Cover Letter

                                                                                                            85Happyface Lane
                                                                                                            Singapore777888
                                                                                                            Tel:91234567

                                                                                                             

                                                                                               10 Feb 2012

MrJohn Bravo
Director of Student/Alumni Affairs
Munster Polytechnic
1313 Mockingbird Lane
Singapore 666666

Dear Mr Bravo

I would like to express my interest in an entry level position in Munster Polytechnic. Throughout the years, I have come to respect Munster Polytechnic’s firm vision to be a world-class educational institution that grooms its students to become exceptional members of the workforce. Also, my personal experience during my internship at Munster Polytechnic-motivated me to seek employment in this institution. I would like to be considered for the Technical Support Officer Position in the Polytechnic, beginning in July 2012. I will be graduating from the National University of Singapore(NUS) with a BSc in Life Sciences (Environmental Biology) in June 2012.

Evidence of communication skills with students of all ages can be seen in my previous experience as private tutor and a teaching assistant.  I have had experience interacting with many students of upper-secondary and tertiary levels. Also, I am able to write and speak fluently in English,Mandarin and intermediate Bahasa Indonesia. I have had experience in leading groups of people to organize campus-wide events, during which I had to work long beyond my usual school hours. Also, I have keen interests in both the arts and sports.

Please review the enclosed resume for additional information about my past academic and work experience.I can be reached anytime via email at totalnutcase666@gmail.com,or on my mobile phone 91234567.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to speaking with you soon about this employment opportunity.

Yours Sincerely

(Insert Signature here)

Tanisha Manocha

Interpersonal Conflict

 Joe Jordon works in a large pharmaceutical company that manufactures antiretroviral drugs. The Research and Development (R&D) sector has been studying the possibility of treating AIDS by creating a suitable drug cocktail to eradicate the Human immunodeficiency virus, HIV. The company is a private enterprise which relies solely on its sales for revenue and does not receive any monetary endorsement from the government. Joe is an introverted, soft-spoken research assistance who works in the R&D laboratory. Though he is satisfied with his life as it is, he sometimes feels frustrated that he is not able to assert himself and prove his worth to the people around him. 

Owing to the fact that Joe is very meticulous and observant, he begins to realize that for every division of the R&D laboratory, different types of lab coats and disposable gloves are used. For instance, while the members of the virus-research team wear coats with metal buttons while the scientists in the drug-research team wear coats with plastic buttons. The only difference between these two types of coats is the price, as the buttons do not make a difference in the effectiveness of the coat. The gloves used are also different. Some use latex gloves while others use gloves made of vinyl or nitrile. The gloves also do not vary in effectiveness. Furthermore, Joe finds out that most people were using different lab coat and glove suppliers. The same lab coat that costs $10 from one supplier could cost $24.50 from another supplier!

Joe performs a few calculations and reaches the conclusion that the company could save up to $2 million over the next five years by simply ordering the cheaper lab coats and gloves across all the divisions in the company. One day, Joe manages to set up a meeting the head of the R&D department, detailing the amount of money the company has spent over the last 10 years on different types of lab coats and gloves. He includes pie-charts and diagrams and refers continuously to the company’s annual reports for each fiscal year. To top it all off, he provides list of cost-cutting protocols that he thinks the company should employ. 

Unfortunately, the head of the R&D department, Mr Martin Mule, remains unconvinced, and tells Joe straight out that he is unwilling to take such measures as he does not wholeheartedly understand and believe in its results. Mr. Mule says that the company has been bringing in a steady profit over the past decade and hence he doesn’t see the point in spending time and effort in something so insignificant. He brushes off Joe’s remonstration as pedantic, and tells him focus on his work and not be concerned about such peripheral issues.

Joe is now sitting alone on a bar-stool pondering over his next move. He remains 100% convinced that if he were to successfully transform the company’s poor purchasing habits, he could make a very big difference, and maybe one day would finally be given due recognition and acknowledgement for being a competent member of the company. The task now would be to convince his boss, who has a different set of beliefs, to set the wheels in motion.

How do you think Joe should go about convincing his boss to change his mindset? Keep in mind he has already made one attempt, which went awry.