Recently I was asked by a client to assist her in writing a letter of application into a prestigious University to study for a career in the health services industry. Her dilemma was that she knew why she would be a great fit for the University, but just didn’t know how to sell herself and write a letter that was persuasive, sharp, concise, informative and still fit on 1 – 2 pages maximum. I was more than happy to help her with this and gain successful entrance into her chosen course at University.
To get started and prepare to write it for her, I asked her to email me the details of the university, the course she wishes to apply for, the entrance date as well as information from her. This information that I needed about her included her employment history, what she did and specialised in and the previous courses and training she undertook in the past.
Once I had all the information about her, I went through it and culled any irrelevant information that I felt wasn’t suitable. I highlighted relevant information and then worked on the structure and layout of the letter., Before I begin writing any document, I always make sure (as best practice) that I have all the relevant resources and structure/layout to execute the document.
As with most letters, this letter of application began with an introduction, body and a conclusion. I made sure that the introduction was striking and powerful. I made sure that it mentioned what the letter was for, its purpose and the end goal or objective of her entering into University.
Throughout the body, it talked about her background/employment and training history. It had dot points and the information included skills, experience and attributes that were relevant to the course she was going to undertake. Now her background really had little to do with the course but I chose the most relevant and made it look really transferable and useful.
I’ll give you an example.
Imagine if a Police Officer wanted to become a waiter/waitress. I would look at one of their key transferable skill – dealing with people under criticism and providing customer/people service. A police officer learns to maintain composure under stressful situations. Same too required of a waiter/waitress otherwise it will look bad on the patrons!
Now back to the letter.
I also included in it why my client chose to study at the University. I had her reasons but I wanted to make it attractive to the University. So what I did was go to their website and researched the University’s values and mission statement and picked a couple of them and then mentioned them in the letter. This worked well and my client was very happy. I then ended the letter with a concluding paragraph that encouraged the reader to refer to her resume for more information.
If you are interested in having me write an application letter for University for you, please feel free to contact me via this blog otherwise I welcome you to visit our website www.clientcentric.com.au for more information and submit an enquiry there,.
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