A Guide on How To Apply for Opportunities

Hi!

I decided to put up a little guide to applying for opportunities I did earlier this year.

All of this is totally my opinion! It is based on things that have worked for me so far and I think you may wish to try, so I am open to additions and subtractions, make sure to tweak and tweak to suit your opportunity needs. Let’s go!

2020 holds a lot of opportunities for us all and to enjoy those opportunities, we have to be intentional. So If you have not, it is time to sit down and create goals for this year.

Goals
Goals go a long way in defining how things end up. We all know our goals have to be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound so I will not bother to go over that, but in case you need a Goal setting template, please send me a message here bit.ly/OppTuesdaycommunity

So Why goals as regards opportunities?

Because I have realized that a lot of people apply for things that would not necessarily be of benefit to them. They just apply for anything they see and when they don’t get it, they feel dissapointed.

Not all opportunities are for you.

The hack is to align the things you apply for with your goals, passion and the future of work so you won’t make the wrong choices and waste time.

Set short term and long term goals, for short term goals, write out your passions and the things you would like to do/achieve within some months - 1 year, when applying for the next opportunity, ask yourself, will this help me achieve any of these?

For example - I want to increase my business client base from 50-150 by the end of the year. (It’s specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and is within a timeframe). A goal like this will require applying for enterprise development opportunities and probably internship opportunities at companies you would love to model your business after.

Same applies to long term goals. Think of where you want to be in 5 years and write down how you plan to get there, e.g. I want to work for a Fortune 500 company in 5 years time (make sure it’s SMART) or I would love to work at the African Union HQ in Addis ababa in 3 years... Then look out for opportunities that would propel you to achieving that.

That may be in form of graduating with a 1st class GPA, applying for opportunities in leadership, project management, earning an MBA and working for companies that can attest to your administrative capabilities when you eventually get the call.

Knowledge of an international language like French or Spanish, a game like chess, a sport like swimming, and simple things like knowing how to use fork and knife will also suffice, so we won’t disgrace ourselves when we get there, lol!🌚

2. Apply for the right reasons.

I find it appalling when I ask people why they are applying for stuff and they give reasons like 'I want to travel'

LOL, really? Don’t be a joke.

Please, Vanity is allowed, but it should not be a major reason, no. Think deeply, why am I doing this, is it for clout? is it for appraisal?
Somewhere in there, you should have a genuine reason, Look more deeply and you will find a more genuine reason that will subconsciously go a long way in what you write in your application essays.

For example

Reasons like "I have always wanted to be a Project Manager. I have always deeply admired people who have done this in the past and gone on to carry out better projects"

or

"The future of work is leaning towards project management skills/certifications/experience"

helps you understand WHY you need the opportunity and need to apply for the opportunity with patience and quality research.

Please apply for the right reasons.

3.Apply well.

Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Write good essays. I agree that not all of us have the gift of writing, but we have friends that do!

Look out for those gifted friends that can write extremely well, pour out your idea and whatever you want conveyed in the essay and ask them to construct it with excellent grammar and well expressed sentences.

You’ve seen those what you did and what you wrote on cv memes, they look exaggerated but that’s exactly how it is.

In 2019, I was blessed with the gift of people who had a sound mastery of words and could to edit the uneditable. They really went a long way in polishing my essay writing skills.

Another hack is sending your essays for reviews to trustworthy friends, people you look up to and particularly people who have gone through whatever program you’re applying for.

I have realized that there are hacks that apply to specific opportunities and if you do not seek them from people who have gone through it before, you might never win those opportunities.

So if you just write an application and don’t bother running it through 2 or 3 people that have gone through it before, you might not even get to the interview stage.

I personally always send my essays to 3 people to make necessary adjustments before I send them out.

4.Handle your rejections well.

Hmm this part, well, we all have rejection letters.

You didn’t know?

Haha!I have quite a number and honestly, they can be frustrating.

So now that you see that nobody is perfect and behind the wins there are some losses, please brace up to your next rejection letter and do not let it stop you from winning even better opportunities.

Don’t fear the word 'no’, instead let it be fuel to your fire to prompt you to push harder.

Random Hacks-

• We all know writing application essays can be realllyyy hard, lol! So whenever you write an essay for an application, save it up in your drive so you don’t lose it! You can be asked a similar question in another application and this will help you save time and effort it takes to write these things.
• Mark opportunities up in your calendar so you don't forget to apply!

I hope this helps you tremendously in applying for your next opportunity!Cheers to our future wins and losses😊.

Love,

Tolu.