Do you have low responses on your job applications? I often receive emails and chat messages from job hunter that say they never get any responses on their applications. I usually ask them if I can get a copy of their last job application to see if I can add some valuable feedback on it. In most applications that I see, there are three essential questions that never gets answered. In this post, I want to share which these three questions are and why it is important to position yourself through your application.

Positioning is “the place a brand occupies in the mind of its target audience”. When job hunting, this can be translated into: “the place you place in the mind of the recruiter or employer”. For instance, if you are sending a generic CV and Cover Letter to every single employer/recruiter, you are basically positioning yourself as someone that “a person who will do the bare minimum required for getting the job”. If you, however, work really hard on the application. Well, then you will position yourself as someone that is willing to go the extra mile and work hard on whatever you put your mind into.

In order to better position yourself as a person that is the best applicant, I want to share three questions that you have to respond to in any given job application.

This is one of the most fundamental questions for you to answer in a job application. Why is this such an important question?

Because organizations are run by why’s. In this great TED-talk by Simon Sinek, he argues that the most important thing for leadership success is to focus on why? He argues that successful organizations are honing in on the why as the core of their activities. This has been very influential in the business world over the past 5+ years.

All organizations are driven by some why. As a part-time job, I am working with startup investments. I analyze startup companies for investors and share my thoughts with them. In that work, I meet a lot of startup CEO’s. Whenever I ask them why they do what they do, most of them know why they started their company and many times it is not about making money. Most people that I meet are not driven by the money they make as entrepreneurs but the problems they want to solve with their companies. Every single company that you will apply to work for have a specific why. Your job as a job hunter is to figure out why the company exists and how the organization’s why is overlapping with your personal why.

Companies are created to reach goals that are bigger than the individuals in that organization. On a personal level, we should become parts of organizations where there is an overlap with our personal goal and the organizational goal.

What do I mean with your personal why?

I don’t mean your passion. Only one in four people know their passion. So, if you know your passion, I salute you! But if you don’t that is totally fine. What I mean with your personal why is simple the things you are interested in. Things that you would like to do professionally. This can be as many things as you would like. Let me give you one example from my professional life. One thing that I believe is that companies should exist to make the world a better place.

When I am applying for a job, I would naturally try to find companies that I believe make the world a better place in one way or another. So, when I find a company that is making the world a better place, I could write along the lines of:

“I really think you are making the world a better place by providing electricity to those in need with new innovative solutions. Personally, I believe that companies should exist for one reason and that is to make the world a better place and you really do that.”

Basically, find something that you think is interesting with the why of the company. Tell them how it relates to your why. The two why’s should be an area in which your personal goals are overlapping with the organizational goals of the company.

This is another super important question. A company is an organization where everyone has a purpose:

– The purpose of sales is to bring in revenue to the firm.

– The purpose of an engineer is to create, modify or repair products that the company is delivering.

In more general terms, a person is only hired for one reason: the value that person creates in the organization. So, think about this in your job hunt. What kind of value will you be delivering in this role at the company? Will you help the company cut costs? Will you help them bring in new revenue? Will you make the product more flawless and make customers happy? How will you create value in this organization and why is it important for this organization? Why do they even need to fill this type of role in the first place. Here is an example:

“I saw that you were hiring for this sales position and got excited. Bringing in new revenue to your firm and solve the problems of the customers with the products of the company is something that I am very interested in”

The last thing is starting to hone in more on you and your particular skills. You finish your cover letter with writing about why you are a good match for the company. You have already stated why you are a good fit for the company in terms of overlapping why’s, but that is not everything.

I might believe that Facebook has an appealing why, making the world more open and connected. But, if I don’t provide value or have the skills necessary for a role there, then I am not a good match. I need proof and validation of the skills that are essential for the role. But please, don’t mention all skills you have. Mention the most important skills for the roles and what kind of validation you have in relation to that particular skill.

You can validate your skills in many ways. Here are eight potential validators: 1. work experience 2. formal education 3. massive open online courses 4. freelancing 5. skill tests 6. praktik/internships 7. volunteer work 8. hackathons/projects.

So, in your cover letter you can write something like: “I have worked with Sales in 2 years, increasing my monthly sales quota every quarter and being top sales person in my team during three last months”. This gives a good validation that you have sales skills. Another example could be this. If you want to validate project management skills: “I was volunteering at Startup Grind, being the project manager for a team of 5 people arranging four events with around 100 participants each”.

To sum up, every application you make should have three basic questions answered:

During the upcoming week, feel free to use these three questions to craft the perfect cover letter and land your dream job. Let me know how it goes and feel free to comment your application below.