Increase your chances of getting an Interview!

After wading through almost 300 applications for a Junior role for one of my clients I was astounded at our easy it was to discount many of the resumes because of some very simple mistakes candidates had made.

All applications that did not have an application letter accompanying the resume were discarded. Some 30% of candidates did not make the effort to write an application letter which made my life very easy.

When you are applying for a role your Resume and Application Letter are selling tools to sell to the Recruiter and Employer why you are the right person for the role. This means you need to prepare and take some time customising your Resume and particularly your Application Letter to ensure you address the criteria stated in the job advertisement. Understandably, with the ease these days that you can apply for roles online candidates appear to think if they email out 100 applications one will hopefully stick and they will get an interview. They are wrong!

Then what I looked for next was any application that had spelling mistakes or grammatical errors and dates of work history or School that were missing were discounted also. That gave me some 78 out of 300 resumes to work with before I even started looking to see if their limited skills or potential attitude matched the job criteria.

The job market is highly competitive at the moment and for those with limited work experience it is critical that they put some effort into their applications. Employers do not expect too much from a Junior but they do expect some effort with job applications and that you can spell and write coherently!