Webinar Summary and Recording
What are top 1% candidates doing differently in CVs and written applications to consistently receive interview invites in education, public sector, charity and university recruitment?
Career Coach Farrah Morgan guides a practical masterclass on writing stronger CVs and criteria-based applications for early career professionals in the public sector and education, with proven techniques, safe AI prompts to boost quality, and Q&A.
Why Most Applications Get Rejected
There’s a common belief that can hold candidates back, that getting hired is simply about being the best candidate.
Many people assume success comes from having the most prestigious degree, the most experience, or sounding the most intelligent.
That’s not what gets you hired.
What makes the difference is being the best communicator. Clear, concise, and evidence-based applications help hiring managers quickly understand your value.
5 Behaviours of Top 1% Candidates
Laser Clear Writing
Farrah highlights that the average candidate will write long sentences, use an academic tone, complex wording and vague phrasing.
Writing in this style sabotages you, as it makes it harder for the employer to read and understand your application.
Hiring managers have limited time; reading applications is rarely their entire job, so they do not have much time or brain power to dedicate to reviewing applications.
Therefore, making your application as easy to read and understand is key.
This is what the top 1% of candidates are doing.
They are using direct language that is easy to understand and using examples to back up their skills.
Farrah compares two example paragraphs and highlights how the top candidate is not a huge deviation from the average, but it is using clear and exact writing and shows quantifiable evidence.
Criteria First
Many public sector and civil service roles use criteria-based recruitment.
Hiring managers review applications to check whether candidates meet specific essential and desirable criteria.
A common mistake average candidates make is writing about what they want to highlight and only trying to link it back to the criteria afterwards, or sometimes not linking it at all.
Top candidates take the opposite approach.
Farrah compares two examples, one starts with ‘During my master’s degree in…’ while the other ‘I have the necessary skills…as evidenced by my master’s degree’.
The top candidate starts by identifying exactly what the employer is looking for. They review the essential and desirable criteria and then map their application directly to those requirements.
Rather than vaguely paraphrasing parts of the job specification, top candidates mirror the language of the criteria, so it is clear they understand what the recruiter is looking for.
Undeniable Evidence
Making vague claims is a mistake average candidates make, saying they have certain skills with no evidence to back them up.
A top candidate will give qualifiable evidence with specific examples.
For example, instead of just saying ‘I support events and activities’, be specific in the type of events, who they are for, how many you have done and how many attendees.
Think of the questions a hiring manager might be asking themselves and answer them, making it clear and easy for them.
Everyone has qualifiable evidence, whether it is the number of customers, projects completed, or services provided.
Solid Structure
Farrah draws on her time as a hiring manager and cites that the biggest difference between an average candidate and a top 1% candidate is how intentional they are with their use of structure.
A common issue in applications is what Farrah described as ‘paragraph fatigue’. This happens when the structure of the writing feels random or unbalanced.
For example, one paragraph might contain only two short sentences while the next runs for eight or more, with no clear indication of what each paragraph is meant to achieve.
When paragraphs lack structure or purpose, the hiring manager has to work harder to follow the argument.
Each paragraph in an application should perform one clear job. It should focus on a single idea and answer one specific question, linking to a particular requirement from the job criteria.
Relevant CVs
Farrah’s advice for CVs is to be strategic.
The biggest mistake she sees is candidates documenting every role they’ve had and not choosing the roles most relevant to the job.
No matter your experience or how long you have been working, a CV should not be more than 2 pages for a professional services role.
Pick 3-4 experiences that are relevant to the job.
If your degree is relevant to the job, expand on it. Treat it like a work experience on your CV.
Using AI Safely
If you are going to use AI, do it right.
Do not give all your thoughts to AI and ask it to write an application based on that.
Hiring managers can spot AI-generated applications immediately, so instead of AI being your writer, it can be your checker.
Farrah provides three prompts that ask the AI to check your application to make sure you are criteria first, providing explicit evidence and have clear writing and structure.
This way, your personal writing style is not being altered, but instead, you are shown areas for improvement that you can write yourself and avoid generating ‘AI slop’ that a recruiter will see through in seconds.
Q&A
Are all job ads real? How can we spot a fake ad and avoid it?
What are some strategies for submitting an application with a limited word count?
How serious is ageism in the job market?
If a job application is different to your LinkedIn profile, will this affect shortlisting?
How to get past AI scanners?
Meet the Host
Farrah Morgan
Farrah (The Grad Coach 🎓) is an ex-hiring manager for a Times Top 100 Graduate Employer and seasoned careers coach for students & graduates.
Since becoming The Grad Coach in 2021, she has worked with 200+ young professionals 1:1 and 4000+ more within online webinars and her job search community, Career Launch Club.
Her support has landed clients final stage invites and offers from 42% of Times Top 100 Graduate Employers and generated approximately £3.7 million in starting salaries.
She is also an accredited psychological coach and alumnus of the University of Warwick (Theatre and Performance 2013-16)
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