interviewIQ

If you’ve recently arrived, here’s how to get a job in Australia

Karalyn — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:34:25 +0000

How to create your own job - Naishadh’s story

I landed on the shores of Australia, in Brisbane, on 6^th August 2007 on a cold day. I knew very little about Australian culture and weather so the very next day my training began. The first few things were to organise my bank account, TFN No, and in the most important of all ‘look for work.’

I was confident that I would land up a decent job within next few days as because of my experience and qualifications, but, I soon learnt that I had no idea about looking for work as I never had to look for work in India. This is the case for most of the skilled migrants. In India because my experience and network was so strong I could change the job without any hassle.

I started a journey in Australia in an unknown territory with very minimal support! When it came to applying for jobs I knew only 1 mantra – www.seek.com.au I spent more than 4-5 hours per day and applied to about 60-70 applications per day. I received a 75% response saying that my application is unsuccessful and got 5-7 phone calls per week for interviews.

During this time I learnt 3 valuable lessons: 1) To socialise and meet new people irrespective if you’ve the job or not 2) Surround yourself with positive people or keep yourself away from negative and toxic people who crib and complain about jobs and careers in Australia 3) Your job hunt has to be strategic, not generic, you must plan and work on the plan

Then came the ‘D day’ in early October, I was interviewed for a Sales Engineer position based in Dandenong, a suburb in Melbourne. After reaching the train station I found that it was a long walk to the company. I kept walking and walking and after 90 minutes I reached the company. The first question my boss asked “How did you get here?” I said “I walked”. I could see light in his eyes and he smiled. The interview went fine and next day I got the call that I was selected and could start work in 2 weeks. I am still so proud of the fact that I didn’t give up and kept my morale up.

I’ve always been always passionate about having my own enterprise and working for myself. I soon discovered an incredible opportunity of writing professional resumes and cover letters; further research in the subject led to me undertaking courses offered by two brilliant and accomplished resume writers. After 6 months of study and training I launched my business—Resume Solutions—and started helping professionals and skilled migrants who are struggling to find work. I also completed Get Hired Now (Job Search Training) and Interview Coach training; this boosted my credibility and also competency in delivering holistic solutions to my clients.

From someone who didn’t know how to look for work and now assisting individuals in finding meaningful employment is such an extraordinary opportunity and I enjoy every second of it.

Naishadh Gadani
Professional Résumé Writer, Job Search Coach, Interview Coach
Résumé Solutions
www.resumesolutions.com.au

What is Personal Branding?

Karalyn — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:42:51 +0000

You might have heard about personal branding, it is a much hyped concept that is all over the web at the moment. How does it affect us normal folks and what can we do to make the most of personal branding? Jorgen Sundberg, aka The Undercover Recruiter, will briefly explain what it is, what you should be doing and what you can expect from it.

What is personal branding?

Personal branding is how you project yourself to the world, how you create and maintain your image. Your brand is just as much about your profession and career as your background, what type of person you are, your interests and any interesting facts.

Personal branding is essentially very similar to company branding, for example the golden arches of McDonald’s or the jester used by The Motley Fool have become instantly recognizable as part of those companies. This is what you want for yourself, you want to stand out from the crowd and be memorable.

Personal branding is where you and your career are bundled together into one. It’s the way you market and promote the image of yourself. What you do and what you are all about and above all what you can do for others. Compare your personal brand to a rock star’s image, something that needs to be maintained.

All interaction you have with other people make up your personal branding. Having a meeting, making a phone call, sending an email are all activities that demonstrate your brand. Offline and online, you only get a few seconds for a first impression so you will want to get it right.

Do I need a personal brand?

You already have one. What you need is to maintain it and make sure it projects what you want it to by staying consistent continuously improve it. You will want to take control of your brand because you want to be noticed and stand out from the crowd. It will help you to be seen by current and prospective clients, business partners, employers and so forth. You want people to remember who you are and what you do.

Your online brand

First impressions count, also online. It’s free and very simple to sign up for online networking sites and they are great tools for promoting your brand. Any typical professional will have a profile with Linkedin or Facebook, some will have lots more than this. As long as you use and maintain your profile in the right manner, you are on to a winner.

