Application Forms are designed to make the recruitment process
fairer by scoring skills and abilities rather than past jobs.
Point Scoring
Recruiters all work differently but most will choose who to
interview based on who demonstrates more of the requirements on the person
specification. Often this will involve allocating points against each
requirement.
Find out what you need to
do
Read through the application form before you start. It’s worth
doing this with online applications too, printing out each page so you can make
notes if you need to.
Check if you have to stick to a specific word count and whether
there are individual questions.
Make notes on the Advert,
Job Description, and Person Specification
Write down a few examples of where you’ve done similar things to
what the job is asking for. Try and think of as many examples as possible,
especially those that show you’ve gone above and beyond your duties.
Keep a Word document..
..with all the details in so you can cut and paste into
application forms and save yourself time. Don’t cut and paste supporting
statements, but your references/ NI number/ education history etc won’t change
between applications.
Work History
Under ‘last job’ use the most relevant post to the one you’re
applying for but specify this is what you’ve done. Then for other experience
list everything in order starting with the newest and ending with the oldest.
If there’s no section for voluntary jobs add them here too, otherwise just put
a one line note to show what you were doing during those dates and add the full
details to the correct place. Use as many examples as you can from your job
description notes.
Education and Training
Explain how everything is relevant to the job. Don’t forget to
list in house and on the job training, it will help you gain points.
References
Always add references with full contact details, take the time to
look them up or call the person if you have to. Specify you’d like them to ask
permission before they contact your referees, then you can warn them they will
get a call and explain the importance of the job for you.
Equal Opportunities
Monitoring form
These are used by HR to ensure their advertisement is attracting a
wide range of candidates. It is not supposed to be used as part of the judgment
process and is often removed before the decision makers are given the forms. If
you don’t wish to give away that information still fill it in but tick all the ‘prefer
not to say’ boxes.
Supporting Statement
Sometimes this is simply a blank space and a request for ‘any
other information’. This is your chance to demonstrate how you meet the
criteria and is the most important part of the application form. Usually the
ideal length is between three quarters of a page and a full page but it can be
as long as two pages especially for education roles.
Take each point on the person specification and cut and paste into
the document. Underneath each requirement write examples of how you meet the
criteria. Think of it like an essay, you’ll need to back up each of your
statements with evidence from your career history.
Hook them in
Remember the person reading this will often have hundreds of
applications to read – catch their attention by making your very first (brief)
sentence the biggest reason you’re good for the job. For example, “As a
customer service person with three years experience in fashion retail I was
very interested in this job” or “Having worked for a year for your competitor I
feel I have unique skills for this role”.
Keep it brief and in order
Bullet points are great and perfect for most application form
supporting statements. However if the job you are applying to requires you to
write or have excellent written skills you’ll need to use sentences and
paragraphs. The ideal, dependant on space, would be three examples for each
point but one should be enough and two saves on word count. If you have plenty
of space left and don’t need to worry about the word count you can leave the cut
and pasted criteria in place and bold them to make headings. You can also
simply delete them leaving a complete document with each point in the same
order as the job description and neatly forming a consistent paragraph each.
Three to four lines per paragraph are ideal; you want to avoid making the
recruiter read too much, they might simply skip to the next application.
STAR
A way to keep your examples brief but complete is to use the STAR
method. The acronym stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result and suggests you
follow this as a formula to create your sentences.
Situation = employer, overview
Task = what you were supposed to do
Action = what you did that was special
Result = what happened because of you
For example “When I worked for Viridian Housing (situation), it
was my job to greet visitors at reception (task), I always took their coats and
offered them a drink (action) which meant they felt relaxed and looked and were
easier for the customer service team to negotiate with (result)”
Proof read
Ideally you’d pass it on to someone else to proof read but if
there’s no one who can leave it for a few hours and then go back to check. Never
send anything without reading it through.
