Not much experience
You are applying for something and you have almost no formal experience.
What do you do?
Step 1: What Would You Do?
There is often more than one good answer. Pick one and see what happens.
Rejected
You have applied for six things and heard nothing from any of them.
What do you do?
Step 2: What That Was
The name for what you just worked out.
Most applications list what they are looking for. Astonishingly few applicants address the list. Doing so puts you in a small group immediately.
Evidence, not adjectives
"Reliable" is a claim. "I have not missed a shift in eight months" is evidence. Only one of them is worth reading.
Tailor it
A generic application reads as generic. Changing three or four lines to match this specific place takes ten minutes and is visible.
Check it
Spelling and the right name of the organization. It is unfair how much this matters, and it matters.
Step 3: Try It
These ones do have right answers.
Would You Interview Them?
Sort each line.
Which lines would make you want to meet this person?
Tap something to move it.
- Empty
- Empty
Step 4: Quick Check
Two questions, then you are done.
Question 1 of 1
An advert lists four things they are looking for. What should your application do?
Step 5: Your Life Mission
Something to do away from the screen. Nobody is checking.
Map one advert
- Find a real advert for something you might apply for.
- Write their criteria down the side of a page.
- Put one specific piece of evidence next to each.
Why: That page is your application. Everything else is arranging it into sentences.
Step 6: What You Learned
- Answer the criteria they listed. Most people do not.
- Evidence, not adjectives.
- Tailor a few lines to this specific place, and check the name.
For the grown-up
Applying well is a learnable format skill, and the students who know it are not more deserving — they were told. Telling them is the whole intervention.
Reading a real advert together and mapping evidence to each criterion takes twenty minutes and transfers to every future application.
Rejection is normal and volume matters. Framing it as a process with a hit rate, rather than a series of verdicts, protects them through the part where most people give up.