By knowing how applications are assessed at each stage of the process, you can ensure that you are giving yourself the best possible chance at each stage.
Online Form Screening
Relevance to the role – Mirror the initial form questions to the questions on the job advert, give example scenarios, e.g. stock replenishment, customer service. Do not leave any unexplained gaps in your work history. (Explain in the online application form why you have had any gaps in your work history).
CV Shortlisting
On reviewing CVs for shortlisting, the selectors look for evidence that the applicant’s experience has been relevant for the role advertised. Therefore, it is very important that you present your CV in a concise format. Each job entry should start with a statement of what you did in that job and then go on to describe the rest of the job in more detail. For example, ‘Busy customer-facing role serving 50 trade customers daily’ is so much better than ‘Customer-facing role’.
Values and Situational Questions
Each value listed on a job listing will be assessed in assessments tested to see whether candidates can actually demonstrate the values of a company (e.g. a job listing for a sales job might have ‘work within a team’ listed as a value, in assessments for this job listing the candidate would be tested to see whether they can demonstrate ‘work within a team’).
Trade and Practical Knowledge
Finally for warehouse, driving and branch roles, the assessment tests the candidate’s working knowledge of situations within the specific role, i.e. safe manual handling of products, following of stock processes, licence categories etc.
References and Right-to-Work Checks
Making sure that you have ready the contact details for any references that you have nominated for the application, as sometimes there can be a delay in getting to the offer stage and then a further delay in getting references checked. Also, it is sensible to get ready the various documents that are required to prove your right to work in the UK as a condition of your application and check out the various ways in which you can prove your right to work in the UK.
For Selco Jobs, see https://bmcareers.com/employer/selco-builders-warehouse/.
The most important thing to remember when going through each stage of the recruitment process is that preparation at each stage is easy to do when you know what the selector is looking for.
