If you’re crucial about applying for a specific role, you require making sure you analyze the job description carefully to comprehend what the interviewer is looking for. Once you’ve done that, you require using that information to develop a great application for that role in terms of a targeted resume and powerful cover letter.

As you go through the significant steps below, keep in mind that the most primary elements are almost always placed up front. So, if the job description lists five qualifications you need to have, there is a very good opportunity that the ones the interviewer feels are most important will be the top 2-3 that they’ve specified. This holds true for the education, skills, qualifications and responsibilities listed.

Significant Tips To Analyze and Respond To Job Descriptions

1. Recognize and List Your Strengths

Before you start to analyze the job description, you require having a good think about your qualifications and experiences because you’ll require matching these up against the ones asked for in the job description. Spend half an hour creating a list of your important skills, qualifications and responsibilities in your current position. Consider about what you can involve under these headings:

Your Education – Mention all college, university courses plus any job related activities.

Your Key Qualifications – List the years of experience you’ve with each skill. Also consider soft skills like leadership e.g. four years leading a project team etc…

Your Current Responsibilities – Mention the most important responsibilities you’ve in your current role or past roles if relevant.

2. Observe and Highlight The Key Points

Now that your important and key skills are top of mind, grab a highlighter and a copy of the job description. Job descriptions tend to follow a pattern – education and qualifications are up front, duties and responsibilities come next and they finish with instructions on what to do next. As you read through the job description, mention the following items:

Education Level – Highlight the education levels they list as mandatory and then consider of you’ve those qualifications or something equivalent you can use. Remember, this is convenient for the recruiter to check so do not lie about it in your resume or cover letter.

Qualifications and Skills – Highlight the entire specific qualifications they inquire for and the exact skills they are searching for. Look for hard and soft skills such as teamwork, leadership, creativity etc…. Take note of the wording, do they say ‘minimum x years experience required’ or is it worded as ‘prefer x years experience’. This will provide you a clue as to how much flexibility they might have. Match these up against your list of skills and qualifications and take note of the matches, you’ll utilize these later on.

Important Responsibilities – Highlight all the things they list as a normal part of the job. Make certain you can complete those activities and have instances from your list that you can use to prove it later on. Also, inquire yourself if these are the things you need to be doing every day. Just because you can do something does not mean you need to do 5 days a week for years on end. Make certain this job will make you happy.

Keywords & Industry Buzzwords – Use a different highlighter to recognize all the keywords and industry buzzword included throughout the job description. This is particular significant if your application and resume go through resume screening software. Your resume will never make it through to the recruiter if you don’t involve the relevant key words.

3. Look For Queries

Once the analysis of skills and responsibilities is done, look carefully for any clear or subtle queries in the job description. Sometimes recruiters involve subtle queries such as ‘Are you a team player….’ in the job description to see which applicants really read the job spec carefully and which ones just cut and paste information and apply for every role they see. If there is a query in there, highlight it and make definite you answer it carefully in your application cover letter and resume.

4. Confirm Submission Requirements

Checking the submission requirements is a basic task but you would be surprised how many job applicants ignore it. Recruiters tell us all the time this is one of the things they find most frustrating. Mention how they need you to apply as stated in the job descriptions. Do they inquire you to upload a resume online and click apply? Do they ask you to email a copy of your resume to a particular email address?

5. Develop a Job Specific resume and Cover Letter

Once all that analysis is done, go ahead and update your resume so that it is particularly written for the job description you have just analyzed. Involve relevant keywords, make certain you list the educational qualifications you’ve that match the job description and list all the skills and qualifications you’ve that they are looking for.

Establish a cover letter that straightly relates to the job description, answering any queries they ask and using instances to deal the skills and qualifications they are searching for.

To make better your chance of being invited in for a first interview, you must read every job description carefully and make sure your application is straightly targeted to the role that is advertised. A generic ‘cut and paste’ approach is a waste of your time and the recruiters, and merely means your job search procedure will take so much longer.