Covering letter:
You can address it to The Personnel Manager (which I guess you would have to do in an email to ensure you reached the correct person) and then as Dear Sir/Madam (unless you know the name or sex of the Personnel Manager or Officer).
Writing like this in Australia is just about the only time you will ever use the more formal ‘Sir/Madam’ title. It’s rarely used in speaking, and most people start off immediately on a first name basis with their boss (unless he/she is in a position of great power and 40 years older than you, but in most cases it won’t happen. It’s just not a formal country, once you pass the ‘official letters’ point.)
When your letter is done, go right back and prepare to go through it very carefully.
* Check for punctuation. Double space after full stops, etc.
* Check your grammar. If you decide to change words in a sentence, check to see that the other words in the sentence still agree. It’s likely you’ll may need to make adjustments to other words as well in that sentence.
* Check, re check and triple check for capitalisation throughout the covering letter. This is just as important as the grammar, and will definitely affect the overall look and standard of your letter.
* You need to be on the lookout again for the French/English traps.
Just as we Aussies get confused when we see dates and days of the week written in French without initial capitals, and have to stop ourselves from thinking a mistake has been made, you need to concentrate on the reverse.
ALL PROPER NOUNS IN ENGLISH MUST START WITH A CAPITAL.
You must also be consistent throughout, as if you fix some of the proper nouns but miss others, it still won’t look right. If in doubt, it’s better to use a capital rather than leave it un-capitalised (within reason - don’t go capitalising absolutely everything in your attempt to be uniform)
With your resume and covering letter, this relates to things like:
days of the week, months of the year,
titles of people, job titles, degree titles/names, university and school names, names of countries, names of languages.
NOUNS
Some examples of words which should be capitalised: English, French, Engineering, Engineer,
University. Names of sports - general sports like swimming I don’t capitalise, but specific ones like Rugby, Football, etc I would. Some interests which are nouns or a science will also be written with an initial capital - i.e., Astronomy, Photography, Web Design (or Web Development)
Other possible tricks:
DATES
Years should be written in the following format: 1 year, 1 1/2 years, 2 years. 1 month, 2 months, 2 1/2 months.
‘Computer software’ is always singular (no such thing as softwares even if there are several. If there is more than one, write something like “several software programmes” and when listing the specific names of them, capitalise the first letters.
Extra tips for the covering letter:
Likeability factor: You’ve written your covering letter, but how do you maintain some formality yet still try to come across as approachable and likeable at the same time? I really think it’s an advantage to do this, given the social nature of many Australian organisations at work as well as play.
How you do it is up to you – you should have an advantage here – I guess French aren’t known the world over as charming for nothing! Another advantage for you is that I believe members of the Australian working population still often have a very hard time trying to ‘sell themselves’ and their good qualities to an unknown outsider, fearing that they may sound a bit ‘conceited’ if they talk about their own good points..
You want to convey a pleasant manner, someone who is versatile and fits in well with everyone, and has interests that they may have - take hints from the type of business you’re targeting)
I once thought the likeability factor didn’t have that much to do with getting a job, until I really saw it functioning.
Ok, you’re on site, have applied for a job, and you’re up against the other employees.
No doubt all who make it to the interview stage will have been determined by the employer as having the qualifications and ability to do the job.
So who gets it?
In the scenarios I’ve seen in action, it goes to the one who the boss finds some kind of ‘kinship’ or good feeling with, or who the bos/ses determine would ‘fit in well’ with the others in the department, in a team environment.
I saw many times while working in the advertising industry, 20ish aged girls go up against middle aged women, trying for one part time position, where I was sure the young, more efficient looking girl would get it, but no, it went to the middle aged one who I thought age would be against, as the trend in Australia, as no doubt many places, is for young workers, not the ones only a decade or so from thinking about retirement.
But after knowing the new employees a while, I began to see the pattern – they were all people who fitted in well with our office social schedule! You might not think this is important, but even though our department didn’t have a lot of contact outside work with the general public, the way the journalists at our newspaper did, we had social events on a regular basis at and away from work on a regular basis. Work BBQ’s, boardroom drinks, movie nights, Christmas dinners (up to 5 of those every Xmas!), promotional activities, and social dinners with champagne. These were seen as very important to the work life.
The young people might have cost a bit less to hire, but they weren’t seen that they would fit in as well with the older workers, and there was probably also the issue that being young, they might find a full time job and leave, but the women with children were seen as ‘safer’ workers who’d be content to work only part time (even though some of them later became full time workers anyway).
So, that's all for now. If there are those of you already employed here who have some tips you'd like to share, things you found important to know when first applying for jobs here from a French perspective, feel free to join in the post and share them.
Kate
PS Si je pouvais vous dire aussi,
si quelqu'un a besoin d'aide avec leur CVs/Resumes, je suis disponible.
Je suis comme une correctrice professionnel (en Anglais seulement).
Il y aura juste un ou deux conditions:
1: You would have to get the CV a un standard raisonnable en premier, en suivant les tuyaux.
2: Le service serait gratuit, mais je peut demande qu'on me donner quelque chose en echange: quelques petit 'stickers' de drapeau francais, un carte postale francais ou un autre petit chose comme je collectionner mais je ne peut pas les trouver en Australie
Kate