Application forms ^not^ CV's

Teaching requires a form filled in and a covering letter. on the other hand, members of my family have been asked to attend for interview on the strength of the CV that they post online.

Yes, horses for courses, some job ads asked for CVs, and they are a good way of sitting down and analysing ones skill set and competencies, but if a company says it wants you to complete an application form that is what you do.

Many application forms are designed so that information that is known to be treated prejudicially when applying for a job are kept until the end so that race, age etc are hidden and the job applicant is judged ontheir skills and presentation before these aspects are looked ay.

To insist on sending a CV when an application form is requested shows an arrogance and unwillingness to work with other people that would lead to the CV going straight on the reject heap.

The law firms I worked with always wanted a CV and covering letter. It was important to see not only what qualifications and experience candidates had, but their ability to prepare a CV and draft a letter well. A sector where thinking for yourself rather than form filling is important at all levels.

CVs allow the applicant to control the narrative, and are also useful for speculative applications and for employers who have neither HR departments nor enough staff to warrant the production of tailored application forms.

I think that encouraging people to complete a standard application form in the best way to showcase their skills is a good idea, but given the choice between submitting a CV or an AF, I would go for the former.

If the applicants for these jobs you mention are anything like some of the students I taught in university then they were semi-literate by my standards. Im not speaking about the odd missed apostrophe here. Rather of basic spelling and grammar and ability to describe simple things. I was ticked off for marking too strictly. And this was back in the '90s so I shudder to think of job applicants now with todays inflated grades.

M0nica that's very common in my sector and yet I've heard of several people who are getting support because they are facing redundancy / have recently lost their jobs and the support focus is around CV writing and/or updating.

Personally, I think talking people through the STAR approach to structure answers and explaining how to deal with competency based questions in an interview would serve so many people better.

In my distant working days, companies made it clear, that if you wanted to apply for a job and they wanted you to fill in an application form for it, that was what you did. you were told CVs were not acceptable. If you did not fill in the form, you would not be considered for the post.