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Informational Interviews Gateway to a new Job

Informational Interviews The Most Innovative Gateway To a New Job

Are you feeling lost? Do you feel like you’ve exhausted your job search strategies? If so, making a plan to set up informational interviews is a great way to start networking and secure a new job. Read more

resume hacks

5 Simple Resume Hacks to Get Noticed & Secure Job Interviews

My most recent Melbourne based client – let’s call him “John” – reckons he has applied for more than a couple hundred jobs online since being made redundant late last year and hearing back from exactly… none. John had no awareness of some very useful resume hacks which could have scored him job interviews. Read more

genuine job hunter

If you really want the Job, PROVE IT!

If you’re job hunting, you’ll want to use an application process which ensures that you stand out from the crowd. Showing employers that you’re genuinely interested in this particular job — versus just any job — is the best way to secure an interview. Read more

10 key phrases that will make me want to hire you

Want to be a better job applicant? Do you want to be hired from your resume or receive a job offer straight after your interview? It might be worth looking at your language. Read more

email signature mistakes

10 silly email signature mistakes highlighting to recruiters you’re OLD SCHOOL

Almost every email sent from your mobile, tablet, laptop or even the old fashioned desktop contains an email signature of some sort. And some are weird, some are funny – some are shocking. Read more

Fired 10 Things You need to do NOW

Fired or lost your Job? 10 Things You NEED To Do NOW!

Tony and Joe are on notice and will lose their jobs pretty soon if they fail to deliver on their new budget promises, according to Dennis Shanahan from the Australian. Of course, that’s no consolation if you‘ve recently lost your own job, or feel like the writing for imminent job loss is on the wall. Read more

job search resume

So You Have a Resume: Now What?

This blog post is the second in a new series authored by The Job Search Coach marketing intern Jasha Andrews. Jasha has been invited as a Guest blogger to TJSC to help uni students hunt smarter for a position. If you are a regular reader, this could be the refresher that you need on basic job hunting.

Congratulations, you’re ready to jump into the world of job hunting. If you’ve followed my previous post carefully, you should have a concise resume and cover letter ready to go.

Read more

The ultimate job application guide

If you have been following the advice on this blog, you’d be very precise with your job application. It’s never a good idea to ‘spray n pray’ a standard resume and cover letter. That’s just wasting everyone’s time, including yours. Instead, you should be extremely precise with your applications by only applying for jobs that are a good fit for you. But how do you really know if a job is a good fit? It’s not enough to say “yeah, I think I could do that” or “I’ve done that before” – you need to be specific and thorough with your analysis of the job. Read more

10 Reasons why recruiters trash your resume

10 Reasons Why Recruiters Trash Your Application

You’ve been looking all over for a job. But it seems no matter what you do, you just can’t land one. The stress kicks in. Constant rejection destroys your confidence. And your actions are showing that you’re getting desperate. Learn the top 10 job application mistakes everyone makes and how you can avoid them.  Read more

student guide to job hunting

A Uni Students Guide to Job Hunting

This blog post is the first in a new series authored by The Job Search Coach marketing intern Jasha Andrews. Jasha has been invited as a Guest blogger to TJSC to help uni students hunt smarter for a position. If you are a regular reader, this could be the refresher that you need on basic job hunting.

Once upon a time, young people left high school went to university or TAFE and then graduated to start a career in their chosen field. Fast forward to today and young people face an ever competitive market in which to find a job, so they must gain every advantage possible to succeed.

As a ‘mature age’ university student and marketing intern, I have the rare opportunity to view job seeking from both sides of the university graduate fence. Since graduating from high school in 2005, I have seen things change dramatically for young people – and these changes are not for the better.

My first full time job was at a quiche factory as a process worker. The interview went for 5 minutes, and I am pretty sure they hired me because I wore a tie. This would turn out to be the exception, not the rule, when it came to job hunting success. But I digress… Let’s talk about YOU: a uni student or young person who needs to compete against thousands of other applicants during a time when youth unemployment is double the national average.

