5 Tips for Submitting Competitive Job Applications

Are you applying for a job, internship, or teaching assistant position? We’ve got five easy tips for getting the edge on competitive job applications and interviews. You can use these when applying to just about anything.

Tuck these tips under your belt, and you’ll be strutting your way into a new job—not just a job interview—before you can say, hired!

1. Professionalism in all things digital

Your virtual interactions—and that usually means emails when applying for a job, an internship, or a teaching assistant position—need to convey professionalism and strongly support your candidacy for the position. High-tech communication tends to be overly casual, but neglecting proper etiquette for business communications can send the wrong message.

For starters, think of your email greeting. Then, let the rest of your correspondence follow in a similar tone. Avoid opening an email to a hiring manager with anything as casual as “Hey” or even “Hi.” That’s not to say you should be unnaturally formal or always use “Dear,” but a nice “Hello” could be a good middle ground. How you address hiring managers can impact their initial impressions of you and can even influence the way you act around them in the future … say, if you land a job interview.

2. Research before applying for a job

As a job candidate, it’s common to fall back on the strategy of applying to several positions at once just for the sake of increasing your chances at securing a position—not necessarily thinking about how well suited you are for the job. There are plenty of flaws in this logic, but let’s look at just a couple

While applying all over the place and putting your proverbial eggs in multiple baskets can get you considered as a job candidate for several roles at once, the quantity-over-quality approach is often counterproductive. For one reason, semi-customized job applications are more likely to get thrown out of a review pile than more carefully tailored ones.

You may hear it constantly, but it’s true: take the time to fully understand a position before you apply to it. Thoughtful, customized job applications will be more likely to catch a hiring manager’s eye. Further, acquiring a comprehensive understanding of an internship, job, or teaching assistant position is less likely to waste everyone’s time—including your own.

Ask yourself the following questions before taking the time to fill out that job application and tailor that resume or cover letter:

• Is this the position or company for you?

• Do you truly know what the position entails?

You might find that a position you thought would be appealing based on title alone may not be what you expected. Alternatively, you could discover that a position you didn’t even previously consider might have a lot to offer. In either case, it’s best to be fully informed before applying for a job, no matter what it is.

Keep in mind that you will also be tremendously glad you did so much research when you are called in for a job interview. Half of your interview prep will already be done.

3. Dig a little deeper for opportunities

There are many opportunities out there if you really look for them, and you may find an interesting option that’s not directly related to your degree.

Perhaps you completed your MBA program but find that you enjoy teaching more than business. Keep an open mind—there could be numerous appealing opportunities available just outside your traditional field of study. For example, at Kaplan Test Prep, we are always hiring candidates who have a love of teaching and standardized testing to teach our prep courses.

4. Proofread, proofread, proofread

This may seem obvious, but it warrants repeating: proofreading can make or break a job application. It happens all the time.

Avoid the embarrassment of addressing an application to a company’s competitor because you forgot to update your cover letter, spelling his or her name wrong, flubbing up the job title, or making another classic “attention to detail” mistake. It takes just a few minutes to carefully proofread a resume or cover letter—and the time you put behind each customized application (see tip #2) should make these extra minutes well worth it.

If the position has particular importance to you, don’t be afraid to send your job applications to a friend (and return the favor when they ask you for similar help). A second set of eyes can pick up mistakes that you might gloss right over as the writer of the text.

If you’re on a timeline and nobody’s available, try proofreading backwards, from the bottom up! You’re less likely to overlook small errors if you’re focused on reading what you actually wrote, instead of inadvertently reciting to yourself what you intended to write.

5. Be positive about your job applications

You may be sending in job applications for multiple positions, and it can get quite tiring if you’re going on job interview after job interview, or—worse—not yet receiving responses.

However, this is par for the course. Most of us go through it at some point or another. It’s important to maintain your positivity and drive, as doing so will set the tone for your job interviews. Managers can sense when a candidate is truly invested in a position, and it can lead to more insightful conversations about the role.

We weren’t kidding when we said these are 5 easy tips to remember, but it’s still fairly common for a job candidate to overlook or gloss over one or more of them. Stay a step ahead of your competition by bookmarking this page and reading over these 5 tips every time you submit a new job application.

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