Do you have a company that you have set your heart on to work for, and applied numerous times but never got a response, or worse still constantly rejected?
When companies are advertising for their vacancies, they are looking for candidates who have at least 80% of the skills and experience set out in their job advertisements. If you don't have this we wouldn’t recommend that you apply.
Many candidates apply believing that if they are not suitable for the current vacancy, by seeing their name regularly it may keep them in mind for other opportunities, but the opposite is true, the hiring managers stop looking. Unfortunately, companies, like recruitment agencies will be inundated with applications for their roles, and also get speculative CVs from candidates asking if they have any opportunities to match their skills. Whilst an agency might retain and consider a CV for a role with another client, many companies simply don’t have the time or resources to do this.
If you want to get into the company of your dreams, be patient, wait for that role until when you have 80% of the skills and experience they require. You could develop your skills and experience at your current company or move to another company to do so - you never know, your new company may turn out to be a better option.
If you are a graduate looking for your first opportunity, and don’t have any commercial experience, look out for graduate opportunities, internships, or ask a company if you could shadow someone doing the same role. You may not get paid very much, if anything at all, but the experience will give you the advantage over graduates with no experience.
If you require sponsorship, you really need to have 90-95% of the skills and industry experience. For a company to sponsor a candidate to work in the UK, it is incredibly expensive.. If the company has two candidates, and one requires sponsorship, the one requiring the sponsorship really needs to stand out and the only way to do this is to have more of the skills and experience the company is looking for on that job description.
More important than anything else is your CV – it doesn’t matter how much skills and experience you have if it is not obvious to the person reading your CV, then it is a wasted application. More often than not the first person to review your CV will not be the line manager but someone in HR or talent team looking for key words. If you haven’t caught their attention on page one, chances are you will be rejected. We provide lots of advice and help on how to make your CV stand out from the crowd on our website. Visit our Candidates page to read our CV tips and other essential resources, including help with your cover letter and interview guidance.