Scenario: Just over a week ago you received your killer new resume (prepared by me, of course) and “Hurrah!” it’s paid off, you’ve just landed an interview with your dream company.
You turn up nice and early for your interview, groomed and dressed to perfection. Even Trinny and Susannah could not have helped you look this good! You walk up to the reception desk, oozing with confidence and charm, and inform the receptionist of your arrival. Then, just as you are beginning to think your day couldn’t be going any better, your heart thuds as she utters those dreaded words…
“Please take a seat and fill in this application form.”
“But, they already have my resume.” you splutter.
“Yes, it’s just standard procedure.” she says.
Suddenly you are faced with the prospect of filling in a drab form of tick this, cross that, list your last three jobs and other tedious questions. The best part about submitting a resume, as opposed to relying on standard ‘Application Forms’, is that you can control how your resume is presented.
Not only can you control the layout and presentation, you can also control what information you want to go in there. If there is a job in your past that you don’t particularly want highlighted, you can skim over it. If you are trying to change careers, or enter the job market after a period of absence, you can bring an employer’s attention to your transferable skills, and demonstrate your passion for the industry in a killer cover letter. You have total control.
A standard application form however has a very real threat of doing absolutely nothing to make you stand out from the competition.
Being prepared for this possibility is going to be the most successful solution. Luckily, this is simple.
One strategy is to make sure you have a copy of your resume on hand. This allows you easy reference to your key achievements, skills and experience. It also makes sure you are able to accurately line up job titles and dates as well as having all the contact details of your referees on hand, as these can be fairly standard on job application forms.
Just remember – even though the form is standard, that doesn’t mean your answers need to be.
For example, if the form asks you to list duties of previous positions you should, instead, list your top three achievements just as you do in your resume. In other words, depending on the amount of room provided on the form, simply write what you have on your resume in a condensed form.
Even if the form only allows room for a couple of words, having your resume on hand will allow you to pick out the best options with confidence!
- Not everyone wants to climb the corporate ladder
- Unless you are applying for a job as a butcher the word ”carcass” should never appear on your resume
- First impressions are made in less than 10 seconds
- First impressions are hard to change
- First impressions are not totally impossible to change
- Mothers, who naturally think everything you do is precious, are not the best people to ask for resume writing help. “Learned to walk at a very early age” will not necessarily win a potential employer over
There has been much talk, for quite a while now, about employers Googling potential employees. As well as unfortunate name sharing (eg criminals, porn stars etc) even your ‘personal’ activities aren’t safe – we’ve all heard the Facebook, Twitter and MySpace horror stories of employees losing their jobs because of their weekend activities. (If you have just fainted because this is news to you don’t panic … help is on the way!)
So, what to do if you don’t like what you find in your online search?
One of the first things they suggest you do, is create yourself a Google profile. While there has been some negativity from the concept of Google profiles, I personally think it is a great idea for job seekers, as it puts you in control of your online image.
Personally, I’ve always used screen names or an alias when chatting, posting in forums etc, unless it is business related, and fortunately no porn stars share my name!
However, if you haven’t been that internet savvy up until now, it really isn’t too late to make changes.
What I especially love are their ideas for outranking your competitors on search engines. Next to using your middle name in your resume, I really think this is the way to go if you have come across anything you would rather a potential employer not see.
If you do try what these guys suggest make sure you really take note though of their warning about making sure they’re relevant comments, or else when you Google yourself you’ll be embarrassed by your own spam messages.
Not since the possibility of finding a golden ticket in a Wonka bar has there ever been a job on offer as cool as the Island Reef Job, otherwise known as ‘The Best Job in the World’.
If you have been living under a rock the last few months (and probably now kicking yourself for finding out way too late) Tourism Queensland, Australia, announced they would pay one lucky person $150,000 to live, swim and snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef for six months, while maintaining a blog about their experience. The blog, I guess, is the ‘hard work’.
After a world wide announcement, Tourism Queensland received nearly 35,000 applicants, all of whom were required to send in a one minute video explaining why they should be chosen for the job. It was finally announced today that Ben from the UK was the lucky winner. He starts ‘work’ on July 1.
If you’ve been following the promotion from the beginning, it’s easy to see how not only Ben, but in fact all of the original top 50 applicants were chosen, as opposed to the other 34,950 applicants. Some applicants videos were so good that they received criticism for having ‘professional assistance’. My personal opinion on this is if you are applying for your dream job, wouldn’t you use every resource available to you?
