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Application forms

Application forms are an opportunity for you to demonstrate to recruiters that you have the appropriate skills, personal qualities and experience for a role, and the potential to be successful. They are generally used in the first stage of the recruitment process to shortlist candidates for interviews or assessment centres.

For applications for postgraduate courses, please see our postgraduate study section.

Getting started

List Your Experience, Achievements, and Skills

On a blank sheet of paper or new Word document, list your:

  • Experience and achievements: Include your education, awards and prizes, work experience, placements, volunteering, community involvement, university societies, sports clubs, and any positions of responsibility.
  • Skills: Highlight skills developed through your experiences, even if unrelated to the job you’re applying for. For example, working as a sales assistant can demonstrate communication skills, ability to work under pressure, and handling difficult customers.

Tailoring your application

Research the job:

  • Read the job specification carefully.
  • Understand what the organisation expects you to do.
  • Match your skills and experience with the job requirements.

Research the organisation:

  • Understand why you want to work for this specific organisation.
  • Visit the employer’s website and look for additional information on business and news websites.
  • Reflect the organisation’s language and values in your application to show you’ve done your homework and are a good fit for the role.

Completing the Form

General tips

  • Time Management: Give yourself plenty of time to complete and review the form before submitting.
  • Early Submission: Aim to send the form early, as some employers close recruitment once they receive a certain number of applications.
  • Attention to Detail: Read instructions carefully and ensure all required sections are filled in.

Personal details

  • What to include: Name, address, contact details, date of birth, and driving licence status.
  • Tip: Double-check for accuracy to avoid any errors.

Education

  • How to present: List qualifications in reverse chronological order (most recent first).
  • Highlight: Your best results prominently.
  • Tip: If the form asks for specific qualifications (e.g., UCAS points) and you have international qualifications, seek advice on how to present them effectively.

Employment/work experience

  • Order: Start with the most recent job and use reverse date order.
  • Details: Describe duties and responsibilities, linking them to the skills the employer is seeking.
  • Include: Voluntary work, especially if it’s relevant or if you lack extensive work experience.
  • Tip: Highlight achievements and transferable skills.

Supporting statements

  • Structure: Break down into sections using headers from the job description or person specification (see the writing a personal statement section below).
  • Alternative: Answer competency questions if provided.
  • Tip: There's no need for a formal introduction as in a covering letter.

Referees

  • Who to include: Typically, a current or previous employer and an academic referee (e.g., tutor or course leader).
  • Tip: Always ask for permission before listing someone as a referee.

Additional information

  • What to Add: Any relevant information not covered elsewhere, such as prizes, scholarships, or sporting achievements.
  • Tip: Use this section to mention dates you are unavailable for interviews or to attach additional documents like a covering letter or qualification scans.

Equal opportunities

  • Purpose: This section is used to monitor equal opportunities policies and is kept confidential within the Human Resources department.
  • Information Asked: Gender, sexual orientation, date of birth, nationality, ethnic origin, disability, etc.
  • Impact: This information does not affect the recruitment process.

Disclosing disability

Some forms ask if you consider yourself to be disabled. Please see the Disability Service website, our careers resources for disabled students and Equality pages for more information, and you can email us if you have any questions or concerns about this.

Criminal records disclosure

  • Confidentiality: This section is stored separately from your application form to protect your confidentiality.
  • Impact: Details provided are treated confidentially and do not automatically exclude you from being considered for vacancies
  • Be honest: Provide accurate information as it helps in ensuring fair treatment and support.
  • Seek support: If you have concerns about disclosing a disability or criminal record, reach out to the relevant support services for guidance.

Hints and tips for online applications

  • Download and edit offline: Start by downloading a copy of the application form and completing it in a Word document. This allows you to use spellcheck and word count features, which many online forms lack.
  • Tailor your responses: Avoid copying and pasting information directly from other application forms or your CV. Instead, adapt your responses to match the specific questions and requirements of the form.
  • Clear layout: Even if online forms don’t support bullet points, ensure your layout is clear and easy to read. Use paragraphs and headings where possible.
  • Immediate and honest responses: Some forms may include personality questionnaires, answer honestly and thoughtfully. 
  • Keep a copy: Save a copy of your completed form. This can be very useful during the interview stage as a reference.
  • Seek help: If you have any questions about how to complete the form, book an appointment with us. Some employers may also have a FAQs section on their websites giving advice.
close up app form with blue tint

Answering competency based questions

Competency questions such as the above can be tricky to answer, but using the STAR technique is a great way to structure your answers.

  • S - Situation: Describe the context within which you performed a task or faced a challenge at work.
  • T - Task: Explain the actual task you were responsible for in that situation.
  • A - Action: Describe the specific actions you took to address the task or challenge.
  • R - Result: Share the outcomes or results of your actions.

STAR Technique Example

"How can you demonstrate your experience and skill in providing excellent customer care, particularly when dealing with difficult customers?"

Situation: During my part-time work in a large local hotel, I dealt with a difficult situation involving a customer who wanted a drink after last orders. The man became rude and offensive when I told him that I could not serve him as last orders had been called five minutes ago. His behavior was affecting other guests, and I could see the embarrassment being caused by his shouting and foul language.

