Imagine I’m a recruiter. Your application is a story. It’s your story; your one shot to convince me why I should pick you. Improve your writing and your story will be more interesting than 95% of candidates.
Contrary to what you might think, application writing isn’t about your mastery of vocabulary. In fact, forget most of what you learned through writing at university. You don’t need big words or complex sentences to show you’re smart. You show you’re smart by cutting out the fluff, because you don’t rely on buzzwords or repetition to make your points.
Be specific and direct. Make sure every sentence is there for a reason. If that means cutting down your 250-word answer into 100 words, so be it. If that’s possible, your answer didn’t have enough substance in the first place.
I don’t want to see essay-writing. It’s formal and distant. When I read your writing, I want to hear your voice. I want to get to know you through the way you tell your story. To get you there, it can help to imagine you’re writing to just one person.
I also want you to be authentic. You don’t need to write about your love for CDOs to convince me you want to be a commercial lawyer, nor do you need to tell me that my law firm is the best in the world. Impress me with clear, well-researched answers, not flattery.
