What People Say About Us

Assistance with your application forms

We regularly help people with their application forms, and especially when space restricts you from selling yourself (and you need help selling yourself in fewer words), or where the employer also requests a personal statement as part of the application.

Notably, while CV applications is still the norm, a minority of employers won’t even consider CVs.

Why is this?

Part of it may relate to employers deliberately wanting to put you out of your comfort zone, and test you further. Some want to see if you can sell yourself, highlight your specific skills and back this all up with evidence. They don’t want to be bombarded with lots of generic CVs, and they want to see if you can think for yourself and make some effort. Sometimes their logic is that it helps weed out the wheat from the chaff and that only serious applicants will only apply, as filling in an application form is more time-consuming than attaching a prewritten Word document to an email.

Fruits of your labour

If prepared correctly, a good application form will take time to perfect. As with a CV, it needs to be tailored to a specific job specification, as well as essential and desirable criteria. But don’t panic! This may seem like a daunting task, and true, it is quite a painstaking job (or it should be if you do it properly!). However, if you approach the task diligently, and apply similar principles to top quality CV writing (see help pages are still on his website) then you should be able to improve your responses to application form questions.

The supporting statement

The supporting statement section within an application form is frequently the most important part (although not every application requires a supporting statement). If it does, you should list all your relevant skills and experience in accordance with the company’s job specification. Most companies will ask you to give evidence of your skills and experience to see if you meet the essential criteria. It is also important to include the ‘desirable’ criteria too where possible, to show you have a sufficiently wide range of skills to complement the role and the demands of the job.

If you don’t meet all the desirable criteria, you need not necessarily worry, as that isn’t always a deal breaker. What you should not do is make up stories just so you tick all the boxes! Remember, the information you put in your application will be referred to if you get to interview and the truth normally comes out then, so don’t waste yours, or the company’s time.

Processes and characteristics

Some application forms are online, and some you need to complete the form either directly online or email this through. For some online applications, there is a word/character limit. If you go over your limit this can invalidate your application, besides, a good personal statement should not be too long anyway. So try and keep this as concise as possible, highlighting the essential criteria first. It is quite tricky to get the balance right, but the more you complete, the better you will get. The majority of companies follow similar formats, so practise makes perfect.

Further tips

Be sure to read the questions carefully before you answer them. And remember, if you are copying and pasting from a previous application, remember to change the company’s name as well as any other relevant details. If you overlook seemingly minor details like this it could put a swift end to your application, so be careful and double-check.

How we can help you

We offer a professional bespoke service, based around you, your circumstances, the application form, and your goals. Application forms can be a hindrance, but we can turn them to your advantage. If you can send us details, we will be happy to give you a quotation