How to make and then follow up an online application for a social care job

If you’re not familiar with applying for social care jobs online, then here are some handy hints about how you can get the most out of online job adverts and following up your application. 

Applying for social care jobs online has become the most common way of submitting your application, very rarely will you fill in an application on paper anymore.

With the advent of so many different sites providing jobs and online application services, it can be difficult to understand how it all works and how to get the most out of it.

Socialcare.co.uk has been designed to be simple to use, easy to understand and above all, tailored around you the candidate.

In this article I’m going to talk you through how online applications work and how to follow up sent applications.

These points might seem a little simplified for those of you who are very familiar using the internet, but if you’re new to applying for social care jobs online this article will help you.

Registering your candidate profile

The first thing you need to do is create your candidate profile.

On every job board in the health and social care sector, and probably on every job board in the whole world, each candidate has their own career profile.

You need this in order to apply for social care jobs on that particular site.

When you sign up you will be asked for details including your name, address, postcode, professional registration (if appropriate) and career history.

This may seem like a lot of information to disclose, but if you skip entering info about your current role, education and qualifications, it could jeopardise your application.

Searching for a job

Once you’ve got your candidate profile completed and you’ve uploaded your CV, you’re all set to start looking for social care jobs to apply for.

You can browse a whole industry sector if you’re looking for a type of position in any location, or you can search specifically for a social care job in your local area.

Using keywords in a targeted search will help you get the most relevant results first. Use words such as “Social Worker Southampton” or “Learning Disabilities Support Worker Leicester”.

You may get only a handful of results, but by searching this way you will be presented with a list of jobs relevant to your requirements.

Applying for a job

When you’ve made up your mind which jobs you want to apply for, and I would recommend making not more than 5 applications at any one time, you can send off your application in just a couple of clicks.

That’s why it’s so important your career profile in the candidate area is not only accurately completed but up to date at all times.

As soon as you have a job you want to apply for open on the screen, you simply click the apply now button underneath the job description.

If you’re logged in, a box will appear just below the button you clicked and it will ask you to write a cover letter (if you’re not logged in you will be prompted to do so and then returned to this point).

Writing a cover letter is not a requirement, but I highly recommend it in order to get your application noticed.

For a more detailed look at how to write a cover letter, check out this article on our sister site Nurses.co.uk ' A good cover letter can make or break your nursing job application '.

Once you’ve entered your cover letter and you’re happy that everything is checked and ready to go, you can click submit.

This action will automatically send your CV, career profile, contact details and covering letter to the social care recruiter that posted the job.

It doesn't just go to the company that’s advertised the role, it goes directly into the inbox of the person recruiting for that vacancy.

That’s why it’s so important to make sure your application looks as good as it possibly can.

You will also be sent a copy of the email so you can see what your application looks like to the recruiter.

Following up an application

Applying online has its advantages but unfortunately it has also made it easier for people who want to apply for social care jobs without putting any effort into their application or CV.

Recruiters can quickly spot those people that aren’t really interested or are ineligible for the role (eg. not professionally registered), but sometimes they miss the genuine applicants when filtering out those that are not.

If you haven’t heard anything within 7 days, you are welcome to follow up your application directly with the recruiter.

Not only does this show you are a keen candidate actively looking for a job, it also shows you understand how the online recruitments process works.

In order to find out the contact details for the recruiter that received your application, look at the copy of the email you received when you applied.

In the address bar will be the email address of the recruiter and their name. You can use this email address to contact them directly or to look up a company phone number if prefer to call.

And that’s all there is to it.

You can use social care job websites to your advantage once you know how they work and how to get the best out of them.

To start browsing for social care jobs, follow this link or to search for social care jobs, follow this link.