Resume Gaps
There are numerous legitimate reasons for employment gaps and assuming you did not spend your time as a couch potato watching TV, you should not be afraid to explain what the reasons were. Read more
After 18 months with the company Kate was called into a meeting room to have a discussion with the department manager, who she had hardly spoken to since she joined the business as a Marketing Assistant. Strangely there was also a member of the HR team.
You are happy with work and you get one of those ‘out of the blue’ calls from a recruiter. Your instinct kicks in and you ask yourself, why you should answer the call?
I know how you feel and I understand. I also share your careful approach but I suggest that you take a more open approach to these calls.
Documents such as your beautifully crafted resume and other portfolio items definitely matter, but what can really land the job for you and knock out other candidates is ‘style’. We all know that every candidate is different but the ways in which most decision makers discover and select ‘winning’ applicants are strikingly simple and similar. Read more
Guest Editor : Allan Sparkes CV, VA– Inspirational Speaker, Author – The Cost of Bravery
Job Seeking is a very lonely affair. Isolation, loneliness and depression are common side effects of a job seeker’s day, particularly for those candidates who have been on the hunt for more than 6 months. I regularly receive personal emails from Job Seekers who ask me to address this unspoken and uncomfortable subject in my blog.
I am very honoured and proud to introduce you to an expert in this area, a real Australian hero and Ambassador for www.beyondblue.org.
Allan Sparkes offers great insight, advice and encouragement on adversity and his guest contribution is far better than anything I could ever pen for you. I encourage you to read his guest blog post and his book, and if you find this contribution valuable or if you know of a friend or co-worker who is suffering from depression or adversity as a result of recent job loss, please share it. Read more
Developing a strong professional network has always been an important and powerful strategy used by effective job seekers in all fields. Networking is often the No. 1 missing tool in a job seekers toolbox, and this is even more true with ‘mature age’ candidates in the Age Group 45-55. This group often started their networking activities too late in their career or haven’t adapted to new ways of networking.
So, what do you do when your number of network contacts is low and which solution do you turn to when your attempts to reach out for new network contacts fall on deaf ears? How do you deal with 7 or more months of unemployment and 100s of unanswered applications resulting in zero or near zero job interviews? Read more
by Guest Editor Scott Butler, Butler HR
Industry trends, such as big data and cloud computing, crowd–sourcing and all the other new buzz word solutions have arrived for a while now and regional and rural areas are not immune to the effects at an enterprise or small – medium business level. These effects are fuelling the demand for IT skills, sales & marketing skills and many other specialised trade skills. While these trends have been on the horizon for some time, most businesses have failed to plan ahead and hire in advance. Read more
Thursday morning 10am last week, I get a call from my Recruiter at Drake Recruiting, asking me, “Are we still on for 6 pm?” My heart sank for a moment as I thought I might have missed an uber important interview but as it turns out it was a reminder for a networking event at 6pm in the Sydney CBD. Phew, lucky me. I am keen to attend so I confirmed, not mentioning that I had actually forgotten to enter his invitation in my calendar. I assure you this sort of glitch usually does not happen to me as I tend to be organised.
So, I left a bit early to join the networking event and arrived to meet an impressive line-up of Sydney Start-Up companies. Read more
Have you heard this one before? Don’t tell me how to suck eggs!
If you live in Australia, then I’m sure you’ve heard it and maybe even experienced it first-hand.
Employees, work mates, peers or friends who tell you that, are really saying they don’t care for your advice.
But, they would like you to help or they wouldn’t have asked in the first place!
They usually have a valid point, since advice is often not delivered properly. There are endless examples of managers and executives who do not know their staff and therefore do not know about their strengths and weaknesses. There are also tonnes of experts, forums and online portals which prefer to post generic–type advice and information instead of really helping their audience to work out issues or problems.
The same applies to people looking for a career change or new work. Job Seekers don’t need intervention and help from content providers or experts who live and work in countries which have no relationship to their situation. What Job Seekers want is tangible solutions and good direction. I found some of that for you – if you are a Job Seeker and if you are interested, that is…
I’m as confused as you are when it comes to all the “generation” labels. What exactly do they mean and why would they matter in my job seeking pursuit?
Let me tell you. It pays to know your X from your Y from your Z. You should try to find out who you are dealing with before you interview. This is easily done by looking up their LinkedIn or Facebook profile. Once done, prepare yourself and you can aim and market yourself more effective in your upcoming interview.
Before we can market ourselves effectively, we have to learn our XYZs. As a Job Seeker, you are a marketer and have to communicate to these very different groups. One style, message or medium will rarely cover them all. Here is a brief summary of these generations and their communication styles, collated from my own experiences or from content written by wise guys like Ray Beatty, a very witty Fairfax Journo.
But let’s start with a general generational overview first:
In the press or on TV, experts blithely talk about “Gen X”, “Gen Y”, and “Gen Z” as if we automatically know what they mean. In fact, no one has an exact definition but this comes close.
Let’s start with the “Builders”, the “Silent Generation” or the “War Babies”. They came from the Depression and World War II and grew up at a time when unemployment meant hunger and working in any job was essentially a job for life. In marketing terms they are seen as conservative and security-conscious. Their numbers are dwindling. Read more