Task: Recognising the need to take control of the situation so that all customers could enjoy their time at the hotel, I decided to try to calm the customer down.

Action: I knew that he was a speaker at an important conference being held in the hotel and to keep things discreet, I tried to deal with this without calling security. I calmly repeated the fact that I could not serve him and offered him a glass of water. I also told him that in his hotel room his mini bar would be stocked with drinks. The man continued to shout and referred to his position as a key speaker at the conference. I politely told him that I could not make exceptions to the bar rules and that if he continued to behave in that way I would have to have him removed from the bar.

Result: On hearing this, the man quietened down and accepted the situation. I offered to organise an early morning telephone call for him the next day to give him enough time to get ready for his conference presentation. The following morning the man passed me in the hotel and apologised for his behavior in the bar.

Top tips for answering competency questions

  • Stay focused on your own actions (you are the STAR!)
  • Use positive language to reflect your achievements.
  • Be specific with the detail in your answers e.g. 'I was responsible for handling and resolving up to 50 queries per day.'
  • Avoid making vague statements that may sound good but provide no specific information about what you did such as “the project team created a plan...”
  • Avoid giving opinions about a situation or task.
  • Avoid making theoretical statements such as “I would do…” or “I always…” as these provide no information about what you actually did.
  • Try to choose examples with positive outcomes. However, if you did not meet the aims/objectives, state what you’ve learnt from the experience, e.g. “I have learnt from my mistakes and have become a more confident and self assured person as a result.”

 

Variations on STAR

There are several versions of the above technique which are used to answer interview and application form questions. The most regularly used are:

  • STAR-D: Situation, Task, Action, Result, D = what you would have done differently)
  • SBO: Situation, Behaviour, Outcome
  • CAR: Context, Action, Result.

All of these will help you provide a full answer, so you can use which ever you feel most comfortable with.

Other common challenging questions

Describe your most significant academic achievement

Some questions, such as this one, have no right or wrong answer. This particular question is aimed at finding out what motivates you, or the things you value. Try to link your answer to the qualities the employer is looking for.

Why do you want to work for this organisation?

An employer wants to be convinced that you have researched their organisation and have thought about why you want to work for them. This is your chance to provide a good quality answer with interesting, well considered reasons. Steer clear of shallow and obvious reasons and use this space to demonstrate you have a clear understanding of what the employer does, their values and company ethos.

What attracts you to this kind of work?

You need to show that you know what the job involves and can express why you are suitable for it. Refer to specific aspects of the job which appeal to you, not just “retail has always interested me”. Have you had any work experience in this field or spoken to someone doing this type of work? If so, what did you find out which confirmed your decision to apply for this kind of job?

Personal statements

The purpose of a personal statement is to allow the employer to decide if you meet their requirements. Unlike competency questions (see above section), you will only have one field to complete. This field will often be preceded by a statement such as “in this space, please give your reasons for applying for this job and information showing how you meet the person specification, including relevant skills and experience”. As it is one block of text, you are given the chance to write freely about your suitability as a candidate, without being restricted to specific questions.

Planning your personal statement

A personal statement needs to be well-structured, logical, clearly written, and free from grammatical and spelling errors. Speak about your reasons for applying for the post and your understanding of the particular organisation, as well as your skills, experience, and relevance of your studies if applicable. It may help you to consider it from the employer’s perspective. What would they like to hear from candidates? Make it reader-friendly and positive, and tailor it to the job description and person specification as closely as possible.

You can divide a personal statement into different sections through subheadings. Take the titles of your subheadings from the person specification, to make it easy for the employer to check that you have covered all the relevant points. Any essential criteria in the person specification must be addressed, plus as many desirable criteria as possible.

If the vacancy details do not include a person specification, use the job description, advert and company information to understand what skills they want.

What to include

Think about what you can bring to the job, paying close attention to the employer’s requirements as detailed in the person specification. Some suggestions of what to include in your statement are:

Your reasons for applying for the job

  • If you are asked to give your reasons for applying for this job, this can be a good starting point for your personal statement. This is an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the job, your motivation to do that kind of work and your interest in that particular organisation. You need to give strong reasons for applying for this particular role.
  • Keep the focus of your answer on what you can do for the employer, not what the employer can do for you. 

The relevance of your studies at university

  • Your degree subjects might be directly relevant to the job, in which case emphasise any modules and your dissertation which are particularly useful. If your degree is not relevant, there will still be transferable skills you have developed on your course which the employer is likely to be interested in. See the section below on skills for more about this.

Your work experience, including voluntary work

  • This is important to refer to, even though you will have recorded this on another part of the form. Experience in the workplace will have given you an appreciation of employers’ perspectives, their business needs and their expectations of their employees.
  • Draw attention to any particular achievements and responsibilities you have experienced at work and the transferable skills you have gained, unless you have written about these in some detail already elsewhere on the form.

Skills

  • Providing evidence of the skills the employer requires is usually a key part of a personal statement. Make sure that you complement rather than duplicate any sections you have filled in about your skills in competency based questions.
  • Give examples of when you have used the skills, but in a more concise way than you would in the competency based questions sections, if these occur on the form.