Young people entering uni for the first time fall into two categories: those with some work experience and those without. This first section is about those who have not yet had a job of any kind. You probably know that you need a few things when searching for a job: A cover letter and resume. We will go through what should be included in each of these and mistakes you can avoid.

A Cover Letter

The cover letter is a document which is read before the resume that should address the selection criteria for a job: that is the skills or values that are important to the employer. A cover letter should include the following items:

  • An introduction
  • Mention the job you are applying for
  • Match your skills and experience with the job ad
  • Encourage the reader to read your resume
  • End with a call to action: e.g a request to meet for an interview.

When you have little or no experience, then you may feel the need to overcomplicate or embellish things. DON’T DO THIS. A general rule in any job application is to K.I.S.S.

Keep

It

Simple

Sunshine

It is a good idea to have a generic cover letter on which base your applications. You absolutely must CUSTOMISE YOUR COVER LETTER for each job you apply: if you don’t, your application will be in the bin before you can say “please hire me”. Take a second and just imagine what it would be like to wade through hundreds of pages of generic B.S just to find a few good candidates. Doesn’t sound fun does it? Make your application like a breath of fresh air for the poor guy who has to read all of these – he/she will be secretly appreciative of the effort you put in, and reward you by considering you for an interview.

A resume

This is a document which should sum up your skills and experience. It is the basis on which employers will receive their first impression of you. It is important you are concise and to the point – don’t fill it up with crap. Employers will be reading hundreds of these, so you need to have the courtesy to not waste their time.

Fun fact: a resume and curriculum vitae (also known as a CV) are two different things, even though the terms are used interchangeably. A resume contains work history, skills and achievements while a CV contains academic history and achievements. Most people use a combined resume/CV when applying for jobs.

In your resume you should include:

Basic details like your name and contact details.

While this may seem like common sense for anyone, you would be surprised at how many people stuff this up. You should include your contact number, address and email. And for Pete’s sake, make sure these details work.

Make sure your email address is something simple and professional: A good example is [email protected]. The last thing the employer wants to do is type in an immature email address you made in primary school. It’s annoying for them and makes you look bad.

DO NOT put a photo or date of birth: this gives the unintended consequence inadvertent discrimination, and if they are using an Applicant Tracking System (something for another blog), then you will be discarded because of the photo.

After your basic details, these next four things should form the basis of your resume. You might have other things you want to add, but make sure it is relevant and value adding.

A brief summary of your education

This would include a HSC (or equivalent) and any other officially recognised qualifications. If you are a high scoring student, you could put your ATAR or other achievements (e.g school dux or if you were a school/house captain)

A brief summary of any other achievements

This could be a sporting or community based achievement. Keep it relevant and fairly recent – no one cares about the merit award you received in primary school.

A brief summary of your community activities

This could include Scouts, Cadets, Duke of Edinburgh, or any religious community activities. An employer won’t be looking for a highly skilled candidate at your level. They will be looking for someone who has a good work ethic and will be a good fit for the organisation. If you can tick a few boxes in each of the above categories, you should be putting yourself in good stead.

Now what?

DOUBLE CHECK IT! The last thing you want to do is to send a resume with spelling and grammatical errors: It shows carelessness and a poor attention to detail (something you need for most jobs). Once you have double checked it, get someone else to check it for you – preferably a person with more experience than you. Don’t ask them to look for spelling mistakes – it’s a waste of their time. Instead, ask whether the resume and cover letter address the position you are applying for. A good mentor will be able to guide you in how to improve your application.

Once this is done, you should be ready to start applying for jobs!

So there you have it, a quick primer on the basic things needed for job hunting. If you found something that worked for you, share it in the comments below. We will have more posts in the future explaining what to do next. So stay tuned folks, and no matter what you do remember to Keep It Simple Sunshine.

Jash 
(Guest Blogger at TheJobSearchCoach)

Jasha Andrews 7098