Applying for jobs: Play to your strengths, little fish

If you’re applying for jobs, don’t feel like a little fish in a big pond — play to your strengths and never underestimate what you have to offer.

Applying for jobs…a concept that strikes fear into the hearts of the bravest of us! The time and effort required is immense — from the moment you start your search to that golden few seconds when you sign the employment contract, it can be a long haul, but it doesn’t need to be as arduous as it seems.

Many, understandably, live in hope of minimising the possibility of having to be in the unenviable position of of applying for jobs too often throughout their lives. Yet the reality is that at some point (potentially more often than you might hope in the brave new world of revolving employment doors), you will have to start sprucing up the resume and writing those tortuous cover letters.

I’ve spent most of my life applying for jobs — earlier one as an actor, where you’re constantly in a position of preparing, auditioning and either lucking in or lucking out. You never grow absolutely emotionally immune to getting a ‘no’, but rather learn how to cope with it and see inside what it means.

Over the past five or so years as I’ve been forging a life in media/publishing, although I’ve been a freelancer for the most, of late I’ve begun to feel the pull to go in-house, so I’ve joined the treadmill of applying for jobs.

Straight up, let’s be honest — it’s not fun! To say that the amount of time and effort that goes into applying for jobs is immense would be an understatement of the highest order. But, even more importantly, getting the process right can feel near impossible — and there’s the rub right?

How the heck do you approach applying for jobs and be the one little fish to get out of the fish-bowl and into the employment pond for the interview?

There are a billion articles our there about applying for jobs, and although I’ve read a few, there is a simple bit of wisdom I’d offer for getting over the line.

Play to your strengths.

The trap that I fell into when originally applying for jobs was trying to address every aspect of the selection criteria — as if by showing you can do EVERYTHING the employer is looking for, they couldn’t resist getting you in for an interview.

No!

(OK, caveat: no, except for certain jobs, such as in the tertiary education sector or government, where they very specifically ask you to address each criteria, then YES.)

My simple advice — pick out the three most important aspects of the selection criteria you feel are key to being successful in the role to show you understand exactly what the employer is looking for. Once you’ve identified these, illustrate how your professional life meets these criteria. Stay on message — don’t overly elaborate or feel you need to fill. Go for the job jugular with clear, concise and concentrated language, while teasing the potential employer just that little bit by not covering everything. Write enough for you to prove you’re an expert in the particular skill-set you’re illustrating from your professional life, but with enough unsaid to be an invitation to whoever is reading the application to want to know more about you.

Just look at it from the perspective of the employer — they may have received 500 applications and are desperate to identify the top 10 or so who might be suitable for the role. If you can grab their eye with your punchy, insightful cover letter, you are halfway to getting the job.

This will sound obvious to some, but I hadn’t considered it until I chatted with a mate who works in HR who agreed with me that showing an employer that you’re a jack of all trades has less power than proving you’re a master of one…or three!

So get onto it — jump high, little fish, show your strengths and get that job!