Alongside the frustration you may be feeling at the lack of response you are getting to your applications are the frustrations of the employers to the quality of the applications they receive. It’s a two way street. Here’s some feedback from an employer I’ve been working with about the quality of cover letters he’s recently had through:

• No covering letter attached at all when it was specifically requested in the job ad
• The use of a standard cover letter that had not been tailored to this role…indeed one applicant forgot to remove detail from a previous application for another post they had applied to
• No evidence they had Continue reading →

Back in November 2009 I used the metaphor of a Beatle and a Soul legend to make the point that writing effective cover letters means talking not just about yourself and how you match the job role but also crucially about the company you are applying to and the industry they are part of. Fast forward 18 months or so and low and behold, candidates are still falling short in this area.

How do I know? Well, a recent report from the Association of Graduate Recruiters Financial Services Focus Group that contains big name employers of graduates that are in the financial services sector states that when it comes to application quality, “the most likely topics that [candidates] fail on are career motivation (e.g. Why company X or Why career Y)“.

Here’s a real opportunity for you. Get these bits right and you’ve a chance to leap frog that long queue of candidates.

I was speaking to an employer (Neil Wright of TensCare) last week who’d recently taken on a graduate. They had some very interesting observations about what had made it difficult for them in finding that grad. Why is that bad news for the bad news bear? Well, by taking on board and acting on the following feedback you are going to be a lot closer to leaving that list of 20% and finding employment. Because half the equation will potentially be a lack of appropriate jobs. The other half will be a failure of those in that 20% to make quality applications:

• Within your cover letter refer specifically to the job you are applying to. This will reassure the employer who may have advertised a number of different jobs. Whatever you do avoid Continue reading →