Third in a series of four articles by Jack Thomas Mr. Thomas is a Manager for a National Company, Certified Facilitator for Advanced Management, and a Consultant to other Agencies.

We are finally down to the application itself. (Don’t breathe a sigh of relief yet!) This is supposedly the easy part after sweating out the resume. After all, the resume, if you did it correctly, was labor intensive, and time consuming. (Please tell me you devoted a lot of effort to your resume.)

Great! Now let’s discuss the difference between a good application and a poor one. Many people have the misconception that because the application is usually strictly formatted, there can’t be much difference among them. This is simply not true. You may notice a parallel between the interview process and the application itself. Good! You should notice! Here’s the scoop: During many discussions with other managers and business owners,we talk about the things that are humorous or just ridiculous that people do on their applications. Here are the top few: ( Followed by and explanation of how they hurt your chances, no extra charge for this info!.)

• Incorrect spelling-It doesn’t matter during which section of the application this occurs, it is the general consensus that this causes a distraction during the review of your application. (And not the good kind of distraction.) This is the parallel of appearance when attending an interview, which is extremely important. Remember, the person reviewing your application does not know you. This is your presentation of your professional self. Would you show up to an interview without checking your hair, making sure you’re clean and presentable and dressed appropriately for the interview? (If this doesn’t matter to you, so be it. But I absolutely guarantee it matters to the person conducting the interview.) The same should hold true for a document representing you. It’s about a good first impression. Why else is it so important? From an employer’s standpoint, if I’m hiring you for a position where I want someone who pays attention to detail, why would I choose someone who doesn’t even pay attention to detail before they obtain the job? Am I too have confidence that they will be self sufficient and not require oversight from me or one of my managers on a consistent basis?
• Lying- Integrity in business is absolutely huge. American businesses lose the equivalent of one billion dollars per week in employee theft and fraud! (Read that preceding sentence again, it’s no typo!) It is paramount for companies to hire the right candidate the first time. Someone who can be trusted to do an honest job so that the company turns a profit. It’s as simple as that. There is a reason that most employers perform background checks before hiring. The effect? Most applications now contain a disclaimer that states misrepresentation or fraud on an application can be grounds for immediate dismissal even after hiring!(It’s there-it may be in fine print, but it’s there.) And if you can’t be honest with me from the very start, why would I trust you with my customers or other company assets? Don’t hide anything, just be prepared to explain anything that may seem out of the ordinary.
• Incomplete information- As a briefly touched on in the previous article, the omission, especially of large time frames when there is no job listed, can have a very negative connotation on you. Don’t skip time frames; if you were unemployed, say so!(Although I personally would list it as a time when I was looking for a better position, but that’s up to you.) Just as with the previous 2 items, you never want to bring negative attention to your self.

IF, and most do, your particular application asks for previous experiences, you will want to use the list I told you to prepare in the first of this series. But enough for now, tomorrow, I am going to teach you how to use what I call U.F.A. (I’ll probably even tell you what it stands for.) It will be of extreme help to you in pushing your application and resume to the top. I am going to assist you, using a couple of real life stories, in enhancing your experiences on paper. (Without lying about them.) Don’t miss this one!