A Guide to the New Trend for Young Professionals By Will LinkWhat is A Letter of Interest? For young professionals who are looking to jumpstart their career at a specific company, writing a letter of interest is a new trend that can begin the search for your next position. Instead of waiting for a job or internship from their dream company to appear on Indeed, LinkedIn, or another site, young professionals are instead taking initiative to reach out directly to employees or organizations that excite them. Sending a letter of interest is a great chance for you to express your passion about the work that your desired company is doing, inquire about the management structure and roles at the organization, and demonstrate what you have to offer as a prospective employee. Much like networking, writing a letter of interest could eventually provide you with a temporary or permanent opportunity in the future. How Do I Write a Letter of Interest? Putting together a letter of interest is almost like writing a cover letter. The only difference between a cover letter and letter of interest is that instead of applying for a specific open position like you would with a cover letter, you are reaching out to see if the company has any roles available while outlining your own achievements and goals in your letter of interest. Make sure to conclude your letter of interest by asking if you can meet or speak with a company representative sometime in the future. Glassdoor has a great a great article that gives you step by step instructions on how to write your letter of interest.
Formats for Letters of Interest When you are sending your letter of interest you need to make sure that the formatting looks professional, especially if it’s sent digitally. If your formatting is off the letter will be hard to read and you will come across as sloppy. The best practice would be to write the letter in a word document first and then proofread it for spelling, grammar, or other mistakes before composing it in the body of an email and hitting Send for example. Remember to include proper salutations, paragraphs, and closings even if you are sending your letter digitally. If you are going to use LinkedIn to connect and reach out to an employee, you should shorten your letter of interest to an elevator pitch. The elevator pitch will need to communicate similar points contained in the letter of interest in 300 characters or less. If you are using the LinkedIn app, it’s better to send a private message when adding a new connection because the app does not give you the option to add a note. When sending your letter of interest through LinkedIn you do not need to go into too much detail about your skills and accomplishments because they should already be on your LinkedIn profile. Who Should I Address? I recommend finding the name of an employee who works in a company and role that you want and addressing your letter to them. Your letter of interest will appear much more polished if the salutation contains a specific person rather than “To Whom it May Concern” or “Dear Sir or Madam”. The more formal greeting will also show that you have done thorough background research prior to reaching out. If you have a personal contact within the organization you can always send the letter to them or ask that they pass it on to their Human Resources department. LinkedIn is a primary resource for finding employees at a specific company, but it would also be helpful to use the Marist Alumni Career Network. The Alumni Career Network is a database of all Marist alumni who are willing and eager to help out current Marist students with professional development inquiries. You can search the network using a combination of filters such as name of the alumni, company they work for, degree earned, location, graduation year, and industry. Center for Career Services events and Road to the Workplace trips are also good opportunities to find contacts within a company. Company representatives come to Marist for events like the Career and Internship Fair and employer information sessions and usually have their business cards available to make it easier to follow up. During Road to Workplace trips students can actually tour a work environment and meet with company employees. I Sent My Letter of Interest…Now What? If you do not get a reply from your letter of interest after a few days you can always send a follow up note, but make sure you do not come off as too pushy. For more advice on the follow up process schedule an appointment with a career coach in the Center for Career Services using your FoxQuest account. Sending a letter of interest will show your initiative for progressing in your professional life, passion for your field, and interest in the company’s present and future projects. All of these attributes can potentially give you a leg up during a future application process. It could also result in an informational interview. At the very least, you can start to potentially make a new connection for your network by writing and sending a letter of interest.
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