In the IT industry, the ‘opportunity phase’ is where a project is most often lost. In this phase each bidding company details its solution, scope, management of solution and resources. And it is pretty easy to draw some striking parallels between this stage and applying for a job.

An employee is a solution
Organisations post job adverts because they need a solution to a problem, just like in IT. Many applicants fail to grasp the opportunity to present themselves in an interview because they are not able to present their ‘solution’ clearly – i.e themselves through their CV.

Jobseekers also tend to fail to ‘scope’ themselves correctly – they lack a precise explanation in their application of how they are going to provide a solution to the problem the company has.

Even if the precise problem is not explored in depth in the job advert, the way to do that in your application is to draw on previous experience – this is also what big companies do. They mention previous clients and implementations.

Graduates can make the grade
If you are a recent graduate, you might feel puzzled. After all, you don’t have any previous experience, so how are you going to negotiate the opportunity phase?
First off, in the job advert you need to find the key sentence and from there manage your scope – understand what the company needs and try to mirror its needs through your profile.

It is all about the quality assurance you can make in your application – confirming that you delivered with high expertise in your course studies and projects. Also include as well your final thesis project as one of your learning tools!

Numbers matter
Understand that, to be convincing, numbers matter – quantify your results according to the total years of experience, solved projects, good grades or simply successful project work.

Last, but not least, ‘talk to the team’ – reach out to the people listed in the job ad and try to find out more about the effective results they are looking for.