At Veredus we understand how important it is that present yourself in the best possible light to a potential employer. Below our consultants offer you some advice on the application process.
Gathering information
"The information pack is there for a number of reasons; to give you more information on the job for you to be able to show something tangible to family and friends but also as a reminder as you go through the process for what the job is about and whether you’re going to be applicable for it."
"I think before starting on an application form the sensible thing to do is to take up any offer to discuss the issues further. Now that’s usually initially with the recruiter, or with HR if it’s an internal recruitment, but always take that opportunity up and ask questions that have arisen from your study of that information so you’re getting across to that recruiter right from the outset number one – you’re interested; number two – you’re taking up the offer to find further information; number three – you’ve already thought about and have a good grip on some of the issues facing the organisation you’re thinking of working for and number four – that you have a real interest and you’re registering that interest right up front. This has a big impact and certainly gives some force to your work in later stages."
You might want to ask things around the culture of the organisation particularly, you might want to ask about reporting lines more specifically, you might want to ask a little bit more information about the types of people that you’d be working with, some of the key priorities for the role. The consultant will have had detailed briefings with the client and will know a lot about the organisation, know a lot about the people there and know a lot about the priorities of the job in a way that can’t often be reflected, even in a very detailed information brief.
The person specification
"The person specification will be – from the longlisting to the shortlisting to the final appointment – the criteria against which candidates are going to be measured and judged, hence your application form needs to address those criteria very directly."
"Talk about what you’ve delivered. Don't use statements such as ‘I’m a great communicator or a great listener’ - that may be important and it may be important to the client but it’s important at this stage that you tell us why you are, where have you demonstrated that and how have you demonstrated that."
"When your application is received someone is going to sit down and mark it on a grid against those person specification items. So you’ve made it not only easy for that person but you’ve put your very best case forward, you’ve actually constrained the information you’ve given against the very criteria they’re going to use to measure it."
The CV
"What the CV does is provide the foundation to the application, it’s the hard facts, what you’ve done, when you did it, how you did it."
"You need to show a bit of flair and a bit of passion because right through that process people want a personality and to see that you’re really enthused about it. Bring it to life and don’t be afraid to show some real emotion and enthusiasm about and not to leave it just as a dead series of points around experience and qualifications."
Top tips
What we want to see is a clearly structured supporting statement that is broken down into paragraphs, each paragraph addressing a different bullet point of the person specification. Many people make the mistake of keeping their CVs relatively generic. It’s very easy to spot the difference between a generic CV that’s sent out to 20 consultancies a day and a CV that’s been individually tailored for one specific job application.
The two key things are to your application to life and get home your passion and enthusiasm and address rigorously and systematically the items in the person specification. It doesn’t need to be long, it needs to be well worded. Make it crisp, make it readable, make it useable, because people who actually go through the processes and are actually going to interview you are not going to have the space to read and understand it, so you’re going to lose the key themes.