Your job search, from finding a vacancy to following up

Where to look

Use a few trusted sources and check them regularly. The National Careers Service lists the main ones:

• The government’s Find a job service for England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own service.
• Find an apprenticeship for apprenticeships in England.
• Employers’ own websites. Many shops, cafés, councils, hospitals and larger companies advertise on a careers page first. Follow the ones you like on social media too.
• Job boards and recruitment agencies. Agencies can put you forward for jobs that aren’t advertised. You can register with more than one.
• Local places: your council website, job fairs, college careers staff, and notices in shop windows.
• Asking directly. For small local businesses, a polite email or visit with your CV (a speculative application) can work. Pick a quiet time, not lunchtime in a café.

Research the employer in ten minutes

You don’t need hours. Ten minutes gives you enough to tailor your application and something to say if they ask “why us?”

Online application forms

Some employers use a form instead of a CV. Before you start, have your dates of study, qualifications, any work history and your referees’ details ready. Then:

• Read every instruction, including word limits. Stick to them.
• Write long answers somewhere else first (a notes app or document), then paste them in. Forms can time out and lose your work.
• Use the advert’s words in your answers where they’re true for you, and give examples from school, work, volunteering or hobbies.
• Proofread, then keep a copy of your answers. You’ll want them before an interview.

Keep track of everything

After ten applications it’s easy to forget which job was which. A simple tracker solves it: the employer, the role, the date you applied, the closing date, what you sent, any reply and the next step. Use our free application tracker, which you can download as a spreadsheet or print. It stores nothing online.

Spotting a fake job

Most vacancies are genuine, but recruitment scams exist, and young people applying for their first jobs can be targeted. JobsAware, a free service that helps workers, lists warning signs including:

• A job you never applied for turns up by email or message.
• Promises of getting rich quickly.
• Very high pay for part-time hours or little work.
• A request for money up front, for training, a uniform, a DBS check, a “starter kit” or anything else.

As JobsAware puts it, a professional employer or agency won’t ask you for money to work for them.

Here’s an original example of the kind of message to be wary of:

The warning signs: you didn’t apply, the pay is unusually high for the hours and experience, the conversation moves to a messaging app, and there’s a fee.

Following up

If the advert or the employer gave a date, wait until it has passed. If they didn’t, waiting about a week or two after the closing date is a reasonable rule of thumb, though there’s no fixed rule. Then send one short, polite email asking whether there’s an update. There’s a ready-made follow-up in our email templates.

One follow-up is enough. If you hear nothing after that, put your energy into the next application.

When you hear nothing

Silence is common and frustrating. It usually says more about how busy a company is, or how many people applied, than about you. Some employers only contact people they want to interview.

Use silence as a cue to check your approach, not to blame yourself. If you’ve sent ten or more applications with no response, look again at whether each one was tailored to the advert, whether the essentials were easy to spot on your CV, and whether you followed the how to apply instructions.