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5 mins

Online application forms are widely used in the graduate recruitment process, so it’s really important to be able to complete them effectively and to showcase what you have to offer to employers. Many employers prefer application forms instead of asking for CVs as this format allows them to ask specific questions which can lead to more effective recruitment decisions. This section will help you to understand what employers are looking for and how to stand out as a candidate.

Purpose of an Application Form

Employers use application forms to assess:

your skills and abilities
your motivation
whether you will fit into the organisation

Preparation is vital before completing an application form; you need to research the employer, understand the job description and be clear on what the organisation is looking for. Therefore it's important to read the job description carefully and highlight or note down what the employer has asked for in terms of experience, knowledge, skills and qualities. Your application form should demonstrate how you match up to each of the criteria. If you don't fully meet all of the requirements then you can potentially still apply, just keep the focus on what you have done and what you can do, rather than drawing the employer's attention to any areas of weakness.

Key Tips for Making Successful Applications

Start by familiarising yourself with the employer’s recruitment literature, website and social media:
- What skills are they looking for?
- What have you got to offer?
- Why do you want to work there?
Know your skill set and what you have to offer employers. You can use our skills audit exercise to make a record of your current skills and your evidence/examples of these. This will make completing an application form a lot easier.
Back up statements about your skills and abilities with clear examples and evidence. Your evidence can be from all aspects of your life (including part-time jobs, work experience, voluntary work, sports and social life).
Make sure you read and understand the questions and follow all instructions (such as word counts!)
Take your time to complete the application. Depending on the length it could take a good few hours to fully complete.
Many applications fail because of careless errors: pay attention to detail. Employers won’t be impressed if you get their name wrong, or leave out important information.
Get someone else to look through your application before you send it off and check for any mistakes in spelling and grammar you may have missed.
If you cut and paste your answers from other application forms then be careful not to include names of other organisations that you've applied to previously, as this will result in instant rejection.
Keep a copy of your application. You may be asked more about your answers at an interview.
Most systems will allow you to register your details and save your progress as you go along rather than complete the form in one session. However, be aware that employers may be able to view partially completed forms.

Person Specification

This is the part which employers will tend to pay most attention to. It is therefore very important to make sure that you promote yourself as well as you possibly can.

You could be asked to do this in a number of ways – you might be asked to give a statement: usually a minimum of one A4 page in which you demonstrate your suitability for the role. Here are some examples of ways in which you could show transferable skills:

Working well as part of a team - contributing to a group project or presentation for a university module
Communicating well with customers or colleagues - responding positively to a complaint from a customer by finding out what the difficulty is and offering a refund or exchange
Using initiative - publicising a charity walk by designing flyers and going out into the community to engage people’s interest
Showing good leadership skills - becoming secretary for a university club or society and keeping everyone updated on what needs to be achieved within the next week

Plan out what you want to say and use headings to ensure you have a good structure, cover all the key points and don't repeat yourself. You can then delete the headings from the final version . Your tone should be positive and enthusiastic about the organisation and the opportunity on offer.

Competency-Based Questions

Most graduate employers will use application forms that include competency-based questions. These require you to give specific examples of times when you have used a certain skill. Here are a few key things to keep in mind:

When answering competency-based questions, you can give examples from work, study or personal life, but make sure you give a wide variety of examples and, ideally, a different example to answer each question.
Don’t go into too much background detail when answering competency questions. The employer only wants to know about how you influenced the outcome of the situation through your positive behaviour. Remember to focus on you and avoid saying 'we'.
Make sure your answers and examples you use are relevant to the questions asked, rather than the most impressive or elaborate.
Don’t make your answers up! The employer will find this very easy to spot.
Always aim to go up to the maximum word count. Sometimes this will be in the region of 200-250 words – this means that you have to be organised and concise in what you say.

Answering these kinds of questions is always a challenge (and is intended to be so) but the STAR technique offers you a way both to develop and refine your answers. Using it also tends to keep your answers to an appropriate length; helping you to focus your attention on the salient points that you want to convey. It comes in four parts:

Situation – setting the scene in context

Task – describing your overall objective or what you were required to do

Action – discussing what you actually did and how you did it

Result – setting out how your involvement changed the situation

This video will help you to identify competency based questions and gives more advice on using the STAR technique:

Further resources

Try our Cover Letters Learning Pathway

Cover letters A cover letter introduces and markets you effectively by complementing your CV or application form. Even when applying online, you'll still need to add a cover letter setting the scene to your application - all CVs and applications should be accompanied by one unless specifically instructed not to include one - it sets the context as to why you are applying for this particular role, at this particular company. In this Pathway you'll find out what is a cover letter? (and how to write a good one)

Try our Application Forms Learning Pathway

Application Forms How to writing high quality effective applications which will help to make you stand out to prospective graduate employers and make sure you progress to the next stage in the recruitment process.

Try our CVs Learning Pathway

CVs and Applications Designed to support you in writing high quality CVs and applications which will appeal to graduate employers.

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