Successful Application Forms
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This document provides guidance on completing application forms for employment successfully. It explains that employers use application forms to identify the best candidates by assessing strengths, weaknesses, motivations and fit for the role and company. The document advises exploring the role, employer and requirements in detail before starting the form. It outlines exploring one's own strengths and researching the employer. It describes the different types of questions commonly asked and provides the STAR technique for competency questions. Resources for further support are also listed.
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Successful Application Forms
- 1. Careers & Employability Centre Successful Application Forms Autumn 2014
- 2. Why do employers use them? • Set their own priorities • Level playing field • Practicality • To put you off applying?
- 3. Why you should welcome them • Level playing field • Shows you their priorities • Gives you the chance to shine
- 4. Before you start writing • Exploration: • The role • The employer • The requirements • Identify your: • Strengths • Weaknesses • Motivation • Resources: • sussex.ac.uk/careers • prospects.ac.uk • targetjobs.co.uk
- 5. Find your strengths for the job • Pick a job: • BT Business Management graduate scheme • Tate Britain Audio Visual Administrator • ConSol Trainee Recruiter • Hertfordshire Learning and Organisational Development Officer • Identify the requirements from the advert • Identify your strengths and weaknesses
- 6. Types of question Can you do the job? Ideal Candidate Will you do the job? Will you fit in? Are you eligible?
- 7. Life & Educational Information • Name, contact details • Education & Qualifications • Work Experience • Interests Are you eligible? My hobbies include watching television, computer chess, stamp collecting and walking my 2 spaniels
- 8. Motivation questions • The ‘why?’ questions • Why do you want to work for us? • What sets us apart from our competitors? • Why did you choose this stream/role over others? • What makes you suitable for this type of business? • What do you expect to be doing in your first year/as a trainee?
- 9. Competency questions • Tell us about a time when… • You overcame a difficult problem (outside your studies) • You persuaded someone to take a different course of action • What has been the biggest challenge in your life? [disguised] • Not just narrative • Use the STAR approach
- 10. STAR • Situation • Task • Actions • Results
- 11. Organisational fit questions • Who would you invite to your ideal dinner party? • What do you like to do to relax? • How would a friend describe you? • How do we compare to our competitors? • Looking for insights into your personality
- 12. The big white space • Popular with public sector recruiters • You set the agenda – research and analysis
- 13. A few to learn from Socially as well as challangingly rewarding Hi, I want 2 get a job with U I am a computer maniac Finished eighth in my class of ten
- 14. Further support and resources Booklets and information at sussex.ac.uk/careers Careers advice 1:1 Just ask! careers@sussex.ac.uk 01273 678429
Editor's Notes
- A practical session which will show you techniques you can use straight away Ask for show of hands – who has completed an AF before – what did you think of the experience? This workshop will teach you to welcome rather than fear them…
- Employers can require you to address the skills and motivations they consider important for the job The upside is fairness – not perfect, but everyone is being asked to perform the same transparent set of tasks Time-saving, as the information is presented in the same part of the application and format by all applicants – quicker and more consistent screening Does it seem that they are deterring you with the long and complicated process? Maybe they really are – if you are a badly prepared, half-motivated applicant – an early form of screening
- The fairness mentioned in the last slide is a real asset…. ….as is the transparency – they are giving you huge clues as to what matters to them according to what they ask and how much space they give you to answer
- If you don’t know what the organisation is like, the role requires and how you measure up, you’re not ready to start writing The matching process is conceptually simple, but does take time – shortcuts are not in your favour – quality not quantity If no job description is given, do your research
- Exercise: explain what they have to do, briefly describe the different jobs from the description on the slides only – invite the group members to decide which one appeals to them most (might be worth pointing out that they all accept applications from any degree subject Then distribute handouts – get the group to form into subgroups according to which job they are into (combine subgroups if anyone is on their own) Get them to make a list of strengths and weaknesses relative to the requirements – point out that there is useful info in the job description as well as the person specification
- Give a UK address unless the employer is international/based in your non-UK location Give exact qualification details incl grades if possible – if they don’t fit in the boxes, ask the employer If non-UK/non standard, give the grades in original format (give UK equivalent if format allows) Blips – don’t try to hide them; use the box allowing explanations or ‘any other info’ box if available – give brief factual details and anything positive you took from the experience Work experience – include unpaid unless told not to; emphasise the sexiest parts of what you did Interests – nothing wrong as such with this example, but they are all solitary (it’s from a real application form), not compatible with the large number of jobs involving interaction with others.
- Ask the subgroups for each vacancy to call out possible reasons for wanting to do this job – write to flipchart
- Refer back to competencies identified by subgroups earlier Ask them to compile competency questions from these examples Examples given – the disguised competency question looks like a personality issue, but it’s really about resilience and coping with setbacks – something a lot of graduate employers want to know about
- Too much time is spent on Situation Actions are the heart of the answer – use most of the wordcount here Result – should be positive, can include learning points (if time): Ask the subgroups to do STAR bullet points for one question – share in open group aftewards
- This shouldn’t mean that they are looking for clones (can’t guarantee that some employers don’t recruit in their own image – even if unintentionally) – should mean that they are looking for your understanding of the organisation’s culture and ability to connect with colleagues and clients.
- For once, you get to set your own agenda – but it is based on the same background reading and matching process we looked at before. Concise but thorough – especially if there is no wordcount limit
- Each of these shows us something worth remembering Avoid typos Don’t put things in negative terms – if lowly placed, say that you passed successfully (for example) Use appropriate tone of language Don’t overstate things
- Call in or phone 01273 678429