Do you also know that frustrating feeling when applying for jobs?
The list of jobs you want to apply for doesn’t seem to get any shorter.
Just before the next job application deadline expires, you pull yourself up listlessly and quickly put together another application.
You click through your old cover letters to find one you can mess with for this application, you change something here and something there to adapt the text somewhat to the job advertisement, and then you send everything off with a generic two-line message.
To be honest, you’d be surprised if you got a positive answer this time, but what the heck, at least you can check off another application and say you tried.
Many of my clients feel the same way.
Answers to my question of how they choose the vacancies they are applying for are often unclear:
“The job is something like the one I’m doing now.”, “My contract is running out, and I can’t be so picky.”, “I haven’t found any better vacancies.”
Is it a miracle when such applications disappear in a black hole, never to be answered?
Usually, even the applicant forgets quickly that he has applied for the job.
Often, clients cannot convincingly answer why a recruiter should carefully study their application.
Or why they are a perfect candidate compared to the other hundred applicants.
So that’s not how it works. But what to do?
Before you start any job application, you need to honestly answer one question to yourself.
And the question is:
Why are you applying for the job, what exactly is your motivation?
If you cannot answer this question, then save yourself and the recruiter time, effort, and frustration.
Instead of sending a lukewarm application, better go out, catch some fresh air, and clear your mind.
But if you can answer that question, then your job application makes sense.
And as a bonus, you already have the right start for your cover letter.