Interests and responsibilities

  • These can show you to be a well rounded person and can also provide evidence of some of the personal qualities and skills the employer is looking for.
  • State what you have got out of hobbies rather than just listing them e.g. have you been able to show leadership ability through your interests, taken part in team based activities or shown excellent planning and organisational ability?

Final Points

  • Keep to any word limits and check to see if you are invited to continue on a separate sheet. 
  • Avoid long, complex sentences and be clear and concise. Use positive language and express your enthusiasm for the job.
  • Check your draft statement for spelling and grammatical errors. 

Don't forget that when you have written a personal statement you can get it checked by a Career Consultant.

Top tips for personal statements

  • Keep to any word limits and check to see if you are invited to continue on a separate sheet, if you wish to.
  • Be clear and concise and avoid long, complex sentences. Use positive language to express your enthusiasm.
  • Check your draft statement for spelling and grammatical errors.
  • Use formal English at all times (i.e. no slang or jargon).
  • Ask yourself after each sentence: is this relevant? Does it add to the statement or is it just a ‘filler’? If so, you could be using that space more to your advantage.
  • Don’t focus on what you haven’t got to offer. You will only create a negative impression of yourself. For instance, if you can’t meet one of the desirable criteria but do want to mention it in your statement, write about how you would go about meeting it in the future. Perhaps, for instance, you have not used a specific type of software which is desirable; instead, you could mention the fact that you have used similar databases, have transferable skills and that you are a quick learner.
  • Allow plenty of time to write this section; it may seem straightforward but you should always proofread carefully.
  • If you have particular information which you want to provide, for instance a prize or scholarship, sporting achievement or anything else which doesn’t fit easily into your personal statement, this could go in the Additional Information section.
  • Arrange to see a career consultant for feedback on what you have written.
  • Keep a copy of your form. It will be useful at the interview stage

Example personal statement

This example uses the requirements of the person specification as headings to specifically address each point.

Business and Technical IT Consultant - Person specification

  • A degree in Business, Economics, Finance, Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics.
  • Have a genuine interest in business and IT with a drive towards achieving a successful career.
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
  • An analytical, problem solving mind-set.
  • Proven ability to work under pressure within a fast-paced and challenging environment.
  • You are a team player who takes the initiative and shows a high level of commitment.
  • Geographic flexibility throughout the UK.

Please demonstrate how you meet the key criteria on the person specification

I believe my education, skills and experience make me a strong candidate for the role of Business and Technical IT Consultant and feel that I would grow into the role and make a real contribution to the company. I have outlined below how I meet the criteria of the person specification:

A degree in Business, Economics, Finance, Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics

I graduated from the University of Bradford in July 2019 with a BSc (Hons) in Business Economics 2:1. My studies gave me an excellent grounding in core economic ideas, how these apply to business and the environment within which firms operate, plus proficiency in IT software such as Microsoft Office and economics applications including SAGE.

Have a genuine interest in business and IT with a drive towards achieving a successful career

My studies confirmed to me that I am definitely interested in pursuing a career in business economics, and I consistently scored high marks in modules where the use of IT tools was necessary to analyse and assess data. In addition, I received a special recognition award for my placement year as a business analyst at Yorkshire Bank where I further developed my technical skills and commercial awareness. I would appreciate the chance to develop my career at your company, as your close links with the University have given me the chance to see how other alumni have gone on to successful and satisfying careers and this is something I hope to emulate.

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

Through group working on projects at university, my role as a career ambassador and my part-time job at Tesco I have developed excellent communication and interpersonal skills. I have been required to negotiate disagreements between fellow students, communicate information about careers to a wide range of students from varying backgrounds and work closely with my team-mates at Tesco to ensure customers were served promptly and efficiently. My good working relationships meant I was
promoted to team leader in the produce department.

An analytical, problem solving mind-set

My final year dissertation involved the analysis of a small business. Looking at its finances and other factors I put together suggestions to improve the efficiency of the organisation, particularly through the use of a new IT system, to increase profitability by an estimated 25%.

Proven ability to work under pressure within a fast-paced and challenging environment

My job at Tesco has given me lots of experience working under pressure, particularly during the Christmas period where customer footfall and product turnover is at its highest. After a year on the produce team working weekends, I was made team leader in the lead up to Christmas.

I was responsible for monitoring stock levels and ensuring my team communicated effectively and worked together to ensure all customers were served satisfactorily and all products were available on the shop floor.

You are a team player who takes the initiative and shows a high level of commitment

When working on a group project at university, it soon became clear that one of our group was not participating fully. I decided to take the initiative and call a group meeting to discuss the sharing of the workload. At the meeting, it turned out the person didn’t fully understand what was expected of him and was struggling with some of the details. I took it upon myself to spend some time to help him understand these details and I kept in touch regularly to make sure the project stayed on track. The project was a success and our group achieved the highest mark in the class.

Geographic flexibility throughout the UK

I am willing to relocate for the role and am happy to travel as necessary. I have a full clean driving licence and enjoy experiencing new cities and people.

Next steps and further information