The Unit 4 Assignment is to write an application letter or memo applying for afull-time professional job or internship. The position should be one that requires a bachelor's degree (or near-completion). This means that to fulfill this Assignment,you cannot be applying for a part-time job as a student worker, cashier, clerk or salesperson.

Your task is to find a "position available" or "position wanted" advertisement from any of several sources: your workplace HR office, the Texas WorkForce Solutions (WFS) website, Monster.com,Indeed.com, GlassCeiling.com, Beyond.com, CareerBuilder.com, SmartRecruiters.com, Internships.com, or other job-related search engines or job-listing source.

***For the Unit 4 Assignment, the position should require a bachelor's degree.It should be a position that you will be qualified to apply for when you are within a semester or so of graduating*** You are free to fictionalize a bit if your actual graduation date is farther off :)

This job opening can be at the company where you now work, or it could be at an entirely different company, institution, agency, office, or firm.

Write an application letter that is geared to this ad!You can pretend that you are nearer to graduation than you are now, if that makes it easier to apply. If you are currently employed, you might want to imagine that you've decided to seek a promotion at your present workplace, obtaining higher paybecause you have gained a college degree.Or you can imagine that you are trying to find a more challenging and interesting work opportunity elsewhere as a result of completing/nearing completion of your bachelor's degree.

For purposes of this assignment, you can alter or rearrange slightly the terms of the specific job ad that you find - to make it easier to write your letter. You don't have to turn in the job ad with your assignment. In your application letter (or memo, if appropriate), be sure to tell us enough about the position described in the advertisement so that I will be able to understand how well you have tailored your application letter to the requirements listed in the specific ad.

You may want to do some light research on the company or institution and the position.If the company or organization has a website, that would be a good place to begin.Find out as much as you can: public or private?Relative size?Product or service rendered?Location?Special workplace "culture"? This research will show a prospective employer that you have "done your homework" and also will help prepare you for an interview.You should refer to your education and work-related experience to create a realistic letter/memo applying for the position.

Be sure to review the standard conventions of writing job application letters, as discussed in Part IV in your textbook, especially Chapt 10 on Cover Letters.

Length

The word count of your cover letter will vary based on the font you choose, use of subheads or other design features, stationery &c.The textbook says that a cover letter "should be no more than one page long" (193). I do not regard this as a "rule" you have to follow. Your Unit 4 Assignment could go to 1 or 2 full pages.However, you probably should not go more than 2 pp. If you have been in the workplace for a time, you may need 2 pages to present yourself effectively. However, some job ads impose limitations on the length of an application letter. In all cases you should follow directions such as this.