The very first job search aspect to address is your skill level.

You have to be very honest with yourself. Yes, we would all like to be earning $170k a year, although if we don’t have the skills and experience we won’t be successful in finding a job of that calibre.

Sit down and assess your skills and job experience. Do your skills really match up with the jobs you want to find and are applying for?

Another aspect is if you are applying for jobs in which you are too experienced, or your resume may indicate you are over experienced. We will address your resume in the next topic.

Is your resume reducing your ability to find a job?

Your resume should be a finely crafted document. The information should be to the point, brief and targeted. Recruitment Consultants and employers aren’t silly, they are skilled in reading resumes and can very quickly figure out if your resume is true and correct, or just fluff.

Make sure your resume does not lie in any aspect and that it gives a clear and concise snap shot of yourself and your employment history.

Even if you’re worried that your experience isn’t that crash hot – you are only damaging your ability to find a job by creating make-believe skills, experience and employment.

Ensure that your resume does not over sell or undersell your skills and experiences. If you’re not sure, I can provide a free assessment.

Generic or mismatched cover letters will defiantly reduce your chance of finding a job.

Don’t under-estimate the power of a well written and thoughtful cover letter. For each new job application write a new cover letter. The cover letter should almost always highlight your experience in relation to the job description within just a few sentences.

Can’t find a suitable job being advertised?

Don’t limit yourself to just applying for jobs that are currently advertised. Research companies or business’s in your area. Send them a thoughtful email, including a well written cover letter and resume advising them that you would love the opportunity to be considered for future employment.

The interview process.

Always prepare for an interview. Jump on line and research the company you are attending the interview with. Become familiar with their product / service. Write down questions to ask, and take these questions to the interview.

Pay attention to the little things. Arrive 5 – 10 minutes early. Wear your best suit or work attire. Polish your shoes. Have you hair nicely styled. Smile. Smell nice! Speak slowly and clearly. Consider your answers for a few seconds before you offer them and most importantly, relax! Thank the interviewer for their time.

If you address these 5 topics with diligence you should see some positive results with your ability to find a job.

www.yourresumewritingservice.com

Employers, as I shall call them – are given every opportunity. Recruitment Agencies, in particular wine and dine Employers in attempt to gain their business and preferred supplier contracts. Let’s see, client christmas parties, client gifts, lunches, dinners, round the clock support and advice at the drop of a hat …

That’s how Recruitment Agencies keep on trucking, the Employers’ fee’s for placing a Candidate / Job Seeker in their role.

No one really cares much about the candidate. Any primping or priming of the Candidate is only really done to make the Recruitment Agencies ‘product’ look good in front of the client.

If a Candidate fails at the job application or at the interview process – they are dust. Only the mega super important Candidates are given a special service (the ones with rare or special skill sets that will reap a large placement fee). Everyone else just gets stuck on the data base, never to be seen or contacted again. Although you might get a call or two if your semi special

It bugs me. It’s the Candidates who deserve the service, on the human level – not the business level. You can never turn people in to a product, no matter what line of business you are in.

Candidates and Job Seekers deserve a fair go. Real advice, real help .. and real support. No individual can be stuck in a box, pushed through to the other side and expect to remain the same.

Each individual is that. Agencies should provide service and support the candidates. Not just the companies with mega bucks. Companies with mega bucks don’t need that ‘type’ of help, that’s why they have mega bucks. Job Seekers need help, they deserve the mega bucks!

www.yourresumewritingservice.com

Your Resume should only be less than two pages long. MYTH! As long as your resume includes only relevant information, and doesn’t list every single position / role you have had since 14 years old in massive detail – it can be however long it has to be. Although, as mentioned – only as long as it has relevant information and doesn’t read like a short story.

Your Resume MUST have a career objective. This is a boarder line myth. Unless you are able to write a unique and compelling career objective, leave it out. If your career objective is anything less than perfect then it is a total waste of space. So yes – a career objective is defiantly something worth including although only if it is done well. Feel free to ask me for advice about this.

