Indicate compromise in cover letter

[oldbird]

I am jobless with 6 years of experience.

Recently job market is bad, and I am interested in joining a company because I feel the work is interesting to me. This company is not advertising any opening at the moment, but I intend to send in an unsolicited application just to test my luck.

I am willing to compromise on several factors just to have a job and bring in a stable salary to pay the bills and have some stability.

• Willing to take an entry level position
• Willing to take 10%-20% pay cut from last drawn
• Willing to pick up any new skills or knowledge required
• Willing to work after office hours or on weekends (shift work)
• Willing to settle for contract position (with or without renewal or conversion)

Should I indicate these in my cover letter? Or is it a no-no from HR or hiring manager perspective? I am afraid that without indicating these, most HR/manager would assume I come with certain expectations that I will be expecting a senior executive or manager level position e.g. minimum salary from number of years of experience, or not open to entry level position.

Originally Posted by oldbird

I am jobless with 6 years of experience.

Just curious, what is your previous job level (executive ?? junior mgt/mid mgt?) and which industry ??

It might be very difficult to change industry and still expect 10-20% pay cut from previously drawn.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Just curious, what is your previous job level (executive ?? junior mgt/mid mgt?) and which industry ??

It might be very difficult to change industry and still expect 10-20% pay cut from previously drawn.

I am not changing industry. I was at senior executive level and was managing a few fresh grads/interns for a year. IT industry.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am not changing industry. I was at senior executive level and was managing a few fresh grads/interns for a year. IT industry.

I don't think a 10-20% pay cut is realistic when you are unemployed for so many years. You might not even be competitive for deg exec jobs now.

I would just focus on willing to take up entry contract jobs. The rest like can do ot, willing to learn etc. is expected for any job anyway.

[oldbird]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I don't think a 10-20% pay cut is realistic when you are unemployed for so many years. You might not even be competitive for deg exec jobs now.

I would just focus on willing to take up entry contract jobs. The rest like can do ot, willing to learn etc. is expected for any job anyway.

I am still not getting the answer I need.

Should I indicate explicitly in the cover letter what I can accept (e.g. weekend shift work, entry level position) instead of keeping the HR/manager guessing?

Would they assume that I am only not willing to compromise and would not even consider me for a downgrade to an entry level position or only looking to work on jobs requiring skills or technologies similar to my past experience or not willing to do shift work/after office hours?

Originally Posted by oldbird

I am still not getting the answer I need.

Should I indicate explicitly in the cover letter what I can accept (e.g. weekend shift work, entry level position) instead of keeping the HR/manager guessing?

Would they assume that I am only not willing to compromise and would not even consider me for a downgrade to an entry level position or only looking to work on jobs requiring skills or technologies similar to my past experience or not willing to do shift work/after office hours?

The hard truth is - don't bother.

Go and apply for real openings and do the standard rounds with all the common manpower agents like Recruit Express, Kelly, GMP etc. They range from obnoxious to average in terms of attitude, but you have no choice.

For entry level jobs, HR won't even bother to read cover letter. In your case this company don't even have any openings, and your CV is really bad (sorry hard truth) with a 6 years employment gap (bad for most jobs, but IT jobs it is a 100% deal killer). The 99.9% chance is HR will press the delete button without opening your cover letter.

Also I have to agree with the bros above. Unless your last drawn pay was really low in the first place, just 10-20% paycut for an IT job that you left 6 years ago is totally unrealistic.

Guys, I don't think op was unemployed for 6 years, try reading it again. He states that he is currently jobless, but has 6 years of experience in his field.

Personally I don't think it's a bad idea to include the compromise, but it might be better to structure your letter with an exact position that you want to take, unless it's a company with no opening and you die die want to get in there.

I personally would not recommend including the compromise. Not unless your target company is a small scaled SME.. then maybe yes. If your target company is a MNC or SME that is big enough, I don't think they sweat such little stuff.

I will recommend including all your past achievements and experience, and how that will translate to their benefit. For example, if you know a certain project that company is embarking, it will be good to state how you can contribute. The hard part is not to oversell yourself, while keeping the cover letter succinct.