Should you apply for this job? A ten minute fit check

A careful application takes an evening. Sending ten careless ones takes the same evening and usually gets you less. The useful skill is deciding quickly which postings deserve the careful version.

This check takes about ten minutes. You need the posting, your CV and something to write on.

Minute one to three: find the real requirements

Read the posting and pull out the requirements. Ignore the paragraph about the company and the list of benefits for now.

Split them into two columns. In the first, the ones the posting calls required, essential or a must. In the second, everything described as desirable, ideal or a plus. If the posting does not say, the items near the top of the list and anything repeated are usually the important ones.

Most postings have three to six real musts. The rest is a wish list.

Minute four to seven: mark yourself honestly

Go down both columns and mark each line with one of three words:

• Have. You can name where and when you did it.
• Partly. You have done something close, or you did it briefly.
• Missing. You have not done it.

Be strict. If you would hesitate when asked about it in an interview, it is "partly", not "have".

Minute eight: read the result

Now look at the musts only.

• All or nearly all "have". Apply, and put your effort into a strong application.
• A mix of "have" and "partly", with at most one missing. Still worth applying. Postings describe an ideal candidate, and the person who gets hired rarely matches every line. Your application has to make the "partly" items concrete.
• Several musts missing. This is probably not your job today. Save the evening.

The second column matters much less. Nice to have items decide between two good candidates. They rarely decide who gets an interview.

Minute nine: check the things a CV cannot fix

A few things can rule a job out whatever your skills are. Look for them before you write anything:

• Location and how much of the work is on site
• The language the work is done in
• Whether you need the right to work in that country
• The seniority level, which shows in the responsibilities more than in the title

If one of these does not work for you, no amount of tailoring will change it.

Minute ten: decide, and write down why

Write one line: apply or skip, and the reason. It sounds unnecessary, but after twenty postings you will have a clear picture of which jobs you fit and where the same gap keeps appearing. That gap is your next course, project or question to a mentor.

What to do with the gaps

If you decided to apply, your marks have already done part of the work:

• The "have" items go to the top of your CV for this application.
• Each "partly" item needs one specific sentence about what you really did.
• Each "missing" item needs an honest answer ready for the interview. Do not try to cover it in the CV.

Where JobUncover fits

The fit check is the first thing JobUncover does with every posting, on every level. It scores how well your real profile fits and lists each requirement as covered, partly covered or missing, before any document is built. If something important is missing it asks you, and it does not fill the gap in. You can see how the whole process works on the how it works page.