Your References must be listed on your Resume. No no no and myth! At the very bottom of your resume write: ‘References Available on Request’. Reference contacts hate nothing more than receiving 5 phone calls a day regarding your job applications without any warning. Generally they will become less than pleased in giving you a glowing reference. If a Recruiter or Employer would like to contact your Reference, email or call your reference, ask for a suitable time for the Recruiter or Employer to call, explain the position you are applying for and thank them ever so much for the great favour they are giving you. It is worth while having more than 2 references, as some may not be contactable at the time a Reference is needed and it’s good to ‘spread the load’ if your job hunt is extensive.

You should include your hobbies and interests on your Resume. Simply put – no. Unless it directly relates to your career.

Include your salary expectations. Never! Unless your Resume is being submitted by a Recruitment Agency.

Pretty Resumes attract more attention. Don’t include a photo of yourself, don’t spray it with perfume, don’t have colour headings and text, don’t play with page colours – just don’t do anything to it that doesn’t include a white background with black or navy text. The only exception to the rule is if you are seeking work within a creative field. If this is the case, make your Resume subtly attractive. Remember less is more.

www.yourresumewritingservice.com

http://www.laurainsideout.com/2010/02/09/what-color-are-you/

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Discuss!

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Everyone has an aspect to their resume that worry’s them.

Be it, a big gap of non employment, ‘fluffing’ an aspect or skill?

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‘Job Application Services’ are rare to come by. There are only a handful of individuals or organizations who really understand what ties the line between an employer and a job seeker, and those who truly do – are generally employed at a Recruitment Agency or similar.

A professional Job Application Service should only take you on as a client if they truly believe the likely hood of your success with applying for a particular job or position is decent to great. The Job Application Service should asses your resume and the job description prior to extending their services and expecting a fee.

If a Job Application Service guarantees you 100% success in your job application, you can apply the saying ‘If it’s to good to be true, then it generally is’! Even within dedicated Recruitment Agencies there is a low success rate. Say a Recruitment Agency is given a job to fill. For that one job, the Recruitment Agency may have to interview up to 10 candidates, which may result in submitting a minimum of 4 job applications / candidates, and that may not even fill the role.

So if the chances are low, given any job application, and if the Recruitment Agencies work hard just for one placement – what can a Job Application Service do for you? Well, it can do a lot really …

Initially, a Job Application Service will directly assess yourself, the job description and your resume. A resume and cover letter should be built and restructured directly in response to that job description. Not in a false or misleading way, but to highlight the job applicants skills in relation to their experience and career.

The absolute key to any job application is to understand what the applicant can bring to the employer and demonstrating that. Employers respect job applicants who have researched and brought some value, interest and understanding of the employers company to the interview. You might think that looking at the company’s website should be enough although it is not. A reputable Job Application Service will actively research the job specification, employer and environment of the employer. That research in turn, will prove to be a valuable resource at the interview stage.

The resume itself should be reformatted to run and be read easily. A targeted cover letter should also be constructed to specifically target the job application and description.

A Job Application Service should not submit your resume and cover letter on your behalf. Unless an employer has specifically looked to hire the services of a Recruitment Agency, they will be put off from receiving a job application from a third-party.

Once the job application has been received by the employer, it becomes a waiting game. Usually a response within three days should be considered acceptable. Should a response be lagging or missing in action, the Job Application Service should now be able to instruct you on the best way to move ahead. These decisions will be made based on the initial research made by the Job Application Service, in to the employer.

If an interview has been requested by the employer hopefully you will have been given a day or two notice. Three days notice would be an appropriate amount of time for your Job Application Service to help prepare yourself for the interview. Preparation would consist of questions to ask, topics to highlight, skills to emphasize and what to expect in the interview.

An important issue to note is – no matter how well your Job Application Service can prepare you, the interview stage is totally dictated by yourself. The Job Application Service can provide you will all the information you need to know, although if you conduct the interview in the negative, unmotivated, or even appear as under skilled – the job application process will not extend past this point.

Job application process’ vary widely between each organization, company or employer. Guiding you through this process once again lays highly on the research initially conducted by the Job Application Service.

Negotiation of salary or rates may be an area that a Job Application Service can help with. Although this would be dependent on the individual Job Application Service.

Another important area where a Job Application Service may be able to aid is reviewing your contract of employment if you are offered the position. In this day and age, some contracts of employment can leave little to be desired, although should your Job Application Service be skilled in the recruitment process they should be able to pin point any areas that need to be negotiated.

