Writing impressive Cover Letter to Employment Agencies/Headhunters!

How to Write Cover Letter to Employment Agencies/ Headhunters

This article introduces you to the secrets of writing impressive cover letter to employment agencies/ headhunters for sending your resume in connection with search for jobs. Why waste your chances in the employment market by writing inappropriate job applications to the employment agencies or headhunters? I have spent a lot of time to research every aspect of the subject of how to write to employment agencies in search of a job, during my tenure of service as head of HR department of a big organisation. By virtue of my position I had the opportunity to interact with several employment agencies or headhunters that specialize in recruiting personnel for companies in various industries. Out of my professional interest I enquired from many of these employment recruiters (about 15 in numbers) about the basis of their choice of candidates for their clients. While there were some exceptions, it was revealed that no matter whatever the position or the type of the company, there were some noticeable unanimity in their replies. The most predominant reasons all the recruiters expressed for choosing candidates for their clients were that the cover letter to employment agencies/headhunters enclosed with the resume of the successful applicants was found to be expressive and concise.
Your resume may be otherwise attractive, but it is likely that if the cover letter to employment agencies or headhunters enclosing your resume is weakly constructed or if it is apparent that you didn't expend much time on it, the employment agency's trust on you will fall. This article reveals the actual secrets of writing an impressivecover letter to employment agencies for sending your resume and guides you very deeply about constructing the same. I am confident that your resume would get more attention and will be pre-selected among many job applicants provided you simply follow the points described below:

1. The rules for writing cover letters meant for employers against advertised job opening and that of writing letters to the employment agents or employment headhunters are totally different;
2. While the focal point of the cover letters meant for a direct employer should be specific to the advertised job, the same for the headhunters need to establish the value your skills and experience for the job would bring to the employers, which the employment recruiters can sell to their clients;
3. While cover letters to the employers against advertised jobs should be short and concise, you need to provide detail information highlighting your marketable skills and experiences over and above what is in your resume to impress the head hunters from the point of view of selling potential of the same to their clients. Try to avoid using over-used words/phrases in your covering letter like 'problem solver', 'proactive team player', 'proven track record', 'dynamic', 'motivator, 'entrepreneurial' etc. These words/phrases may appear empty to the potential clients of the employment agencies for finding them as boring and repetitive.
4. As some of the employment head hunters deal with recruitment for a particular category of industry only it is advisable to search for recruiters who specialize in your industry. Many search firms post on their websites specific jobs they are conducting searches for. Write to more than one employment recruiters to enhance your chance of finding employment;
5. Effective cover letter to headhunters or employment agents should invariably contain one brief introductory paragraph about yourself stating your details, why you are writing to them, which particular industries or jobs you are interested in, the suggested job titles you are qualified for in your field, how your skills, talents and experience would be a value addition to the recruiters' clients, your present location, time required to attend an interview and the notice period required to join a new job;
6. While writing to headhunters the cover letter should also include a separate paragraph giving details of your salary history and your salary expectations from the prospective employers. When mentioning about your salary requirements the same should be given as a range and not as a consolidated amount. While indicating the desired salary range you need to ensure that the bottom of the range takes into consideration the cost of living in the new job area apart from the cost of relocation. It is advisable to make request in the letter to the recruiters to maintain confidentiality from your present employer about your job application and the salary requirements;
7. Do not forget to submit the links to any of your publications in the web or to enclose print outs of the hard copies of the articles written by you, if any, in your cover letter to the headhunter;
8. Another most important point in writing an impressive cover letter to employment agencies/headhunters is that the cover letter should end with a conclusion requesting a meeting for an interview with the headhunter. Writing to headhunters without any such conclusion in the cover letter can give rise to doubts about your sincere desire for the job.