DCP Application Tips

Wow 3 posts in a week... who even am I?

Since applying, I joined the Facebook page and everyone is freaking out about being put in submission or being NLIC and they're so worried about it that they aren't applying. Tons of people are asking for tips on their application and since I've gotten a WBI every time I have applied, I thought I would share a few of my tips.

The biggest component of the application is your work experience, including responsibilities and skills. They only allow you to save 5 jobs so if you have more than that, pick the ones that are the most relevant to the program as well as the roles you want. If you're not sure what roles you want or what those roles require, here are all the descriptions.

Pick your top 3-5 roles and then determine what jobs feature skills that cross over with the responsibilities of those roles.

My best tip for your responsibilities and skills is to keep it short and concise as possible. A recruiter doesn't want to read a novel about your job at Baskin Robbins. Both your responsibilities and skills sections should be lists; short statements of 2-6 words separated by commas.

Here is what my responsibilities/skills page looks like. (I marked out where I worked because two of them are local and I'm not crazy about putting my location on the internet. Just know the bottom two are retail chains, the top one is a kids party venue and the first from the top is a juvenile court.)

Notice how I can fit it all in one screen for all four jobs because the lists for each job are not extremely extensive. I recommend keeping your skills to 1-2 word statements and keeping them as general as possible. So instead of "managing my time efficiently so I can complete a number of tasks" just leave it at "time efficiency" or just "efficiency". Remember - a computer is going to be scanning your application for certain words/phrases to determine if you will get a WBI or not. A computer doesn't care if you embellish something as simple as efficiency. 

I would also recommend not making anything specific to a group of people like children, students, etc. My most recent job caters completely to children, but notice how the word "children" is mentioned nowhere in my skills and only once in my responsibilities. By saying one of my skills is patience, you can assume that means patience with children, I don't have to explicitly state "patience with children".

So pretty much, the name of the game is GENERAL.

(Get it, cause he's a General? I crack myself up sometimes)

A lot of people suggest using "guest" instead of customer, and using the four keys: safety, courtesy, show, and capacity. But to be honest, I don't think that really makes a difference. I clearly said customer in my application and didn't use any of the four keys and still got a WBI every time. 

My most important tip is: don't stress! People overthink it and revise and revise and add too much detail that a recruiter that will likely just overlook. Just remember to be concise, be clear in what you did and how it helped you. 

Best of luck to everyone applying, I believe in you!

Thanks for reading, and have a magical day!

Kelly