A Job Application Service can be a great assistance to any job seeker finding it difficult to get their foot through an employers door. Although be sure to question the Job Application Service to understand their skills, understanding and experience in the area.

Looking for a Job Application Service? Visit www.yourresumewritingservice.com!

All content Copyright 2010 - www.yourresumewritingservice.com

If you wish to use any of this content, please email me first.

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If you’re after some advise, tips, hints or any help regarding your resume or career – lets chat!

You can find me on Skype (chat function only!)

www.yourresumewritingservice.com

Resume 101

First of all, I will ask you to dust off your most recent copy of your resume. Have a good read through it and ask yourself if it covers the following criteria:

• Is it up to date?
• Does your resume demonstrate career advancement over your entire employment history?
• Does your resume highlight and focus on your strengths creating a ‘story’ and selling point of your career?
• Have you managed to successfully tie the line between your career aspirations and what employers really want to see?
• Is it clear, concise, easy to read, logical yet professional?
• Does your resume serve as an inciting document to potential employers as apposed to a catalog of your job history?
• Has your resume focused on the needs of most, if not, all employers within your target field of work?
• Do you have a clear understanding of what your resume really says and how to relate that in to interviews and beyond?
• Lastly - are you proud of your resume?

If you are now some what convinced that your resume just isn’t up to scratch – lets chat!

Your Killer Resume and Beyond

In my experience as a Recruitment Consultant, it was basically my role to support and assist candidates to be the best little candidates they could be!

75% of all the resumes that I would see – were a red hot mess (in the nicest possible way!). Now, the interesting thing is – for those resumes that really were of poor quality, the candidate or individual applying for the position were really and truly .. generally similar in nature! They were unsure of their career advancement, unsure of their abilities, confused about what to do or where to go etc.

I don’t know of many people who enjoy sitting down and writing their resume. It is a daunting experience. Although it is such a rejuvenating process to really natter it all out.

Looking at your career history and reworking your goals and experience all in one go can really serve to clarify what it is you enjoy in your career and what you want out of it. Assessing and looking at your employment past brings all the good and the not so good to the surface, leaving you .. the applicant, so much sure of what it is you really want.

The result is a much more confident ‘candidate’. Focused, re-energized, ready and raring to go. If you make it to the interview stage, your resume will truly reflect you in such a positive nature.

So have a look back over your dusty resume. Do you and ‘it’ have an understanding? Have you worked together and refreshed your view on your employment world? If your dusty resume is literally on another page, you both need to reunite and get focused. And, in all honesty – it’s the only way forward.

Resume + Clarity + Confidence = Happiness!

As you can now very clearly see – your resume isn’t just a word document with your name, address, education and employment history.

Your resume is the pivot on which your whole career advancement swings.

Don’t allow it to hold you back. Let’s look at it together and see what we can do to get you motivated and rewarded for the New Year!

What Can I Do For Your Resume?

I can do a whole lot!

The most important fact that you must remember: for each new job advertised more than 60 applications can be received within the first day!

Your resume has to be so much more than just your employment history and your contact details. There is a fine line between selling yourself to the potential employer and over whelming them with information that really isn’t required.

These are the areas in which I will focus:

• Emphasis on career advancement through out employment history
• Future employment objectives, fulfillment and goals
• Tying the line between job seekers / the applicant and employers
• Incorporating the personality attributes of each individual
• Clear and concise information
• Targeted resumes
• Development and enhancement of skill sets
• Creative and discreet ‘sales’ focus (e.g. selling your resume to the employer!).

How Can I Do It To Your Resume?

I do not have cookie cutter resumes. I do have a standard format which I prefer to follow, although it’s not literally a cut and paste process.

Firstly, I will asses your basic information. This will be done via a questionnaire that I have set up on the ‘SurveyMonkey’ web site. This questionnaire serves as a fast, easy and thorough way for me to collect the information I need to get started.

From there I will asses your answers and look at your current resume (if you have one). I will then provide you with my recommendations to meet your requirements. If you agree to these services I will then invoice you and in the mean time, start work on basic format. By the time I have completed the basic format – I have developed quite a good understanding of your career and your story.

