Help with job application please!

[Penny31]

Hi

I posted this on the back to work boards but didn’t get any replies so I’m posting here for traffic.

My partner got made redundant in February and he has applied for lots of jobs and had some interviews but they’ve come to nothing so far.

Im looking for advice. He has been approached by the recruitment manager of a great company but before he has an interview he has to completed a written experience exercise (it’s for a job in sales). They said it gets graded by a third party. I’ve never come across this before and would really appreciate any tips on what you think the third party will be looking for.

Here’s the exercise:

Experience Exercise

We’ve got 3 quick questions to find out more about you and how you work.

This is your chance to share real situations and describe your impact leading to positive outcomes.

Tips

We’ve given you 250 words per competency, so make them count!

Your writing style is just as important as the story you tell, so please write in full sentences – no bullet points or notes.

Let’s Go…

1. Can you describe a time during the last three years when you exceeded your target?

Task/Situation (max 25 words)

How you approached the situation – with a focus on your behaviour (max 250 words)

Outcome or result (max 25 words)

1. Can you describe a time in the past three years, when your customer didn’t know what they wanted or needed, and what you did about this?

Task/Situation (max 25 words)

How you approached the situation – with a focus on your behaviour (max 250 words)

Outcome or result (max 25 words)

1. Can you describe a time, in the past three years, when you made a mistake? What was the impact on you? What did you do?

Task/Situation (max 25 words)

How you approached the situation – with a focus on your behaviour (max 250 words)

Outcome or result (max 25 words)

I think it's fairly clear what they are asking, they want someone that can show they deliver sales targets, can communicate well with customers and is honest and reflective about any mistakes, and someone that can write well in clear appropriate business-English. The exercise seems pretty straight forward to me, they've even provided him with a structure to use and precise word counts so stick to those?

It's essentially a competency based question like you'd be asked in an interview, but in written form. So he needs to do as it says, think of a real life situation at work where he's demonstrated/done each thing and write it out using the format they've provided? Although it says no bullet points if he finds it easier he could start by bullet pointing out the elements of the story and then write it into full sentences from there. Or he could verbally tell you the story if that's easier and it might then help him get it on paper?

This is really similar to a civil service style application, if you search for advice on completing them there should be loads of relevant advice.

If he doesn’t know how to approach this then probably he’s not the right person for the job 🤔

Thank you.

@Nacknick it’s not that he doesn’t know how to approach it. He can answer the questions easily, I guess it’s the third party scoring that threw him. My guess is that there will be certain key words that they look for in terms of behaviour, attitude etc

He’s just so keen to do well, everything is becoming overwhelming.

You just need to use buzz words instead of mundane English.

I. E. Effectuated change management, rather than 'made changes'