Career One Reveals Top 10 Job Hunting Blunders

Employment website, CareerOne.com.au today revealed its list of top 10 job hunting blunders.

1. Spelling mistakes on a CV/cover letter

“The cover letter is a candidate’s first impression. It shows the commitment to the job from the very early stages,” says Gary Banks from ABT Recruitment.

Andrew Brushfield of Robert Half in Australia says spelling mistakes on resumes is a pet hate for consultants. “If you make errors on your application, employers assume you’ll make mistakes on the job.”

2. Using “crazy” email addresses

Example: sexylovegod@hotmail.com

3. Inventing careers and skills

Helen Olivier, of The Olivier Group said that there was a degree of desperation in the market so people overstate their skills and salary.

“Often people assume they are going to earn a lot more than market reality just because they are moving jobs. If you are head-hunted it doesn’t necessarily mean you are worth higher than market value.”

4. Interrupting an interviewer to look at a text message or take a call

5. Reeking of that last minute cigarette as you walk into the job interview. Overpowering colognes/perfumes are also bad form

6. Dressing inappropriately – the way you look should match the image of the company you are interviewing with. Also, jewellery that jangles irritates interviewers

Angela Vithoulkas who owns the VIVO Café franchise in Sydney said that one candidate came in for an interview dressed in a clown costume. “I felt like sticking a sign on my forehead saying ‘are you serious?’. It’s hard to take someone seriously when they’re dressed as a clown.”

7. Not setting up a quiet space for a phone interview. Pet noises, house mates/family asking questions or loud music in the background are interview killers

“Talk with a smile on your face. Keep answers short and think of the 50/50 rule – listen for half the time and talk for the other half,” said Annie Cerone from Resume by Design.

8. Sharing too much personal information

One recruiter said a candidate told him of his criminal conviction including a physical demonstration of how he assaulted his wife.

9. Bagging your former employer or boss

10. Not doing your home work about the employer – and worse – calling the employer by the name of their competitor

“Candidates should take the time to research the company and re-read the ad prior to the interview. This shows genuine interest, effort and commitment in the position,” says Geoff Mitchell-Burden from Recruitment Partners.

Mistakes made on a cover letter/resume:
1. Spelling mistakes
2. Addressing your cover letter to the wrong person
3. Cover letter too generic and not addressing the desired role
4. Length! Candidates sending through pages and pages of information
5. Inputting information over 10 years old
6. Submitting a handwritten cover letter
7. Providing too much personal information.
8. Inventing careers and skills. Professional resume checkers will sniff this out.
9. Excluding contact details and gaps in job history
10. Using inappropriate email addresses

Face-to-face interview mistakes reported by recruiters
1. Dressing inappropriately
2. Bringing in fast food during the interview and eating it while being interviewed
3. Turning up late or not turning up at all for the scheduled interview
4. Offering sexual advances/propositions
5. Sharing too much personal information. No need to tell us about your second job driving hookers around
6. Not showing enough or showing too much enthusiasm
7. Questioning the intentions of the recruiter and questioning the questions of the recruiter!
8. Behaving inappropriately – don’t pick your nose during an interview please
9. Turning up drunk
10. Threatening and physically abusing recruiters out of desperation for a job

Mistakes reported by recruiters made during a phone interview
1. Not finding a quiet place for the phone interview.
2. “Yes” and “No” answers or silences.
3. Waffling too much.
4. Forgetting which job you are interviewing for.
5. Being ill prepared – stick notes on walls – the interviewer can’t see you.
6. Making it obvious you are speaking from a pre-prepared script
7. Multi-tasking during the phone interview. What is that tapping sound in the background I hear?
8. Talking to the recruiter on your mobile phone…from the bathroom. Yuk.
9. Interrupting the interview for anything reason bar an emergency.
10. Being unavailable for your scheduled phone interview. Application death.

Editor of CareerOne, Kate Southam, says with the job market showing continual improvement it is a good time to search for a new job. However, job hunters must be careful not to sabotage their own success.

“Job hunting blunders get you remembered for all the wrong reasons,” says Kate Southam. “How well you conduct yourself at each step of the recruitment process speaks volumes about how your will act in the job – if you get it.”

