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Building a better life before burnout
As an Adelaide professional resume writer, whether writing resumes, features and backgrounders, I hear stories of burn out every week. People working too hard or working with organisational bullies and psychopaths. A study by the World Health Organization and the...
Another Republic success story
Josh sent his old resume to me three weeks ago. He had just finished his security guard qualifications in Adelaide and he wanted to work in the field. Most of his previous work had been as an office cleaner and as a labourer. He had some good current tickets such as a...
A generational divide on LinkedIn
This story is from the USA and appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald recently. I have edited it for length. The job market has been sluggish for months and unemployment is rising as recession fears push more people to dust off their resumes and post on LinkedIn. At...
The resume testimonials keep coming
Testimonials are everything to a professional writer. Without them, you are dead in the water. "Malcolm offers an excellent service. He created a professional resume for me within a short time frame. High quality and very affordable. Malcolm completed my first...
Don’t lie on your resume or LinkedIn site
Can a prospective employer detect whether a resume and LinkedIn profile contains lies? I wrote about this in Smart Company some years ago. People will always talk up their qualifications and brag about their abilities. This is the hyper competitive job market we’re...
Jobs and employment scams
If it wasn’t hard enough getting a job with high unemployment, dodgy recruiters advertising false jobs we also have crooks who are after your money. Jobs and employment scams trick you into handing over your money by offering a ‘guaranteed’ way to make fast money or a...
Inappropriate questions in job interviews
You're laser-focused, the pitch is word-perfect and then the prospective employer asks a question that makes you uneasy. This story was supplied by ACM. ViewJobs head of talent Hisham Nidam told ACM the two most common questions, in his experience, that caused...
How do I answer the ‘salary expectation’ question?
This story is from Kirstin Ferguson, a career adviser at The Age. I have added my comment at the end. I am searching for a new role and many advertised jobs don’t disclose salary. Instead, they ask me to share my salary expectation. Can I ask the recruiter or employer...
The dregs: resume writers who cut and paste
In the last two weeks I’ve had three clients send me resumes written by other writing agencies. They are appalling. One spelt the client’s name wrong. Another has got the client’s mobile phone number wrong. How will a recruiter contact them? All three resumes suffer...
Testimonials keep coming
“Malcolm has provided a fantastic service to our 70 employees at Coca-Cola Amatil. His quick turnarounds and ability in providing a resume that highlights our workers achievements in a succinct way, was well received by our employees in a period of uncertainty. We...
Professional resume writers fees
Professional resume writers charge $300-$800 for a resume. I'm amazed people who are targeting a $100,000 job, baulk at paying less than one per cent of their gross salary to someone who will help them get short-listed. We write resumes for senior politicians, CEOs as...
Cover letters that work
I enjoy writing targeted cover letters in partnership with clients (after we’ve written the resume). Every paragraph is a ‘punchy’ selling point, which goes to the heart of the application. Don’t use the same cover letter for different job applications. This is where...
Grabbing a recruiter’s attention
Recruiters and hiring managers may receive hundreds of applications for a single role, and sometimes only have time to scan resumes before deciding whether to progress candidates to an interview. In order to make an immediate impact, your resume needs to communicate...
Types of expertise for resumes
There are different types of expertise which can be included in a resume. Soft skills (which are not soft): They are usually industry-specific but they are required in many different fields. Examples of soft skills include critical analysis, problem-solving, and time...
The Conversation: can your boss stop you from resigning?
Can your boss stop you from resigning if you want to quit your job? The Conversation / By Joellen Riley Munton Posted Fri 16 Aug 2024 at 5:31pmFriday 16 Aug 2024 at 5:31pm If you are resigning because you are miserable, no one can actually make you work.(Unsplash:...
More on person branding
Personal branding is an ongoing process. So you will need to regularly assess how your value proposition and narratives fit into your current professional and personal context and how they’re being received, and then tweak them accordingly. If you’re being considered...
Communicate your brand story
The next step is to create a “media plan” that specifies the channels through which you’ll formally convey your brand to others. Contemplate how you can use owned, earned, and paid media to spread your stories. As in product or service marketing, the goal is to...
Building your personal narrative
A brand is not just a jumble of descriptors floating in the minds of other people. It’s built on the meaningful stories that you’ve communicated and that your audience has processed. You need to identify, craft, and refine the narratives that will communicate your...
Personal branding – define your purpose
First you need a long-term vision. What difference would you like to make to the various audiences that are important to you, personally and professionally, and what values would you like to embody? Ask yourself how and why you have lived the life you have, and look...
The importance of online personal branding
In the next three or four posts I will talk about personal online branding. Recruiters graze across LinkedIn and other job sites looking for the right fit. What they professionally and personally derive from your and other sites is your 'brand'. Personal branding can...
Resumes that go to work for you
I build expert resumes, cover letters and LinkedIn profiles, which unleash an unbeatable business case to promote you as a ‘must have’ asset to an employer.