To beg you all for help in applying for a job?

[AjasLipstick]

I've been self-employed for ten years.

A job has come up with the local council and from the description, it's everything I can do and have been doing.

The job is 3 days per week and I have all relevant experience but as a self-employed person.

When it comes to addressing the criteria (the list is long!) how is best to present that?

Just in the cover letter? The list is massive so to address all criteria would need bullet points! Is there an acceptable way of showing that I meet their needs?

Have just done this.

I wrote a detailed cover letter, got the interview and was offered the job the following day.

Just be very clear on your reasons for wanting to go back to paye work.

Yes...thanks Single. I suppose my reasons are that I want a reliable income mainly! Is that an ok reason to share though? Would it make me look as though I had no clients? I have...and still do but I just feel tired of that stuff.

Plus it worked well when my children were smaller. Now they're older I feel I can more easily go out to work on a regular basis instead of sticking to my home.

Mine is similar reasoning.

Child now settled at school, good routine etc.

The job I found was perfect hours/days and I loved the company. Fits in with everything (no it’s not MLM 😂😂😂)

That was my main reason, secondary was that though it’s been great fun being able to work for myself, I miss people and the interaction daily.

I worded it in a far less ‘I’m lonely give me a job way tho’

Forgive me if this is obvious but have you double checked that you don't need to complete an application form? It's really unusual that you don't in a public sector job.

And yes, you'd be advised to show how you met each point they asked for as short listing can be very mechanical. Ticks if you met criteria mean interview. You don't need to repeat things though - I'd suggest describing a role and then for x say see x job if that makes sense. There is usually a panel and no room for someone's gut instinct about whether you can do the job - as a recruiter it can be very frustrating.

As a recruiter I suppose I'd not be put off by you saying that you were looking for stability of income but isn't the most endearing reason. Is the Council know locally for being a good employer? Could you talk about giving something back? Has your work involved working with their employers and processes and you enjoyed that?

P.s my children are older now and I want to refocus my career.....this is an exciting opportunity works well for me

I wouldn’t go into much detail at this stage as to why you want to go from self employed, chances are they aren’t fussed (beyond perhaps a small risk that you will want to go back to it one day!) For the criteria, use examples of work you have done which demonstrate how you have applied skills required for the job have been applied previously.

Bullet points are perfectly acceptable, btw.

I worknin an LA and often shortlist and interview. LAs often do competency based job descriptions now. Make sure you demonstrate each of the essential criterial that will be assessed at the application stage - this is where most people go wrong. You need to demonstrate it not just say ‘I can do x or y’ but ‘ on the occasion that x happened I did y which demonstrates z’. A paragraph for each criterial should be sufficient. It’s a faff but if you do this you will guarantee an interview!

Good luck

Is it an online application? LA usually have an online form which includes a supporting statement; this is where you should address the criteria, giving supporting evidence or an example for each point.

While wanting a reliable income is a good personal reason for wanting the job, you would make more impact on the application if you gave an example of how having you as an employee would benefit the Council.

So you could say something like, having run your own business has developed your organisational skills, and you have always worked well as a team member (perhaps name a role where you did this) and these skills combined make you extremely suitable for their vacancy.

Lots of luck!

The form does not address the criteria. I'd need to put it in my letter. The reason I'm thinking about that so much is that the list of criteria is one of the longest I've seen and it will make my letter really, really long...if I write a nice, flowing letter addressing them all. Bullet points would make it simpler I suppose. Just wondered if that would look bad.

Thanks for all the advice everyone!

Does the form not have an additional information section? It's really unusual if not for the public sector. I'd honestly double check with their HR section. As a recruiter we did not see any accompanying letters.

I work for a council and the application form for our jobs has sections for basics eg name, address, qualifications, career history, references etc, and then it has two questions that are something like "explain why your experience and qualifications make you a good candidate for this job" and "give any further information that may be relevant to your application". These two sections have high character limits so you can write a couple of sides of A4 describing how you meet the criteria. You don't need a covering letter as well.

Oh, and it's quite common to have pages of criteria - does it include a section of core competencies, which are usually things like Customer Focus, Working Well With Others, Managing Change etc etc? These are standard competencies that are attached to every single job the council advertises, not specific to one job. You don't need to worry about demonstrating how you meet these in the application form - focus on demonstrating that you have the job-specific skills.

In the public sector organisation that I work for, a covering letter wouldn't make it to the panel, it would strictly be information on the actual form. I obviously can't say for certain that it's the same where you are applying, but that has been my experience in all public sector jobs that I have either worked in or applied for.

And if you don't address every single essential criteria, with examples, you don't get an interview. It's all very process based. On the other hand, in the public sector, these sections are often separated from the name and age etc to prevent conscious or unconscious bias, which can be helpful.

Is there not a section on the form for 'further information to support our application' or similar? It's really rare for an LA to not include it in the form. Most of the time they disregard the covering letters completely so be absolutely certain it isn't on the form first!

Another public sector person here - double double check the form - there is a 'supporting information' section on ours. That's where you address the criteria. My advice for doing that is to list each one and write how you meet it - make it really easy for the shortlisters to see how you meet the criteria.

I'm in Australia. All they want is a CV and covering letter. There's a very basic form with name, address etc.

I'm in Australia ah. That makes a huge difference then!

So yes, in your covering letter. If there a competencies section to the advert then make sure you address the points on that WITH EVIDENCE.

E.g.

advert says "must have excellent IT skills" you DO NOT write "I have excellent IT skills". Instead you write I am proficient in .... (name a number of relevant computer programs) and have used x to do .... (give example of a project you have worked on, presentation you have given, daily work you have undertaken).

And do that for every point on the advert. If you can meet 2 or more points with one example then do so. e.g. "my excellent IT and communication skills were really shown when I undertook the presentation to x department using Microsoft powerpoint and integrated it with (insert specific software) to explain a complex task we had undertaken to meet the service users needs.