The job application process - Healthcare

This chapter seeks to set out the nuts and bolts of how to get your foot on the career ladder. It is written to be used as a very practical guide to support you in your job search now and throughout your career.


Getting behind the recruitment process

The decision to recruit is not a light undertaking. Organisations, whether in the public, private or third sector, will have put together a case to justify the extra spend involved in recruiting a new member of staff. This annual cost of salary and other expenses is in addition to the sometimes hidden cost of the recruitment process. It goes without saying, therefore, that employers need to recruit and retain the right person and will use a range of tools to ensure the process is effective.

What employers are looking for

In order to select fairly and get the right person for the job, employers follow a strict framework that sets out the skills, qualities and attributes required by the successful recruit. This framework forms the ‘person specification’ that will give you an insight into what is needed to gain the role. The skills, qualities and attributes are then defined as ‘essential’: in other words they are an absolute requirement, and ‘desirable’: good to have by the candidate. From a practical perspective, the organisation will require a transparent way of reducing the applications to a realistic number for interview. This means you have to prove that you possess all the essential criteria, if you are to stand a chance of gaining an interview. The most usual way of doing this is through production of your ‘curriculum vitae’ (CV) or ‘story of life’.Organisational sectors
Whether you are recent graduate or an experienced practitioner, you will see vacancies in all three sectors:
public
private

small and medium enterprises or SMEs (fewer than 249 employees)
large business (more than 250 employees)

third (not-for-profit or charity sector).
Whilst your CV will not look very different for each sector, it is worth taking time to consider the sector concerned. For example, public sector organisations will invariably be bigger, with set gradings for staff levels, and often more formalised in their practices. SMEs are, by definition, smaller and often less process driven. Large business may be ‘corporates’ that may have larger budgets and, therefore, higher pay scales. The third sector will include housing associations and similar and are very much values driven.
Your CV will be expected to reflect these differences to show your understanding of and to exhibit your commitment to the sector. Many organisations in all sectors will publish their values on their web site. It is worthwhile using the words of these in your CV as appropriate.Job and person specifications

Any job advert will have attached to it a ‘job description’ and ‘person specification’. The former sets out the role statement and responsibilities of the job. The latter identifies the skills, qualifications and attributes that are considered to be ‘essential’ and/or ‘desirable’ for the role. It is therefore important that your CV or application form shows, for every application, that you possess the ‘essential’ criteria and as many of the ‘desirable’ as possible.
Many organisations receive hundreds of applications and strive to be completely impartial and fair in how applicants are selected for interview. Only applicants possessing all the ‘essential’ criteria would normally be considered and if there are too many to interview, the number will be whittled down by measuring applicants against the ‘desirable’ criteria.


Introducing the CV
For many people this is a document that is written once and dusted off whenever a potential job comes into view. By definition, the CV is an up-to-date record of your skills and achievements. Therefore, it needs to be constantly updated and a true reflection of where you have been and where you are going. Perhaps even more importantly, it needs to reflect the skills, qualities and attributes required for each job application.
The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) annual summer survey (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23247176) shows that leading UK employers are receiving an average of eighty five applications per job! In some sectors this increases to one hundred and fifty per job! This suggests that your CV must stand out and prove that you have all the ‘essential’ and as many of the ‘desirable’ criteria as possible.Starting your CV
Trends in CV writing come and go, so it is important to stay up to date with current styles. The structure set out in this chapter is the generally accepted current model at time of publication.
Two key considerations must be borne in mind:

The CV is your selling document – your advert; but it should comply with the currently appreciated norms of CV writing. If it looks tired and out of date, or unprofessional in its spelling, layout and content, what does that say about you?

As much as many employers still manually sift applications to create a shortlist, an increasing number use electronic sifting software. This adds a new dimension to CV production, in that certain keywords from the person specification should be incorporated into your document. This is good practice in any situation, as it enables electronic or manual sifting to test the validity of the CV.
When you start your CV, it will be a brief framework of your study and any work to date. Once you start applying for jobs, it is important to consider how organisations define job roles and then use that information to ‘flesh out’ your CV.

CV layout

The key to an effective CV is to make it fit the role for which you are applying. This means each CV will be slightly different as you amend words and order to prove how you meet the essential criteria. We talk about ‘white space’; in other words allow clear margins and good spacing so that whomever reads it, finds it easy to follow. With some managers only spending forty five seconds looking at each CV, you will need to make it as easy as possible! It is generally accepted that a CV should be no longer than two sides of A4 and use an internet-friendly font such as Times New Roman or Arial.
The currently accepted CV layout, for a recent graduate, covers the following in the order shown:
personal details – name, address, telephone and email; a sentence or two, describing you, written in the third person:for example, a highly motivated, speech and language therapy graduate with a passion for research and practical problem solving. Confident communicator and presenter;
your key skills, set out in bullet points, perhaps two or three together:for example, confident communicator with excellent presentation skills; education & training, in reverse chronological order;
your experience, in reverse chronological order;
other achievements;
interests.