Looking to apply for a student role? Brilliant! Let’s get you that job!
(P.S these tips work wonders for other applications too)
Nail Your Student Application
Looking to apply for a student role? Brilliant! Let’s get you that job!
(P.S.: these tips work wonders for other applications too)
TOP TIPS:
Understand the question and answer it FULLY.
First things first, and something that people can really mess up on, when you are asked a question in the application answer it in detail. Simply saying ‘Refer to CV” results in a rejection, it’s a big no no!
Example- If you’re asked something like: “Tell us about a time you worked in a team to achieve a goal. What was your role and what was the outcome?”
Make sure you cover:
Use the STAR format
A simple habit of answering each question in the STAR format goes a long way. For a reader/recruiter who doesn’t know you or your field at all, this is a great way to get a good glimpse of your experience and skills.
S = Situation. Begin by placing the example you are using into some kind of context for the reader, i.e. when and where the event took place.
T = Task. Describe what it was you had to do - what was the overall objective? Where there any constraints acting upon you as an individual, or as a group, e.g. Budget.
A = Action. Describe what you did to complete the task. NB: even if you are describing a team situation, describe how you made a difference to the outcome and role you took within the team.
R = Result/Review. What was the outcome? What did you learn from the experience?
Sell your story.
We want you. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have loads of professional experience - use volunteering, coursework, societies, group projects. Avoid generic answers, make them personal to what YOU’VE been through. What sets you apart is your story, so focus on it instead of going basic.
Use your resources
The Careers and Enterprise team has tons of resources, application guidelines and provides services like mock interviews, application reviews, and much more. So don’t sit around waiting for something to work out, get up and use your resources to the max - https://www.salford.ac.uk/careers
Looking for more application tips? Head over to our Application Form Guidelines
AI for Applications?
We know how easy it is to just write a prompt and get the most amazing sounding answer within seconds. But what the applicants don’t know is how generic they actually end up sounding. Because you’ll for sure not be the only one using AI and when everyone resorts to it, everyone ends up sounding the same and your application gets lost.
So “How do we actually use AI for our applications?”. There’s no harm in using AI to understand the job description or the application questions, to make it easier for you to answer them.
Here’s some handy guidelines for using AI in applications.
Application Answer Examples
Last but not the least, it’s always a great call to go through some examples and get a better understanding of the format and framing of the answers - Read Here.
Other than that, if you have any doubt, small or big, nothing is better than reaching out directly!
https://www.salford.ac.uk/careers
All the best and go ace it!!