Our top tips for becoming a better applicant

We post over three thousand new jobs each year. Our top priority is to match those jobs with our readers. If you’re the right person for a job, we want to help you prove it.

But even if you’re a strong candidate, you might struggle to break through. I’ve seen talented people fall through the cracks after making avoidable mistakes — and it drove me to write two new pieces on applying for the roles we recommend:

1. How to become a better applicant in one week
2. High-impact roles hire differently. Here’s what you need to know.

The first covers fast, effective ways to find jobs, meet people, and make your skills obvious to hiring managers. That last point is where I see the most mistakes.

I’ve hired a few people, so I know what it’s like to read 50 bland applications in a row. It’s frustrating! Not because of the boredom, but because I’m certain that some of them belong to people I should have interviewed.

But I have 500 applications: if someone doesn’t spark my attention right away, I need to move on. And every hiring manager I’ve met across our recommended organisations says more or less the same thing.

The post explains how to make your best traits stand out, from developing ‘micro-experience’ to finding people who can vouch for your talents.

The second post is about what happens after you get the interview. Most of the orgs we work with share certain quirks in how they hire — which sometimes throw off promising applicants, spoiling what could have been a great match.

I can’t make the orgs less quirky (and the quirks are often there for good reasons!). But I can tell you what to look out for, from radically honest interviews to work tests that force you to reason under uncertainty.

I can also share the advice I wish I’d heard back in 2018 — that rejection isn’t the same as failure. That’s because orgs talk to each other! If you did well, you may get referred to other jobs; that’s how, after 18 months of trying, I finally got hired. Passing the resume stage doesn’t guarantee a job, but it does give you a chance to stand out. Every good impression is another step towards your new career.

Learn more:

• How to actually get a job
• Which jobs best advance your career?
• Career capital: how to invest in yourself