You are motivated and ambitious, and you are ready to move up the career ladder. You apply for new jobs every single week, and you feel mentally prepared for a job interview – the only thing is, you haven’t heard back from any employers.

Can you relate to this? If so, you’re not alone. Most available jobs receive lots of interviews, so if your job application isn’t top-notch it may be dismissed.

Here are three tips to help you make sure your job application stands out.

1. How To Make Your Job Application Stand Out: Tailor Every Single Application

Do you send the same application to every vacancy that you find? If you are doing this, it is likely you are missing out on lots of great opportunities because your job application doesn’t stand out. You might think that sending out the same job application to every role helps to save you time. In reality, if it isn’t well-suited to any of the roles, you are wasting your time sending it out!

So take some time to tailor your CV to each role. If the job description lists certain skills and experience, move those skills and experience to the top of your CV so they are immediately noticeable. Remove sections that are outdated or unnecessary. For instance, a 4 week yoga qualification isn’t needed for a digital marketing role! Then include a tailored cover letter explaining why you think you are a good fit for the role. This will significantly increase your chances of landing a job interview.

2. Check For Errors

Before you submit your CV go through it and check for any errors or misspellings. This may seem obvious, but many people don’t do it – and recruiters are clear that poor spelling is a big problem.

When you think your application is ready, walk away from it for an hour or so and focus on something else. When you return you will be able to look at your CV with fresh eyes. This means that you are more likely to spot spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. You could also use a free online spell checker (although we do suggest also looking through your application, as bots don’t always pick up on every error).

Do you have a job interview coming up? Here are some tips to help you prepare for your interview.

3. Follow Up

Finally it is important to follow up once you have sent a job application. Wait a reasonable length of time (perhaps a week or so), and then send an email to let them know you are thankful for the interview opportunity. Make sure that the email is professional and well written. This is a great way to make your application stand out, especially if lots of people are applying for the same role.