how to succeed at: writing applications … to succeed at: writing applications the university of...

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HOW TO SUCCEED AT: WRITING APPLICATIONS THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

WEEK 3: APPLICATION FORMS AND PERSONAL STATEMENTS WRITING APPLICATIONS – WHAT NOT TO DO

Benjamin Short, Placement Manager, Engineering, The University of Sheffield:

The kinds of things that make me reject an application, the first one would be

using the wrong company name. You'd be surprised how many times it

happens, but the second I see, 'I really want to work for x,' and it's not my

company, the application form unfortunately is going in the reject pile.

Tracy Wray, HR, The University of Sheffield: If they didn't meet the essential

criteria is always a hard one, particularly when it might be your first job that

you're looking for. So look very carefully. If it says it's essential, think whether

you really do meet that essential criteria. And if you don't, you might want to

check with the employer before making that application.

Julian Burton, School of Medicine, The University of Sheffield: Candidates will

be unsuccessful if they don't meet our academic criteria for admission, if they

don't give us indication of why it is they want to be a doctor rather than some

other health care profession, and if they give us no indication that they

understand what it is that medicine as a career involves. We expect them to

have done some homework.

Tracy Wray, HR, The University of Sheffield: It's amazing how many applications

we get when quality isn't there. So do a draft of it first. Check it. Grammar,

spelling.

Gill Isles, Baby Cow Manchester: Bad grammar. Bad spelling.

Charlotte Lavelle, BT: Spelling and grammar mistakes.

Anna Carlisle, Teachfirst: Really bad spelling and punctuation.

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Simon Fisher, IBM: Spelling and grammar is always a key issue.

Catherine Knight, DLA Piper: Numerous typos or spelling mistakes.

Campbell Glennie, Edinburgh International TV Festival: There's absolutely no

excuse for not using spell check.

Liam Foster, Social Work Admissions Tutor, The University of Sheffield: In

social work, you have to write reports for courts. It's vitally important that you

are able to write. And if you're making such mistakes on a UCAS form, then I'm

afraid I'm going to be rejecting you.

Gill Isles, Baby Cow Manchester: The thing that I've really noticed recently in

the last couple of years, when someone emails me putting themselves forward

for a job, they don't put capital letters in their emails. And that drives me

insane. It just seems like a really fundamental error. Use capital letters. Just

present yourself in a way that looks professional.

Benjamin Short, Placement Manager, Engineering, The University of Sheffield: If

you've taken no effort whatsoever in answering your questions. If you got 200

words and you've only bothered to write me 15, it shows that you don't actually

have the drive to work for my company.

Anna Carlisle, Teachfirst: Not repeating yourself again and again on the same

questions. So if you see the same things coming up. OK - is there anything else

that you've done that you can talk about?

Maria Simpson, Nabarro: Generic answers as well to questions, where perhaps

someone has just been on a website and Googled the answer to a question. So

it's just a bit standard and a bit boring. So we prefer answers that have got a

bit more personality in them.

Liam Foster, Social Work Admissions Tutor, University of Sheffield: When

people don't actually show a commitment to the discipline. So we occasionally

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get people who say, well, 'I'd like to do social work, medicine or nursing', and

then spend their UCAS form discussing three different areas. We really do

need that focus and commitment.

Simon Fisher, IBM: Being specific about experiences and competencies. If you're

not specific about experiences and don't talk about what you did as part of an

activity or demonstrating this skill, then that will probably result in rejection as

well.

Julie Gough, Sheffield Wildlife Trust: If somebody doesn't use examples or they

just say, 'yes, I fulfil this criteria' and then don't give examples to explain how

and why they've done that, then that wouldn't get a look in either. And also

when you ask for more information, and they don't give any. We want the fuller

picture of the candidate. And so the more information they can give, the

better.

Tracy Wray, HR, The University of Sheffield: Really think about if, for example,

part of the criteria was being able to manage your own time effectively and

use your initiative. By all means, state that. But everybody else may make the

same statement. And what you need to do is evidence it. So give a very simple

example. Perhaps it could be how you've managed a particular project or

subset of a project, and you've had to meet deadlines. So really think about

evidence as well as just making bland statements.