When you finally find that job opening you’ve been waiting for and want to put together a great application quickly, here are six steps to do so effectively.

Create a Strategy

Here’s the thing: Your application’s purpose is to speak directly to the job that’s open, and the needs the organization has right now, and how you can help them achieve their goals. It’s not about all the things you’ve ever done or what this job gives you. 

Remember, recruiters or hiring managers that are sifting through resumes for a job are trying to find out if you can do the job, if you will want to do the job, and if you’ll fit in. More on that here.

Which means you need to see the forest, not the trees with your application. Don’t worry too much about if your resume should be one or two pages, or how many bullet points per position, or whether your cover letter should have three or four paragraphs. 

Read the job description thoroughly. Look at the paragraph before the list of bullet points because that paragraph usually sums up the job description with the scope of the work and how it fits into the organization. Then read the bullet points paying attention to the ones listed first as those are the ones that will be most important.

Once you have a clear idea of the most important responsibilities of the job, think about what top experiences/projects/accomplishments from your career most tie to those. If you have volunteer experience that ties to the job, you might create a section for that on your resume. Or if there are certain skills listed in the job description, you might change your skills section at the top of your resume. 

Select your template, map out your sections of your resume, decide on the most relevant experiences you’ll want to highlight in the resume (and also the cover letter), and then you can start drafting your docs. 

Tweak or Update your Resume

Here are a few specifics to keep in mind as you update your resume:

→If you’ve got lots of previous jobs, you might only include under ‘Relevant Experience’ the jobs that most tie to the role, or you might include all of them. 

→ If you’re tailoring a resume that already exists, look through each bullet point in your current resume and decide if it relates to the job description. If it doesn’t, most times you’ll take it out.

→ Then look at the bullet points of the job description and make sure there’s at least one bullet point on your resume that ties to each of them. 

→ Fold in the keywords that are in the job description as much as you can. If your current resume has the term ‘strategic planning’ and the job description refers to that activity as ‘strategic goal setting’ then update your language to match the job description (where appropriate and applicable). 

→ Remember to incorporate as many metrics - both quantitative and qualitative data that can give your accomplishments context. And work to get your accomplishment stats at the beginning of your bullet points. 

Here’s one example of an OK bullet point:

• Built and oversaw $4M in revenue from a diverse set of clients. 

What’s better?: 

• Grew the firm’s data analytics consulting line of business from a solo practice to a 10-person specialist team bringing in over $4M in revenue over three years.

And even better than that? 

• Increased firm revenue by 25% over three years by expanding the data analytics consulting business portfolio through consistent and targeted business development.

• Grew the team from one to 10, scouting and connecting with top talent to bring to the firm.

The key to beating those applicant tracking systems and getting your resume into the hands of a human is all of this tailoring.

Tell your Story in your Cover Letter

Before you start writing your cover letter, think about your hook. How are you going to hook the reader? You probably don’t want to go with the standard “I’m applying for X position. Given my experience I think I’m a great fit for Z company.” Why not hook them with something that feels a bit more personal, mission-driven, or accomplishment-specific? 

Once your first paragraph has hooked them, then share the top 3 experiences / accomplishments that tie to the job or the organization's needs. If it takes you one paragraph or two, it doesn’t really matter, but try not to go over a page as you should be able to share the top line items in a few sentences. 

And remember, the company you’re applying to has competitors - why would you decide to work for them as opposed to one of their competitors? Why does their approach resonate with you? Be sure to share that in the cover letter. 

Scan It!

One bonus to putting applications together these days is there are lots of tools that exist to help you tweak and tailor your materials. 

Jobscan.co and SkillSyncer are two of the ones we often suggest using. Once you scan your resume and job description through these platforms, they’ll tell you the hard and soft skill keywords and other relevant keywords that you might be missing and how much of a match your resume is for the job.

Make any changes that seem important and possible using these tools. While the tools aren’t perfect and can be frustrating to use, it’s better to use them for any insights you might be able to incorporate to make your application stronger. 

Submit

It goes without saying right? Sit on your application for a few hours or a day so you can come back with fresh eyes, proofread, and make sure there’s nothing else you’ve forgotten you want to include. 

When you submit it through an ATS (applicant tracking system), you’ll most likely want to submit it as a word doc and not a PDF. But if you’re sending it to someone who you know is reading it (like via email), attach a PDF. 

Be sure to name your docs appropriately. ‘First Name Last Name Resume” and “First Name Last Name – Cover Letter, Columbia University, Major Gifts Director” NOT “Cover letter Columbia”.

Reach Out!

You’ve done ALL THIS WORK to make sure you tell the company you have the specific skills to address their needs - don’t let it just disappear into a black hole!

If you’ve tried getting your application noticed through second degree or loose connections inside organizations in the past, you’ve probably had mixed success with that approach.  Because, think about this: If you were hiring, and someone you didn’t know in your organization sent you their friend’s resume, what would you think? You might appreciate it, but you don’t know the referrer, so what good is their word?  

So why not go right for the source?

We’ve seen this work 1000x more effectively than trying to find a loose connection. 

Put together 2-3 sentences about what you’ve recently done that ties to that job description and reach out via email or LinkedIn to the hiring manager or recruiter. For example:

Hi Jen – I currently lead a team of fundraisers at Nonprofit XYZ – we just wrapped up our fiscal year raising more than 15% over our goal. I’d love to chat with you about the VP of Development role you’re hiring for.

I guarantee you’ll be more likely to get an interview with this approach than reaching for an insignificant connection. If reaching out directly to someone feels bold and uncomfortable, read this for some examples of language and approaches that have worked for others. 

Here’s to writing a great application - FAST!