I’m a professional resume writer in Adelaide and I will guide you through the minefield of job hunting to help you land that special job.
First of all, get yourself a LinkedIn account. Recruiters scan them but more importantly, employers place jobs directly on LinkedIn.
Put a headshot photo up – smile please – and put plenty of detail about what you’ve achieved.
Next, ask your friends, family and former colleagues for information on up and coming jobs. Job hunting is about people hunting.
Then get up out of your chair and start meeting people at events, conferences and seminars. The hidden job market accounts for about 30-40 per cent of all hires. It’s worth tapping in to.
The three most important things about a resume are that it’s up to date, it has your name and contact details and that it has results.
For example, if you work as a manager in retail, a good result might read like this:
“Trained staff to deliver first class customer service on the job, boosting profitability by seven per cent in the last quarter.”
Where you can put a dollar figure, statistic or ratio on the end of a duty, you are in solid gold resume country. Make sure you can back it up.
Hone the resume summary so that it not only encapsulates your achievements but also your future direction.
Include a professional capabilities area listing list key words such as leadership acumen, business plans, negotiation wins, software expertise, multitasking experience, etc.
Don’t include pictures (unless you’re a model). If they want a cover letter, in the first paragraph, tell them why you are passionate about getting the job. In the second paragraph, tell them how your experience, skills and capabilities, make you a dead-set contender. Don’t use the term ‘dead-set’. You know what I mean.
So you found a job you want. Hold your horses. Don’t apply just yet. Do some research on the organisation. What sort of issues do they have? Scan their latest annual report. Sounds like snooping? Believe me an employer will check you out online. Which reminds me, delete any embarrassing social media posts.
About 70 per cent of all jobs are advertised through recruiters. So if you are going to apply through a recruitment agency, give them a call first and find out as much as you can about the job.
Be polite and ask what sort of skills the employer is looking for. Is the job fulltime or part time? What’s the salary? People think it’s rude to ask about the money. It’s not.
After submitting your resume online, give the recruiter or employer a quick call to make sure they got it. Many resumes end up in the Bermuda Triangle of recruitment email systems.
There are a raft of online job boards and the household names such as Seek (which has about 60 per cent of jobs in Australia), which are pretty good.
If they make dodgy claims about how you also need training, give them a miss. Some of the online job boards are fronts for private training providers. They’re time wasters.
Don’t sit around thinking you have done enough. Apply for the next job.
You improve your chances of getting shortlisted by applying for three jobs at one time, rather than just one. What happens if two recruiting agencies shortlist you? Fantastic, you’re off and running.