On Friday night I spent the evening in the company of close friends. After overdoing it a little on good food and wine, I was introduced to a board game called Articulate. If you are not familiar, the game is a bit like Pictionary, but instead of trying to convey a word or phrase through drawing, you have to do so through spoken word. With the egg timer acting against me and struggling to find a way to get my team-members to say 'The Dolomites' it occurred to me that Articulate has rather a lot in common with applying for placements.
On an application form, you have a series of questions to answer, usually within a defined length. In 250 words or 1000 characters, a student has to articulate why they deserve consideration for a placement. This is a tricky business and can provide a number of stumbling blocks that need to be carefully avoided.
To answer the competency based questions, it is important to be clear exactly what skills you are being asked to demonstrate. Is it your leadership skills or your ability to work in a team? The questions are not always straightforward so take the time to read them through carefully. If you are confused about the wording, the chances are that you will write a slightly muddled answer and fail to get your point across.
Faced with a word limit, there can be a tendency to use more words than necessary. Stringing together a series of longer words usually does not make an answer sound any more intelligent than using simple basic English, and yet I regularly find myself groaning at five or six line sentences. 100 words written with a strong degree of clarity will be far more powerful than 250 words of waffle.
Clearly the content of your answers will determine if your application helps you progress to the next recruitment stage, and so having a range of work experience, project work and volunteering examples is key. But if you fail to understand what the questions are asking of you, and can't express yourself clearly, don't be surprised if your application results in a negative automated reply.
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