Application Forms
Application Forms Application forms are commonly used for Graduate Employment Programs and by some large organisations for general recruitment. Types of questions can include:
- Biographical questions about your education, results and experience.
- Open-ended questions relating to your interest in the position, career plans, skills and strengths, knowledge of the organisation or industry, extra-curricular activities, achievements and understanding of the values of the organisation.
- Behavioural questions which ask you to give an example of a time when you demonstrated a particular skill/competency.
Key points about applications forms
- Application forms are becoming increasingly central in Graduate Employment Program recruitment in particular. Don’t fall into the trap of spending most of your time on your resumé, then doing a rushed job on the application form questions.
- Most (but not all) online systems allow you to start the document and save it later for completion. If the document has to be done in one sitting, make sure you are well prepared – do you understand the scope of the task (will it take 20 minutes or 2 hours)?; have you done your company research?; do you have all your information ready?
- Employers can receive large numbers of applications – an easy way to cut down numbers is to discard those with spelling mistakes or poor grammar so take the time to check for accuracy.
Preparing your application form
- Where word counts apply, give a response of appropriate length and depth – for example, a 50 word response is not suitable for a 250 word question.
- For behavioural questions, use the STAR model to structure your response – the STAR guidelines provided in behavioural questions in interviews can be used here also.
- In relation to general open-ended questions:
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- Use examples where appropriate eg if you’re asked about your strengths, give an example of an activity where you demonstrated that strength (these examples would be briefer than in a behavioural question). It can also be good to give examples in questions about the organisation’s values – for example, if asked to indicate how your values align with the organisation’s values, include an example of when you demonstrated those values.
- In the question about why you are applying, there are no right and wrong answers, but some of factors you might refer to include: career plans, characteristics of the organisation itself (reputation, size, clients), the role or program itself, opportunities in the organisation, opportunity to use your skills. Don’t spend too much time on what ‘selling yourself’ in this question (there will be other questions about this); the employer wants to know that the position will work for you as well.
- With questions about strengths (or what you would bring to the position/program), focus on the most relevant strengths – but choose from strengths which you genuinely possess.
- Try to demonstrate your knowledge of the organisation – there is a good opportunity to do this in a question about why you are applying.
- In questions about your career plans you are not expected to lay out a highly defined career plan, but your response should give some specifics eg the industry you want to work in and/or the type of role you are interested in. Your comments should refer to the relevance of the position or program to your career plans. It can be appropriate to say that you still exploring your options but you should at least refer to some ideas to show that you’re thinking about this issue.
- In questions about their organisation or industry, employers expect a good level of knowledge and understanding; employers regularly give feedback that applicants do not do this. To set your application apart, do some research.
- Application Express Module 3: Online Applications provides further tips on completing application forms. To practise an application form, use the Online Application Simulator in Application Express Module 4: Resources.
- Application Express is available in Online Career Tools.
- Questions about an Application Form you are working on can be brought to a Careers Drop-in session. Check Careers Online for times and locations.