Try googling your name and see what happens. Now consider that others (prospective customers for instance) do the same. Are you happy with what they see? If you were a client, you would probably want to see a supplier with a professional profile on Linkedin and possibly other platforms.

We already know that headhunters and HR people are all over LinkedIn like a cheap suit. Guess what, they also cross reference you on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and other sites to see that you are not simply putting on a corporate act. Make sure the brand you project is consistent and well positioned, it will help you to get that raise, promotion or even a new and better job. Just like having 20 recommendations on LinkedIn weighs in your favor, one ‘wrong’ photo can be a complete dealbreaker and leave you regretting ever signing up for that service.

My experience

I have long been prolific on LinkedIn and used it as a tool for expanding my network and to do research on people and companies. I have a large and growing network which has supported me when building this site and even coming up with ideas for posts. I set up The Undercover Recruiter to promote myself as well as the blog. Setting up a blog is optional and perhaps not the first step you want to take, although if you have the time it is definitely worth looking into. I promote this blog across a few platforms (mainly LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter) and try to have exactly the same brand on all of them.

Call to action

Make sure you are consistent with everything you communicate to the world. This includes how you speak, your emails, online presence, your resume and even how you dress. Will your prospect customer be surprised or even disappointed when they meet you for the first time? You have to make sure you are one and the same across all channels and you will then come across as genuine and trustworthy. Share information about yourself, tell stories and inspire others. Add some personality to your brand, we all know it’s easier to sell on emotions than facts. When you think you are finished, anyone should be able to locate you online and find out what you do and what makes you special. If this isn’t the case, you need to put some more work in.

Bottom line

You need to be aware of your personal brand and you should ensure that you are projecting the right image of yourself. By being consistent and congruent, online and offline, you will build up your image and people will notice and trust you. As long as this is a positive message, you will improve your chances of having a great career/building your business/making friends/whatever your goal is.

What is your experience of personal branding?

Jorgen Sundberg is a Personal Branding Consultant based in London. He helps sales people, entrepreneurs, business owners and executives to create, build and promote magnetic brands to attract more business online. After 7 years of marketing people in recruitment, he started Personal Branding UK and he blogs at The Undercover Recruiter and JorgenSundberg.net. You can connect with him on Twitter @jorgensundberg.

6 reasons your recruitment consultant doesn’t give you feedback

Karalyn — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:10:14 +0000

This week Recruiter Daily warned recruiters about the dangers of giving feedback, and how recruitment consultants should phrase that feedback to avoid being sued. The writer, an Employment Lawyer, stressed the importance of making that feedback competency based. It’s sound advice and you can read it here.

One of the biggest complaints my job seeking clients make about recruitment consultants is that they actually never hear back from consultants sometimes even after they have been for an interview. So they actually receive no feedback, good, bad or otherwise.

Silence is really tough, especially if you, as a candidate, have put your heart and soul into your application. I’ve been a recruitment consultant. At times I’ve been a good consultant, and at times I’ve been an overworked and over-stretched consultant, struggling to meet all the targets I’ve faced and to do all the follow up I need. So I want to dive a bit further into what makes up the silent treatment from recruitment consultants, that is why, you as a job seeker may never hear back.

I’m not making excuses, but many of the posts I have read on this stuff just skim the surface about what’s going on behind the scenes. Or people indulge in old fashioned finger pointing labeling recruiters simply as slack sales people who are focused on the dollar. The reality is actually a lot more nuanced.

1) First up, yes, fear of litigation, the consultant does not want to be sued. It is actually often hard to give you as a candidate constructive feedback around your skills, when the interview process itself, has not been that scientific. If you’ve faced a behavioural interview, around your competencies, then the recruiter could give you some targeted and useful feedback based on which competencies you did not demonstrate in your answers. Trouble is, not everyone in the recruitment process sticks to the interview script. If that’s the case anything a recruiter says, could be easily disputed by you.

