April 29, 20—

Ms. Jane Richardson
Executive Search
324 Wall Street
New York, NY 10036

Dear Ms. Richardson,

I joined USA Microelectronics in 20— when they were primarily a captive semi-conductor research/manufacturing site for IBM companies' consumption. We moved the facility toward a commercially viable entity, and my contribution was to assist in the change of the culture. We accomplished this, in part, by bringing effective participative management practices and Total Quality Management (TQM) into the organization. Within five years, external sales made up 90% of total sales and expenses were reduced 60%. Even with these significant achievements, the facility needed to be dramatically restructured, and it was acquired by National Semiconductor in 20—.

IBM offered me a high-level position as Director of Employee Relations at the New York headquarters, a job which was to encompass labor relations employee relations, staffing, security, and safety. In reality, the position focused only on staffing and was considerably smaller in scope and responsibility than originally described. In addition, IBM HR has positioned itself as a tactical gatekeeper rather than strategic partner, and, for these reasons, I feel uncomfortable in the present position. I believe that an outside search may produce a better fit for my background and geographical preferences.

The following may be helpful in focusing this search:

Desired Position
Senior Human Resources Manager

Desired Duties
a) Human resource management including employment, employee relations, benefits, compensation, and government regulation; b) Member of Senior Management team; c) Provide resources to support or create a participative management style; d) Assist Senior Management to work as a team.

Preferred Industries
High Technology or Medical Products

Geographical Preference
Colorado or western United States

Compensation
Base salary $200K + with equity and/or bonus potential.

Thank you for reviewing my background, and feel free to contact me if I could satisfy one of your search assignments.

With best regards,

Mark F. Halsted

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Author's note: This was a hard-copy letter, not an email, in order to avoid the clutter of the inbox. To understand the importance of this letter, it's helpful to read Mark's full story. It tells what his earlier career had been, and why he lost his job. As a matter of fact, Mark was fired, and this is often very difficult to explain. Half the success of a job search after being terminated is to create a plausible, believable business reason for your departure. It can be fatal to say something like, "My boss and I had a different vision . . . or a different style . . . or a different way of doing things."

Mark and I had to wrestle for several hours, even several days, to come up with a good business reason for his departure. He was dejected and couldn't help feeling he had failed. The truth was, he had been promised a much bigger job. The staffing position was way too small for him. In addition, Mark is more of a strategic partner with senior management than his then-boss allowed. In point of fact, the boss was an autocrat.

Notice how Mark positions the loss in this letter: what he tells the recruiter, what he does not tell the recruiter. This is an extremely good example of explaining one's reason for leaving—after having been fired—in a positive light. Go to Mark's story.