Application Forms - Selling Yourself
By Stephen Richards |
* On Top Form
Whereas the resume or curriculum vitae is quite rightly your
own personal advertisement.
The application for tries to take away your
ability to tell the employer what you would like them to know and replace it
with what they want know about you.
To be fair, the employer may just
want to have a level playing field, unfortunately very few of them know much
about the layout of Application Forms and the effect that a bad form can have on
the applicant.
With that in mind many people will make mistakes on
Application Forms or will not provide the information that has been
requested.
So, lets take this in a methodical way and reduce the chances
of making a mistake.
* Step by Step - Follow this easy guide.
1)
If possible make 2 or 3 photocopies of the Application Forms.
2) Read the
questions on the Application Forms carefully, most of the questions will be
straight forward, but some of them may be badly worded.
3) Using a pencil
and one of the copies, complete the standard bits of the Application Forms,
name, address, date of birth etc.
4) Whenever you are required to provide
employers or previous details, dates of employment and job titles, use your
resume as a guide so you don't forget anything.
5) In any area of the
form that allows you to provide extra information about yourself or your
previous employment, use the short punchy statements from your resume. If the
Application Forms has plenty space for that sort of information (most don't)
then use bullet points and space the statements.
6) Complete the rest of
the Application Forms.
7) Make yourself a coffee.
8) After you
have finished your drink, go through the completed form carefully. Identify any
mistakes that you have made.
(i) Check spelling.
(ii) Check that non
of the boxes look crowded.
(iii) Get a friend to read through the Application
Forms.
9) If you make any mistakes, erase the mistake and add the
corrections.
10) If you need to, use the other photocopies until you have
a perfectly completed Application Forms.
11) Now carefully transfer that
information using a Black ink Biro to the original Application
Forms.
Although these 11 steps are incredibly time consuming, when done
correctly, they make a big difference to the look of the completed
original.
Once you have completed the Application Forms make a photocopy
and ensure that you have a high quality covering letter to accompany it and you
are done.
About the Author
Leaving the Royal Air Force, Steve worked for a Charity helping the
unemployed to find work. Within a few months the two programs he ran were top of
the counties league table. Head hunted, Steve lead 7 similar programs, within 6
months they were all in the top 10 - including the number one spot.
http://www.911resume.com
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