5 Easily Avoidable Mistakes In a Job Application

By Victoria Vein

Failing in getting a job almost any time you send a job application? Even though the reasons for your rejection can vary, it’s necessary to look through mistakes that are so common in resumes. Therefore, if you’re really making those errors, chances of receiving a “no” answer are certainly higher.

Not following instructions

Detailed job posting often include specific and necessary instructions to follow when you conduct your application. For instance, your employer demands their job candidates to include links to your social media accounts or he asks them to apply on the company page instead of doing it through a job board posting. Believe us: those little requests may seem like a trifle, although it would show your attentiveness and willingness to read what employers ask you for, which will definitely work for your benefit. The most demanded are probably recruiter, taking up people for government. Hence, if you’re applying to federal positions, pay a greater attention to your application. You may even use services of professional federal resume writers.

No Cover Letter

Statistics show that almost one third of recruiters reject job applications without a cover letter included along with your resume. Therefore, it makes sense to submit your cover letter each time you apply for different positions, unless the company clearly states it’s not wanted. Meanwhile your resume tells much about your education and employment history, there you won’t be able to reveal yourself, as a person. After all, the majority of employers want to see an individual, capable of working in the team, not just a knowledgeable robot.

Not Tailoring Your Resume

Definitely, having a genetic draft of your resume and cover letter saves much time, when you’re making a job research, but no way you’re going to send those templates to the employer, until you tailor them. And by tailoring we mean a detailed proofreading, not just changing the company name from one to another. Make sure you’re avoiding phrases, like “your company” or “your position”, just substitute them with more concrete titles of an applying job and a company name. Put yourself in the employer’s place: he looks for the person, whose job description and other accomplishments perfectly match with the position that he will eventually take up. In order to be approved, each of your resumes should emphasize on key skills and qualifications of each particular job. So, as you see, tailoring your job application is one of the most important ways to become successful in a job hunting. 

Besides, be attentive and watch if your resumes are being sent out to right places and to the right employers. After all, it’s quite easy to mix things up by sending the wrong cover letter that was supposed to go to Buzzfeed website, but you’ve accidently sent it to a prestigious business company.

 Not Proofread On Spelling & Grammar

Even if your job doesn’t belong to the ones that require good writing skills, it doesn’t mean you can get away with tons of spelling and grammar errors in your job application. You don’t want to show yourself from a negative side of illiterate person, over against you want to make an impression of a strong communicator, that’s why be take another 20 minutes to check through each of the paper. Sometimes you might even want to ask anyone else to proofread, since you can’t always indicate all of your own failures.

Leaving Unfilled Blanks

In your application there’re always several optional questions included. For example, your employer could be interested in how much money you expect for this job or how you knew about the position. Basically, it could be anything. What we strongly recommend you is to answer as many questions as possible. If you leave out too much of blank space, it will create an impression of your disinterest. Furthermore, some of software that sort job candidates before this is done by the employer, tend to put applications with the least number of answers at the bottom of a list, which rises up chances to be rejected. 

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