Applications are a portal.
Despite my use of this pretentious metaphor, the fact remains
true. Applications are the doorway into your future career. My
industry of choice is the advertising industry and having read a
good few blogs on the topic it has become increasingly obvious
that a fantastic application is only the very start.
Nevertheless, without a great application the metaphorical door
is as good as shut. The process of writing applications comes
with a few hazards or at least should come with some warnings, so
let me help.
1)
A half-hearted attempt at an application will not only stand out
like a sore thumb, it will be discarded instantly. Therefore, NEVER
send an application that you don't think is brilliant.
However, the real hazard
when sending off applications, comes when you've written the best
application you could ever have created. In the world of
advertising, (and many others too I am sure) there are many
unusual open questions, "if we were trapped in a lift, why would
I like you?" "Tell us your life story in 200 words." "Fill this
space anyway you feel necessary." So you pour your soul into your
application, you let your personality shine through your
occasionally witty, (yet always relevant) words and you send it
off. This leads to my second piece of advice.
2)
Even the best application you think you've ever done will probably
receive and automated "Thanks, but no thanks," or worse, it may be
ignored entirely. On multiple occasions I have genuinely believed
that there was no way that I could have made that application any
better and it still got ignored. So what can you do?
Stop feeling sorry for
yourself, man up and take it on the chin. Every application you
do will help you make sure the next one is even better. You will
always have to write similar sections, from describing yourself,
to summing up your experience. Therefore, you will be able to
finish new applications much faster. Only after you have been
chewed up and spat out by this seemingly harsh process of
rejection, will you realise that all the first applications you
sent out were rubbish. Finally, before you get yourself too
worked up, just remember everyone is going through the same thing
as you, It's all part of that organic learning curve they call
life.
For more help with your
graduate job applications,
Click
Here.