Application Forms - Selling Yourself
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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