--- name: job-application-experience type: experience journey: customer persona: Candidate (52), career changer, blind domain: Employment · recruitment technology: Responsive web core: "1.0" description: "Experience skill: Applying for a job with screening questions — the best-practice customer journey for a candidate (52), career changer, blind in Employment · recruitment on Responsive web. Use when designing, building, reviewing or writing copy for any step of this journey. Brand-agnostic: pair with any Celestial design skill for the look. Also use it for decks, research readouts, specs and documents about this journey. Outputs: PowerPoint / Keynote / Google Slides decks, Word and Google Docs documents, PDF reports, emails, social posts, charts and diagrams." --- # Applying for a job with screening questions A candidate applies with their CV, answers job-related screening questions, asks for adjustments, and gets honest status updates until a decision. **Outcome** — A candidate submits an application in under 15 minutes and receives a status update at every stage, with no application left without an outcome after 30 days. This skill says *what happens and in what order*. It never specifies colour, type or spacing: describe screens as compositions of Celestial core v1.0 components and patterns, and let the active design skill render them. --- ## Persona — Yusuf, Candidate (52), career changer, blind > “Tell me what you need, let my screen reader read the form, and tell me if it's a no.” Spent 20 years in logistics; retrained in data analysis and is applying for junior analyst roles. **Goals** - Apply without re-typing his whole CV - Request adjustments for interviews - Hear back, even if it's a rejection **Pains** - Upload widgets that don't work with a screen reader - Timed screening tests with no adjustment option - Applications that disappear with no reply **Behaviours** - Uses a screen reader on a laptop - Keeps a master CV and tailors a cover letter - Tracks applications in a spreadsheet **Access needs** - Screen reader — every field labelled and errors announced - Needs extra time on any timed assessment --- ## Domain — Employment · recruitment - Screening questions must relate to the job's stated requirements; never ask about age, disability, religion, family status or other protected characteristics - Equality monitoring is optional, kept separate from the application, and never seen by the hiring panel - Candidates can request reasonable adjustments at any stage, and asking never affects the decision - Where automated screening is used, tell candidates and offer human review (GDPR Article 22) - State how long candidate data is kept and delete it at the end of that period Vocabulary to use: `application`, `CV`, `screening question`, `reasonable adjustment`, `shortlist`, `offer` ## Technology — Responsive web Inputs: Keyboard, Screen reader, File upload, Touch - CV parsing for PDF and DOCX up to 5 MB, always editable after - No time limits on screening questions; timed tests have an adjustment route - Status changes trigger email within 1 hour --- ## Journey (6 steps) | # | Step | Goal | Compose with | Copy | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | **Role** | Understand the job, pay and process before applying | `detail` | “4 stages · about 3 weeks · £28,000–£32,000” | | 2 | **Your CV** | Add a CV and check what was read from it | `form` | “We've filled in your work history from your CV. Check it's right” | | 3 | **Questions** | Answer screening questions tied to the role | `form + chips` | “Have you used SQL to answer a business question? Tell us about one example” | | 4 | **Adjustments** | Ask for support for the next stages | `form` | “Is there anything that would help you at interview?” | | 5 | **Submit** | Check and send the application | `confirmation` | “Application sent. We'll update you by Friday 7 November” | | 6 | **Status** | Follow progress until a decision | `inbox` | “Your application has moved to interview” | ### 1. Role - Salary range, location and stages listed up front - Requirements split into essential and nice to have ### 2. Your CV - Upload is a real file input with a label and keyboard access - Parsed fields shown for review; nothing submitted unseen - **error:** We couldn't read this file. Try a PDF or Word document - **loading:** Reading your CV… ### 3. Questions - Each question says which requirement it checks - Free-text answers show a word guide, not a hard cut-off ### 4. Adjustments - Optional and framed as normal - Examples given: extra time, captioned video, written questions in advance ### 5. Submit - Summary with edit links before sending - Confirms what happens next and by when ### 6. Status - Every stage change sent as a message with a date - Rejections are clear and kind, with feedback where possible - **empty:** No updates yet. We expect to review applications by 7 November --- ## Principles 1. Ask only what predicts success in the role 2. Show the whole process and pay before the first field 3. Never lose an answer or a parsed CV 4. Every application gets an outcome 5. Adjustments are easy to request and never penalised ## Do / Don't **Do** - Let candidates review and edit parsed CV data - Give a date for the next update - Keep equality monitoring separate and optional **Don't** - Ask for date of birth or graduation year to screen - Make candidates re-type what the CV already says - Leave applications in an unexplained “in review” state ## Accessibility - Meets WCAG 2.2 AA; file upload is a native, labelled control operable by keyboard - Errors announced and linked from a summary that receives focus (3.3.1, 4.1.3) - No time limits on form questions; any timed assessment can be extended (2.2.1) - Status updates readable as plain text emails, not image-only Core minimums always apply: 4.5:1 text, 3:1 UI and focus, visible focus on every control, 44px touch targets, no meaning by colour alone, reduced motion respected. ## Content and voice - Say what you need and why: “We ask this because the role involves daily reporting” - Rejection copy is direct and respectful: “We won't be taking your application further this time” - Avoid insider terms: “first interview” not “phone screen with TA” ## AI interactions - Optional: parse the CV into fields for the candidate to check and edit - Any ranking help for recruiters is advisory, explained to candidates, and every rejection is confirmed by a person ## Edge cases - Candidate withdraws — one action, confirmed, data handled per retention policy - Duplicate application to the same role — show the existing one instead - Role closes while candidate is mid-application — save their answers and explain - Candidate asks why they were rejected — route to a person with a response deadline - Screen reader user can't complete a third-party test — provide an alternative format --- ## Measures | Measure | Target | How | |---|---|---| | Application completion | ≥ 70% | Started → submitted | | Time to apply | < 15 min | Median, including CV review | | Applications with an outcome | 100% in 30 days | Applications with a final status / all received | | Adjustment requests met | ≥ 95% | Requests fulfilled before the stage they apply to | Research: Usability tests with screen reader and keyboard-only candidates; Bias review of screening questions with HR and legal; Candidate survey after outcome, including unsuccessful candidates. --- When building this journey: follow the steps in order, compose each screen from core components and patterns only, keep the persona's access needs and the domain rules non-negotiable, and take every visual value from the active design skill. ## Using this journey in other outputs - **Deck or readout**: one slide for the persona (name, role, quote, goals, pains), one per step (goal, screen, the principle that matters most, its error state), then measures with targets. 16:9. - **Spec or document**: a section per step with goal, screen composition, copy, states and acceptance criteria; principles and accessibility rules as a checklist at the end. - **Look and feel**: this skill is brand-agnostic. If a design skill is named or installed (e.g. "in Mars"), take every colour, font and shape from it; otherwise use plain neutral styling and say which design skill would apply.