This blog post introduces how to write an application letter for a mid-level management position at a construction company, effectively leveraging your field experience. Learn how to effectively showcase your practical skills.
Career Experience
“I started working diligently on-site from the age of 19 and have just reached my 10th year.”
I started working on-site early. Seeing my older brother, whom I always looked up to, probably made me decide I needed to work too. Our family wasn’t well-off. Despite teachers urging him to go to college because he was a good student, my brother started working at a business site handling accounting and bookkeeping. He paid for all my high school tuition from my first to third year. While working in accounting, my brother prepared for the civil service exam. He passed and is now a proper civil servant working at the National Police Agency. Watching him live so diligently and take responsibility for everything helped me shed my childish perspective. I know many people remain under their parents’ wing well into their thirties. If I hadn’t endured hardship, if I hadn’t had my brother, I might have been one of them. But seeing my brother start working at twenty, earn money, and become the responsible pillar of our household made me realize I needed to find employment quickly too. So, when I turned nineteen and could seriously seek work, I started immediately. At my age and with my skills, the only work available was manual labor on construction sites. Yet starting there was a stroke of luck for me. I learned the job through hands-on experience, picking up tricks from the older workers, and gradually became proficient.
Then in 2020, a foreman I knew suggested I was still young and smart, so I should get training in medium-sized machinery. I didn’t know much, but since the foreman said to do it, I figured it must be good. So I took the training and went straight to Vietnam the following year to start working. It was tough, being my first job and working abroad, but I actually think that year was the driving force that let me experience all kinds of things and learn the work faster. Over that year, I learned hands-on how to manage medium-sized equipment, oversee personnel, and use machinery to excavate and compact land. After returning to Korea, I worked for three more years. Having spent so long on-site, I know the field work inside out. Though it was only four years, I believe I became quite proficient in handling the equipment. I am a prepared talent. I look forward to your guidance.
Personality Strengths and Weaknesses
“WJSMS has a refreshing personality.”
The strength of my personality is that I am ‘refreshing.’ Working on-site since I was 19, I learned that while people here may speak bluntly, they are deeper than anyone else inside. The very people who scold you harshly for poor work performance are the ones who don’t pocket money coming down from above and distribute it fairly. Also, the very people who get angry and ask “Why are you sick?” when you say you’re ill are the ones who, when you come in the next day despite being sick, secretly take you out to buy and eat beef. Working among such people, I grew into someone who shakes off hardships and sadness easily, enjoys communicating with others, and has a refreshingly straightforward personality. If high school was the time I developed my studies and learned to fit in with my peers, then the time I spent working was the time that matured my character. I’m the type who gets along with people thanks to my straightforward personality, not someone who gets bogged down by small things or overthinks things timidly. I’m also the type who speaks up and shrugs off any troubles that come up while getting along with people. I handle tasks decisively too; scheming behind the scenes or cutting corners isn’t my style. I believe it’s better not to do something at all than to do it in a petty way. When I work, I always give it my all and stay focused until the job is done.
A drawback of my personality is that my direct way of speaking sometimes leads to misunderstandings. People meeting me for the first time are often surprised by how friendly and straightforward I am. Because of this, I always make an effort to smile and approach people first to make a good first impression.
Self-Development
“I started studying languages for the very first time.”
After visiting Vietnam, I felt the urgent need to study languages. Also, while working, I witnessed firsthand that even among people doing the same job, those dispatched to China or Japan, or those who knew a little of the local language and worked there, earned significantly more money and received better treatment. That’s why I started studying English and Chinese. It feels awkward to unleash my rigid mind and learn languages and memorize words, but miraculously, I recently took the TOEIC exam and achieved a score of 850—insufficient, yet a result I’m proud of. Though I can’t invest much time daily, I will steadily grow into someone who can acquire various languages and be immediately productive wherever I work. I look forward to your guidance.
Motivation for Application and Career Aspirations
“I will be an employee who works diligently with a strong sense of responsibility.”
Lately, I’ve been completely hooked on the variety show ‘Real Men’. Having served in the military, I find military-themed programs particularly comforting. What’s especially interesting is seeing the various characters struggle and wander through military life, as I recognize myself in them. No matter how quick or capable someone is, once they enter the military, they essentially become what we call a ‘fool’. Because they can’t see even an inch ahead, they make mistake after mistake. However, depending on how well they recognize those mistakes, cover them up, and handle them, they can either become a soldier who grows quickly or not. I believe the same applies here. There’s a lot of physical labor and frequent interactions with people. You often have to communicate with rough individuals and resolve misunderstandings. Therefore, even highly skilled people will take considerable time to adapt when first entering that environment. But I think the difference lies in whether you make the effort during that time. If you decide you must do well and put in the effort, you’ll quickly become familiar with the work and comfortable with the people.
If I join your company, I will be an employee who always strives to become familiar with the work, learn the job, get along with people, adapt to the company, and internalize the systems. I won’t become complacent just because I’ve done similar work before, nor will I disregard those teaching me or ignore the systems. Instead, I will be someone who learns step by step, recognizing that even what I know might be different, and works diligently. I will work responsibly and earnestly, becoming an employee who gives my all. I look forward to working with you.
