the years emphasised matching the applicant's competencies with the requirements of the role. If someone can demonstrate in a short paragraph that they are aware of the competencies required and can apply their previous experience to demonstrate these competencies then they are more likely to get a look in that someone who just puts down that they were a cashier for 3 years.

It's not an exam, no. It's a sales pitch. It needs to be to the point and concise. But concise does not mean so short that there's no room to demonstrate that you can do the job.

time you wrote your cashier example and added another couple of jobs, education, profile, key skills, you would have achieved at least making your cover letter seem short in comparison

Denning.

Southend1 wrote: »

You would be irritated, but quite possibly out of a job. All the recruitment training I've attended over the years emphasised matching the applicant's competencies with the requirements of the role. If someone can demonstrate in a short paragraph that they are aware of the competencies required and can apply their previous experience to demonstrate these competencies then they are more likely to get a look in that someone who just puts down that they were a cashier for 3 years.

It's not an exam, no. It's a sales pitch. It needs to be to the point and concise. But concise does not mean so short that there's no room to demonstrate that you can do the job.

Thanks for proving you are arguing for arguing sake. I said in one of the first posts that hitting comptencies key bland fluff is just fluff. All those buzz words and phrases? Fluff.

sniggings

Southend1 wrote: »

I agree the OP's original letter is wordy and needs some work. I also agree about it being a taster of why the applicant deserves the job. I disagree that this means it needs to be shorter. I would say about 3/4 of a page of A4 is about right for a receptionist post, the rest of the page being taken up with addresses, signature etc.

The danger is that by writing not enough or too much, OP is not interesting to the recruiting manager. My opinion is that cover letters which simply say "please find enclosed my CV" are lazy and a wasted opportunity.

no one was suggesting it should just be one line, I said 5 but maybe 5-10 lines would be about right in most cases unless it's a non standard job, then maybe a few more but for this job, 10 lines max imo.

Southend1

Denning. wrote: »

Thanks for proving you are arguing for arguing sake. I said in one of the first posts that hitting comptencies key bland fluff is just fluff. All those buzz words and phrases? Fluff.

Please don't make judgements as to my motivation.

I visit these forums for discussion and also in the hope that my experience and opinion is useful to others.

I am an administrator myself and have recruited for many administrative jobs, including receptionists. While there is no right or wrong way for OP to write her application, she may find my posts useful because I have direct experience in this area. You may have equally relevant and valid experience but different preferences, and that's fine; please go ahead and share them with us all- but I'd be grateful if you did it without making assumptions about me.

Southend1

sniggings wrote: »

no one was suggesting it should just be one line, I said 5 but maybe 5-10 lines would be about right in most cases unless it's a non standard job, then maybe a few more but for this job, 10 lines max imo.

As I said, a wasted opportunity IMO. Five lines comes across to me as an applicant who can't be bothered. I want to know just enough about them from the cover letter to be interested in looking at their CV or application form.

annie123

OP, I've just researched the company.
It will be business dress, you can mention your degree if it's not something that says, I'm taking my biochemistry degree elsewhere and this is just a fill in job.
It's a commercial company not domestic as you put in your first post.

http://www.adhanlettings.com/

The job is for an assistant admin which means there's a senior one there already. The salaries are usually good compared to other admin roles. Read up about them and drop in key phrases they use. Commercial agents can sometimes (well here in London) but not always, have a plum in their mouths, if you don't already have one, you made need to stick one in!

t0rt0ise

My alma mater has some ideas and gives examples of good and bad covering letters. They prefer the longer, more than five lines, explanatory sort of letter.

http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/coveringletters.htm

whodathunkit

Try not to repeat information you've already given in your CV in your covering letter.