Avoid the Applicant's Error No. 1

Before I get to the actual tips and tricks, I first want to point out what I consider to be the biggest mistake that many applicants make. If you understand and eliminate this fundamental problem, you will increase your chances of a successful application enormously.

The most common reason for unsuccessful job applications

This mistake is inconspicuous but fundamental. It consists of the fact that many applicants portray their career and their motivation from their own point of view. But the worm must be attractive to the fish, not to the fisherman. The interests of the other side, i.e. those of recruiting managers, are the relevant ones! Their concerns differ considerably from the applicants’ motives and must be considered accordingly, in order to submit a convincing application. Unfortunately, this fact is often overlooked by many applicants and results in a large number of rejections.

The “secret” of a successful application process is quickly revealed. The job offer is made to the candidate who has given the most convincing impression that his or her future employment will be the most worthwhile for the hiring company. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

However, you do NOT achieve this conviction as an applicant by simply mentioning the tasks, responsibilities and activities from your previous jobs!

Here is a negative example of it. The following way to present previous experience is common but hardly convincing:

Provided prospects with quotes.

Much more convincing, in contrast, is this alternative:

Compiled up to 68 customized quotes for prospects per week with 27% conversion on average.

Can you recognize the big fundamental difference between the two examples?

In fact, you can achieve this conviction only by explaining relevant ACHIEVEMENTS that resulted from your work. Before you can communicate those to the hiring managers in detail, you must first pique their curiosity.

Maybe the relevance of this summary makes sense to you immediately. From an advertising psychology point of view, this is commonplace anyway. But if you look at the actual approach of many applicants and their documents – and I do this all the time – the practical implementation does not seem to come as easy. And once you’re making your way down the wrong path, everything else becomes torture of course. The anticipated success becomes unlikely or can only be achieved by extreme effort or luck. You can change that now.

Send your job search and applications on the road to success

The following tour through this website is free of charge and will guide you through all the topics that are important for an effective job search and successful applications step by step. You will be able to read my explanations on every aspect in just a few minutes. They contain many practical pieces of advice for your applications with concrete examples from real life. And my tips are especially helpful in difficult situations – I can promise you that.

Among other things, you will learn why it shouldn’t make you proud to have already sent out 100 applications, that the total number of pages of your CV / résumé doesn’t really matter, that your cover letter shouldn’t contain phrases like “team player”, which questions you can use to direct the interview and how you can negotiate a good salary. At the same time, my guidance through all the relevant topics saves you the hassle of constantly browsing the internet for answers regarding the individual details of a successful application process.

If you consider what you have learned here in your future job searches and applications, your chances of finding your dream job will increase considerably soon – in terms of meaningfulness as well as finances.

On November 23rd, Mr. Thomas S. from the Verden District wrote to me:

»I thought my CV was good, but Mr. Kaiser taught me that I was wrong. Now that I have truly perfect documents, applications are fun again, whether via job advertisements or networking.«

Well, now I wonder if I’ve got you excited about a better approach to job applications already, or if you would like to learn a bit more about me first. I will definitely not say: “Get started right away!” You must decide that for yourself. So, are you ready?