Speculative Letter Writing - Is It The Right Approach For You?

Is Speculative Letter Writing A Good Idea Or Not? Let Me Explain Why It Is NOT

The idea about writing some spec. letters sounds good on the face of it, writing to possible employers which may have jobs that you don't know about has got to be worthwhile.

After all, they may have already advertised and you didn't see their advert, or they may be about to advertise, in which case you might just get in first and your skills may fit their requirements so they don't need to look elsewhere.

You must have read lots of covering letter advice already, but what you may not have been told is this: A covering letter has just one purpose, and that is to get you an invitation to an interview.

It can only get you invited to a job interview if you get all of the elements right so that it all comes together and you get the opportunity to meet and impress the hiring manager or personnel manager and win the job offer. I've given you two good covering letter examples on this page to give you some ideas to get you started on writing your own job application covering letters, which will always be better than writing speculative letters.

Typically a speculative letter might go like this:

Dear Sir,

I am writing to enquire whether your organization has any vacancies for which I may be considered. I am a reliable and responsible individual with 2 years of general office duties experience.

This experience includes answering the telephone, dealing with general enquiries, transferring calls, meeting and greeting visitors to the office, keeping the reception area clean and tidy, dealing with inbound/outbound post.

I am always eager to learn new skills and I am someone who works well in a team.

If you are looking for a new member of your office team, I hope you will contact me. I can attend an interview at your convenience.

Yours Faithfully,

Anne Applicant

A Word Of Caution About Spec Letters

So there is nothing wrong with writing a speculative letter like this, but a WORD OF CAUTION...

This is NOT the best approach for everybody.

When you write a speculative letter like this, you will probably want to send it to as many potential employers as you can on the basis that if you cast your net wide enough, you may catch something. That may be true and if all you want is a job (or ANY job) you could find it works for you, although it can be expensive mailing all those letters.

Ideally you would address, print and sign each one individually which can be quite tedious if you are sending out dozens of speculative letters, so don't cut corners by producing a standard 'Dear Sir' letter to photocopy as that will lose you a lot of credibility all at once.

I recommend that you only use this speculative letter approach for entry-level jobs or junior office type jobs which may be common to a number of organizations. A far better way for experienced or senior or older people is to understand and use the direct approach targeted letter - a radically different approach from what many people think of and is now the only way to succeed in today's tough job market. I'm sure you already know that there is so much more to getting a new job than just sending out hundreds of letters. However, you can make things happen by applying my direct approach which involves doing some careful research and targeting appropriate organizations by putting together a carefully crafted direct approach sales letter.

This type of letter is ten times more likely to get a response than any speculative letter that you might be tempted to send out.

Getting The Layout Right

Pay attention to your covering letter layout and try to apply my best covering letter advice on your page margins, font style and size. I also think that the same rules apply whether you are physically posting hard copy or you are emailing a document. By the way, if you are emailing a cover letter and your resume or CV, I think its best to convert a Word document into PDF (portable document format) so that it retains all of the formatting and looks the same to the reader as it did to you.

Use a font style that is simple and clear such as Times New Roman, Arial or Cambria. Font size from 10-12 points are generally the easiest to read and if you leave reasonable margins and a line of space between paragraphs, your letter is more likely to be read.

Should your CV and covering letter font style and size match? It doesn't really matter although it can look really nice for the recipient to get a mail package with all of the stationery matching. But substance is definitely more important than fine touches of style like that. If it is easy to read, has relevant data and answers the important questions, then you will have satisfied the basic requirements of a good covering letter and job application.

So, as you can see, the idea about writing some spec. letters is a good one, because writing job application letters to possible employers which may have jobs that you don't know about has got to be worthwhile. If they have already advertised and you didn't see their advert, or they were about to advertise, you might just get in first.

But do yourself a favour and don't waste an opportunity by sending the standard speculative letter that everyone sends. Make your letter more direct and to the point by finding the right words and the right person to send it to.

Getting your 'proposition' in front of the right person - who may be about to look for help - can get you way in front of other job seekers.

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