The job hunting support thread

[furluxor]

Thanks Puddy_Tat and AnnO'Neemus. I think I'd heard previously that I'm supposed to address person spec point-by-point. Today I met a friend who advised me to focus on "achievements" (rather than "responsibilities") from the previous jobs, which strikes me as being similar to what you highlighted, too. I'll have a three-person panel. I'm not really nervous at this point, interviews usually go in my favour. It's the getting to interview stage that's hard.

 

[frogwoman]

Got offered an interview for tomorrow and a couple of things seem red flags, I don't know. They seem absolutely desperate to fill the role - a recruitment consultant contacted me yesterday about it. The time slot they offered was one when I usually do some volunteering and they said they couldn't do any other time. I don't see how my CV makes me very suited to the job either which makes me think they've not had many applicants. Hmm

 

[ouirdeaux]

I have to write a personal statement in an application for an internal position. There is a maximum of 1500 words. Should I be aiming for this, or will about 750 do? I have not quite hit 500, and am losing the will to live.

Also, I am not supposed to include 'personal details'. What does this mean? Saying that I did X Y and Z is my capacity as a whatever, which makes me a suitable candidate for the post, is including personal details, surely?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I have to write a personal statement in an application for an internal position. There is a maximum of 1500 words. Should I be aiming for this, or will about 750 do? I have not quite hit 500, and am losing the will to live.

Also, I am not supposed to include 'personal details'. What does this mean? Saying that I did X Y and Z is my capacity as a whatever, which makes me a suitable candidate for the post, is including personal details, surely?

Is this the sort of personal statement where you're explaining why / how you meet each bit of a person specification or similar? (fairly common in public sector) - I sometimes find it hard to get these down to a word count, not up to one.

This bit is what they are going to use to decide who to short list, so I'd say make the best use of it to say what experience / skills you have got that are right for the job and aim to get close to the word count. (I tend to do these things in Word or something rather than straight on to their website - makes editing easier, guards against their website crashing, and it's easier to recycle it for another job application some other time)

As an internal candidate, presume your application is being scored against external candidates? So don't fall in to the trap of thinking you don't need to say stuff (either in the application or the interview) because they already know you. If they are doing it as an open exercise, they won't / shouldn't make assumptions, and will only score you on what you put on paper / what you say on the day. And don't expect them to know exactly what you do based on your current / recent job titles - there's some jobs where it's obvious but an increasing number where it's not.

Not sure if 'personal details' here means you're not supposed to name the organisation/s you work for / have worked for - I don't think I've quite met that one. Some places say you shouldn't include your name, or the name of specific school / university in this sort of thing.

Without knowing what you do / where you work, could you phrase it something like 'I have 10 years' experience of dealing with incident responses as a safety manager at a major nuclear power facility' rather than 'at Springfield nuclear power station'?

 

[ouirdeaux]

If that's all it means, fine.

The position is restricted to internal candidates, which makes me feel weird listing my current duties. The job I'm applying for involves constant contact with people doing what I'm doing now. They know exactly what we do, having all done it themselves at some point, and their job is to make sure we do it adequately. If I had moved to a slightly different area of the organisation for a spell, it might have a point.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

If that's all it means, fine.

The position is restricted to internal candidates, which makes me feel weird listing my current duties. The job I'm applying for involves constant contact with people doing what I'm doing now. They know exactly what we do, having all done it themselves at some point, and their job is to make sure we do it adequately. If I had moved to a slightly different area of the organisation for a spell, it might have a point.

Maybe a bit odd if it's internal candidates only - but may be procedure that they handle all vacancies in the same way.

Broadly, it's maybe a paragraph (or maybe two - depends how technical you want to get) addressing each of the essential / desirable requirements they have listed, and while there's a need to set the scene, make it about what you (individual) did / achieved more than what you (team) did. and if it's the sort of job you can list achievements rather than responsibilities (as came up a day or two back) all the better. some jobs have obvious 'achievements', but it can be about keeping a service going reliably. there's some jobs nobody notices until they aren't done or until something goes wrong.

there's one example i've used in interviews where the achievement was that the public didn't notice anything happen because of a lot of work was put in to deal with / avert a balls up (not of my / our making) that could have been serious.

also be aware that at least one of the people scoring it might be an HR person rather than a line manager who understands the job, so don't use too much jargon.

 

[ouirdeaux]

Well, it's done, and it makes me cringe. I won't get the job, unless all the other candidates are struck by lightening, but I'll be hurt if I don't make it to the assessment/interview stage. Why do I humiliate myself in this way?

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Well, it's done, and it makes me cringe. I won't get the job, unless all the other candidates are struck by lightening, but I'll be hurt if I don't make it to the assessment/interview stage. Why do I humiliate myself in this way?

Don't be so hard on yourself and don't sell yourself short. Your skills and experience will be similar to other internal candidates so you're all in with a chance.

As for it making you cringe, if you're not going to blow your own trumpet when trying to sell yourself in a job application, when are you?

Good luck! x