Everything You Need To Double-Check Before Sending An Application

AvniD

Legendary Member
Future Trainee
Gold Member
Premium Member
Oct 25, 2021
1,127
2,095
When I was making applications, I would spend hours ensuring that every single detail was accurate. I was so scared of getting something wrong that my fear drove many, many rounds of proofing. All this effort allowed me to create a mental checklist of the things I wanted to ensure were right before sending an app, which I am now sharing with you here as you gear up for the second half of this application cycle. I hope this helps you speed up your proofing and send applications in a (relatively) less stress-free manner than I did! 😅
  • Check your personal details - particularly stuff like your email address and whether you've indicated your right to work accurately.
  • Education - split your screen with your transcripts on one side and the application form on the other, or get someone to read your grades while sitting next to you, so that you can ensure that you are listing your grades accurately. Ensuring that your grades are listed correctly is absolutely essential as certain grades form a minimum requirement at many firms and misstating them can impact your prospects negatively. Focus on getting the following right as a bare minimum -
    • Institution name,
    • Subjects,
    • Grades,
    • Year of examination and
    • Type of exams.
  • Work experience - apart from ensuring that you write about what you did honestly, it's also super important to write down the following accurately -
    • Month and year of work experience (for both start and end date)
    • Position held
    • Company name (ensure there are no misspellings!)
  • Answers to contextual questions - running a grammar check on Grammarly or Word is the bare minimum that you can do. Ensure that you're getting at least one other pair of eyes to look over your answers to check for -
    • Grammatical errors
    • Tone and delivery
    • Whether your answer relates directly back to the question
    • Whether the firm is spelt correctly wherever you have mentioned them
    • Whether any dates and names of activities have been listed correctly
  • Additional information/mitigating circumstances - ensure you write this section with clarity and as much detail as is necessary to convey the nature of your mitigating circumstances/additional information. It's crucial that you get the details of your mitigating circumstances right and that any additional information you mention can be backed up with evidence. Again, it could be useful to have someone look over this section as well.
  • Attachments - ensure that you both correctly name and attach the appropriate document. If your CV and cover letter are required to be submitted, run the same check as you did for education and work experience a few times as a bare minimum.
 

C.A.

New Member
Oct 27, 2022
2
3
When I was making applications, I would spend hours ensuring that every single detail was accurate. I was so scared of getting something wrong that my fear drove many, many rounds of proofing. All this effort allowed me to create a mental checklist of the things I wanted to ensure were right before sending an app, which I am now sharing with you here as you gear up for the second half of this application cycle. I hope this helps you speed up your proofing and send applications in a (relatively) less stress-free manner than I did! 😅
  • Check your personal details - particularly stuff like your email address and whether you've indicated your right to work accurately.
  • Education - split your screen with your transcripts on one side and the application form on the other, or get someone to read your grades while sitting next to you, so that you can ensure that you are listing your grades accurately. Ensuring that your grades are listed correctly is absolutely essential as certain grades form a minimum requirement at many firms and misstating them can impact your prospects negatively. Focus on getting the following right as a bare minimum -
    • Institution name,
    • Subjects,
    • Grades,
    • Year of examination and
    • Type of exams.
  • Work experience - apart from ensuring that you write about what you did honestly, it's also super important to write down the following accurately -
    • Month and year of work experience (for both start and end date)
    • Position held
    • Company name (ensure there are no misspellings!)
  • Answers to contextual questions - running a grammar check on Grammarly or Word is the bare minimum that you can do. Ensure that you're getting at least one other pair of eyes to look over your answers to check for -
    • Grammatical errors
    • Tone and delivery
    • Whether your answer relates directly back to the question
    • Whether the firm is spelt correctly wherever you have mentioned them
    • Whether any dates and names of activities have been listed correctly
  • Additional information/mitigating circumstances - ensure you write this section with clarity and as much detail as is necessary to convey the nature of your mitigating circumstances/additional information. It's crucial that you get the details of your mitigating circumstances right and that any additional information you mention can be backed up with evidence. Again, it could be useful to have someone look over this section as well.
  • Attachments - ensure that you both correctly name and attach the appropriate document. If your CV and cover letter are required to be submitted, run the same check as you did for education and work experience a few times as a bare minimum.
I think that's why I got rejected for two applications thus far. I did explain my work experience but failed to show clearly the exact skills of a commercial lawyer I acquired! But not to worry back on the drawing board! :)
 
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