The three questions to answer before you apply anywhere

The most expensive habit in job seeking isn’t applying badly. It’s applying indiscriminately — spending an evening on a role you were never going to get, or worse, one you were never going to want. Before any application leaves your desk, make it answer three questions.

1. Can you actually get it?

Start with the hard gates: the non-negotiables the description states or implies — qualifications, certifications, location and work rights, years in role. If a hard gate is closed, no amount of cover-letter craft opens it, and an honest no now saves you a silent no in three weeks. Spend the evening on a winnable role instead.

2. Are you genuinely strong for it?

Clearing the gates isn’t the same as being competitive. Somewhere between two hundred other people are applying, and a handful will be squarely what the role asks for. Read the description like a scorecard: of its top five demands, how many can you evidence — with numbers, stories, proof? Two out of five is a long shot dressed as a maybe. Four out of five, with proof, is worth your best work.

Honest fit assessment isn’t pessimism. It’s how you decide where your best work is actually worth spending.

3. Is it actually right for you?

This is the question almost everyone skips, and it’s the one that prevents the worst outcome in job seeking — winning the wrong job. The commute, the culture signals in how they hire, the trajectory of the company, whether the work is the kind you want more of. Desperation shrinks this question; discipline keeps it alive. A role you’d resent in six months is not a win at any fit score.

What three yeses buy you

When a role clears all three, it deserves the full treatment — not a recycled CV. Mirror the language of the role. Lead with your most relevant proof. Cut everything that doesn’t serve this application. And critically: don’t just apply. Find the people connected to the role — the manager, the team, anyone who can walk your name in — because the person who gets it often isn’t the best applicant in the pile. They’re the one who was never only in the pile.