“Who do you think will read you application first when you apply for jobs?” Dr. Hill brought up this question at the beginning of the personal statement workshop. Most of us including myself thought of recruiters, managers or maybe interns. Sadly, that is not the case. Most applications rather go through a computer system that identifies specific key words related to a job. That is why many people who apply for jobs get rejected for not including the key words that will let them pass through the first stage of the application screening process. I was also impressed to find out that a recruiter spends less than 10 seconds going over an application. Can you imagine how difficult it could get to let the recruiter pick your application especially if there are hundreds of them piled on their desk?

The key lessons that I learned during the workshop are to pay attention to detail, and look for what the company, educational institution or scholarship office is looking for instead of my own interest. That is also when key words become important. This requires spending time researching about the place or opportunity that one is applying for. In addition, the level of attention to detail matters a lot to the extent that how one names their file when they submit a resume (should include Name, position of interest, year…) or whether or not they submit a word/pdf file or fulfilled the maximum word limit in their personal statement affects their chance of admission. In order to be successful in the application, it is also very important to ask for suggestion from other people and START EARLY!