The news coming from the government and the broadsheet papers for the last six months or so has been that the UK economy is finally, decisively dragging its way out of recession and is enjoying solid and steady growth. That can only be a good thing for all of us, though it’s especially welcome news to young people who’ve been having no luck when it’s come to applying for a job. After years of very limited job prospects through no fault of their own, it could finally be that we’re going to see more vacancies in the coming months, and with a bit of luck the youth unemployment figures tumbling.

However, there’s a world of difference between the economic picture getting a bit less bleak and there being such an abundance of jobs that employers are willing to hire just anyone. The job market is still highly competitive, and that means that you simply can’t afford to sabotage your chances of getting an interview or being offered a position by making silly little mistakes.

Here are the top three things that any young person applying for a job needs to do before hitting the send button on that application email or employment site.

1) Check your CV and cover letter for mistakes and typos

We all know that making a CV is a real pain because of the fiddly formatting involved in the process. And because it’s often the last thing you do before you complete applying for a job, writing a cover letter ends up feeling like an obstacle that you want to get beyond as quickly as possible.

But at this stage of applying for a job and until you are invited to interview, these two documents will likely be all that your employer knows about you. And so it’s essential to get them perfect. Little spelling mistakes and missing full stops might not seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but to many employers they suggest that the position was not sufficiently important to you for you to double check for small mistakes.

And sometimes these little mistakes can be real clangers. Write your email address or phone number incorrectly, for example, and you could miss out on that vital message inviting you to interview. And spelling the name of the person your cover letter is addressed to makes the very worst possible first impression.

2) Check the job ad again to make sure all instructions have been followed

Applying for a job in theory should just be a simple question of sending off a CV and a cover letter. However, in practice each job has procedural requirements that differ ever so slightly. Some employers will want the names of referees to be written on the CV; others will request that CVs only be sent in PDF format.

Again, these things might not seem like they are particularly important, but think of it this way: when you hire someone, you’re going to want them to follow the instructions you give them precisely. So if they can’t even follow the instructions for applying for a job correctly, why should you believe they’ll be able to follow instructions once you’ve hired them?

3) Check your social network settings

The person who is denied or loses employment on the back of an ill-advised tweet, shared photo or status updated has almost become a clich in these times. We hear comedic stories of such occurrences almost every week in the news. Rather than just being entertaining, however, these stories should serve as a warning for the job seeker. After all, what’s stopping a potential employer putting your name into Google and finding your Twitter or Facebook account?

The answer is nothing, and unless you have the most squeaky clean of Facebook profiles–no photos of you out on the town, nor naughty words contained in any of your status updates–you’d be better off making sure that all of your social networking is protected from prying eyes. It may seem unreasonable for an employer to expect you not to publicly display a more exuberant side, but hey: Do you want a job or not?