23 Applicants per Job

The_ICT_Engineer

Yorkie1 wrote: »

The covering note is crucial too. We get speculative contacts / enquiries at work, but it's abundantly clear that it's a completely generic covering note with no thought having gone into whether the note or CV is relevant to our work or organisation. Doesn't really engage a potential employer if you haven't bothered to put any effort into the vital initial contact ...

You find that in many cases, The sender is under pressure to do so many of these spec (begging) letters a day or be sanction. You find that depending on who is running the work program, That a person is required to do upwards of 20 or more letters in a session. They simple don't have the time to do the research. Often they are giving a list of companies and the letter format that they must use, Each session and must complete all or be sanction. The local companies where I live are complaining about the number of letters they are getting, All using the same format. We had over 200 letters in one day all franked 'Seetec', The same standard letter in every one.

The_ICT_Engineer

Muse_fan wrote: »

One of the jobs I interviewed for had 100 applicants and we short listed to 10. In the end just 5 turned up! A lot of the applications were rejected because they did not meet the person spec as they had no experience in the field. I think the way to stand out is if you can get experience in the type of job that you are applying for - whether that be salaried or voluntary and do as much research about the company as you can. Basically you need to sell yourself and highlight why the company should employ you and not another candidate. Good Luck!

Did you use the Job Centre?, As if you did, This may be the reason why so many applications did not match your requirements. You find that the Job Centre just look at the job title and tell the Job-Seeker to applied or be sanction, Even if the Job-Seeker does not match the requirements. To them at the Job Centre it's a box ticked.

LondonDiva

dawyldthing wrote: »

When you send off applications, e-mail and phone the person who is dealing with it so your are fresh on their mind when they receive your application.

DO NOT do this, unless you actually have anything worthwhile to put across. I've tended to discount the ones who've stalked me on email or phone as they have come across as just ticking a box and wating my time.

Why are you actually calling / emailing? Is it about something that's clearly in the jd / advert? If so, you're going to just irritate them. If you have something of worth the bother - no problem.

Always do ask for feedback if you ever have an unsuccessful interview. You'll learn a lot & also perhaps stink in their mind as a constructive person who may suit a different role.

dawyldthing wrote: »

so your are fresh on their mind when they receive your application.

SPELLING - the first thing I cut applications on is the spelling - more than two mistakes and it makes the NO pile.

qetu1357

6166lesley wrote: »

I have just read a report in the Daily Mail saying that there is an average of 23 people going for a vacany and over 40 per customer services vacany,

I lost my job last Wednesday (with gardening leave for a month) so was wondering if you had any ideas in which I could stand out from the crowd on the CV application front?

My top tip is don't apply for jobs.

Find out about vacancies from your network - friends, family and ex-colleagues.

A lot of jobs are never advertised.

The_ICT_Engineer

qetu1357 wrote: »

My top tip is don't apply for jobs.

Find out about vacancies from your network - friends, family and ex-colleagues.

A lot of jobs are never advertised.

A common myth

newmumincov

The_ICT_Engineer wrote: »

A common myth

You may think so, but my current employer pays us a bonus for introducing new employees for vacancies (if they go on to get the job). It's a pretty large company too.

Also, re phoning/emailing, it depends on the job. For a specialist post, this may actually be welcomed. We recently recruited 4 staff, and some applicants asked and actually got invited in for an informal chat with us before they put the application in.

mlp

My number one irritation is people phoning me to tell me they're really interested, have all the key skills, will be sending their application in and for me to watch out for it.

Very nice to hear from interested / interesting people who sound as if they are genuinely interested in the role, asking probing / intelligent questions.

The most exciting part of shortlisting is uncovering the "surpirses" - that is the CVs / application forms from people who have taken the time to simply and clearly lay out (in bullet form, not essays) how their skills match what we're looking for. Of course, if your application is one of these and your name sticks in my head from having that "intelligent" conversation with you the week before, all the better.

And I'd say that maybe 15% - 20% of applications received are even worthy of considering for shortlisting. THe rest are garbage from people who are clearly being forced to apply for jobs but clearly have no interest in doing so.

hcb42

years ago, I was mass recruiting for several team manager positions (In australia as it happens, not that it is particularly relevant)

My diary was extremely tight due to flying back to uk..I had one candidate who by the time she had called back there were no interview slots left...I was absolutely choc a block...she hadnt been particuarly tardy in getting back to us, and had a strong cv.

She was desperate to see me, even offered to drive me to the airport so she could have an informal meeting at least - offered when my administrator explained I wasnt going to be there for three weeks however would see her in new year etc as there would be more recruiting - but it was clear she wanted to be in among the team on the ground as we opened the department.

We fitted her in, I hired her as she was awesome, she was head and shoulders above any other candidate, quickly rose among the ranks to a corporate role several management layers above the original position, and is now in UK in an extremely senior position in a massive firm.

Sometimes it pays off...but as prev poster says, it needs to be intelligent hounding not doing it because someone says you should.

RexBanner

6166lesley wrote: »

I have just read a report in the Daily Mail saying that there is an average of 23 people going for a vacany and over 40 per customer services vacany,

I lost my job last Wednesday (with gardening leave for a month) so was wondering if you had any ideas in which I could stand out from the crowd on the CV application front?

And turn to the next page and it's "Workshy Dole Scroungers Cause Cancer" - fair play to them for keeping all bases covered anyway.

MattLFC

agrinnall wrote: »

If the ability to do basic maths was a requirement of the PA job that you advertised then maybe it would have been better to get the person who got that job to write your post. 2.3 million people divided by 1 million jobs is 2.3 people per job not 23.

Quite right, cheers lol, I must stop posting at such silly hours