Kate’s Top 10 tips on how to ace a job interview:

1. Research, research, research – on both yourself and the employer.
2. Tailor your resume and your interview prep for each role.
3. Rehearse for the interview – at least three times
4. Prepare to use real examples from your work history to answer interview questions
5. Pick your job interview outfit days ahead to make sure it fits and is stain free.
6. Be positive about your past work experience
7. Prepare questions to ask the employer
8. Always be 10 minutes early for an interview
9. Follow up with a thank you after the job interview
10. Be on your best behaviour but be genuine. If you have to pretend to get the job then it is not the job for you.

For more tips and information on the job-hunting process visit CareerOne’s News & Advice section: http://www.careerone.com.au/news-advice.

Employers in hot pursuit of Plug ‘N Play Graduates

With baby boomers cutting back on their hours, marketing industries including PR, event management and journalism, will struggle to fill the void.

“The alumni of 2009 and 2010 have large boots to fill as baby boomers start to step aside. As a result employers will be looking for graduates that ‘have it all’ and can hit the ground running,” says David McDonald, Head of College, APM College of Business and Communication.

“Employers are not looking for ‘technicrats’. They want graduates with practical experience behind them, who can apply that experience the moment they walk in the door. A solid knowledge of the industry, a can-do attitude and the drive to deliver immediate results is a must in this fast-paced industry,” he said.

“Star-graduates will always be in demand, but businesses are under pressure to identify those that can manage a number of different responsibilities. They want staff that adapt quickly, are flexible, multi-skilled and can wear the many ‘hats’ that come with their role.” Read more

Increased demand for Complimentary Healthcare Practitioners

The health and wellness industry in Australia is booming and is now estimated to be worth $2.5 billion annually. According to the Australasian College of Natural Therapies (ACNT), this increased demand for complimentary healthcare practitioners is providing more opportunities for job-seekers beyond traditional natural and beauty therapy practice.

“Australians are increasingly turning to natural therapies and alternative medicines as they become more health-conscious. Society has become more aware of the options available beyond mainstream medicine that can help improve their quality of life,” said Janet Olliver, ACNT head of college.

Janet Olliver says with over five million Australians visiting complementary healthcare practitioners annually, there has been a corresponding dramatic growth in demand for these services.

“Therapies such as massage, complementary medicine and aromatherapy, are sought after by an increasing number of people every year. With fewer than 6,000 naturopaths Australia-wide, the demand for skilled practitioners will continue to climb in the next few years,” she said. Read more

This Week’s Top Jobs No 67

Each week we publish the latest six figure jobs available in Australia and the UK for executives and senior professionals across all industries. To view these and more positions vacant, register FREE with www.sixfigures.com.au today!

Hudson – National Transformer Service Manager, $170K+ (Sydney NSW)
* A world leader in power and automation technologies
* A national role
* A package of $170,000 on offer

Hudson – Market Risk Manager, $130K+ (Sydney NSW)
* Major Commercial Bank
* Dynamic, entrepreneurial environment
* Exciting career prospects

Hudson – Operations Manager – Substation Automation Systems, $200K+ (Parramatta NSW)
* Over 100 years of combined experience in power transmission and distribution
* A regional role reporting to the MD
* Circa $200,000+ package

Hudson – Senior Distribution Manager – Supply Chain, $130K+ (Sydney NSW)
* Global organisation
* Leading Consumer organisation
* Substantial six figure package

Quadrant Recruitment – Operations Manager – Electrical, $150K+ (Silverwater NSW)
Operations Manager with major electrical contracting experience wanted by this rapidly expanding company to lead and guide the NSW team

Test Manager, $140K+ (Sydney NSW)
Test Manager Enterprise Web applications. Mixture of .NET and Java technologies. Hands on plus strategic focus. True career opportunity with a strategic focus.

Building Services Manager/Commissioning Manager, $150K+ (Perth WA)
* Perth based role
* $100m project
* 1st tier Contractor, Building Services Manager/Commissioning Manager

Project Engineer – WA, $120K+ (Perth WA)
* Excellent remuneration package
* Work for friendly and supportive organisation
* Gain valuable industry knowledge
* This is a rare opportunity to be involved in the civil infrastructure operations.

