Preparing the Perfect Job Application

Application Forms and Letters Made Easy

Rebecca Corfield

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780749458546
• Edition: 5
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Success

Application forms are designed to filter out unsuitable applicants and to ensure candidates for interview can be assessed objectively. How do you make sure that you pitch yourself properly and ensure your job application is more successful than those of others in the candidate pool? This book holds the answer.Preparing the Perfect Job Application is written for today's candidate, seeking success in an ever-competitive and more unforgiving jobs market. The book brims with focused, pertinent and insightful advice designed to help you highlight your real talents and demonstrate how they would be useful to your prospective employer on your application form or letter.Online supporting resources for this book include downloadable sample application forms.

1

The process of applying for jobs

The changing world of work

Even as recently as 30 years ago, a great many jobs would be filled with a direct approach to an employer, such as a letter, a telephone call or a visit in person, followed by an interview. Now the situation has changed. In the past, you might have stayed in the same position for much of your working life; now you are likely to change jobs frequently – perhaps every few years. This may be because you want to move about or it may be because you are forced to make the change, perhaps due to redundancy or some other reason. There will be many people interested in any one vacancy and the employer has to have a way of deciding which few people to interview for each job. The application process is a convenient way for an employer to compare and contrast different candidates.

This forces you to learn about how to present yourself well in written form. Even if very little writing work is involved in the job you want, you have to get over the hurdle of the application form in order to get an interview. The ability to present your views on paper is an invaluable skill in any field, and goes a long way to impressing an employer. Most people dread having to project themselves and find it doubly hard to do so in writing. When you apply in writing it is difficult to know how you will come across to other people. You do not have the employer sitting opposite you when he or she reads your form to see the reaction to what you have said about yourself. This means you have to spend extra time making sure that every application you complete is positive, well written and clear about what you have to offer.

The following sort of advertisement appears regularly in newspapers, inviting interested candidates to contact the company if they want to know more about the available job.

Job advertisement

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Flexible person wanted to help run busy solicitor’s office. Clerical experience preferred but training given. Full-time, £24,500 pa.

Application pack available from:

S & J Matthews

Solicitors

150 The Grange

Kelmsworth

Northants

Tel: [phone]

E-mail: [email protected]

or download from our website www.matthews.co.org.

Closing date 22/9/2009

If, after seeing an advertisement like this, you are interested in applying for the job, you need to contact the employer and ask for an application form and further details. It is increasingly common for employers to make application forms available on their company website. You will also find many employment agencies or recruitment consultants who have all the application details for the jobs that they are trying to fill on their website. This means that you can either complete the forms onscreen or download them to fill them in, before e-mailing or posting them back once completed.

Enclose a stamped addressed envelope for the company to return the application form to you if getting a form by post. When you write or phone, if it is not clear from the advertisement, ask if there is a job description available so that you receive all the relevant paperwork. Make sure that you keep the original details of the advertisement to help you apply in case you are not sent any additional information. If you print out details from a website, make sure you have accessed all the job information available.

Why do we have application forms?

It is worth spending a little time analysing exactly what the application procedure is all about. When employers advertise for new staff they know that they will attract a wide variety of candidates. They want to find out as much as they can about each applicant in order to assess which one will be the most suitable for the job on offer.

To start this process, candidates are asked to write to the employer, either by sending in their curriculum vitae (CV) with a covering letter of application, or by filling in an application form.

Both these approaches will be covered in this book. Application forms are used because employers need some method of comparing the abilities, experience and personalities of those people who apply. A form which asks each person exactly the same questions means that quick comparisons can be made between different candidates. By comparing like with like to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of each candidate, employers can be confident that they have made the best choice of whom to interview. Application forms have other benefits for the employer too. They show that you can follow instructions about how to complete the form, summarize facts in writing, present yourself well on paper and write to a brief. This demonstrates that you can stick to the discipline of a restricted area for your writing, sometimes even to a specific word count and that you can get your ideas across vividly to an audience.

The types of forms used by employers vary considerably. They can be any length – from one short page to seven or more pages – and they are usually printed. Some examples are included on pages 130–61. The exact number and type of questions depends on the nature and level of the job concerned. Some smaller organizations have the same form for every job in the company. This can make it difficult to fill in for jobs that require fuller answers. The questions have been set as the same for every job from the Chief Executive to the cleaner!

Students are sometimes asked by employers to complete a special type of form called the Standard Application Form. This is a general form which can be used to apply to different companies where candidates are not expected to have much work experience. It contains no printed details of the post applied for or the company where the vacancy exists – these are filled in by the applicant. Copies can be found in student careers offices at colleges. Do not think that this form is taken less seriously because of its name – to be successful your application must stand out from the crowd, whichever type of form your application is written on.

It is possible to take more control at the application stage of job-hunting. Employers only ask you to complete their forms because they are interested in finding out all about you. However, it is difficult to represent yourself properly when you are relying on just a few sheets of paper. The challenge in applying for jobs is to find ways to make yourself sound interesting enough and with something special to offer, for the employer to want to invite you for an interview. To make yourself appear unmissable, you need to convey that you alone have the background, outlook and skills to make a real difference to the organization or company. The employer needs to think that you would have the perfect personality to fit in with the existing team and that you would bring some really unique aspects to the organization. If the employer can see that you have spent time seriously thinking about the job and how you would tackle it, that you have ideas for developing the work and that you are keen and able to learn and grow in the job, he or she will definitely want to invite you to an interview.

Very few people are keen on application forms. Most of us find them a chore and approach the task with a heavy heart. But they are a necessary part of this process and we have to tackle them to the best of our ability. When the application pack arrives, or we download it from a website, there can be pages of material about the job. Just two documents, the job description and the person specification, may run over many pages on their own, never mind all the other company information that is often included.

Sometimes even able and well-qualified candidates are put off applying for suitable jobs because they are daunted by the prospect of filling in a complicated form for a particular job. Pages of questions which require thought and careful preparation can appear confusing and difficult at first reading. However, it is unusual to find a new job without having to fill in some kind of paperwork, so the more forms you complete, the better your chances of success – as long as you do them well.

Making applications for jobs is a serious matter. Each one needs time and care in order to complete it properly. However, even the most difficult form can be tackled successfully given the proper techniques. It makes sense to establish a system to ensure that you give yourself every possible chance to get the job of your choice. As with any difficult task, splitting the work up into smaller, less daunting parts can be helpful. The more you think about the big task ahead of you, the more demoralized you will feel about having to undertake it. If you just work on one separate part at a time, starting with the factual questions about yourself, you will be able to make a start. Most of this section should be easy to complete. Next come the two sections on your education and the jobs you have had. These may require some thinking to properly reflect your knowledge, experience and skills. The most difficult questions pose the most problems and they are normally left till last. They ask why you want the job, why the employer should choose you and what makes you think you are a suitable candidate. These require fully planned answers, creative thought about the way to put things down and a thorough appraisal of what kind of candidate the employer will be looking for to fill this particular vacancy.

The next few chapters explain in detail how to organize yourself to be successful. In addition to using good techniques, you need to be in the right frame of mind to ‘sell yourself’ effectively on paper. To establish yourself in the mind of the employer as someone worth interviewing, you must believe it yourself! There is more later, on page 42, about increasing your self-confidence.

The only way to get a job is to keep making applications to different employers. Assuming that you fill in your forms to a high standard and are applying for suitable jobs, you are bound to succeed eventually. It is important to evaluate your progress and learn from your experience of job-hunting, so that you can continually improve your applications. Applying...

Table of contents

• Cover page
• Title page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• 1. The process of applying for jobs
• 2. Using the internet
• 3. What are employers looking for?
• 4. What to put in your application
• 5. Presentation
• 6. Guidelines and examples
• 7. Letters of application
• 8. How to get that job!
• Other sources of help
• Index