2) You may not receive any call or feedback when you are no longer a priority to the recruiter. Read this post on the silent treatment. Generally if this happens, the consultant is focusing on what it takes to meet their targets. They’re rewarded on placing candidates and they’re paid commission only when they meet their activity targets (client calls, visits, interviews). If you, as a candidate, are out of the running for a role, then you are not a priority call, as the consultant focuses on what they need to make a placement.

3) It’s really tough to give feedback. Consultants are human (funny that). Most people like to be liked. Disappointing a candidate is a hard thing to do, especially if the recruiter knows this is the one job their candidate wants. For a stressed out consultant, it’s easy to let this call go to the end of the day, or the end of the week, or the end of the month, or…..

4) The employer is giving the consultant the “silent treatment.” The job may have fallen through. Just because the agency advertises a job, doesn’t mean the job will be filled. It’s relatively cheap to place an advertisement on a job board. Sometimes employers will place a role with an agency to test the waters. Sometimes they may change their minds about who they want. Sometimes they forget their own internal processes and don’t get sign off to recruit. Sometimes there is an unexpected restructure. For many reasons the job may not eventuate and sometimes clients do not return consultant’s calls.

5) The consultant has no useful feedback to give you. Clients can sometimes give the vaguest of reasons about why they don’t want a candidate, “just didn’t think you’d fit the team,” “just not sure,” “if in doubt say no.” Or the client may give the recruiter reasons that they simply cannot repeat about your age, gender, nationality etc. There is no way that information will ever be passed on to you as a candidate.

6) The consultant could give you the tough feedback, but knows you won’t accept it, and doesn’t need the grief you may give them if they tried. This one’s a tricky one. If you don’t have a technical skill, for example, a qualification, experience in programming, software experience, knowledge of the law etc, then you know you don’t have that skill. It is easy for you to accept any feedback around this.

However when you lack polish (to put it politely) in the so called “softer skills” such as communication, you need to be very self aware to know that you have a problem. If you’re not a good communicator, for a whole host of reasons, you may never know this. (Many people are great at nodding politely as if they’re listening, if for example, you are a chronic over-talker and they’ve tuned out). Plus you’re only likely to trust this kind of communication about your communication skills if you trust the person delivering it. As a recruiter no matter how carefully I’ve worded some feedback to reflect what the real issue has been, I’ve had people dispute it. The conversation has not been pleasant, nor easy. I’m only human. If one person gives me a hard time for trying to do the right thing, it makes it a whole heap harder next time I go to pick up the phone.

How to make the most of a LinkedIn Group

Karalyn — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 01:10:05 +0000

Last week I wrote a post on why I “think” I regret becoming an open networker on LinkedIn. I had an enormous response. So thank you everyone for the feedback and support. The thing I love about social media is how responsive people are if you ask for help. Jason Ball from Good People Japan, a networking group, kindly wrote a detailed comment about how he manages his LinkedIn activity and his group. It has such great tips for anyone wanting to use LinkedIn effectively, I thought I’d feature it. Essentially Jason has used his LinkedIn group as a platform for meeting offline. Here’s how he did it…..

1. Closed off my connections for browsing (an unfortunate must that is more than made up for by the next approach)

2. Invited all the people in my local area (Tokyo, Japan) to join a closed group I started, for B2B in this area (no recruiters, financial planners/appointment setters, Network Marketers, B2C where everyone is a potential customer etc.. and no one from overseas unless they were referred and have some connection to doing business in Japan). The concept in also not LinkedIn and online based really (though touching base happens there). It’s about meeting in person, in small groups around proposed subjects of interest and also about me introducing my network to each other.

3. I became a moderator then admin to another large group (Business In Japan, 11,000+ members w/wide, 4,500+ Japan based) and so now when people from overseas invite me, if they have taken the time to make a personal approach or have an interesting profile for doing business or working in Japan, I recommend they join ‘BIJ’. If they’re in Japan and fit the profile I recommend (personal approach) we meet up in person some time, even at an event, sometimes suggesting an event (there are SOO many), and I may mention GoodPeople Japan, my group and BIJ Group if they don’t appear to be members.

4. I focus on these areas, engaging with people through all channels, expanding out into Twitter and (reluctantly) soon perhaps Facebook.

5. I focus on spending 20% of the time in person being very clear on how people can help me, and 80% of my time understanding and suggesting how I might help others.

