Common mistakes and tips for people completing application forms for roles with Volunteer
Centre Southwark
One of the hardest things about recruitment is often when we receive applications from people who
appear to have relevant skills or experience but send in bad applications.
This gives a bit of an overview of the common mistakes people tend to make, and a few pointers to
consider before filling in our application form which will hopefully make your application more
successful with us.
As our application form states, the most important section of our application form is the personal
statement which is scored according to how well applicants meet the person specification. We say:
‘This is your chance to sell yourself to us. Referring to the personal specification and job description
please provide further information about your skills and attributes and any other information that
you believe strengthens your application. Please be clear and concise and give examples to support
your statements. You should try to address each point on the personal specification, as once your
form has been received and anonymised this will form the main basis of how your application is first
assessed’
In terms of our process, once we receive your application form we make it anonymous and then
focus on the personal statement scoring you against how you meet the person spec. People who
score the highest are then invited to interview.
Common mistakes
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Getting our name wrong doesn’t give a good impression!
Ensure that you spell check your application and avoid poor grammar.
Impenetrable blocks of text are hard to read
Don’t write one long essay about what you have done, but address each point on the person
specification clearly and concisely.
All the information needs to be relevant to the job, are all those long descriptions about
what you have done relevant?
The way you write your personal statement showcases your communication skills.
Watch your use of acronyms, because we probably won’t understand what you are talking
about.
It is highly unlikely that anyone just cutting and pasting their CV or covering letter into the
person spec will get through the long listing.
Yes, you may have a lot of skills and things to tell us, but using size 8 font and having no
spaces is not a good way to do it
If you have worked for or have experience of another Volunteer Centre don’t assume that
we are all the same, do things the same way or know what you are talking about....
Handwritten applications are generally not a good idea.
Tips
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Do some research about the role, and at least have a look at our website so you get a better
idea of who we are.
Voluntary experience is very important! Don’t miss this out from your application, and use
this when you are evidencing points on the person specification.
Use good layout, e.g. use the headings of our person spec or bold to highlight important
information related to the person spec. Less is often more.
Keep everything relevant to the person specification and role. It may be important to you,
but if it isn’t important to the role then it’s not worth being there.
The best applications we receive are often those that make it easy for us to score them. The
clearest applications often use the person spec points as different sub headings and then
clearly address each one. Using the person spec points as headings also ensures that you do
address each one.
When showing how you meet the points of the person specification use examples and pull
them back to your experience. Many people fall into the trap of just saying that they had
skills or experience but not evidencing them.
A good trick with applications is that when you have done the personal statement look back
at the person spec and check that you have covered each point. This is also a good thing for
a friend to do as you could get them to score you and also make sure you haven’t used lots
of jargon and acronyms. How would you score yourself? We use a scoring key to assess how
well candidates have demonstrated a fit with each of the points on the person specification
to short-list interview candidates. E.g for an answer we could award 5 points if there was
some evidence/partially answered, 10 if there was good evidence and 15 if the answer
exceeded expectations and the candidate could probably teach it to someone else