Urgent help needed with 'motivation' letter please for initial on-line job application, after years of working for myself/dh

[Stewedcoot]

Help please! I am ancient and have therefore never submitted a motivation letter when applying for a job on line.

I am assuming it is a short, to the point, statement explaining who I am and why I want said job. Is that correct?

What level of detail should I go in to? (Job application requires cv to be sent in an attachment also.) How long should it be?

What are the vital bits of info it should definitely contain?

Is there anything else that I should know? Any tips/hints/advice/pointers very gratefully received!

Anyone?

I'm just writing the same letter I would if I was sending in a hard copy application with cv attached? Is that correct?

I have not heard the term 'motivation letter', but would treat it as a covering letter with a paragraph about why you want the job.

Good luck.

There are some templates here motivationalletter.com

Usually I'd suggest not making it any longer than 2 pages of A4 and ideally 1.5 pages. Highlight your relevant experience, any significant achievements (backed up with statistics if possible eg I increased sales by x%).

Also I'd always recommend researching the company and including a paragraph that shows why you want to work with them ( eg my experience on MN shows I'm committed to campaigning on family issues which I feel would be beneficial to working on your campaign on free milk or I'm committed to making education accessible to all so have been impressed by your work on reading books and would welcome the opportunity to work on such a campaign that's close to my heart).

Good luck!

Thanks both for such great advice (and for wishing me luck - much needed as haven't applied for a job in years!!)

Branchingout Thanks, I was planning to keep it fairly short and sweet as thought on-line submission would necessitate that.

BookabooSue thanks for the template and will do a bit more research about the company before submitting!