I’ve got a French mate who is applying for a job and has written a covering letter in English. The problem is that his written English isn’t the best. Any help at all in making it good would be very, very gratefully received!
Right, this is what we’ve got…

Dear Sir or Madam
Your job offer for a production planner caught my attention, and I would like to present my appliance, as I am deeply convinced my profile complies with your requirements.
I am currently looking for a job in order to fulfill my professional project. I want to continue my career in logistics, in a position with a planning orientation and which would implies to work on a large scope, with collaboration with the others departments. To do so, I would like to find company which gathers to be in an industrial sector, with an international activity: these are elements I know for having already worked in such environment and elements I liked and I have always wanted to work with. So I want to find a company to carry on this way. Consequently, I am very enthusiast about your job offer, because it fully corresponds to my search in terms of position and company.
Moreover, my profile can match your needs, as I have a various experience in planning in industry. I have a substantial experience in distribution planning in the automotive sector, which where mostly about forecasting massive activities of production and sales to make distribution smooth and deals with constraints of capacity and hazards. For half a year, I have changed job and I am now in a factory, where I am in charge of logistics coordination and production scheduling and the management of forecasts. So, this current position is completing my former experience from the collaboration it needs with other departments and the proximity I have with production issues. Besides, I reckon that these experiences enhanced my personal qualities of curiosity, willpower and rigor, which helps me to solve problems involving other fields. I would also like to mention my advanced skills in IT tools, (excel, access, ERP), useful to analyze situations efficiently and take the good decisions quickly.
Finally, I wish to emphasize on the experience I had during my final year placement, which took place in a medical device company. I deeply appreciated this business, because it was a strict environment, with strong legal and science constraints, with high tech and complex products, and these characteristics matches my straightness and curiosity in sciences.
I hope you have been convinced by this first cover letter, and I look forward to meet in order to present myself and develop my arguments.
Yours faithfully.

I did something similar for a greek friend. We sat down, extracted the bullet points of what he wanted to convey and then restructured it from the ground up. I could have just re-written it for him, but this way it was still ‘his’.

Yes, I can see the logic in that. I’m trying to extract that from what he’s written but it’s a bit buried in waffle.
Thanks Tom.

Dear Sirs,

I would like to apply for ‘position’. Please find attached my CV.

Yours Faithfully,

Me.

I’d go with cougar. If it’s rewritten too much the letter won’t match the “franglais” he will inevitably speak at an interview. A simple covering letter with a bullet point type CV will get all the necessary points across without the risk of any prejudice against a less than grammatically perfect CV.

Rich.

Thanks all. I agree, he needs to sack all the unneccessary bollocks and keep it simple. Thanks to everybody who replied. Its appreciated.

Thanks all. I agree, he needs to sack all the unneccessary bollocks and keep it simple.

Absolutely. A letter like that will get him nowhere, even when converted properly into English. It’s full of meaningless waffle. Still needs a covering letter to go with the CV though with a bit more than what Cougar suggested, but not much. Maybe a very brief outline of his current position, relevant experience, why he actually wants to make a move and his longer term career objectives. These are the things a future employer would be most interested in and the rest of the detail should be in the CV. The covering letter needs to be factual, relevant and concise.

Unfortunately this is not a great starting point, but I’m sure it can be turned around. Good luck!!