The job you are applying for is most likely not going to draw some 35,000 applicants. However, in this economy there is no doubt that competitiveness for positions has dramatically increased from where it was 12 months ago. Have you taken every step you can to ensure that your application stands out from the crowd? Is your content strong? Is your presentation professional? Or are you sending out stock standard resumes that read pretty much like all the rest?
When emailing your beautifully designed resume to an employer, have you ever considered that they may be viewing it with the “Show/Hide” function turned on? This can have a dramatic effect on the presentation of your resume. This quick tutorial I made will show you how you can make two simple changes that will allow your resume to be viewed in the way that you intended it to.
This Sunday I’m hosting my first ever Resume Free-tique Marathon! This means you can send your resume, and cover letters, for me to look at and provide feedback, at no cost.
I am doing this because I get a lot of requests to look at resumes for feedback, but unfortunately, time restraints usually prevent me from being able to provide this as a free service. So, this weekend I’m putting some time away to do just that.
With the recession starting to affect job prospects, competition is high and your resume is becoming more important than it has in a long time. This last week I’ve spent quite a bit of time talking to various recruiters and all have confirmed that not only have jobs dropped, but they are seeing a larger increase of applicants. One major Brisbane recruitment company informed me that 15 months ago they struggled to find three good applicants for any job. Now, for the same jobs they are getting over 100 resumes per job.
I’m also aware that, while many have expressed an interest in my service they still aren’t convinced as to why I can write a better resume than the one they have now.
Free-tique Sunday is a great way to let you know where you may be letting yourself down in your job search and how you can easily fix it yourself ….. at no charge!
Free-Tique Sunday Guidelines
1. Free-tique Sunday includes both Resumes and Cover Letters, but does not include Selection Criteria (If you do not include your cover letter, please provide a brief description of the type of work you are most likely to be looking for in the email)
2. You may email your Resume through any time from now until 1pm Sunday, 5 April
3. Feedback will be provided no later than 4pm, Sunday 5 April
4. All emails, information, resumes and cover letters will be held in the strictest confidence
5. All emails, information, resumes and cover letters will only be held on file for a period of 21 days (unless requested otherwise). If after this time you decide you would like to use my full resume writing service you will need to resend your information to me.
Please Note: I will not be re-writing or providing in-line editing of your resume or cover letter (unless I opt to do so in some cases). Rather you will receive general feedback and suggestions for improvement.
As a Resume Writer, one of my biggest challenges is to keep every resume that I write fresh.
What I mean by this is that there are certain key attributes that nearly all of my client’s ask/want/need to mention in their resume. These attributes are commonly known as ‘transferable skills’.
Some examples of transferable skills include:
- Good communication skills
- Personal and professional development
- Customer Service and/or Sales
- Leadership/Management skills
- Team Player
- Self-motivated
- Reliable
In other words these are skills that you can easily transfer from one job to another, even if working in completely different fields.
When you write as many resumes in a year as I do, it quickly becomes a challenge to say “I’m a team player” in a new, fresh and different way for all of my other clients.
If you are attempting to write your own resume, you may not be aware of it, but you too have the same challenge
When you write your resume, while writing that you are great team player may sound good to you, you have to be aware that you are competing against dozens of other applicants, who all are saying the exact same thing in their resumes
So if I was writing my own resume, and I knew that being a team player was important for the job I was applying for, I would point out the fact that in one of my previous jobs I was responsible for organising a team building day where I arranged for a company who runs fun team building activities to come out and run a session for our team.
Another activity I took part in, was being an instigator in what we called “Terrific Tuesdays. Terrific Tuesdays saw a different theme every week e.g. “Pirate day”, “Book Character Day”, “Jungle Day” etc. Each of these days was based around everyone taking part in some kind of fancy dress, according to the theme, and prizes being presented for the best. Not only did we have fun doing it, but we also had a lot of other departments follow suit and were recognised by management for the very strong team atmosphere we had created
So how would I write all of this information in a nutshell? I’d probably word it like this:
- “Demonstrated commitment to fostering strong team relationships through organising team building activities, such as our themed “Terrific Tuesdays”, which were recognised and commended by Senior Management”
Some client examples I’ve used in the past include:
- “Organised ‘Casual Fridays’ which involved organising morning teas and charity donations, with a focus on positive team building outcomes”
- “Managed twelve staff promoting a strong team atmosphere through regular team meetings, individual assessment appraisals and encouraging each team member to maintain open lines of communication”
While I’ve used the example of ‘team player’, this should be a basis for any skill you choose to highlight
This is another reason why writing so called “functional resumes” doesn’t work. If you are going to state you have a skill, you need to be able to prove it to an employer and the only way to overcome this is to provide specific, interesting and concrete examples.
