Job application letter template

An application letter is a document you send to an organisation asking to be hired for a specific position. In Vietnam it follows a familiar administrative format: the national title and motto, the name of the document, the addressee, then the body and your signature. The cover letter is its close relative, common at foreign companies and in email applications: it drops the national title and reads like a short letter. The CV is the summary of your experience and skills that goes with either of them; both letters should only say what the CV cannot, above all why you chose this company.

If a job post says the application pack must include an application letter, you definitely need one. Beyond that, factories, schools, hospitals, state agencies and businesses with long-established HR and admin departments still like to receive paper applications, and in that pack the application letter comes first, ahead of the personal record form (sơ yếu lý lịch) and your diplomas. For online applications, most companies only need a CV; a few lines of introduction in the email or in the "message" box do the job of the letter.

When you apply on Việc Hot, you send your profile and CV straight from your account; the application letter is an optional attachment. Adding one does no harm, but only do so when the letter is written for that specific position: a generic letter lowers the value of the CV that goes with it.

The national title and motto follow the administrative document format in Decree 30/2020/ND-CP: the line "SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM" (CỘNG HOÀ XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM) in bold capitals; the motto "Independence - Freedom - Happiness" (Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc) in bold lower case with the first letter of each phrase capitalised, hyphens between the phrases and a horizontal line underneath. The decree applies to state agencies, but it has become a common standard that anyone who reads applications is used to seeing.

Opening and addressee

Address the letter to the exact company and the department that receives applications: "To: Human Resources Department, Tâm An Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company". If the job post names a contact person, address that person directly. "To whom it may concern" is the safe option when you do not know, but it also shows that you have not read the post carefully. The introduction needs only three points: who you are, which position you are applying for and where you saw the vacancy.

Education and experience

These two paragraphs decide whether the rest of the letter gets read. The rule is one idea per paragraph, backed by figures, and only what is relevant to the position. The reader has your CV for the full picture; the letter is where you point them to the most noteworthy part. Three versions for three situations:

Why you are applying and your commitment

Talk about the company, not about "a professional environment" or "opportunities for growth": those phrases are true of every company, so they carry no weight. Mention products, projects, branches or the job post itself: "I have followed Tâm An's pharmacy chain since my internship, and handling payments for a chain of 40 outlets is work I want to do for the long term." For the commitment, the date you can start and your willingness to learn are enough; do not promise to "give it my all", because nobody can measure that.

Closing

One sentence of thanks, one sentence saying you hope to be invited for an interview, the place and date in the right-hand corner, then your handwritten signature with your full name directly beneath it. A typed letter still has to be signed by hand in blue or black ink; use a scanned signature only when sending by email.

Write it by hand when the job post asks for it, when applying to a school or an administrative agency, or when your handwriting is genuinely neat. Use white A4 paper and blue or black ink, one colour from start to finish, with no crossings-out; write a draft first, then copy it out. Typing suits every other case: Times New Roman at 13 or 14 pt, a 3 cm left margin, a 2 cm right margin, line spacing of 1.3 to 1.5, printed on one side.

The right length is one page, around 250 to 400 words. Someone screening applications goes through dozens of them every day, and a two-page letter will almost certainly only be skimmed. If you find it hard to cut, drop the detailed account of your studies, because that is already in your CV and personal record form.

• The wrong company name or position title, or another company's name left over from editing an old letter.
• A template copied word for word from the internet, keeping lines such as "I hope the company will give me a chance" when the position calls for experience.
• Retelling your entire education and work history as if it were a personal record form.
• No position named, or "any suitable position".
• Spelling mistakes, text-message abbreviations, two font sizes on one page.
• Details in the letter that contradict the attached CV, especially your graduation year and previous employers.
• A blank signature space, or a signature in pencil or red ink.

When a labour contract is concluded, Article 16 of the Labour Code 2019 (Bộ luật Lao động 2019) only requires you to provide your full name, date of birth, gender, place of residence, educational level, vocational skills, health status and matters directly related to the job. So there is no need to state your religion, marital status or previous income in the letter; that information will not get you selected and only makes the letter longer.

1. 1
   Use the subject line format the employer asks for

   If there is none, use something like "Application: Payments Accountant - Trần Thị Hồng Nhung". Recipients sort their mail by subject, and a subject such as "Job application" or "CV" easily gets lost.

2. 2
   Write the email as a short cover letter

   Five to seven lines: a greeting to the right department, the position, one sentence on your strongest point, a mention of the attachments, thanks and your phone number. Do not paste the whole application letter into the body of the email.

3. 3
   Attach clearly named PDF files

   Combine the letter and CV into one or two PDF files, named along the lines of "Tran-Thi-Hong-Nhung-Payments-Accountant.pdf". Avoid Word files, which easily lose their formatting, and avoid blurry photos of a handwritten letter.

4. 4
   Send during working hours and check again before you click Send

   Reopen the attachments to make sure they are the latest versions, and reread the company name in both the email and the letter. Send on a weekday morning so that your message sits near the top of the recipient's inbox.

The general template at the top of the page works for any position. If you are applying in a field where recruiters read applications in their own way, use an industry template: each one suggests which duties, certificates, subjects taught or shifts to mention first, and its wording is adapted to the habits of recruiters in that field. All of them are filled in online, come in 17 languages so you can make a bilingual version, and download as Word for further editing or as PDF for printing.