Tips on Applying for Employment
You'd like to respond to a job ad and are unsure about how to design and structure your application, and what you can do to increase your chances? Here we'd like to draw your attention to a few fundamental principles. You can also find a great number of further pointers in the Internet.
- Obtain as much information as possible about the company and the position advertised. Thoroughly study the company website, read newspaper articles about the company, try out its products or services (if possible), ask people you know and, if a contact person is named in the ad, give this person a call: Ask about the exact requirement profile of the position. Only apply if you are sure that you largely meet the requirements. That way, you'll save yourself the trouble, as well as the frustration of being turned down.
- The people in the company you are applying to are people with normal human emotions. Put yourself in their place and adjust your application material and behaviour accordingly: If you were on the staff of a personnel department and had to go through several hundred applications, what would you find helpful and interesting? How can you help this person recognize your special strengths quickly?
- Do not allow yourself to be disconcerted by exaggerated job application handbooks: So-called “personnel bosses” are not sadistic monsters but well-trained executives with a special interest in people.
