The application form and personal statement
Security industry rules are that your working history must be entirely vettable, so the application form is very important to your potential new employers. The information you supply on it must be absolutely accurate, but you can still make it sing.
Every company has its own application form. Some things are common to most of them: a section on your educational history and qualifications, your professional history, any professional qualifications and a section for your personal statement. These will usually be very time, date and address specific.
Because you’re in the security industry, it’s important to be on the button with this detailed information – they’ll be checking up on you.
Take a photocopy
Take a couple. Write the form out on a photocopy before you do the real thing, to avoid making any mistakes - it's weasy when you're remembering what you were doing and where you were when you were 18.
Personal statement: getting started
Your personal statement is the part of the job-hunting process where you show, clearly and thoroughly, that you match the requirements they need for the job. It’s also a chance for you to sell yourself and show who you are, but matching the job specification is by far its most important job.
Before you start, have the job spec in front of you - it should have arrived with your application form.
The job spec
This is the firm’s tick list. They’ll be checking your application against this tick list before deciding whether to call you to interview. Some of the requirements on the job spec will be essential, others may be "desirable". Either way, make it easy for them to tick you positively against every item on the spec.
Show, demonstrate and explain
For each requirement on the spec, you need to show you have proven experience. So, for example, if the spec says you must have successfully completed an installation project, it’s not going to cut the mustard to write: “I successfully completed an installation project.”
Be thorough, sell yourself and show, at every turn, what you did and what you achieved. Something like this: “I have been involved with a number of installation contracts through the course of my career and in the latest, at Wherever Ltd, I took specific responsibility for liaising with the contractors and was delighted that the contract, despite difficulties, finished on-time and on budget.”
It’s best not to match the job spec point by point in that order, unless you’ve been asked to do so. Compose your statement so that it makes complete sense in relation to the job spec, whilst being a pleasant and informative read at the same time.
Top and tail it
When you’re happy that you’ve got everything in the job spec covered, it can be put all together. Start with a warm sentence explaining why you want this job. End it with a warm sentence explaining why you’re right for this job. Or the other way round. And the get all the different elements to hang together.
The personal statement should really be no more than 450 – 500 words unless they have asked for something specific or have a very long job spec. If you can, word-process it to a page of A4, with your name, the date and any reference number at the top. If you have to handwrite on a form, have it word perfect, in rough, before you do so.
It must be immaculate. Read it through so many times you know it off by heart and if you can, get others to check it for you.
Best of luck!