Writing A Winning Application

Writing A Winning Application

Writing Away – The Medium and the Message

All markets have three core components to them: a range of products that may have some common features but can usually be differentiated in some way; buyers who are seeking products but will only choose those that best meet their needs; and sellers who work hard to ‘move product’, by understanding the needs of their potential buyers in order to convince them that they have the best available in the market place. Writing a winning application requires students and graduates to understand and apply these marketing principles so that they can put themselves in the most competitive position.

Market Research
It is vitally important that you ‘do your homework’ and conduct some basic market research into the broad industry or specific company that you would like to work with. This market research is to assist you to understand the employers’ needs by finding the answers to these sorts of questions:

1. What is the prevailing culture of the industry or organisation – what does it stand for, how does it want people to view it, what are the values that underpin the business activity?
2. What experiences, skills and personal qualities does the industry or organisation seem most interested in?
3. How do these experiences, skills and personal qualities relate to how business is conducted in the industry or organisation?

While they may share similar approaches to some issues, not all employers are alike. It is, therefore, important that any job application is tailored to the industry or organisation rather than being a ‘one size fits all’ document. If you want to be noticed you need to show employers that you understand their needs; doing some basic market research is the only way you are going to find this out.

Product Development
Another component of any effective marketing strategy is for the sellers to understand the strengths of their products. In the job market you are not only the seller but you are also the product! Your task then is not only to understand the strengths that you have to offer but also what it is that may differentiate you from other ‘products’ in the market place. No employer is truly interested in you unless you are able to demonstrate that you have something to offer them. In order to do this you need to clarify and ‘flesh out’ your:

1. ‘Track record’ – recent and relevant academic, work and extracurricular experiences
2. Key technical and transferable skills and
3. Personal qualities.

The importance of your track record is not simply about your ‘history’ (e.g. the number of jobs you’ve had, the academic grades you’ve achieved and the number of clubs you have joined), rather it is about what impact this history has had upon the range of skills and qualities that you can offer an employer. Your history is evidence of these things and must be presented in this sort of context.

Within this broad context, there are a number of approaches and formatting styles for you to choose from in presenting your résumé.

Chronological Résumé
As the name suggests, this résumé style presents a history of the person’s experiences categorised according to a number of key areas, the most common being:

• personal contact details
• educational background and academic qualifications
• employment history
• extracurricular activities and interests and
• special technical competencies and skills (e.g. languages, computing, etc).

Dates are prominent and used to order the experiences, with those most recent being the most relevant and, therefore, requiring the greatest detail. It is not sufficient to simply list your past and present experiences, as this will not in itself provide an insight into your competencies. For example, in addition to identifying an employer you have worked for and the position held, be sure to outline the sorts of duties you have undertaken and transferable skills you have been able to develop. While the content of your experiences is relevant to an extent, of greater interest to employers is how these have shaped your skills.

The chronological style is the most traditional and commonly used type of résumé. One advantage it offers is how straightforward it is to develop as well as to read, given that our lives and thinking are very much conditioned by time. It is also a style of résumé that suits the undergraduate or postgraduate with either a history that is short in duration or one that has little variation. However, potential disadvantages of the chronological style are that it can show ‘gaps’ in your history, reveal your age and convey an impression either of too little experience or too much experience in a field not directly relevant to the employer.

Functional Résumé
This résumé style has a different approach, with the focus on skills and capabilities rather than history. While the person’s experiences may still be grouped into traditional areas of education, work and interests the information within each will be presented in a different way:

• academic qualifications are presented by referring to key areas of knowledge and skill development and broad grade average over the duration of the course
• work experiences are organised according to the type of work undertaken (e.g. hospitality, project administration, design and development) rather than each specific job held and
• extracurricular activities are categorised according to type rather than history, in much the same way as work experience.

A slight variation on this style is for the key categories in this résumé to be skills-based. The particular experiences that underpin each of the skills are incorporated within each of the categories highlighted in the résumé. So, in any one skill category there may be educational, employment and extracurricular experiences that are listed as evidence.

One of the advantages of a functional résumé is that you can better demonstrate the relevance of your experiences in terms of the skills that have emerged from them, something that is more difficult to achieve by presenting a history. It is also a little more interesting to read, more personal in the sense that you are providing an interpretation of what your experiences mean and focused on achievements and capabilities. This style of résumé is especially useful for undergraduates or postgraduates with a wide variety of experiences or those who have changed jobs regularly due to the nature of the industry in which they have worked. It focuses the employer’s attention on individual capabilities rather than historical experiences.

Whilst there are many pluses to this style, it does have the disadvantage of being more difficult to develop (you need to think more deeply about what you have done and what this means!) and potentially more confusing to the employer if you are not careful about how you categorise your experiences. It also may not be very popular with professional areas that are either very conservative or have very specific requirements in terms of background history and experiences.

Targeted Résumé
This style of résumé is a variation of the functional style outlined above. The focus is still very much on skills and capabilities rather than history. However, the targeted résumé is directed towards a particular job and is designed to demonstrate how you can meet the specific job requirements. The key categories of the résumé are not the traditional ones of education, work and interests but rather accord with the skills and qualities relevant to the position.
Within each of these specific skills categories is presented a range of experiences that demonstrate the candidate’s strength in the area. One note of caution though, the targeted résumé is not a substitute for a ‘statement addressing the selection criteria’ that is required by most public sector agencies in any job application.

