When applying for employment by mail a job application letter must accompany your resume. Often times an employer may be flooded by perhaps a stack of a hundred or more resumes on any given day. In such situations, getting an interview can represent a major break-through for the job applicant. The job application letter you write can and should be used to substitute for that all-important interview that you may not otherwise get, regardless of your qualifications. So, construct it wisely. Resumes at best part put forth only a rather simple table of data depicting your past work history and educational background for a potential employer 's scrutiny. Lacking in a resume are many individual nuisances important to employers regarding the people they are about to add to their organization. Surveys of personnel directors of the five- hundred largest organizations show that the vast majority (over 80%) have agreed or strongly agree that they want to know: • Your personality. What you are like and what you will be like as an employee? • Why have you chosen to apply for employment with this particular company? • What job are you specifically seeking? • What makes you feel that your education or past experience relates to that job? • Planning your job application letter: • Think of your job application letter as being constructed of three parts: the introduction, body, and conclusion. The purpose of the introduction is to specify why you are writing and to say a few things about yourself, such as, where you are going to school and your major. The introduction gives you the opportunity to praise to the company for some specific quality it posses. This praise can serve to answer the silent question as to why you have chosen their company and also allows you to subtly display a personality technique that most people enjoy greatly, the ability to convey the feeling "I know you and I like you." Caution though, praise must be specific because general
