The May Gateway Newsletter talks about the hidden job market and how you can find it. If you want career news and tips, you can subscribe to the newsletter too.
One activity that can generate success in the hidden job market is sending out speculative letters – to the right contacts – and although knowing what a speculative letter looks like can help, following some steps to make it useful is even better. The whole point of a speculative letter is to bring your skills and availability to the attention of someone who needs your skills and has a position available.
3 Tips to using a speculative letter
- Know your audience. Target your letter to a specific person, which means finding out the name of the HR manager or the department head. It also means using the same language as your audience – you can probably ‘talk technical’ to an IT Director, but not to the HT Manager.
- Focus on the key points. How can you help the organisation or the person you’re writing to? What are they interested in? What do they need? How can you help?
- Presentation matters. Envelopes and paper matter – they say something about you. You’re selling yourself, so make sure there are no spelling or grammar mistakes. Keep the letter to one page and use a reasonable size and style font
Producing a speculative letter when you’ve never even heard of one is a challenge, so we’re pleased to offer you the opportunity to download the Gateway Speculative Letter.
And if you’d prefer to take the work out of using speculative letters, then contact Gateway and we’ll show you how we can help.