The Application Form
The application pack needs to be prepared. We want to get everything in order so that when we put out our job advertisement the responses will be ready. The website is ready. We have a dedicated page the applicants will be directed to with information covering what we expect their questions will be.
The pack is going to include:
- A detailed job description
- A personal letter
- An application form
We are going to come to the detailed job description next week because there are a few things there that need careful attention. Anyway, we have our hands full this week talking about the application form.
You would have thought that an application form would be easy, wouldn’t you? After all there are hundreds of thousands of people making applications for jobs every day. Why reinvent the wheel? Why have a special application form?
With this in mind, I had a look at some other forms when preparing this one. I like to keep things simple so I cut out some of the crap. The fewer pages of this stuff I have to read the better! I really don’t need to know if someone has a driving licence or what their hobbies are. This is a job, for god’s sake, and that is the important thing. If they like making raffia tea cozies that is their own business.
On the front page I want the really important stuff: basic information; teaching qualifications; statement about teaching. This is going to help me because when I am sifting through the applications. I may not have to go to the second page with some applicants.
The work and education history is all on one sheet. It is going to tell us a lot about our applicants if they can get this right. I don’t believe in holding people’s hands too much in this: let them tell us what they want to. If it is incoherent babble that is good from our perspective as we want to know what they can do without guidance. That is why I leave “detail” vague.
The last page is the one that convinces me least. I think it might be better to have one signature and tick boxes, but I am uncertain. Since we will not ask for the Criminal Record Check until after they have been appointed, perhaps we can even leave this off here.
You can see that there are some things that need to be discussed on Wednesday.
The idea this week is to have a spontaneous chat about this version and then edit it, so you can see what the process is in our thinking. I have a feeling we are going to disagree about some things because Leonard tends to like more detail and I like brevity.
In any event this Application Draft will definitely change. How? How much ?
You can only find out by tuning in: see you then!
