Part of my job involves me going through applications to bring in applicants for interviews and possible to hire them. Now, we get anywhere from five to fifty applications a week in our store, which would make most people think that we would have a ton of interviews going on. WRONG. You would be surprised at how many people do not know how to fill out an application. And it’s not just the teenagers, it’s the older adults too. One of the worst applications I’ve seen in the past month was from a woman who’s older than my mom (not really sure why she wants to work in a store where her entire management staff would be younger than her, but that’s besides the point). So I’ve decided to put up some tips for you readers so that when you’re filling out job applications, you know what we’re looking for. And who knows, these tips could apply to applications at other stores too.
- Follow all directions.– This should be common sense, but apparently it’s not. If it says only use blue or black ink, then use blue or black ink. Not green, not purple, not pencil, blue or black. If the application says don’t use your friends or family members as references, then DON’T use them as references. And no, you can’t use a friend of the family either, that still falls in that category.
- Answer all questions.– Leaving parts of your application blank is a big no-no. If you leave certain questions blank, we automatically file it into the no pile. That means you need to enter a salary requirement (even if it’s just minimum wage), your availability, your references, and all of the information for your previous employers. If you don’t know all of that information, TAKE THE APPLICATION HOME AND BRING IT BACK (and make sure it stays neat and uncrumpled–folds are okay, balled up paper is not). Exceptions to this rule–If you do not have a current employer, do not put a previous employer into that slot, and do not write N/A really big over the space either. Also, if you don’t know your SSN, it’s okay to leave that blank as well. The last exception is when you see something that says something like “California Applicants only”. Unless you live in that state, DON’T ANSWER IT. It makes you look like an idiot.
- Open to close is not an availability.– Believe it or not, we get kind of annoyed when people put this on their application, or the ever-popular “negotiable”. Last time I checked, “open”, “close”, and “negotiable” are not located on any clock that I’ve seen, and therefore shouldn’t be listed under your hours available. If you have an open availability, then list the time the store opens to the time the store closes. Don’t know it? Ask. It shows that you’re a serious applicant rather than just someone pushing applications to every store in the mall.
- List references!– Even though some places don’t care if you have listed references, we at Spencer’s do. And we don’t want you to give us your best friend and your aunt. We want good references, like coworkers, previous supervisors, school teachers, etc. And if you choose to list an “other” reference, please tell us what “other” is. Are they your pastor or you coworker? It would be nice for us to know, considering that we actually do get phone references for all of our employees that are hired into our store.
- Write neatly.– If I can’t read your handwriting, I’m not going to want to call you in for an interview, period. If you don’t have neat handwriting, find someone who does to help you fill out the application. It makes it easier on us, and gives you a better chance of being chosen for an interview.
- Just because it’s on your resume doesn’t mean you don’t have to fill it out on the application.– We get a lot of applicants who like to attach resumes to their application as a way to seem more desirable for an interview. But instead of filling out the application, they will write “on resume” in the blanks. Bad, bad choice. One, it shows that you didn’t care enough to fill out the application like the other applicants. And two, what happens if your resume becomes detached from your application? Then we have no way of know the information that you so nicely put onto your resume. It makes things much easier if you just put it on the application.
I’ll add more tips if I think of any. Feel free to include your application tips in the comments of this blog, I’d love to hear them. And with the way the economy’s been, I’m sure other people would love to hear it too.
