TWO THIRDS SPEND LESS THAN 60 MINUTES PREPARING
Most people applying for jobs spend less than one hour on each application, said a study by social media recruitment firm staffbay.com.
Two-thirds of job seekers spend less than an hour to apply for a job, with less than 10% saying that they spend a whole day on a job application. Only 5% said they take more than a day.
According to the survey of around 1,000 jobseekers, the days of spending hours doing painstaking preparation for job applications may be over.
But staffbay.com co-founder Tony Wilmot says jobseekers shouldn’t beat themselves up – as employers don’t have the time to read through long applications anyway. The most important thing is that your CV and application are clear and make it easy for the person reading it to see what skills and experience you have, and how that relates to the role you’ve applied for:
“These days, HR departments don’t have the time to plough their way through hundreds of pages of paper CVs. What they want is to be able to see if the person applying for the job is worth bringing in for an interview.
“The message we hear from employers is that staff don’t have to be qualified to the hilt, just that they’ll invest some time and effort in their new job. However, not everyone has a strategy in place to identify good talent. Small businesses in particular don’t want to wade through hundreds of applications.”
In an increasingly busy and competitive job market, it seems both employers and jobseekers are prepared to spend less time on each application. At Graduate Fog we always encourage graduates to spend extra time on theirs, to ensure it’s focussed particularly towards the role and company you’re applying to. But if you can do that in under 60 minutes, we say go out and enjoy the sunshine!
*HOW LONG DO YOU SPEND ON EACH JOB APPLICATION?
Does spending hours on an application improve your chances of getting the job? Or is ‘good enough’ good enough? Have you had any better results from applications you spent ages on than ones you dashed off in a hurry to meet the deadline? Share your experiences in the Comments below…
In fairness some industries like IT don’t require cover letters and most recruiters regard them as a waste of time when they just want a skills list and brief summery of experience.
For better or worse I had far more success just applying to 20 jobs with a good CV in half an hour than spending time crafting cover letters, etc.
I normally spend about 3 hours carefully tailoring my application to the job and organisation-still only had one interview in 6 months.
In the beginning I spent hours on an application. Then I just got better at doing them, so I’d spend an hour tops. It is a skill in itself to quickly elicit the key points that a recruiter is looking for and translating that to a CV/cover letter.
It all depends but normally it takes less than 15 minutes if I am just sending a CV and cover letter. If they want an application form then that can take over an hour.
I have about 20 template cover letters that I have written that I just edit to fit the job so it never takes too much time. I also keep track of applications and found that 10% of my applications turn into interviews which is quite good if you think about it. Unfortunately I haven’t mastered the interview yet.
I’ve been part of the recruitment process at the charity where I work and the standard of applications has not been good. People have handed them in incomplete, poorly spelled and sometimes with no reference to the job they’re actually applying for. There were also a lot of buzz words (lots of passionate team-players with dynamic interpersonal skills…), vagueness and no specific examples of their experience. It’s really frustrating to think that most of them could have turned in better applications if they’d spent a bit more time thinking about it. If you can write a decent application in under an hour, then great, but it rarely takes me less than three, even if I’m just writing a covering letter.
Anyone who is stuck on the Work Programme is expected to rattle off as many applications as they can during their ‘Job Search’ sessions, with the inevitable result that quality suffers.
@A4e Sucks
Yeah I’ve always thought that. Even if you’re just on JSA, if you’re in an area with few jobs, then if your booklet is being properly checked every fortnight you’re still incentivised to apply to as much as possible – even if you’re unqualified for everything. If you already have Internet access, it’s not like it costs money to apply for most jobs anymore, unlike in the days of postal applications.
My own experience seems to be that quantity seems to matter more than quality with my own applications with regard to replies/interviews, but maybe I’m wrong.
After all, no matter how good any individual application is, it only takes a few seconds for a recruiter or a computer program to discard it – whether it took half an hour or three hours.
There’s also clearly the difference between jobsite CV & covering letters and long and complex application forms. The application forms that make you waste time re-entering all your past employment (I have a lot of past employment) instead of providing your CV are pretty annoying IMO.