To view all $100K+ jobs and contracts, go to Six Figures Jobs.

Recruitment, Redundancy and the Missing R – Respect!

Respect can never be underestimated as it is a value many of us hold dear; respect for our information, privacy, views, time, and so on. Yet one area that I increasingly hear about is a dearth of respect in and around both recruitment and redundancy.

Respect as defined by Wikipedia: ‘Respect is esteem for, or a sense of the worth or excellence of, a person, a personal quality, ability, or a manifestation of a personal quality or ability. In certain ways, respect manifests itself as a kind of ethic or principle, such as in the commonly taught concept of “[having] respect for others” or the ethic of reciprocity.’

When it comes to recruitment, the lack of respect shown by some falls on both the shoulders of the recruiter and the job seeker.

Recruitment, Respect & Job Seekers
From the job seekers side, it starts with an advertiser posting a job ad, with those that apply assuming that the ad is current and ‘real’.  Wasting people’s time with vague job ads where the advertiser may be simply fishing, looking to reverse market candidates into businesses, looking to build up the number of resumes in their databases, or maybe going through the advertising process as a part of protocol (even though someone has already been marked for the job) , shows a distinct lack of respect for the job seeker’s time. Read more

New jobs website connects the unemployed with small business

At a time when Australia’s unemployment rate sits at 5.4%, a new website for out-of-work Australians has hit the internet. JobsToDo.com.au is a free service that delivers work opportunities for the unemployed and offers cash-strapped consumers the chance to dictate the price they can pay for work they need done.

The country’s jobless rate is high at a time when job ads are down 55% since this time last year*. Skilled workers who find themselves unemployed face the reality of wanting to work but unable to find jobs, plus we see many small businesses straining to find enough work to survive. JobsToDo.com.au is a focused channel to source new business by bringing the work to service providers and filling up their work weeks again.

“Many small businesses have to reduce costs and expensive advertising is one such area that can be rationalised with this free website,” said Jobs To Do Managing Director, Kevin Sherman. Read more

Indigenous trainee applications open

Indigenous school students across Australia are being encouraged to apply for a position with ANZ’s Indigenous School Based Traineeship Program for 2010. The two year Program enables Indigenous students to undertake a paid traineeship in an ANZ branch and complete a Certificate II qualification at TAFE while finishing high school.

ANZ Managing Director Retail Distribution, Louis Hawke, said ANZ is seeking to increase the number of places available in the Program to 180 trainees for 2010. This compares to the 135 trainees who are currently taking part in the Program.

“Our employees need to represent the communities we serve so we can meet the needs of our customers. We have found local communities have more confidence approaching a main stream bank that they can see investing in their community,” Mr Hawke said. Read more

AVON Ladies are out in force during economic downturn

The AVON ladies are coming and they say they have a good news story to share. In these uncertain economic times Avon has become the answer for women in every town, city and state across Australia.

AVON representatives have ding donged their way through the great depression and now they are paving the
way through the economic downturn for countless families across Australia, who are turning towards the iconic cosmetics giant for a recession proof fix to today’s job woes.

According to AVON all over Australia women are signing up to become Avon representatives, and making news headlines across the nation as the lipstick effect takes hold of those looking to either supplement their existing family income or for a flexible alternative to full-time employment. And with unemployment levels on the rise, the company says the future looks bright for these new Avon ladies.

To learn more about becoming an AVON representative visit the website www.avon.com.au

Become an Avon Representative

Many Avon representatives have made it their full-time business, while others prefer to work just a few hours a week in their spare time. You can sell in an area allocated to you or just to family, friends, work colleagues or neighbours. You can build your Avon business at a pace that fits in with your lifestyle and your family, and vary that pace if your other commitments change.

HOW MUCH WILL I EARN
According to how much you want to work, this can be some extra cash or a significant income. You will get a % profit on all the products you sell over $70, and the more you sell, the higher the % – top sellers get up to 50% of the sales value!

As well as earning, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in exciting programmes with rich rewards for achievement. If you would like to do more, you have the opportunity to increase your earning even further by becoming a Selection and Training Representative. Read more