Clearly, the main advantages of the targeted résumé are the capacity to link your experiences closely with the employer’s specific needs and to ensure that the focus is on your skills and capabilities rather than history. However, as the name suggests, the targeted style requires you to write an individually tailored résumé for each job and this may be very timeconsuming if you are applying for many positions.

The quality of the résumé is also predicated on the quality of your background research into the employer’s needs and whether you have interpreted those needs accurately. Whatever style of résumé you choose (and you might create a combination of styles!) you must ensure that:

• it is expressed concisely (short, descriptive phrases in bullet-point form rather than lengthy sentences and paragraphs)
• it is formatted clearly (distinctive headings and sub-headings, logical and consistent order) and
• it includes detailed and relevant information about your background and experiences.

Application Forms

Hard Copy Application Forms
Some organisations require you to fill in an application form as part of the overall process. It helps them to readily make a direct comparison between candidates on the same issues. It also allows the organisation to set their own agenda on key areas of importance to them and to assess your ability to express yourself in a concise and straightforward manner.

An application form will have most or all of the following sections:

• personal or biographical details
• a summary of key experiences, such as academic program, employment history and extracurricular interests
• commentary on specific issues and
• questions requiring you to provide practical, specific examples of experiences that demonstrate particular skills or qualities.

The first step you should always take is to make some copies of the original form - these become your ‘working documents’. In many respects, you should use the same approach as you would in an exam. Read through the whole application form before you write anything so that you are clear as to exactly what information you are being asked to provide. Make a draft of what you will write, ensuring that you always ask yourself ‘Am I answering the question?’ Never leave any sections of the form blank. If it doesn’t apply to you, then notate that part of the form ‘n/a’.

Given that you either have limited space in which to write or have been given a specific word limit, ensure that you use very descriptive and action-oriented language to reinforce the message you are trying to convey. The final hard copy of any application form should be completed in black or blue ink and be clearly legible. In this regard, printing is often preferable to cursive writing.

Online Application Forms
Increasingly, candidates are being required to complete application forms online, however, in general the same principles apply as those for hard copy applications. But there are some important differences that you need to be aware of. First, in some instances, once you start compiling an online application form you may not be able to save it and then come back to continue work on it. You will need to complete the form in one sitting, and after you hit ‘submit’ at the end of the process, your information will be stored in a database. If the online form enables you to do so, it is imperative that you download a hard copy of it, complete the process of gathering your facts and then write a number of drafts before arriving at your ‘final copy’. This is all the more important when you understand that some applications may take more than an hour to complete online, and that’s without any ‘thinking’ time!

In some instances employers request an electronic résumé be submitted. In many cases these are ‘read’ by scanners in the first instance rather than by the employer. These scanners are essentially ‘text readers’ and so are not designed to interpret or distinguish non-standard characters or formats. It is preferable to submit an electronic résumé in ASCII format.

The key principles you need to follow in order to make your electronic résumé readable are to:

• use standard font types and sizes
• avoid using graphics, text boxes or other ‘fancy’ treatments
• use bold face or capital letters for category headings and
• describe experiences using concrete key words rather than vague descriptions.

Whether the information you submit electronically is read by a scanner or gathered in an electronic application form it ends up being stored in a database. A ‘keyword search’ of the database is then undertaken in order to eliminate applications and arrive at a smaller list of candidates for further review and consideration. Therefore, if you are to ‘maximise your hits’ you must ensure that your application contains strong action-oriented language, particularly words that relate to the key skills or qualities that the employer is seeking.

This, however, is not always the case. Some employers, particularly those using third-party suppliers to assist with selection, do go through every application received. In the event that your electronic résumé is not read by a scanner and the employer simply requests this type of application for the sake of speed and convenience, find out in advance what word processing package and version the employer uses so that what you send is compatible. The last thing you want is either for the formatting of your résumé to be compromised when the employer opens it or, worst still, for it to be impossible to actually open or read the document!

Being Competitive
You’ve completed your market research, reviewed your product and its relevance to the market, and drafted and developed your commercial. Make your final check for mistakes or omissions. Print off the application, copy it for your own records, and then staple securely in the top left-hand corner. Binding the application or inserting it into an expensive plastic folder will not make it any more informative. Vitally important, of course, is to take note of the closing date and ensure that your application is submitted ahead of time rather than at the last minute.

Whatever type of application you are required to submit, or the style, format and content that you choose for the presentation of your talents, writing away for a graduate or vacation position is a competitive process. If you really want your commercial to be seen and heard in the market there are four key principles that should be your guiding light:

• Make your job application ‘customer focused’ - who are you writing this for and who is going to read it?
• You can only sell yourself once you know yourself - understand what you have to offer.
• Your job application is an art form – make it an individual portrait and not a photograph.
• Treat every application as if it is your first – review, revise and update on an ongoing basis.

A well prepared application will encourage the ‘buyer’ to want to meet you face-to-face. Having gained this attention in the form of a job interview offer then you must develop the skill to sell yourself in person. Your job application will get you in the
door - now you’ve got to make the sale!

• What to do with Selection Criteria?
• Writing Away – The Medium and the Message