Applying for your first private-sector job: what actually gets a reply

Applying for a first job is mostly a numbers game played badly. People send a hundred identical applications, hear nothing, and conclude the market is closed. Usually the market is fine and the application is the problem. Here is where the time is best spent.

One page, and make the first third count

A CV for a first job should be one page. Whoever opens it will look at the top third before deciding whether to read the rest, so that is where your strongest material goes: what you can do, what you have built or worked on, and your qualification. Objectives, declarations, photographs, your father's name and your marital status are not needed and take up the space that should be doing the work.

Show something you have actually done

With no work experience, evidence is what separates two otherwise identical candidates. A final-year project described in three concrete lines. Code on a public repository. A certification with the issuing body named. Freelance or family-business work, described honestly. A college society you ran and what changed while you ran it. Any of these beats a list of adjectives about yourself.

Match the words in the advert

Larger employers filter applications by keyword before a person sees them, and a human reader does something similar without meaning to. If the advert asks for Excel, SQL and "reconciliation", and you have done those things, use those words. Not dishonestly — just use their vocabulary for the things you genuinely have.

Twenty considered applications beat two hundred copies

The scattergun approach feels productive and is not. Pick roles you are plausibly qualified for, change the top third of the CV to fit each one, and write two sentences saying why this role and why you. Twenty of those will out-perform two hundred identical sends, and take less time in total.

Apply where the vacancy actually is

Apply on the employer's own careers page where one exists — those applications are read by the people hiring. On aggregator sites, apply early: most roles get the majority of their applications in the first seventy-two hours, and the shortlist is often drawn before the posting closes.

Follow up once

One short, polite message a week after applying is reasonable and occasionally works. More than that does not, and is remembered.

Two things worth being careful about

• Never pay for a job. No legitimate employer or consultant charges a candidate a registration, training or placement fee. See our guide on spotting a fake job offer.
• Get the offer in writing before you resign from anything or move city — with the salary, the role, the location and the joining date on it.

It takes longer than you expect

A first job commonly takes two to four months of steady effort, and most applications get no reply at all — that is normal and is not about you. Apply consistently rather than in bursts, keep a simple list of where you applied and when, and set up an alert so new openings come to you instead of you going looking every day.