What to do if your applications are unsuccessful

Rejection in any walk of life is always tough. However, it’s something which many people face, often multiple times, when applying for jobs, internships, courses, or volunteering opportunities. Whether it is at the initial application stage or after some kind of test, interview or assessment centre, it doesn’t feel any better. But the good news is that there are things you can do to increase your chances of being successful in the future. So, take a deep breath, and know that you will get there in the end.

The application stage

It can be very frustrating to put lots of work into an application, only to have it rejected very quickly with responses often coming just minutes after you submit it. If you find that this is happening to you, the chances are that the recruiters are using AI technology to screen applications. Although it may seem very harsh to be rejected by a robot before a human recruiter has even seen you exist, there are things you can easily do to help you get past this stage.

The technology is being used to check that the applicants to the role meet the requirements. Although the software being used is very clever, it can only judge you on what you write in your application and won’t be making assumptions about other things you don’t mention or only hint at. Therefore, if a job you are applying for asks for you to show strong communication, team working and organisation skills, the software will be looking for evidence of these terms. If you make sure to write your CV using these words, it will be easy to take you through to the next application stage.

For example:

Student Representative on the Staff/Student Liaison Committee

• Communicated effectively with student cohort to assess current issues and address them with relevant staff members.
• Worked in a diverse team of students from different years to collectively petition for change in areas such as lecture times and essay deadlines.
• Organised a change of opening hours for the library after consultations with academic staff and librarians.

But if you don’t use these skill words and instead write something more generic or something which would need the reader to make intelligent assumptions, you are less likely to get through the first stage.

For example:

Student Representative on the Staff/Student Liaison Committee

• Helped students to bring up any issues with relevant staff members.
• Addressed issues such as lecture times and essay deadlines.
• Worked to change library opening times.

Although you are writing about the same things, the first example will clearly show you fit the requirements of the role whereas the second example isn’t clear and requires some guesswork on the part of the reader.

This does mean that you will have to look very closely at each person specification for the roles you are applying to and adapt your CV to showcase the exact skills asked for. Although this may seem time consuming, in the long run you will likely have less rejections.

Although not all recruiters use AI in their initial screening, the same advice stands even if a human will be looking at your documents first. They are likely to have thousands of CVs in front of them and so will be skim reading the applications to see how well each candidate meets their requirements. By tailoring your documents exactly to each role, you will give yourself a much better chance of getting through to another stage of the process.

Make sure that all your application documents are written for each role you apply to. If you are writing a covering letter, take the time to research the company and tell the recruiter exactly why you want to work for them in that role and exactly how you fit their person specification. Don’t be tempted to cut corners and re-use bits of old letters to other recruiters as it will then be impossible to see your passion for them or their role.

For more help with tailoring applications for specific employers, book onto one of our workshops or book an in-person, MS Teams or written e-guidance application feedback appointment with one of the team. Always make sure you are telling us what opportunity you are applying for so we can see how you have tailored your documents to the role.

The testing, interview or assessment centre stage

If you are always tailoring your application documents to each role and getting through to the later stages of the assessment process, it will also be really frustrating if you then get rejections as you will have put even more time and effort in. Again, there are things you can do to ensure you have more of a chance of getting through these in the future.

Researching the employer thoroughly is the most important thing you can do as that will not only help you to tell the recruiter why you want to work for them but will also show you what skills or strengths they will be wanting to see from you throughout the rest of the process. By feeling confident about what they are going to be asking about or testing you on, you can prepare well. For more information about researching employers, have a look at our website.

Practise is also very important. Although you may feel confident in your ability to sit a work-test, interview well, or complete an assessment centre it’s likely that you aren’t doing these things regularly and so it’s worth putting the time in to practise and asking for help when needed. We have lots of great resources on our website for testing and interviews including sites where you can practise in your own time and we also run workshops where you can gain an insight into different types of interviews or practise assessment centre tasks. If you’d also like to meet someone to go through some likely interview questions and get constructive feedback, book for a Career Guidance appointment (or Career Coaching if you are a WBS student).

Although all these things will help you to have less rejections, sometimes, however, it might just be unavoidable. You can’t control how good the other candidates are who are applying for the same roles and so rejections will occasionally happen, even to really good applicants. Just focus on showcasing yourself to the best of your ability and you will get there in the end.