There will be many factors and details to confirm and / or clarify which can be done over the chat function (voice calls are not enabled) of Skype. Never fear – if you don’t have Skype, it’s a fantastic little devise and you will possibly thank me forever for introducing you to it! All you need is a computer and you a ready to Skype. I can also list all the questions in a email, although I find Skype so handy and effective as it is in real time.

Once we have nattered out all the details, and your payment has cleared – I will send you the 1st copy. I will continue to edit the documents until you are happy with them.

I can start from scratch or polish up your current resume. It’s all up to you!

Time frames regarding completion truly depend on the state of your resume, how much work is required and how quickly you can get required information back to me. However, I will always get the ball rolling as soon as I hear from you.

You will receive a shiny, clean, exciting resume all bundled up in a nice word document. Please be aware, it will only be sent / delivered via email. I do not print your resumes or send them via disk.

You can expect a reasonable amount of research on my part included in the price. This is the advantage of having a Recruitment Consultant work on your resume. I know what the employers want to see so in most cases, depending on the general position you wish to secure and your employment back ground – some research is required on my part.

If you have a particular position / job description that you may wish to apply for or similar in the future – I can most certainly work with that in mind (if you can provide me with a copy).

Visit www.yourresumewritingservice.com to order!

All content Copyright 2010 - www.yourresumewritingservice.com

If you wish to use any of this content, please email me first.

What really happens within a busy recruitment agency? What hope does your resume and application have of making it past a recruiters inbox? What emphasis does a good resume really have in the process?

Take a look inside one of Sydney’s busiest and most respected Recruitment Agencies and learn how important a truly fantastic resume really is!

“Monday morning equals Monday team meeting. Our team of four Account Managers and myself, the Recruitment Consultant all burst in to the conference rooms, coffee’s, resumes, and job specs in hand.”

Our agency is comprised of approximately 8 small teams. Within each team there are approximately four to five Account Managers to one or two Recruitment Consultants. Account Managers generally look after the clients / employers and the Recruitment Consultants look after the candidates / job applicants. Each team has specialty areas of skill and ‘preferred supplier’ contracts. Preferred supplier contracts are an agreement that the Account Manager has negotiated to be the first point of call for any recruitment requirements within that organisation. This gives the Account Manager the first lead, and a higher success of making a ‘placement’ within that organisation before the job specification is sent out to multiple recruitment agencies.

“The Account Managers take some time explaining their most pending and important roles to fill. I am madly copying down all the details on my ‘hit list’ as I like to call it.”

Recruitment Account Managers tend to be very social, vibrant and motivated. They have to be in order to do this job day after day. The Recruitment Industry can have a high burn out rate. They tend to have an incredibly high expectation of their Recruitment Consultant although it’s always with the best of intentions. They have worked hard for their preferred supplier contracts and they are going to deliver on them no matter the cost.

“I have come across a few really interesting candidates in the following week which I think the Account Managers might be interested in, 5 in particular. They have quite rare and firm experience and skills. I have taken copies of their resumes and passed them out to the Account Managers. “

As we work for am IT Recruitment Agency, we can recruit for some very specialized roles so it’s always good to keep on top of the active and potentially very interesting candidates before they are lost to another agency.

“After discussing my gold star candidates I have to give the Account Managers a very firm and clear status update as to what roles I am currently working on, how many more roles I will be able to take on this week, and what I am having success with and what roles I am about to abort.”

I can have up to 20 plus positions to fill per week. It is up to me to prioritize what I feel is ‘fillable’ and is worth my time and energies and what is going to sit on the back burner for a while. Account Managers will always assume their roles are far more important than everyone else’s, so it’s the Recruitment Consultants role to keep them in line!

“30 minutes later our meeting is concluded and we all pile in the lift to head back up to our office.

No time to waste, I fire my PC up to read last night and this morning’s emails. Most mornings I will have around 100 emails to sift through. On top of this, I will have responses coming through on our email clients ‘bulletin board’.”

