Assuming that you are applying for an advertised vacancy, reading through the advertisement to gain a thorough understanding of what the role involves, which skills, experience and qualifications are required and the type of person that the recruiter is looking for will in itself take more than a few minutes. If, at this stage, the job appears to be of interest, you would then want to know something about the company, its background, its culture.
You will have to submit an electronic version of your resume, as well as have a traditional one ready. This requires that you identify relevant key skills to insert into your document
With all the information that you have gathered, you now need to decide on the best format to present your qualifications, skills, experience and achievements
You need to spend time and not hurry up things so that your application is going to stand out from the hundreds or thousands of others. Quantity is not what counts in a job search, quality is what matters the most.