All this means I’m busy yes, but I’m busy with ‘real’ people, the people behind the numbers of connections, followers and ‘friends’.

Other than that, I’m still learning how to best engage (so thanks for more than one post I’ve read of yours or hit ‘Read Later’ on, a widget from Instapaper), how to best help and define where it is I’m going, while having a whole heap of fun!

Thanks again, fellow Aussie ‘LinkedIn’-er! (This Aussie uses LinkedIn)

Jason
“Connecting GoodPeople”
http://jp.linkedin.com/in/goodpeople
@GoodPeopleJapan
http://www.goodpeople.jp

Tricky job interview questions you’d better have an answer for….

Karalyn — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 07:43:21 +0000

According to Ross Clennett, trainer to the recruitment industry, a good interviewer should not ask you questions about your strengths and weaknesses. Instead they should ask more pointed interview questions where you, on the other side of the table, need to provide evidence.

Here’s his list of ineffective job interview questions and suggested alternatives. He calls his questions effective. We call them tricky. Consider yourself warned.

Ineffective job interview question: What are your major strengths?

Effective job interview question: In your last performance review, what aspects of your work did your reviewer mention as being particularly good or strong?

Or: What accomplishment or aspects of your current/most recent work are you most proud of? Why are you proud of it and describe to me how you accomplished it?

Ineffective job interview question: What are your major weaknesses?

Effective job interview question: In your last performance review, what aspects of your work did your reviewer mention as needing to improve the most to take your work performance to the next level, and tell me what you have done with respect to that feedback?

Ineffective job interview question: How did you feel about that feedback?

Effective job interview question: How did you respond when you received that feedback?

Ineffective job interview question: What will you do if your child gets sick during work time? (Also avoid: Do you have young children?)

Effective job interview question: Because of the intense customer-focused and high response nature of this job (or substitute any other valid job-related criteria), it is extremely difficult for the client to be flexible with starting and finishing times between the core hours of 9am and 5pm. Does that present any difficulties for you with respect to any other commitments you have?

Ineffective job interview question: Where do you see yourself in three years’ time?

Effective job interview question: What skills do you want to gain or improve in the next 12 months and what steps have you taken recently to achieve this?

If you haven’t properly prepared for your interview, reflected on your strengths and weaknesses, plus how you can support anything that you claim, these questions can trip you up.

Read Ross’s full article here.

Pilot interview training and preparation

Karalyn — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:45:36 +0000

I’ve noticed a lot of interest in my posts for interview training and preparation for pilots. A large chunk of the airline interviews are now behavioural style, where you’re asked to present specific examples. These interviews are daunting, particularly if you haven’t been in the corporate world. If you’re a pilot facing an airline interview for the first time, part of your preparation along with your “sim” practice, should include interview training.

Read these pilot interview preparation, coaching and training tips for starters:

Interview issues specific to pilots

What to do if you can’t stop talking in interview

How to behave in behavioural interviews

How to talk about your weaknesses in interview

I offer one-on-one tailored individual training and coaching for pilots. Here’s a sample of what I cover in the interview training:

- identifying your unique strengths

- discussing your weaknesses without shooting yourself in the foot

- being able to talk through your strengths without being embarrassed

- defining and refining your best behavioural interview examples

- understanding the point of the question the interviewer asks

- projecting confidence

Over the past five years I have coached many pilots to interview success. Call me (Karalyn) on 0439 595 687 for more information or a quote on personalised coaching services.

How to network to get a graduate job

Karalyn — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:46:25 +0000

One of the questions I get asked a lot is “how do I get a graduate job?” I’d always suggest that people push themselves and go along to a graduate careers day. Most of the large graduate employers have stands. They put their recruiters and the shiny new graduates of their graduate programs in front of their stands and set the talk button.

I mistakenly thought you could use these fairs for research purposes to get the low down on the company and what to expect from the graduate program.

But there’s more to it than that.

These things can also be major networking events, it seems. For this knowledge I thank two people – Naishadh and Susan.