If the odds are reasonable of you getting onto the interview shortlist then you’d be daft not to spend time producing the best application you can. Many employers prefer to interview no more than 4 good applicants for any one job; with those odds putting enough time in to be chosen as the successful candidate is worth doing.
You also need to spend time thinking how you can best identify good jobs (for which you’re an attractive candidate) that don’t attract masses of applicants.
If the only reason you’re making SOME applications is to keep the Job Centre off your back then I can’t see any reason not to do the bare minimum.
I find that job adverts can disappear really quickly due to sufficient applications. I can’t decide whether it’s better to rush an application through (however poor) and know that there is a decent chance of it being read or wait until the evening, do a better job but risk the advert being closed or so flooded with applications that they don’t look at mine.
@Catherine – Really? I’ve not come across that before. Usually when there’s a closing date you can still submit applications even if they might have more than enough. Very frustrating if they change this and pull the advert – I wouldn’t trust a company who did that.
@A4e sucks – Yes of course, I remember that from being on JSA myself. It’s plain ridiculous to expect people to write so many applications like that and employers are very disparaging about receiving them. This is why a lot of places don’t accept CVs, because it’s too easy to receive lots of applications from people who haven’t even read the job description. I think it is very frustrating to have to re-enter your job details again and again, but thankfully this is the one part of the form where it is acceptable to copy and paste.
It doesn’t happen all the time but I have had more than one occasion where I have seen a job advert in the morning before going to work and had planned to wait until the evening and spend some time on an application only to find that its gone and kick myself for not just cobbling one together in minutes and sending it off there and then.
I have had people assure me that its not first come first serve but then I have also heard bosses saying things like “we’ll close the advert once we get 50”. Even if its not closed I am really cynical that an employer is actually going to read over 1,000 applications. They are always saying how they don’t have time/cant be bothered to reply to everyone or provide feedback so why would they read every application sent in if its a huge number.
@Sarah, unfortunately, I have seen job adverts disappear within hours (before the closing date). This is common practice in the NHS where some jobs attract hundreds of applications within hours of opening, e.g. psychology jobs.
with this competition this fierce it is best to lie on your cv and give yourself every possible advantage.
@yaya toure: “with this competition this fierce it is best to lie on your cv and give yourself every possible advantage.”
No, just… No. The Fraud Act 2006 makes lying on your CV a crime. With the huge number of companies offering vetting and verification services, you’ll just get caught out and black listed.
Terrible TERRIBLE advice.
Under an hour ? I am surprised that any candidate would offer any prospective employer this level of commitment.
Unfortunately, in todays economic climate, when employers may receive in excess of 1000 applicaitons for a job, some lowly personnel clerk (possibly on an Unpaid Internship) will be instructed to make an initial success/reject decision within (at most) 10 seconds.
So… if any candidates offers a commitment to an employer of (at most) 1 hour, they should be commended.
@Rob
“In fairness some industries like IT don’t require cover letters and most recruiters regard them as a waste of time when they just want a skills list and brief summery of experience.
For better or worse I had far more success just applying to 20 jobs with a good CV in half an hour than spending time crafting cover letters, etc.”
I am a graduate in this sector and I have had to write a covering letter for every single application to date!
I usually end up spending an entire day doing an application and I really cannot understand how to get it all done in an hour. Having found a job I think I can do, it goes like this:
First I research the company thoroughly. The website of the company is usually a good place to start. Then I spend time thinking and deciding if it sounds like a company I would like to work for. Then I tailor my CV to make sure it is the best it can be for the job I am applying for. Then it is all about the covering letter. How I hate writing covering letters. The research from earlier comes in useful when finding things to say on it and sometimes it is not easy to do. Finally, I get them both checked by myself and someone else (usually at least one of my parents) and submit.
All of the above seems to take up a whole day. It means that in a week I tend not to get that many applications done. I don’t want to be sloppy about it and develop a scattergun approach but I still want to get as many done as possible. Maybe I am taking too long and I shouldn’t spend quite so much time and effort, especially considering most employers look at CVs for about 7 seconds on average? Am I doing something wrong here? I don’t know.