Hi,
I am asked to write a motivation letter (ML) for a postdoctoral position. I believe that motivation letter should be very much like a cover letter indicating why I am applying for the position. The announcement says:
Mission
ˇ Conduct research in the field of the economic analysis of natural resources ;
ˇ Contribute to the research activities (seminars, conferences, workshops) of CREA and the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance;
ˇ Assistance to PhD candidates;
ˇ Teaching activities up to two hours per week;
ˇ Tutoring students
based on that I wrote the following ML. Is it persuasive enough to qualify as a motivation letter?
Dear Sir or Madam:
I am writing you in response to the advertisement of Postdoctoral position in the faculty of Law, Economics, and Finance. I have finished my PhD program under the supervision of Prof. XXX and XXXX at the University of XXXX in XXX. My dissertation is titled "Three Essays in Microeconomics", which I defended on 23rd March. I found the research topic of the economic analysis of commodities and natural resources fascinating and with significant policy implications for the investigation of prices with heterogeneous agents' under uncertainty. I believe that I would be able to contribute to the field because my previous researches and experiences, particularly in agent-based modeling and stochastic dynamic programming, are tightly related to the topic.
Directly relevant to the advertised position, I exercised numerical methods in my paper, 'XXXXX YYYYYY', which examines a possible incentive mechanism for promoting investment in renewable energy sources such as solar (photovoltaics) and wind. In this study Green Certificates are non tangible tradable commodities that is given to producers proportional to their production of electricity. In addition to numerical methods, I derived close-form rational expectation equilibrium for the market of Green Certificates and conducted agent-based modeling for exploring the optimal market rules and selling strategies of producers and consumers under uncertainties regarding production.
Furthermore, as a graduate student, I combined the research and the teaching. Most recently, I was involved in the correction of the homework of game theory for the academic year of 2009/10. I also instructed a crash course in computer tools for graduate students in 2010. As shown in my CV, I have a very good skill in programming with Matlab and Mathematica, which I believe it is essential in carrying out numerical methods in the topic of research.
I have enclosed a copy of my curriculum vitae, together with two manuscripts. If you require any further information, please call or write me an email.
Thank you very much for your consideration and looking forward to hearing back from you.
Best regards,
XXXXXX
Hi Vahid,
Your motivation is detailed and very clear :) I just thought that you could edit the following grammatical errors:
...are tightlyvery closely related to the topic.
...non tangiblenon-tangible, ...
Furthermore, as a graduate student, I combined the research and the teaching.
...very good skill in programming with Matlab and Mathematica, which I believe it isare essential...
If you require any further information, please call or write me an email.Please do not hesitate to contact me if further details are required.
Thank you very much for your consideration and looking forward to hearing back from you.Thank you for considering my application and hoping to hear from you soon,
All the best!!
