Two Legged Career Horses

A successful job application has four pre-requisites:

1) Knowledge of a specific vacancy in a specific organization

2) A well crafted, lucid, detailed resume

3) Thorough Research of the vacancy bringing out details of the department, tasks and responsibilities, skills required,responsible person looking after the recruitment

4) A Killer Cover Letter to apply for the vacancy which links the resume to the required job in an attention grabbing manner

An application which fulfills all above requirements has high chances of success. Unfortunately, most job applicants bet on a two legged horse! They only fulfill two of the above four requirements

- They send their resumes and cover letters to a whole bunch of companies applying for any suitable post and addressed to whomsoever it may concern.

More often than not, the applications dont concern anyone and no post is found suitable

- They get to know of a particular vacancy and send their resume, but without doing any research about the organization or vacancy.

The recruiter receives a whole bunch of such applications, which stay bunched. Any selection from the bunch becomes a matter of luck

Some take an extra step and bet on a three legged horse!!

- They get to know of a particular vacancy, research the vacancy and send their resume, but do not include a cover letter.

Some include a cover letter, but it is a copy paste affair which uses one of the many templates available freely everywhere.

The result is that there is no strong connection showing why the applicant is most suited for the job. It is up to the recruiter to wade thru the resume and find out if the applicant is suitable. Again, a matter dependent on either luck or the thoroughness of the recruitment process.

Imagine , now , an applicant who fulfills all the four pre-requisites: He finds out about a particular vacancy, researches the vacancy , finds out the name of the recruiter and the tasks and responsibilities required for the job, and send the resume along with a carefully drafted cover letter.

The letter addresses the recruiter by name, mentions the work experience of the applicant , highlighting that he has fulfilled the required tasks and responsibilities of the vacancy, and directly asks for the job interview.

Who do you think has backed the winning horse?