Essential and desirable criteria in job application

[Yellowflamingo1]

When filling in a job application, do you bullet point how you meet the essential criteria or do you write it as a paragraph?

I.e if the essential criteria was ‘Experience using Word’ would you write it in a paragraph to explain how you use it and what you did or would you detail it like:

Experience using word

• Used word to write newsletters

I’m not sure if the second is not detailed enough?

Might depend on the industry. I work in a pretty traditional industry & would be fine with bullet points, but some of my colleagues might huff at it.

Is this an NHS application?

Bullet point! Address each point one by one. It's not a work of fiction so that's fine

The application might be scored on how well you meet each criteria, so I would bullet this to make sure your evidence isn't overlooked.

I would put in a bit more detail - e.g. 'weekly newsletters for a company-wide audience'

Agree with adding more detail and bullet points, but I'd say for that example 'Advanced Word skills including newsletter design, mail merge, creating macros'
(If you can create a macro on Word...)

It depends on the application and how they ask you to demonstrate, for example, many ask for a personal statement of sorts, and imo bullet points wouldn't be appropriate.

What I do is list out those criteria, in another colour pen write how my experience matches etc, and then plan an answer making sure all are addressed. The benefit of this as well is that some of what you type might address more than one of the criteria.

It depends on the application and how they ask you to demonstrate, for example, many ask for a personal statement of sorts, and imo bullet points wouldn't be appropriate.

I really don't agree. Readability is important - bullet points make dense pieces of text more readable. You see it on here all the time people saying they can't be arsed reading a thick block of text because someone can't be arsed adding paragraphs.

After reading loads of applications - someone who sets text out in a way that helps the reader, gets a positive vote from me - but one of the skills we need is to be able to communicate complex ideas - simply, that means you need to consider the reader.

@Orangeblossomscent

It depends on the application and how they ask you to demonstrate, for example, many ask for a personal statement of sorts, and imo bullet points wouldn't be appropriate.

I really don't agree. Readability is important - bullet points make dense pieces of text more readable. You see it on here all the time people saying they can't be arsed reading a thick block of text because someone can't be arsed adding paragraphs.

After reading loads of applications - someone who sets text out in a way that helps the reader, gets a positive vote from me - but one of the skills we need is to be able to communicate complex ideas - simply, that means you need to consider the reader.

That's fair enough, where I work the expectation on formatting is very clear, and it expects a body of text- but appreciate if the direction isn't given its clearer.

@SteveBuscemisRheumyEye

Is this an NHS application?

How do you think they should be done? I’ve just been doing one

@Sansaplans I am just struck with loads of people (usually people with only academics and no work experience but this can be up to pHd level!) writing a covering letter typed in small font and maybe 3 paragraphs per page with no space between the paragraphs - the basics are not covered despite all that education - they only think of themselves not the reader - it's a mindset that doesn't impress me much.

[quote Orangeblossomscent]@Sansaplans I am just struck with loads of people (usually people with only academics and no work experience but this can be up to pHd level!) writing a covering letter typed in small font and maybe 3 paragraphs per page with no space between the paragraphs - the basics are not covered despite all that education - they only think of themselves not the reader - it's a mindset that doesn't impress me much.[/quote]
Oh yes absolutely, it shouldn't just be a body of text with zero breaks/paragraphs etc, and if it doesn't address the criteria than absolutely pointless. I do think some people feel like they 'deserve' jobs and feel like they just go through the motions rather than actually investing time in an application.

It would depend on how many criterion you need to evidence.

I would group together similar criterion, eg under IT Skills.

I have always worked in non skills based industries, so you've always been expected to write statements. You could include bullet points for elements, but on the whole would write in a formal style.

@Sansaplans Not addressing the criteria is far too common. I feel for people looking for a job but they often spread themselves too thin applying for loads of jobs very badly, sending the same covering letter and CV to all companies, not even bothering to check the industry - they waste everyone's time.

A careers coach always told.me to address the essential criteria in the cover letter - a paragraph for each criteria. Appreciate that's not appropriate in every industry but certainly was in kine and has served me well since then.