her daughter to type up her CV. What was the point? Why go along to an interview knowing that you don’t have some of the key skills they asked for?
one minute wonder Look through the job advert and the requirements and make sure that you have the skills to apply for the job. You are wasting your own time applying for jobs that you cannot do. You will be found out!
the job title that we think we need, deserve or want. There can be any number of reasons why we fall in love with the prospect of the new job.
When you get the job advert or job description, go through and highlight all the requirements that you don’t actually meet with a yellow highlighter. Then go back and see if they are major or minor. If they are major gaps, then it’s not worth applying for the job. If they are minor, you may want to apply, but put in the letter that accompanies it an honest statement to say that you meet most of the criteria and are willing to learn or train on the points that are missing.
You may be lucky. If the advert does not attract the exact right candidate the company may consider making small adjustments, but don’t count on it and do be honest at the outset. If you apply for another position with this company at a later date this may count against you.
Sometimes when we apply for a job we think we are suited for, we don’t even make it to the shortlist for interview and wonder where we went wrong. A behind-the-scenes view of what busy recruiters do to shortlist candidates may well help you to look at where you have gone wrong in the past.
It helps to put yourself ‘in the recruiter’s shoes’ and look at your application from an objective point of view. This may well be difficult at first but you could get a friend to help.
Take the advert or job description that you have received or any details you have about the job you wish to apply for. Highlight the main points that the advert is asking for.
Essential vs desirable. If the advert uses words like “it is essential that the applicant has…” then these will be key shortlisting criteria. If
one minute wonder Put yourself in the recruiter’s shoes and draw up the shortlisting criteria to check yourself against. How good a fit are you? Do you tick all the boxes or not?
the advert says “it is desirable that the applicant has…” then these things aren’t as important, but great if you have them too.
Shortlisting matrix. So take all the “essential” elements asked for, qualifications, location and experience requirements and write them in a list. Now go through and see how many you can tick as being a 100% perfect fit? Now ask yourself the question, how likely would you be to get chosen? If you have all the essential criteria on the list then add on the desirable criteria and see if you meet them also.
The 30-second sift. Recruiters draw up a matrix with columns across the top headed with the key criteria they are looking for and then down the left-hand side they write the names of the applicants. In the first sift the recruiter will skim through the CV in probably less than 30 seconds and either put ticks or crosses in the boxes to show whether you have met that criteria or not. They then go back and highlight those candidates with the most ticks to look at in more detail. The more ticks you have the more likely you are to get shortlisted. So would your CV make it through the 30-second sift?
It will always depend on the competition – if there are people more closely suited to the profile, with more ticks in the boxes, then you just won’t get chosen on this occasion. If there are many applicants making the first sift, then the recruiter will add more criteria and sift again – this is when the “desirable” criteria often get used.
Going through this exercise will help you to be more realistic and more targeted in your approach. Now you have the list make sure you get everything into your CV and letter to show that you have the skills, experience or qualities they are looking for.
If you miss something off your CV, then you won’t get that all important tick in the box.
The dreaded letter has landed on the doorstep or the email has arrived in the inbox to tell you that you have not been selected for interview. That’s a real blow if you wanted the job and thought you were a good match. What you need to find out now is why, and that’s not always easy.
There are two or three things that you can do now and it really is worth doing this because you want to make sure that you have learned from the experience so that next time you get onto the shortlist.
1 Ask for feedback. You could ring the company up and ask for some feedback as to why you didn’t make it to the shortlist. They don’t have to tell you, but if they do then you have some insight. It could just be that they had so many good CVs they were overwhelmed with choice. In those circumstances they will look for the very best, those whose CVs not only tick all the boxes of what they “must have” but also have that something extra that makes them stand out from the crowd.
“I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up”
Sylvester Stallone, American actor
2 Review yourself. Did you read through the whole of this book and do all the exercises along the way? Did you tailor your CV well to the advert or job description that you received? Did you really show them how you matched their criteria?
3 Get someone else to review your CV. Do you have a friend, colleague or relative who you know will be objective and honest with you? Do you know anyone in your network of family, friends and neighbours who employs people? Ask them to review your CV against the advert or job description and to give you some tips on what you might have missed or could do better.
Be honest with yourself: was this really a good fit for your skills and experience or were you just taking a flyer in the hope that you might be lucky? If you did, just accept that you weren’t lucky this time. Read chapter 7 in the book. Even though you didn’t get to the interview, there are some interesting points about learning, reviewing and planning which may help.
Don’t get angry and throw the letter in the bin. Use your energy to review what you did and see what you can do better next time.
As part of your preparation and application for the job at some point you are going to be asked for referees. You need to think about who you are going to ask and who would be the most appropriate for the job that you are applying for.
Most recruiters are probably thinking about the last two positions you held as the people they want to ask for references, but maybe there’s a good reason why you don’t want to give them. Perhaps you left under a cloud, the business no longer exists, or you had a personality clash.
Let’s have a look at the dos and don’ts of references.
