What We Need…

is a standard job application form.

I have filled in a lot of job apps in my time, and especially recently, and all but maybe one of the apps I’ve filled in required the exact same information.

Unerringly the first two pages cover the details of the post, your personal details, your education history, memberships to professional bodies, current employer and work history.

These are then typically followed by a  third page which asks you to write about a personal statement on why you think you meet the job specs and why they should hire you.

Then you usually get into references, entitlement to work in the country, criminal convictions, and the equal opportunities bull at the end. And of course your John Hancock.

So why do we need a different form for every single employer in the country (and probably the world if we’re honest)? There’s really only a minor juggling in the order of what goes where and maybe a custom company graphic at the top of the first page.

Typically the only parts anyone is going to change between any two particular jobs are the post details at the top of page one and the personal statement on page three, so quite why an entire new form needs to by typed up for every single post is quite beyond me.

There should be a standard form, in the place of the company graphic should be a box for typing the company name in, we then have our standard first 4-5 pages as outlined above, post details, personal details, educati…blah blah blah.

Of course some job apps are slightly different, may ask competency based questions rather than going for the personal statement, but that doesn’t require a whole new form, just an page or two added on to the end (or middle if that’s how you want to roll).

We live in a digital age and most of us apply for jobs by email these days, downloading the application form, filling it in and emailing it back. Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of all that you were simply asked to “please submit Standard Application Form in relation to the desired post”? Or “please submit Standard Application Form enclosing Appendices A-C” for the wanks who can’t just go with the personal statement?

I can of course see the wisdom in using application forms: it ensures employers get all the information they need and presents it all in a predictable way which makes things a bit easier on the poor gits who have to plough through dozens of unsuitables looking for the decent ones. I can see the wisdom in application forms, so will employers see the wisdom in adopting a standard one? Applying for jobs isn’t easy, and it could be made simpler by cutting down the amount of repetitive finger work we need to dance through just to actually apply.

 

freedoms_stain, lamenting the slow demise of the humble CV, out.