Are you looking at a change of job? Do you want to polish your resume (or cv)? Do you find it really hard to respond to selection criteria? I have worked directly in the recruitment for over 100 government positions and seen many kinds of applications from shortlisted candidates.
This time we’re looking at a few easy steps that can help you get to the interview stage.
A cover letter
I strongly suggest you send in a covering letter as this is an added opportunity to sell yourself. Even if they don’t ask for one, DO IT! This is about you, what makes you special for the position, what you can contribute and even a little about how you came to this point in your career.
Facts and figures
Make sure you add numbers and specific facts to back up or reframe statements where you have made claims that might otherwise seem subjective. For example, instead of saying you are hardworking, why not tell people how many experiments you conducted in a 12 month period? Or how many participants did you interview for that research project?
Use their language
Check parts of the selection criteria where you could take words for drafting the cover letter and for answering the selection criteria. A long time ago I tried to use synonyms (the same meaning but different words from the ones in the advertised position material). This did not work for jobs through recruitment agencies as they use data matching tools that are not as sophisticated as humans. Include some of their words at times.
About your files
Whenever you send in a file to a recruitment process, make sure your name is part of the file name. You would be surprised how many times I have seen files that are called “resume”. This makes it much harder for the data management system to work effectively.
Always send the file as a pdf or similar as these are less easy for any person or software to accidentally change.
I hope these ideas help and that you have found something new in them. Good luck with your jobhunting!