Each and every job application is initially screened by our wonderful Administration team. They look at the applications and resumes in to make sure the very basic requirements are met which is pre-screening. They will also do a quick tidy up of the resumes to help the Recruitment Consultants a little. If an application passed the grade, it is then posted to the bulletin board for all the Recruitment Consultants and Account Managers to see. Their details are also added to our database, or their details are updated if they have previously applied for a position with us. If the basic requirements are not met a ‘Dear John’ email or letter is sent thanking them for their application although it has been unsuccessful.

“The bulletin board shows some promising responses this morning for a recruitment drive I have been working on with my boss who is the State Sales Manager. We have 20 positions available in the Helpdesk support area all for one company. The roles have to be filled and placed swiftly and efficiently.”

It takes me less than 1 minute to scan each resume. We advertised these positions 3 days ago and already I have received 220 applications that have made it through the pre-screening process. I know exactly what technical skills and experience I am looking for. If I don’t see what I am looking for the resume and application goes back to the Administration team for a ‘Dear John’ letter.

“I have culled the promising resumes and passed back the ones that don’t make the grade. Time to print off the resumes and start making calls.”

Every first call back is required to establish communication skills and confirm technical (in the case of IT jobs) skills, employment history and availability. It is usually a quick phone call, lasting under 5 minutes.

“I have come up with 5 suitable candidates as a result of my calls backs. Their resumes now have red pen scribble all over them.”

A Recruitment Consultants role is to support and present the candidate in the best light. Most of this done with a lot of resume clean up. ¼ of a Recruitment Consultants day is spent preparing a candidates resume for the client.

“I quickly update the 5 candidate’s files and details on the database so the other Recruitment Consultants will know that I am considering them for my position so they will know to contact me before they contact the candidate. I now rush (everything is a rush in this Industry!) over to my Account Managers office to show them my findings. After a brief discussion with the Account Manager, we have decided who I would like to interview and not. I call those 5 candidates immediately back either organising an interview or letting them know their application has been unsuccessful.”

A Recruitment Consultant spends the best part of their day interviewing candidates. Some prefer to do their interviews in the morning while they are fresh and some prefer to do them in the afternoon.

“My work for these roles, in particular – is done for today. I have spent an hour assessing resumes, contacting candidates, scribbling all over their resumes, discussing the candidates with my Account Manager and then scheduling interviews with the promising candidates.”

As a Recruitment Consultant can have up to 20 active positions active at one time – generally a short period of time is spent searching, contacting and doing ground cover each day. Usually 1 -2 hours per active and urgent job.

“Reception calls through to let me know that one of my candidates has just arrived for an interview. Time to race down stairs with his resume in my hand. This interview is for a position listed with another of my Account Managers.”

Recruitment Consultants look for good presentation and communication skills in an interview. That is the basic purpose of the interview. We want to make sure that we are sending someone presentable and professional to our client as it reflects very badly upon our Agency if we send anything less.

Although we do not conduct physiological testing, we will present scenarios and questions which help us to gauge the individual and the experience that they may claim to have.

We will confirm every aspect on your resume. Looking for the candidate to demonstrate and confirm the information in front of us.

We will discuss the position, requirements and the company. Providing information that will aid the candidate to present and be successful if he/she is invited for an interview with the client.

Lastly, we will discuss the process of this particular job specification, time frames and what the candidate will expect from ourselves.

“With the interview now completed I feel confident in preparing his resume for my Account Manager to forward to her client. I have lots of notes from the candidate and lots of work to do on his resume. “

Resumes and job applications coming from a Recruitment Agency need to be of a very high standard. A certain format and lay out must be seen in each resume. An Account Manager will usually send resumes to a client in blocks of three or four.

“After spending a 30 minutes on this candidates resume it is now ready to be sent to the client with the additional candidates resumes that I prepared yesterday. This is the exciting part. Once you have done the ground work, submitting the resumes to client and waiting for feedback to pass back on to the candidate is exciting. It’s make or break time!

The rest of the afternoon will be spent between interviewing and sifting through job applications via the bulletin board.

We may receive some feedback this afternoon regarding the resumes we just submitted to the client. The candidate I interviewed this morning is really excited and keen to hopefully secure an interview with the client. They are a great employer so I understand his motivation. He is a great guy and I am quite sure he will do really well with the client if he receives an interview.

Positive thinking!

Now, time for me to head back to the bulletin board …. “