Submitted by kefka95 on
in
Forums
Many companies now use online applications almost exclusively for hiring, with a chance to attach a resume/cover letter at the end. These applications usually contain some sort of "work history" section that you have to fill out, which usually boils down to retyping your resume from scratch.
When you get to the "Responsibilities" field, should this basically be a copy/paste job from your resume? Are they looking for "responsibilities" as it says, or is it better to list "accomplishments"? Keep in mind these fields often have fairly restrictive character limitations.
There is also usually some sort of "why should we hire you" field. This strikes me as a cover letter kind of question, but again, character limitations often limit you to maybe a few sentences. Is there a "correct" way to handle these?
For those of you who actually do the hiring, do you actually look at this part of the application, or is it more of an "information for the database" kind of thing? I hope that people are looking at my actual resume/cover letter and not the abbreviated "website" version.
Questions about online applications
We have databases of the sort you describe; and a copy/paste is just fine for us.
We use it to keyword search the database when we have openings to enlarge the applicant pool. So, if key skills are mentioned in a job description, make sure they show up in your application!
I will also warn you to avoid excessive formatting when you copy--I've seen what comes out at the other end of the database for several different corporations, and it's not pretty.