German unemployment has reached 5.2 million, a postwar record. Yet the application process in Germany is much the same as it has ever been, requiring jobseekers to traverse a minefield of format and formality. Knowing what employers expect and how to set oneself apart from the pack is key.

That makes the Klaus Resch Verlag survey a timely tool for the thousands of new university graduates setting out to tackle Germany’s increasingly tough job market. The survey polled over 1,700 recent university graduates about how they go about the application process and how much of it they accomplish online. It also asked hiring managers general questions about how they analyze applications.

Unsurprisingly, IT graduates send the most online applications, but the practice has been gaining acceptance and popularity among young liberal arts graduates as well. These days, one-third of liberal arts graduates send applications online.

The average German jobseeker sends an average of 45 applications before finding success, with engineers sending the fewest number of applications and business, liberal arts and IT graduates sending the most.

German applicants spend an average of one hour compiling each application, a thick portfolio which usually consists of a resume, letters of recommendation, references and a photo. While IT specialists are quicker, spending only 45 minutes per application package, human resource managers take just two to five minutes to determine an applicant’s hireability, making it clear how important a concise and error-free resume can be.

Over half of German hiring managers feel that online applications do not meet the standards needed to pick the right person for the right job. They cite problems with internet applications such as bad formatting, too much data, too much detail and badly structured resumes.

Their concerns about shoddy applications are not unfounded. Every fifth application that German employers receive has spelling errors, and every other one is incomplete. Hiring managers also complained about cut-and-paste applications that are sent in mass to several companies instead of finely cut for each individual position.

Even the applicants agree that they are less concise and less fastidious when creating an online application. In fact, 41% of the recent graduates admitted to not taking online applications as seriously as formal paper applications.