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Digital Forensics Employment? Application Form Advice...

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(@dsmith)
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Are you a digital forensics graduate or experienced practitioner looking for employment opportunities? Not getting the "foot in the door" experience or opportunities? Have you had a good look at your application forms recently and do you think they are what an employer is looking for?

Please don't take the below advice as an insult but purely on the face value in which I offer it. You will find it useful, trust me!!

Job application forms

Many employers prefer application forms to CVs. Forms are easier to compare because, unlike CVs, they follow the identical format.

If you're filling in an application form, you'll still need to work out the best way to present your skills and experience. This is why completing an application form often takes just as much time and effort as writing a CV and covering letter. However, the more forms you fill in, the quicker you'll get at doing it.

Some jobs ask you to apply online, which you might not have done before. Read the instructions on the form very carefully and follow them. Taking it step by step and using the guides on this site will help you to give it your best shot.

Online application forms

If the form is online, draft your application offline first – in a word processing package like Word – and save it to your computer. This way you'll be able to run a spell check before you copy the information into the online system. It also means you'll have a back-up if there's a problem with the form.

More and more sites offer the option of storing your application online and coming back to it. If you do this in more than one sitting, keep a record of any usernames and passwords so that you can get back in.

Online forms can be longer and more complicated than paper forms – follow the instructions carefully and check how many screens you have to fill in before you can submit your application. Some employers will ask for a "personal statement".

If necessary, copy all the questions into an offline document – that way there’s no danger of submitting an incomplete application.

Personal statements

On many application forms you have to complete a section called ‘personal statement’. After you’ve filled in the sections on personal details, education and employment, this large, empty box is your chance to really impress a future employer, but…. it needs to be done right!

What’s the purpose of this section?

The form should include instructions, usually something like ‘please include any further information relevant to the person specification, such as which skills, knowledge and experience you have’.

The employer will have seen which qualifications and work experience you have in the previous sections on the form, so the purpose of this section is for you to show you’re motivated to do the job and that you have carefully considered why you feel you would be good at it.

How should I fill this section in?

You should provide answers for each of the points in the person specification or job description often referred to as essential criteria. You might like to present them one by one with a heading, so the person reading it can clearly see to which point you’re referring.

Why do I need to include examples?

It’s really important that you give examples because they provide clear evidence that you’ve got a skill and know how to apply it in real situations.

For example, instead of making a simple claim like, ‘I’m great with EnCase and I've done some good cases’, it would tell employers much more if you put, ‘I’ve used EnCase on a daily basis during my work experience for ABCD forensics, utilising a vast range of its features during the 100's of various digital investigation which I have conducted, for example a specific case being …..’.

 
Posted : 04/02/2015 2:15 am
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