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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

 

 

 

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13 Essentials for Start Up Job Interviews

The 13 Essentials to Score a Startup Job Interview

So, you want to score a startup job interview, but you haven’t landed a job interview yet? I guess you need a few essentials?! Well, it’s not an easy task. Just how do you find a job at a business that may only have four or five team members and no real recruiting budget?

Well, for starters, if you’re looking at the big job sites like Seek and My Career you’re obviously looking in the wrong area.

Stop what you are doing.

My team and I have worked in the midst of over 70 Sydney-based startup’s for the last 2 years and we have helped a good number of them with their advertisement and selection process. We not only spend a good deal of time looking at candidates, profiles and the usual resumes & cover letters, we are also running a startup ourselves. So, we decided to put our heads together and we came up with this to-do list for a successful startup job search.

I’ve read many applications and the resumes that come through, and as a whole, it’s clear that most people don’t know how to approach getting a job at a startup.

Here are our 13 essentials to

score an interview with a Start Up.

1. Know what you’re good at!

Fluffing around will not get you anywhere. I know it sounds harsh, but that’s the world you are going to enter. If you are a marketer, developer or designer, list that at the top. List it in the subject line even. “Ruby on Rails Developer Looking for Early Stage Start Up” would be a good example. I should be able to glance at your cover letter and know specifically what you are looking to do. Please don’t write a career objective! Get straight to the point.

2. Your resume

If you insist on sending a resume, it should be named “yourname.pdf”. Do not wond a word doc.

3. Be creative.

One of the best cover letters (preferably in the email body) I’ve ever read said, “I’m amazing at creating buzzwords, hot tubbing and finding adventure. I’m also a kick ass Rails Developer, just coming off a long term contract. Early stage startups are a plus.” This sure as hell beats “I’m looking for a challenging and engaging environment to develop my talents.” If you are afraid to be creative, don’t apply. I have not seen a single startup who hired a ‘generalist’. I am dead serious here, if you can’t focus on something, at least in your introduction, you have a <0% chance of landing a job interview. Specialise! Customer support! QA! Development! Marketing! Intern! Product Development! Design! Get it?

4. Be real – be genuine – be human.

The worst case scenario when looking for a job is sending out resumes and getting no responses. startups tend to be different. They know how to deal with applications if you are not wasting their time. Be a human and ask questions that can be answered by friendly folks. Keep the discussion going.

5. Be clear.

You are looking for a job. Cut the buzzwords. Start Ups don’t work with ATS filtering systems. What is the best fit? Steady? Fast paced? Live in Melbourne? Just say it. Cut the c#%p.

6. Trash the traditional resume.

You really don’t need one to work at a startup. A simple email along the lines of ‘this is what I have done… I’m looking to join a team as a _________ to kick some goals’ is a great way to do it. List specific projects and accomplishments. Show that you can be to the point, effective and humble. The rest will be requested when you get an interview.

7. Comment on their blogs!

Yep – again – I am not kidding here. Most company blogs are largely lacking in comments! An easy way to get into the founders inbox is write a post about the company, saying how you admire / like them. Be genuine and say something valuable. Founders tend to look at the blogs, and if in your bio you are clear in what you are looking to do (Front End Developer!) you might just get on the expressway to an interview.

8. Email is a great way to show you’re on to it.

Reply almost immediately. The more out of the usual workday, the more important. Keep your emails concise. “Hey Lisa, just got your email. Quite late here but I would love to respond, a) b) c) d). Feel free to call if you have any questions.”

9. Have a personal blog.

I don’t care how good you are – if you don’t share – then I most likely won’t look at you. Write posts about what you specialise in. Get people to comment on it. Stand out. You control your personal brand, and if you don’t do this you are showing you don’t care.

10. Did I mention, have a personal blog?

Today. Now. Get. On. It.

11. Not caring is the #1 reason you won’t be hired at a Start Up 

12. Hack on stuff.

I’ve seen it many times. There are great fits for people and startups. When you find that special company, do what you do for them. E.g. “I know you have processes to do things like this, but I couldn’t help but see your XYZ campaign is missing some pieces. If I was there I would help by doing _______.” Consider it the interview the others were too lazy to do. When getting a job, standing out helps, a tonne. But, obviously be selective and don’t do this for every app, nor spend too much time on it.

13. Go out to Start Up events.

Meet folks there. Follow up from there. We don’t care if you are intro or extrovert – we see you – we will sort it out. Just show up and show initiative.

One last word. You are not too old to apply!

Don’t let anyone suggest that you are too old. That’s absolute nonsense! Yes, we all know … Gen X and Baby Boomer applicants tend to be more expensive than their younger counterparts. Is hiring more mature candidates a luxury that should be considered by startups often strapped for cash? In fact, I have experienced it right around me that not only can older employees contribute to startups, but failing to leverage their kind of experience has been detrimental to a number of startup companies. Hiring a Gen X or a Baby Boomer for a startup then becomes not a luxury, but a really good idea that can help provide a true competitive differentiator. Remember, startups are all about not following the rules, disruption, flexibility and being nimble. Just because, on average, the startup world is younger doesn’t mean that there aren’t places for more mature employees to shine and add real value.

So get with it, and if you think you have what it takes, apply! Keep it simple, get to the point and remember to hunt wisely.
Uli

PS. Feel free to comment or share this blog post or contact me if you want some further insight and tips.

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