You never know what you'll get and sometimes what you get is not what you expected. But you always start the same way… First, you screen out the ones that are obviously not good. Second, you look at the remaining ones and you pick a few. Third, you give it a try.

There are some basic lessons to learn from the above analogy. Form matters because it is the first thing recruiters will set their eyes on. In order to pass the first stage, an application has to be appealing and look professional.

Once the preliminary screening is done, recruiters go to the next stage of looking at the substance of the applications. If they like dark chocolate, they will choose them first. Too bad if you are vanilla! Concretely, this means that you have to meet the employer's requirements.

Last step can be either the most rewarding one or the most disappointing one. You taste the chocolate with high expectations since you think you did a good job screening out what you don't like. Some may be up to your expectations, some less, some not at all…

What is the lesson from all this? Writing good resumes or cover letters can help you get to the third stage, but if you don't have what the employer really wants, you won't get in… and you might get burnt at the interview. Alternatively, if you have what it takes, but cannot make your case, too bad, you just missed the boat! This doesn't mean that you have to be modest. It simply means that you have to look at the application process as a whole and be honest with yourself and the recruiter.

Whatever you write in your application, be sure you can back it up at the interview. Playing up expectations doesn't always help.