We have been short-listing for 3 jobs over the past few days – a Web Designer for Resound Design, and 2 jobs for Resolve IT, and so I have seen about 200 application forms!
We ask everyone who applies for a job with us to fill in an application form – this allows us to get more of an understanding of the applicants personality with questions like “What are you passionate about”, and “if you were to have a superpower, what would it be?”, as well saving us having to hunt through for the same information on 70 or CV’s.
It makes the short-listing process faster, fairer, and more accurate. However, after seeing our fair share of terrible responses over the past few days, I thought I would give my top tips for potential applicants of any job:
- Check your spelling and grammar – if you can’t spell or write a sentence in an application form then how can I trust you to write an e-mail to my important customers?
- Make sure you get your capitalisation correct – in the middle or the start of a sentence “I” should always be upper case.
- Read and understand the job description and demonstrate your understanding in the application form.
- Take the time to look into the company you are applying to and understand them, and then, as the point above, demonstrate this in the application form.
- If you put N/A to 5 questions about your personality, then I will assume you have N/A personality!
- Get yourself an e-mail address that makes you look professional – if your e-mail is 18pintsbeforeipassout@hotmail.com or hotandsexy_21@gmail.com then get a new one!
- Don’t apply for a job that has a salary of £18 – 20000 and then put “I would like a minimum of £27,0000 salary” in the application form – it’s a waste of your time.
- Don’t cut and paste from your CV or worse, the internet.
I hope this helps you in your quest for a job … oh, and if you are one of the lucky ones to get through to interview, then please do take the time to learn a little about the company you would like to work for!
