In this blog post, I’ll show you how to naturally and effectively incorporate the humor and sociability that are strengths in sales into your cover letter.
As a student
“Interested in French language and culture.”
I attended a foreign language high school in high school. I majored in French and studied French for all three years of high school. When I first applied to the program, I was interested in French culture. I was interested in French movies, French actors, history and culture, and I loved it, so I thought I would learn French as much as I loved it and travel to France myself. However, when I first entered the department and met the seniors, they told me that although the specialty of a foreign language high school is good, it is not a department where you can actually become good at French.
The reason is that the curriculum is organized around entrance exams, so although you can take French-related courses, you cannot study at the level of an academy unless you put in the effort. Therefore, I took the advice of my seniors and tried to focus on French-related courses. I tried to absorb as much as I could, and since there were not enough conversation classes, I supplemented my conversation by listening to lectures in the school library. There was a native French speaker in the school, and I tried to keep practicing my conversation by communicating with him.
At the same time, I considered a major where I could naturally use my French skills in college. I applied to the Department of French Language and Literature, the Department of French Education, and the Department of International Exchange, but I ended up in the Department of French Education. I chose to major in French because my personal goal was to work for a foreign company and I thought I needed to be good at foreign languages. I applied to the university with confidence because there were many opportunities to double major in English education and relatively low standards for passing the double major. Since then, I have been studying two majors at the university and have been able to develop my language skills to the point where I am not lacking in either English or French.
Personality Strengths and Weaknesses
“Humorous and playful”
I’m basically a quiet person, and I would describe myself as calm and collected, so when people first meet me, they tend to say that I seem quiet. However, after getting to know me, my friends who know my personality well say that I am not a quiet person at all. They say I’m very outgoing, playful, and have a great sense of humor, which completely changes the nature of my first impression. I’m actually more talkative and playful than I look.
Some people say that I don’t seem like that at all, but I’m bright enough to break their misconceptions or prejudices, so I tend to be misunderstood a little bit at first in college and in my social life. They think I’m out of place even if I say something playful, but I have a very pleasant personality, so I tend to accept my personality as it is. So I can summarize that I’m a quiet person when I’m working and studying, but I’m a bright person when I’m socializing. I’m also a person who is careful to keep my work and play separate, so I don’t tend to get distracted or make mistakes when I’m working.
On the downside, I can be shy. Once you get to know him, he’s a fun person to be around, but he can be awkward to be around because it takes a while to get to know him. If you meet someone for the first time, it takes at least a month to get to know them well enough to prank them. And it takes a month of seeing them every day to get comfortable. If I’ve only known someone for a week or so and they’re comfortable with me first, I tend to avoid them because I’m uncomfortable. However, as I’ve gotten older, the period of shyness has decreased and I’m approaching people more often, so I can say that I’m becoming more outgoing than when I was younger.
Social Experience
“Working part-time at a stationery store.”
I started working part-time at a large stationery store when I was in college. It was a store that sold stationery, records, magazines, etc. called Hot Tracks, and the store itself was large, so I worked with a variety of people. I worked mainly in the stationery department, managing stock, checking inventory, and ordering new products. There were more than ten other part-time students doing the same job as me, mostly college students and high school graduates. Each of us had different parts and different companies.
For example, I was in charge of a company that specialized in stationery products, such as diaries and travel notebooks, while another friend was in charge of a booth for a company that made general children’s stationery products. Because we had different booths, we shared information, researched sales performance, identified customer characteristics, and tried to explain the products in person. As we worked, we got to know the other part-timers and formed an organization together, which made us more active. The manager of the organization also appreciated our relationship because we didn’t talk to each other during work hours, but we got to know each other outside of work hours by having lunch together.
In addition to part-time students, there were also full-time employees in the stationery store. There were employees who worked as cashier, managers who managed the entire store, and security guards who stood on duty to manage the goods and prevent theft. By getting to know these people, I didn’t know anyone in the organization, and I can say that I was a very sociable person. While some of my friends were working part-time and felt stressed out in the store, I was one of the first to make an effort and set a positive tone, which led to me being recognized for my positive work attitude and later becoming a full-time employee after graduating from college. I worked as a store manager, interacting with the branch manager, and became an expert in stationery stores to the point where there was no task I didn’t know.
Motivation
“I want to work as a global salesperson.”
Your company is a global distributor of office and industrial supplies. I’ve always been interested in international exchange, trade, and so on, and my interest in this field was further developed in college when I majored in both French and English education. Basically, I have the ability to speak French and English. I am confident that I can not only read and interpret documents, but also write and speak well. I believe that my qualifications can be of great help to your company, especially since your company is expanding in the field of selling supplies, and you have a presence in France, the United States, and Europe.
As far as I know, your company has offices in 27 countries around the world, and you cater to companies, not to the general consumer. I’ve previously worked in a stationery store, where I was responsible for basic store management, supply management, and inventory control. Of course, there are differences in scale and complexity when comparing my experience to what you do, but I can say that it basically prepared me for the mindset of a salesperson. Based on this experience, if I were to work for your company, I would do my best to deal with companies on a business-to-business basis. Even if I have good language skills, if I lack sales skills, strategy planning, and communication skills, I will have difficulty managing transactions. Therefore, I will try to develop my communication skills and demonstrate my skills in the field of goods distribution.
