Blog: How to improve the success rate of your job application?

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How to improve the success rate of your job application?

Ways to make your potential employer want to hire you immediately
How to improve the success rate of your job application?

How do you make your profile stand out among all the clutter that is available in the market?  This is a huge challenge in a fast-paced and ever changing world.  In order to achieve this, your CV or Resume should be a hard sell.  This is just like a sales pitch, where you should be able to catch the recruiter’s eye quickly, in say, less than ten seconds.

For every job in the market, an estimated 250 applicants reach the hiring manager, out of which, maybe 25 of them are kept aside for a detailed study.  Out of these, only 4 to 6 resumes get invited for an interview.  Recruiting managers do not have that kind of time to go through CVs and hence your qualifications and experiences should be presented in such a way, that it leaves an impactful and powerful impression.  This would definitely increase your chances to get into the next round.

Create a CV that has zero error

In the first round, where there are so many resumes on the recruiter’s table, even a single grammatical error is enough to have your CV dismissed.  Your CV and Cover Letter should have absolutely no errors at all and the importance of this fact can never be undermined.  Get to the point about the skills that you can bring to the table as quickly as possible without making the recruiter go through the entire CV to search for it, which often times does happen.  

A well formatted Resume

Present your resume in a pleasing format, using a universally accepted font that is quick to open and read.  Do not allow the resume to run into many pages.  No recruiter will have the time or patience to go through so much detail.

The importance of a Cover Letter

Your Cover Letter is very important in matching your qualifications and experiences to the job at hand.  What would definitely take your letter to the top of the list and make it look very attractive is when you link the requirements of the role to your experiences.  Just by looking at your cover letter, a recruiter might make an instant decision and this could work as a gateway to landing that job.  

Use Lateral Thinking

What would immediately hold the recruiter’s interest in your resume is your use of lateral thinking, in the form of humour or a piece of information about the company.  This would indicate that you have done a good and thorough research about the organization.  The effort to go the extra mile will most definitely show.  

Find out if you know somebody from the company that you are seeking employment with.  If they could recommend you, this carries a lot of weight and adds credibility to your resume.

Market yourself well

Engaging in social media platforms to market yourself well is a current trend.  Recruiters spend a considerable amount of time viewing your social profiles, to gather information about you that could supplement your resume.  

In today’s world jobs are scarce and individuals should take responsibility in creating their own career paths.  Here, the old adage that “first impressions are the best impressions” still holds true.  

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