The “Entry Sheet (ES)” is the first barrier to job hunting. When it comes to popular companies, thousands or even tens of thousands of ESs are submitted, and recruiters only have a few minutes (sometimes tens of seconds) to look through each one. In order to survive that fierce battle and advance to the interview, you need to ``devise ways to get people to read.’’ In this article, we will explain tips on how to write to dramatically increase your ES passing rate.

1. Understand the recruiter’s perspective

The cruel fact that you should know before writing your ES is that the hiring manager will not carefully read your writing from beginning to end. As they skim through the content, they instantly judge whether the text fits the image of the person their company is looking for and whether the text is logically structured. Therefore, it is an absolute requirement that the text be ``a text that allows you to understand the conclusion at a glance and that can be read without stress.’’**

2. Write from the conclusion (mastering the PREP method)

The golden rule of ES is to write using the PREP method (conclusion, reason, specific example, conclusion). Make sure to clearly state your answer (conclusion) to the question, especially in the first line.

• ❌ Bad example: “I belonged to a tennis club in college, and I was the vice president of the club. Our club was…
• ⭕️ Good example: “My strength is the ability to involve those around me and solve organizational issues. As vice president of a tennis club, I was able to utilize this strength through my experience of solving the problem of declining participation rates. (Conclusion).”

If you can clarify what you want to convey in the first sentence, the person in charge will be able to understand the rest of the story easily.

3. Episodes focus on “actions” and “thoughts”

When writing about what they put effort into during their student days, many students end up writing long explanations of the situation and great results. However, what companies want to know is “what difficulties you faced, how you thought, and how you acted (personality and reproducibility).”

• Explanation of the situation should be 20% of the total: Keep explanations such as “what kind of circle it is” and “how many people are in the organization” to a minimum.
• Write your thought process: Let’s verbalize your motivation'': Why did you decide to solve the problem?’’ ``Why did you choose that method?''
• Be specific about your actions: Instead of using abstract words such as We made an effort'' or We had a discussion,’’ write specifically, ``In order to bridge the gap in enthusiasm between beginners and experienced players, we have devised three new practice menus for each level.''

4. Focus on the company’s “desired persona”

No matter how great your experience is, if it doesn’t match the skills the company is looking for, it won’t be evaluated. For example, if you appeal to a venture company that is looking for “overwhelming action” by telling them that you “strictly followed the rules and completed paperwork without mistakes,” it will not resonate. It is important to understand the type of person you are looking for through the company’s website and visits to former employees, and then choose an anecdote from your past experience that best matches that (or appeal to them from a different perspective).

5. Elaboration and request to a third party

Be sure to leave the written ES overnight before rereading it yourself. By reading out loud, you can notice unnatural phrasing or redundant expressions. Furthermore, we strongly recommend that you have a third party, such as a friend, your university’s career center, or an alumnus, correct your application. Even if you think it’s perfect, there are many times when someone seeing it for the first time can’t understand your intentions.

Summary

An ES with a high passing rate is not one that contains strange writing or spectacular achievements, but rather one that is logical, easy to read, and that conveys the students' real-life effort and enthusiasm.'' Thoroughly adhere to the basics of writing from the conclusion,’’ writing concretely,'' and tailoring to the company,’’ and create an ES that will make the interviewer think, ``I want to meet this student directly and hear what he has to say!''