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to people with life-disrupting problems |
Job Application Process
Introduction
When it works right, the application process for jobs at Crisis Centre Ministries goes like this.
- We draw up a Job Description and Person Description, and advertise the post.
- Anyone who is interested is sent a Job Application Pack with the details of the job and an application form. All the personal details go on the front page of the form, which is removed before the form is considered.
- If you download a copy of the application form from our web site, please contact the CCM office by phone or email and ask for an Application Reference, which should be written on the top of the first page. The forms we send out will already have this filled in.
- Potential applicants are invited to come in for an informal chat if they would like. This enables them to find out more about the job and about us, which helps to level the playing field between the applicants we know and those we do not yet know.
- When application forms arrive, they are acknowledged.
- On, or just after the advertised date, the application forms (without the front sheet) are reviewed by a group including at least one member of staff and one trustee, and a shortlist of candidates is drawn up. The shortlist is undertaken purely on the basis of what is written (and not written!) on the application form.
- Applicants who are not shortlisted are notified. The successful applicants are invited to interview, and their references are taken up.
- Before the interviews, an agreed set of questions is drawn up, so that each candidate is asked the same things. We may also ask the candidates to do a short practical test, to measure how they perform in one of the essential aspects of the job.
- The interview panel is given the application forms and the candidates' names, but no other information from the front sheet.
- After all the interviews are complete, a decision is reached. The successful candidate is contacted, usually by telephone. When they have verbally accepted the job offer, a letter is sent out to confirm the offer in writing, and letters also go out to the other candidates to let them know they were unsuccessful. If asked, we try to provide the unsuccessful candidates with helpful feedback at this stage.
Further Details
If you are interested in applying to us for an advertised post, please note the process described above.
If you are applying for more than one job with us, please fill in one application form for each job. We consider the applications for each post in turn, and we look for different skills and experience with each job.
If there is not sufficient space of the form, please feel free to continue your answer on an another sheet of paper. Please copy the Application Reference from the top of the form onto each continuation sheet.
If you want to be shortlisted, you need to show that you have read the documents we sent. If we say that a skill is essential, tell us you have it. People submit job applications when they do not meet the essential criteria, and if you say nothing, we cannot tell if you are one of them. So, please say what we need to hear - and say it as briefly as possible. Being long-winded is rarely a trait we are looking for.
Similarly, if you want to be shortlisted, you need to show that you are the sort of person we are looking for. So don't say "I can manage volunteers" - instead, say how many volunteers you managed, and when; describe what the volunteers did, and how you helped them to do it; describe the difference you made in that situation.
Applicants often say things like "I was involved with..." or "I was a part of..." This is interesting, but not very helpful. Please tell us the nature of your involvement: were you running the project, or making the teas? (Or both?) We are less interested in the details of the project, and more interested in what were you responsible for and what you accomplished. This may feel uncomfortably like boasting, but we need to know the facts if we are to come to a fair decision - and we can only compare the applications on the basis of what you tell us.
Most applicants manage to say that they can do (or have done) the work identified in the Job Description, and meet the requirements of the Person Description. This is rarely sufficient. We are looking for evidence to back up such claims. Even if we know you, you must include the evidence in your application, for three reasons:
- We will remove your personal details before the shortlisting begins, so we will not know that this is your application.
- The people involved in the shortlisting process may well not know who you are, even if many other people know you well.
- We often have both 'internal' and 'external' candidates for jobs, and this is the only way to provide a system which is as fair as possible to everyone involved.