How to Rock Online Job Applications

I was a corporate HR leader for twenty years, so some of the blame for the horrendous state of corporate recruiting must fall on me along with my fellow HR people. Collectively we designed the infamous Black Hole recruiting system, unquestionably the most ridiculous and brainless way imaginable to evaluate talent. Those career portals are the worst -- they reduce your wonderful career experience to a few lines of Tasks and Duties - but we can still get a lot of your talent across to the person on the other end of the pipeline. Here's how.

Instead of Tasks, Dragon-Slaying Stories

Let's imagine that you've been a front-desk receptionist at your last two jobs, and you're looking for another front-desk reception job now. You're sitting at your desk filling out an online application form for Acme Explosives, the imaginary company that makes those stick dynamite products for Wile E. Coyote in the Road Runner cartoons. The form asks you to type in your job title at your last job (Toontown Industries), so you type in "Receptionist." Then, the form asks for your Tasks and Duties.

I mean, come on! Why do they ask you for tasks and duties? If you list what you did at nine o'clock and ten o'clock and so on, you haven't said boo about what you got done in the last job or what you're capable of. We're not going to list tasks and duties -- we'll recount milestones, instead. We call these milestones Dragon-Slaying Stories, because they bring across some of your talent to an employer, by telling the reader about the dragon you encountered and how you put that sucker down (or trained the dragon to be polite, if you prefer that version).

If you were going to list tasks and duties for your past Reception position, you'd say:

• Handled incoming calls from customers and salespeople.
• Resolved billing disputes.
• Greeted visitors to our facility and made sure they were met and taken care of.
• Scheduled the two main conference rooms for events and meetings.

We all know what a front desk receptionist does. You could list duties all day, but none of it would let the hiring manager know how you roll. We need to say more.

What if, in the field that asked you to write about your tasks and duties, you wrote about some Dragon-Slaying Stories, instead? Now, your list might look like this:

• I was on the phones when our largest ($4M/year) customer called, threatening to leave us; I resolved his billing issues and got him to stay (and increase his orders the next year).
• I created an email marketing piece for the Marketing Director that generated $15K in sales in half a day.
• Trained the receptionists in our Warehouse and Field offices and created a manual for them.

You get the idea. Here, we're not listing day-to-day duties. We're telling the reader what we left in our wake at the last job. That's a million times more personal, more powerful, and more immediate. We want to meet this person. We want to hear these stories!

Instead of Salary History: Target

Lots of those online application forms ask for your salary history. Forget that -- you don't owe anyone the chapter and verse on what you earned at your past jobs. That's your personal financial information.

However, employers want to know your target salary range. They need that information to screen you in or screen you out of the pipeline. So, we have to give them that information.

Here's how. In every field on the online application that asks you for a past salary level, use your current salary target instead. Let's say that number is $45K. In every one of your past jobs, when it's time to fill in the field for salary at that job, use the same number: $45K. In the first open comment box where you have an opportunity to write a few words, write this:

All salary figures reported in this form reflect my current salary target.

If you do this, the employer's HR rep (or whoever's screening applications coming through the Black Hole) will be able to tell that all the $45Ks sprinkled throughout your online application reflect what you're looking to earn in your next job. That's all the info they need to decide whether you're a fit for their open position. They don't need your past wage information, and there's no benefit to you in sharing it. So use your current salary target, instead.

You have more control of the online-application process that you think. Thank goodness!