5 Do's and Don'ts When Applying for a Job

Most applications fail for boring, fixable reasons. Recruiters are not looking for perfection — they are looking for signals that you read the advert, understand the role, and can be trusted with details. Here are five do's and five don'ts that cover most of the ground.

DO read the entire advert before you apply. Not the headline — the whole thing. If it asks for a specific document, a specific subject line, or an answer to a question, that instruction is a test. Candidates who follow instructions exactly are already in the minority.

DON'T send the same generic CV to every role. Recruiters can spot a broadcast application in seconds. You do not need to rewrite your CV from scratch, but the top third — your summary and most recent experience — should clearly speak to the role in front of you.

DO verify the opportunity before you share your details. Your ID number, address, and work history are valuable. Before you hand them over, check that the company is real, the contact details match an official domain, and the advert does not carry the classic warning signs of a data-farming operation. Tools like Tevola exist for exactly this step.

DON'T apply for roles you clearly don't qualify for 'just in case'. It feels productive, but it trains you to expect rejection and it wastes the energy you need for roles where you are genuinely competitive. Aim for roles where you meet most of the core requirements.

DO keep a record of every application. Company name, role, date, contact person, and what you submitted. When a recruiter calls three weeks later, you want to sound like someone who applied deliberately — not someone scrambling to remember which job this is.

DON'T bad-mouth previous employers, anywhere. Not in your cover letter, not in the interview, not on social media. However justified it feels, it reads as risk. The candidate who speaks badly of their last employer is assumed to speak badly of their next one.

DO follow up — once, politely. A short, professional follow-up a week or two after applying shows interest without desperation. If you hear nothing after that, let it go and keep moving. Silence is an answer, and your time is better spent on employers who respect candidates enough to respond.

DON'T pay to apply. Ever. No legitimate employer charges application fees, 'registration fees', or 'training deposits' before hiring you. The moment money is requested, you are not looking at a job — you are looking at the scam.

DO treat every application as a professional transaction. Proofread everything. Use a sensible email address. Name your documents properly. These details feel small because they are small — and that is exactly why getting them wrong is so costly.

DON'T take silence personally. The market is genuinely tough, response rates are genuinely poor, and most rejections say nothing about your worth. What you control is the quality and targeting of each application. That is enough to be going on with.