Writing Job Applications

With my transfer to part-time study, I thought I'd attempt to find a part-time job of some description. A few things strike me.

1) It would be helpful if there was some sort of standard for employers, so that you don't have the problem of trying to address absent or terribly vague selection criteria.

2) Even when generally listing the amount of experience, skills and qualifications on the resume, it all adds up. When you are supposed to limit yourself to maybe a page or perhaps two, there is a compromise between listing just enough information and having too much. A lot has to be pared back sometimes too.

3) It's difficult to tell someone that you are reliable and value punctuality for example, without just randomly tacking that onto the end of a sentence. On the one hand, you don't want to be clunky, on the other, you can easily sound very pompous. And in trying to seem modest to a point (while still selling yourself) it's easy to become too indirect and wander around the selection criteria instead of attacking them.

Having not written up an application for some time, these are things that I'm grappling with. Harder than doing assignments sometimes, although in reality, the same sort of skills and processes apply; e.g. addressing the problem, knowing the intended audience, putting together a cogent argument, etc.