I’ve worked for the state of WI for a bit more than a year, and today I got an email (to my work email address) inviting me to interview for a roughly equivalent job at another state agency. It’s the first time I’ve gotten such an invite, but some of my co-workers have told me it’s not uncommon for positions for which they want to recruit someone who’s already a state employee.
The application is to submit a resume and letter of interest. I din’t know the job existed until they told me about it, so I have no real interest. Well, my only genuine interest is to see if they will offer any significant pay increase over what I’m getting now, and also, the job is located significantly closer to my home so commuting would be easier.
So, should I come up with a bunch of bullshit to populate a letter of interest, or tell the truth, and then lay out my areas of expertise that they might find useful?
FYI, I do plan to apply, as I think it would be good to practice. But also, it would be an interesting lesson to see if they will simply toss my name out from the candidates they want to interview because I’m not overwhelmed by the opportunity of getting a job with THEM as opposed to someone else.
If I were the hiring manager and received a “letter of interest” that made it appear that the candidate wasn’t really very interested, that person would not be at the top of my list.
I’m primarily focused on hiring people who want the job, as they’re more likely to do a good job. Someone not excited by the work probably isn’t going to do more than the bare minimum.
This is probably true. OTOH, this job is only open (for the moment, at least) to current state employees who already have an equivalent level job elsewhere. Or higher-level job (though why someone would apply for a demotion is beyond me) level job, so people seeking promotions are not eligible either. I’m rather mystified why this is so, as it seems to weirdly restrict their candidate pool to only those really unhappy in their current gig, or who feel under-valued and want to see if they can bump up their pay significantly.
You can put things like “Looking forward to interviewing” and “I like working for the state of WI” in your letter of interest. You don’t have to make up bullshit about how you’ve wanted that job since you were a child. Just mentioning how it is closer to your home will make you look like a motivated candidate. I assume for a state job you can find the job description, and maybe the pay range, and then you might want that specific job.
That is interest. No need to feign. If the job looks like it’d be a good fit and they paid you what you wanted, you might take it. Go into it with an open mind; you could end up with a better job.