Why Am I not getting responses to the jobs I'm applying for?

I recently put out an advert in order to hire a new consultant for our team at Clarkhouse Human Capital and wow was I flabbergasted at the quality of applications that came in to us. You would think that recruiters would know how important your initial application into a role is as it is generally in the first 5 seconds that you decide whether you are even going to consider this person at all.

This process just reminded me how we have seen the same mistakes being made over and over by people applying for jobs which, I can promise you, ensures you are not being considered at all for that job. When you are looking for a new job, you need to ensure that the job application process is seen as YOUR CURRENT JOB! You need to be a professional and ensure that every document and communication you send out is of the highest quality – this is your personal brand.

Here are my top 10 things to NEVER do when applying for a job!

1.??????Do not forward your cv for a role on an email where the header is a generic header you send out to everyone and there is a trail of previous cv submissions on the email below. Believe it or not I received numerous of these for our role. You are basically telling me that you could not be bothered to write a new email to submit your cv for my role so you are just spamming your cv out to every job alert you get.

2.??????Do not send me your cv with a generic header such as “job application” etc and then address me as Dear Sir / Madam and then I am applying for the role you have advertised etc. Make sure that for every single job you apply for, you put a header which refers to the actual role advertised “Application for Marketing Manager at Clarkhouse Human Capital”. Then ensure that you have the name of the person that has placed the advert and address them by name! “Dear Deborah”. This tells me that you are actually applying for this specific role and you know you are emailing me! I will now take you seriously and read on…

3.??????Do not send me a generic cover note. Please rather do not send a cover note at all than send me a generic one! It is very obvious to the person reading your cover note that it is generic. It is often even titled just “cover note” or “covering letter”. I can promise you that 99% of managers will not even open your cover note they will go straight to your cv. The only reason I’d open a cover note is if I have a reason to…. And that would be you title it something like “Why I am right for your Marketing Manager role” or something like that. It needs to talk to me and my role!

4.??????Do not send me a cv with spelling and grammar errors! Accuracy and attention to detail are so important. Make sure you do a proper spell and grammar check on your cv. Go through it carefully and make sure that all your dates tie up and there are no gaps – if you have a gap explain what you were doing in this time. Make sure the layout is neat and lines up nicely and that the cv flows. Always put your current role first and then go backwards to your first job.

5.??????Do not put any information on your cv that is not necessary or not needed. Many things can create bias for a manager so no pictures, etc. You may think you look amazing but maybe the line manager hates floral? You also do not need to tell them things about you that are not relevant to the job so do not include – religion, marital status, ID number / birthday / age, address / location, health status, etc. Remember you do not want your personal information being easily available to many people.

6.??????Do not copy and paste your job spec as your explanation for what you do in your role. I see this so often - do you not think that the line manager you are applying to already knows your job spec if he is managing people similar to you… of course he does unless you are totally changing careers. Use this space under each role to briefly explain the role but then speak more around specific things you have done. Projects you have worked on, achievements, targets reached, clients happy, additional things you did in your role, etc. Make your cv stand out from every other cv which the line manager is reading! Why do they want to interview you?

7.??????Do not agree for a recruiter to send your cv to a client and then go and apply directly to that client yourself. This does happen and often. The reason we get from candidates when explaining why they did it is that they thought that they would have a better chance if they applied many times. Why??? The same HR and Line Manager are reviewing the cv they source directly and from their preferred agencies. If you have a good recruiter who is representing you well rather stick with them! They will be able to fight for you with the client which is often hard for you to do yourself without sounding greedy. A good recruiter will know the client well and prepare you well for the interview and give you tips on what the client is looking for. They will be able to push the client to move the process quickly and fight for the best offer for you knowing where the client’s limits are.

8.??????Do not apply for jobs from an alert on your phone without reading the actual advert. Why do we think that applying for every job under the sun will make our job hunt better? Be targeted – tweak your cv and your summary according to that advert for the role that is right for you. Many companies have 1 or 2 recruiters / HR working all their roles, and if you are applying for lots of jobs, especially those that are totally not right for you, they will start to recognise your name and they will immediately disregard you for all roles, so when you eventually apply for the right role you won’t be considered at all. Companies and Recruitment Agencies have smart systems these days that rank applicants according to their suitability for the role so your cv will have a very low ranking and not even be opened so why waste your time.

9.??????Do not just send your cv out to every competitor in your industry and hope they will contact you. Most industries in South Africa have very small circles and are very incestuous. Your boss is very likely connected with most of the other executives at the competition so if you do not use secure confidential channels to get your cv through to them then you have a high chance of your boss finding out your cv is circulating around and you may lose your job. Rather use a very targeted approach to very specific confidential people or use a trusted recruiter who specialises in your industry to get your cv to the right manager (this does only work for senior placements and rare skills).

10.??Do not lie on your cv!!!!! As much as certain things may not be exactly as we wanted them or a more senior job title will give you a better chance of getting the next role it will come back to bite you. Lies always come out. Make sure that your cv and LinkedIn pages say the same thing otherwise it will look like you are lying on one of them. You can get dismissed if HR finds out at a later date that you lied on your cv or during an interview so rather just be you!

I really hope that this helps you to ensure you have a top notch cv and please do let me know when you see your “cvs sent to interview ratio” going up, I’d love to hear about it.