Ettiquette - Job Application Letter Salutation

[chillyuk]

The last job I went for as a TV engineer the interviewer, who was also the boss, sat me down in front of a broken TV, and a broken VCR (it was some time ago) and said fix them. Less than 5 minutes the TV was working and 5 minutes later I had diagnosed, though not repaired the VCR.

I started work for them the following day, and stayed 10 years.

It was good in those days. Ability to do a job was more important than fartarsing about writing fancy letters,

 

[Norm]

Sorry for the bump but they'd like to know the answer to this please. Even if the answer is "it makes no difference". Ta.

Unless the hand-writing is absolutely infallable and immaculate, or you are applying to the Institute of Pens, I would say that you should use typed but signed every time.

You need to make it easy for the recipient to choose you over someone else, and any problems with the hand-writing make it difficult.

 

[longers]

Thankyou Baggy and Norm.

Congratulations Mrs JtM

 

[Fnaar]

the Institute of Pens

 

[darth vadar]

It's been a while since I last encountered this quandary.

I have a job application covering letter to complete - the person applied to has given their name, let's say it's "Jemima Smythe" but no other detail.

I'm a bit out of touch with current practice, but in the past, the appropriate salutation would have been "Dear Ms. Smythe", but reading around, some argue that the modern way would be to write "Dear Jemima Smythe," or even "Dear Jemima" (good grief!)

Does anyone working in recruitment, or with more recent experience than I have an opinion on what to use?

Remind me not to contact you when there is a REALLY important decision to be made.

 

[John the Monkey]

Remind me not to contact you when there is a REALLY important decision to be made.

Oooo, get you.

 

[John the Monkey]

The last job I went for as a TV engineer the interviewer, who was also the boss, sat me down in front of a broken TV, and a broken VCR (it was some time ago) and said fix them. Less than 5 minutes the TV was working and 5 minutes later I had diagnosed, though not repaired the VCR.

I started work for them the following day, and stayed 10 years.

It was good in those days. Ability to do a job was more important than fartarsing about writing fancy letters,

Still happens, to a degree - lots of technical posts have an element of "What would you do if...?" questioning to them, at least partly to check that you've not overstated your capabilities in the application.

 

[beanzontoast]

Round these parts, "Ay up, me duck" has been a widely used salutation for many years.

Strangely, no statistics are available as to how many people have gained employment through its usage though.