What’s the one most important rule when making any job or funding application?
The answer: TARGET!
Recently, I’ve been reviewing quite a large number of CVs, and the one piece of advice I keep passing on to applicants is: LINK your CV and covering letter to the job description and person specification.
And to make this advice more accessible and relevant to researchers, who’ve no doubt spent much of their time in education, let me give you some tips you may already have heard from your school or university days, so that you can apply them to your job applications.
“The clue is in the question.”
Remember when teachers and professors repeatedly told us how to write a good essay or answer an exam question? They were urging us to stick to the point, focus on the question, and not to stray from the main argument. To do this well, we had to examine the wording of the essay or exam question carefully for hints about what information to include, what to highlight, and what to leave out altogether.
When you only have three hours to write everything you know about a subject, you prioritise the most relevant information and showcase it early on to secure the marks. You revise, read around the topic, and add evidence that distinguishes your answer from others.
Now, beyond school and university, these words may not seem relevant anymore … but, believe me, they very much are – in the shape of writing an effective CV and covering letter, where you have only one or two pages to ‘sell’ yourself to an employer.
Here are some tips to help you to target your future applications:
When confronted with a job description or person specification, highlight the keywords and make sure you include them in your application. This shows that you’ve understood the employer’s needs and are actively demonstrating your knowledge and experience to match them.
Similarly, research the organisation thoroughly – whether it’s a commercial company, a start-up, or a research institute. Look at their mission statement, projects, or recent publications. Use this insight to shape your application so that it resonates with their goals and demonstrates how you can contribute. Think of it as answering the exam question they’ve set: Why should we hire you?
Above all, remember: you’re not writing your life story, you’re writing a tailored response to a specific question. Just as a good essay earns top marks for relevance and evidence, a good application succeeds because it’s clear, targeted, and focused.
So next time you apply for a job, channel your inner researcher, analyse the “question” and make sure that every sentence of your CV and covering letter helps you to earn full marks.