Resume Writers are naturally, one would assume, good with words. If they can ’spin’ your resume, then surely they can do the same for their own marketing materials. Here is one such nonsensical sentiment that is often used:
“We don’t use Templates”
Really?
Technically, everytime you open MS Word to a new blank page you are using their Normal.dot template.
But, let’s not be picky.
What I assume they are trying to say is that they don’t use the same layout for all of their clients. Which, of course, is how it should be.
Still, a good resume writer will already have several awesome templates that they have created that they work from, chopping and changing as appropriate to the individual client.
Time is money. It is to me, and it is to you. It just makes sense to me that I would spend the time you are paying me for to focus on quality content.
Design is only ever of value, if complemented by strong content that sells.
For those of you who don’t know what Twitter is and how it works this short video provides a great explanation on how it works.
If you are already familiar with Twitter, you can just skip the video and see how I’m using this social networking tool to help my job seeking clients.
While Twitter is great for finding out what your family and friends are up to, similar to FaceBook status updates, a lot of businesses are using it to let their clients know what they are up to. The benefit to this is that it is an open and public forum and everyone can see your updates, not just those who are following you. Twitter about a topic that’s interesting and people will start to follow.
Ok, so now that you have a better idea of how Twitter works, here is how I’m going to be using it to help you.
For Job Seekers
Firstly, any jobs I hear of will be posted to Twitter.
To overcome the problem of location i.e. you are looking for jobs specifically in Sydney, I will also be adding a location hashtag (# symbol) to job postings.
For example, if I hear of an admin job at the Gold Coast you will see my post look like this:
@KirstyWrites Part-time admin position to start immediately #GoldCoastJobs
Or if I hear of a bricklayer job in Brisbane, you would see
@KirstyWrites Bricklayer needed for 6 mth contract #BrisbaneJobs
So, does this mean you have to sit through 50 posts before you see a job in your area? Absolutely not.
Through using Twitter Search (a search engine like Google, but specifically for Twitter posts), you simply type the # symbol, your city, jobs e.g. #PerthJobs or #CairnsJobs and see if anything has been posted that day. Instead of sitting on Twitter all day long, you only need to check it once or twice a day, like you would with Seek or any other job searching site.
This service is provided completely free to everyone and you do not need to be a paying client to use this.
Hoorah!
The second way that I’m going to be using this for job seekers, is sending Tweets (Twitter speak for status updates) out saying you are looking for work.
To follow me on Twitter, simply go to Twitter.com and register. Once you are registered you can just do a quick search for me, or else click on the option to follow me on Twitter on the left hand side of this page.
I’m really excited about this opportunity to help you broaden your job search networking opportunities. All I ask in return is that you spread the word! This is a new concept for my business and the more people that know about it, the more jobs I will be able to announce and more recruiters will hear about it, which again leads to more job postings.
Through extenuating circumstances I recently was forced to shut down my previous blog and resume writing website. While it wasn’t the end of the world, it was certainly frustrating to lose 15 months of hard work and a steady flow of incoming traffic.
On the upside I had kept good records of my former client contact details and a subscription list of a couple of potential new clients that I was able to inform as to the location of my new ’shop front’.
Still, a lot of business opportunities were lost and when you work for yourself this can have a big impact on your ability to eat for the week!
Despite the struggle and frustration, the positive that has come out of this experience is that it’s given me a renewed sense of compassion for my clients, especially those who have lost their jobs and find themselves, like me, having to start all over again.
Recent events such as the global financial crisis, bush fires in Victoria and floods in Queensland have left many people in the same situation.
So, if you have found yourself in a situation like this what do you do? How do you get back on your feet again? Is there any way that I can help?
As a resume writer one of the perks of my job is definitely receiving the excited email or phone call from a client saying “Hoorah! I got the job!”
It’s not always easy, but it is always possible. Whether your need to find new employment is something you have chosen to do, or something that was forced on you, there is always a way to get back on your feet.
I am a Resume Writer, living in Brisbane, Australia, but working with clients worldwide through my unique, online resume writing service. Contact me today to find out more about how I can help you. Isn't it time you got the job of your dreams?
To get a quote for my Resume Writing Services, simply fill in your details in the form below or alternatively you can call me on 0425 297 069 between:
