Submitting a job application can be time-consuming, from researching the company and the role, to thinking about your relevant skills and filling out the application form. You can easily spend hours applying just for a recruiter to spend seconds putting your application on the reject pile. So, why do some of the applications we see just not hit the mark?
We caught up with our talent acquisition team to get their top tips on making your application stand out from the rest, and ensuring it doesn’t land in that reject pile! Here are their five top tips:
1 - Include all of your relevant experience.
Don’t forget those jobs you had years ago; you never know just how relevant they might be! So often, we see people leave off positions they may have had because it was a long time ago. People also omit experience gained at fast-food restaurants or in hospitality as they don’t feel that the experience is relevant. You might be surprised to know we love to see where you have developed your transferrable skills – anything involving fast-paced customer service or a sales environment is a huge plus for us!
2 - Complete the interests and hobbies section.
Tell us about your involvement in societies, sports teams, charities and any other extra-curricular activities you’ve been involved in. This section can give us a real insight into who you are as a person, and can often be the decider when we are on the fence about putting a candidate through to interview. This is also a great section in which to demonstrate your leadership skills, something some graduates struggle with.
3 - Tailor your application to the job you are applying to.
Show the recruiter you’ve done your research; highlight your experience to match the job role and the competencies that we look for. This bit can be time-consuming as you do need to dedicate time to research, but we make that so easy for you and provide you with all the information you need on our website and social media channels. It also shows us that you’re passionate about the role you have applied for.
4 - Proofread before submitting for punctuation and spelling mistakes.
This is such an easy task in today’s world and takes seconds. Spend the same amount of time it takes a recruiter to spot all those spelling errors and reject the application! If you’ve spent 30 minutes completing your application, it’s worth the extra 3 to spell check and proofread. If spelling and grammar isn’t your strength, then ask someone else to read through it for you.
5 - Make sure the right information goes in the right places.
We all have devices that like to ‘pre populate’ boxes to make life easier however, sometimes, these can be your enemy. It is common for us to see information in the wrong section or details of someone else that uses your computer, perhaps turn this function off or make sure you are double checking when you proofread.
Follow these five simple steps, and you should be well on your way to securing that interview. From there, it’s over to you to sell yourself- but fear not, we have some handy hints on that too.
If you think you’d be a great addition to our team then take a look at our graduate management trainee opportunities and apply.