Sometimes the job application is truly frustrating. You see a job posting on an online job board. Not only do you have to cut and paste your CV into their little box (or upload, as the case may be), but you have to go offsite to fill in their automated application. The frustration comes in knowing it is the same exact information you’ve already included in your CV. If you are trying to make 10 or 20 applications each day, this can frustrate the submission goals you have set for yourself. And, let’s face it, it becomes redundant and tiresome.

After a while, our application process breaks down and becomes shoddy. Failed to capitalise your street address? Who cares – they will know what you mean. Tired of listing out all of your numerous job duties? The list gets shorter and even less relevant as you submit more and more applications.

Eventually, redundancy and frustration lead to shoddy applications. I understand that it is difficult to take the application fill-in process seriously; after all, you have a beautifully scripted CV to submit that accurately and concisely presents the information in a manner YOU want the employer to see it. Applications do not do that. Sometimes, applications even ask questions you don’t want to answer on paper or online.

However, you must take this part of the job hunting process seriously. Firstly, if you are working with a paper application, sloppy penmanship that is illegible simply begs a poor first impression. If you skip answers, or fail to include relevant information, it only draws attention to the omission in the employer’s mind. They immediately think you are hiding something.

Second, for online applications, some employers use this to run through a program to check for qualifications that may get you to the next step of the process. If you get sloppy or don’t include the right information – all of it – you may get booted out of the system and the employer will never get a chance to see your stylish CV.

Submitting a sloppy application, in whatever form, tells the screener that you don’t care enough about the position for which you are applying to take the time to give them all of the information they need to make an appropriate determination of your fit with that job. That is a bad message to send to someone from whom you wish to obtain a job.