A Few Reasons You May Have Missed that Job

Dear You,

I was going to tell you about my life and my career but I figured that would be too long, so I decided to cut the long story short and help you spot the leakages in your job application process based on my opinion after sieving through over 1000 applications.

First, I know people say you must know somebody to get a job but I beg to differ. You don’t need to know anyone. Your personality just has to shine through your application and interview.

So you need a job, you see an ad or posting calling for application with instructions on what you need to do. The first thing you need to do is read and understand the job, job role and how it fits into your career goals.

The first mistake I see people make is “seek a job without a clear career goal”. I know it’s often nice to just come out on school and aspire to make money and people may say a career goal is “idealistic” but it honestly puts things in perspective for you. It makes your motivation clear. Are you doing this for the money, for the experience, for the network or for other reasons? You need to be clear. This will help you figure out your priorities. Now that you have figured out your priority what next?

The reason you’ve not been called for that job revolve around 3 things:

1. Your application
2. Pre-interview activities
3. Your Interview(s)

Your Application

1. After an ad with the job role and email had been shared, you sent a mail asking about more information or saying “I’m interested” and during that time over 20 people had submitted their own CVs. It is a survival of the fittest type thing. You can’t be too slow. Google, read the job ad, be clear on the job description of that role (The ad does not have to tell you this. You should know what is required based on the job role).

2. You sent an email without subject or body (just attachment). This type of emails ends up in the recycle bin when there is a sea of candidates.

3. You wrote PFA as the body of the email, or JOB Application as the subject of the mail. You need to be as specific as possible and the body of your email needs to make sense and sell you. It needs to inspire me to care about the CV.

4. Lengthy CVs. If you are at entry level, utilize tables with invisible borders to crunch information like education and all. Keep it to 1 page, 2 pages at most. Put only what is relevant.

5. Typos. Read through your CV and email as many times as possible. Be meticulous

6. No Relevant Experience. Tailor your CV to the job you are applying for.

7. Dormancy. Always do something. Dormant years rub on people in a not so nice way. Just find something doing, even if it’s free.

8. Internet Cafe CV. Template word CV, nothing special. It just looks like everybody’s own. That’s often boring. It takes one thing to catch people’s attention. Let your strengths reflect through your CV.

9. Inappropriate Documents. You can’t be a graphic designer and send only Microsoft word CVs. You need a portfolio. Something to show your work. Ensure you send this document.

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