Discover the reasons why you're not getting callbacks despite applying to hundreds of jobs. Our expert tips and insights will help you understand what might be holding you back and provide practical solutions to improve your job search success. Don't miss out on valuable opportunities - unlock the secrets to getting noticed by employers today.
Having no job, people get desperate. Getting desperate, job seekers tend to apply to hundreds of jobs with faulty job application. But their job seeking efforts go in vain when they get no interview call. Resulting frustration leads to more desperation, which in turn leads to faultier job applications and thus the cycle goes on.
It is very important to break the cycle of faulty job application. But prerequisite to that, a candidate must know what faults in a job application lead a CV to be ignored by the recruiters. Before applying, one must know what mistakes must be avoided, and what things must be done.
While applying for a job, a candidate should be doing the following things:
1. Study the Job Circular and Find the Keywords:
Before applying for a job, a candidate must study the Job Circular for that job – thoroughly. Ideally, the job circular should contain information about the job descriptions and job requirements. If and only if those job requirements match with the candidate’s profile, the candidate should apply for that specific job. If the circular requires the candidate to have certain level of experience, then a candidate should not apply for that job unless s/he doesn’t have that level of experience.
Recruiter only shortlist those profiles/CVs that match the job requirements – both academic and experiential. Therefore, to get an interview call, a candidate must apply to the job opening for which the job requirement and candidate profile has a match.
2. Customize your CV and Incorporate the Keywords:
Before applying for a job, a candidate must study the job circular to identify exactly what the recruiter is looking for in the candidates to fill the position. To get an interview call, a candidate’s CV should reflect what the circular asks for. Unless, what is asked for in the circular is not found in the CV, there is little chance of that CV to get shortlisted. Therefore, customizing the CV according to the Job Description raises the chances for that CV to get shortlisted.
3. Change the CV format into PDF:
Recruiters search for JD specific keywords in the CV. So, CV should not be in .jpeg., .png., .ai or any other un-searchable picture/image format. Meanwhile, if CV is sent in MS Word file, there remains the possibility for the CV to get distorted since recruiter may not use the same MS Word version as the candidate does. And a distorted CV mostly gets ignored.
4. Maintaining Email Etiquette:
While applying for a job through email, it’s important to maintain the formal email etiquette. Formal email etiquettes include: professional email address, professional picture in the email ID, beginning and ending the email with proper salutation, leaving your contact details at the end, proper email body structuring, avoiding begging tone, precise and to the point cover letter content in the email body etc. Email subject line must include the specific keywords mentioned in the Job Circular (If the circular mentions any, of course).
5. Proper CV making:
Your customized CV should not be over-colorful. It should not include irrelevant information about the candidate. Size of the CV should not exceed 1 MB. Major/minor/concentration of the academic information should be properly mentioned. If the CV is of any fresher, then mentioning result is a must, along with the above mentioned information. Reference should be given after contacting the respective personalities so that if your given reference is contacted, the recruiter gets positive review on the candidate. Only the relevant experiences should be mentioned in the CV. Academic information should begin from the most recent academic degree and end with Secondary School Certificate (SSC) or “O” Level. No need to mention academic particulars before SSC/ “O” Level. The CV must mention the specific span of experience, specific year of passing the academic degrees, specific year of achieving any relevant certifications or accomplishments.
While applying online for a job, it’s important to avoid the following mistakes.
1. Avoid applying to irrelevant job openings:
If a candidate applies to hundreds or thousands of jobs which do not have any match with the candidate profile, there will be no chance for the candidate to get an interview call. If the job requires the candidate to have specific level of experience, expertise, competency or tools usage experience, then those who apply without having those specific requirement, will never get interview call.
2. Avoid mentioning irrelevant information:
Job application should reflect the job description. Candidates’ information which are relevant to the job, should be mentioned in the CV. On the other hand, candidates’ information which are not relevant with the job, should not be mentioned. The average time that an average recruiter spends for a single CV hardly exceeds 7-10 seconds. Therefore, it’s imperative that the candidate do not waste the recruiters time by showing him/her the any irrelevant information.
3. Avoid grammatical mistakes in your job application:
Be it CV or cover letter content in the email body, a candidate must ensure that his/her write-up is free of any grammatical or spelling mistakes. If needed, job application should be checked by someone who can identify mistakes. Specially the company names where the candidate previously worked, must not be misspelled.
4. Avoid attaching more than 1 document:
Put your cover letter content in the email body. There is no need to attach different documents for cover letter. Considering the limitations of time that a recruiter gets to go through a single CV, its smarter to include the precise and to the point cover letter content in the email body. And only one attachment that should be attached with the email is the CV itself.
5. More things to avoid:
Avoid fancy font, too old picture in your CV, bright font color, font size bigger than 12 and smaller than 10, CV bigger than 1 page (for fresh graduates). Also, avoid begging tone while you are mentioning how much you need the job. These are the feedbacks from recruiters’ perspective for the job applicants to know. Unless a job application is not made with proper care and sincerity, however number of jobs a candidate applies, will
never get an interview call. Therefore, it’s a must to make a proper job application to get a job.
Mazed Hossain Makki
Executive – Recruitment, Munshi HR Solutions Limited.
President, Independent HR Society – IHRS
President, United Toastmasters Club – UTC