Let’s start with Susan. As a mature age graduate she knew that she would struggle on paper to compete with younger graduates who would seem to be a much better “cultural fit.” She knew she needed to get her face in front of people to have a chance to tell her story.

Susan’s aim was to get on the graduate recruiters’ “list”. She cracked a few jokes, chatted people up, and asked a lot of interested questions. Then she told them her story. She dressed like she was already working at the company. The recruiters lapped it up, and wrote her name down.

The reason they wrote her name down is because they receive hundreds of online applications from people who sound the same on paper. They were looking for other ways to help them make a decision. The “list” told them whom they should look out for amongst the flood, that is who’d made the right personal impression on the day.

For some great tips on how to get on the list visit my friend Naishadh at www.resumesolutions.com.au. He’s written a great little e-book on how to make the most out of careers expos. You can read it here.

LinkedIn tips – why I “think” I regret becoming an open networker

Karalyn — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 05:04:38 +0000

One of the decisions I made early on in online networking was to become an “open networker” on LinkedIn. For those of you who don’t use LinkedIn, becoming an open networker is where you join a group and are added to a list of people who are open to connecting up with people. Other networkers can use this list to make contact with you. Three years on after becoming an open networker I have thousands of connections. Now I kind of regret it.

I say “kind of” because there are advantages to being an open networker. One is that it expands your list of contacts by the bucket load. That means you are able to research thousands, if not millions of people in your broader network. This is great if you want to use LinkedIn to understand people, where they work and how they may help you.

The down side of being an open networker is that I am fair game. Now I receive hundreds of emails from people I don’t know. Many of them have nothing to do with my business. People have assumed that since I am an open networker that I want to hear about their bridge building business in California or a great deal on grapes in Penang. I’m in Sydney and if you’re reading this, you know what I do. It sounds bizarre, because it is bizarre. I am simply being spammed. While I received a few interesting emails among all of these, I’m sure many more good contacts have been lost in the masses.

For me, one of the few things to come out this deluge of emails, is a bit more insight on email impact and ethics. I try to understand how people communicate and how to improve my own communication. When I’ve read these emails I’ve realised how easy it is to all sound the same. If I open an email, it’s because it’s been a really clever or targeted email, and short and snappy, or the person sending it has “lucked on” a topic that has interested me.

With thousands of connections in my in box, I also find it hard to manage the masses. It’s a challenge to find people that I really care about and want to form deeper relationships with. (If anyone reading this has that secret, please let me know. I’d really appreciate it.)

Another thing that I didn’t think about when I opened myself up to contacts is how other people may view this when they look at my profile. Many head-hunters I have spoken to say that they look at the richness of your connections and who’s in your network. With so many contacts I am sure I look either really impressive, or really indiscriminate.

My main take out of doing all of this is that I had hesitation about becoming an open networker. But I ignored my gut instinct. At the time I didn’t have a good reason not to do it. I now know from working within online networking, Twitter and social media, that the community influences the way people use the forum. So with LinkedIn, many people have seen people hooking up and emailing each other, seeming indiscriminately and it becomes the “done thing.” It snowballs.

What I do know is that I’m not generally a person that works a room and hands out my business card to 25 people, even at a professional networking event. I prefer to chat to two or three people and get to know them. Open networking seems to be a bit like that spray can kind of approach. I’m not saying that’s wrong. I just don’t think that’s my natural style.

My main take out of all of this, is my networking style worked for me one way offline, so I should have approached it that way online. Perhaps that’s a good rule of thumb for anyone, really.

Have a read of point five in this post by the LinkedIn guy. It’s very telling.

Don’t picture your interviewer naked

Karalyn — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:32:13 +0000

Top tips on coping with interview nerves

If you suffer from nerves in an interview, chances are you’ll have heard the advice: “just picture the interviewer naked.” I’m not sure where this gem comes from, but it’s not very sound advice. If you do go down that path, at best you’ll be slightly distracted. At worst you’ll, ummm….let’s just leave it there.

You’ll get that advice when people want you to relax. It’s meant to humanize the interviewer and reduce them to someone you may relate to. But there are better ways to calm your nerves in interview than mentally undressing your interviewer. Here are a few to get you started.

Understand what the job is really about.

Nerves can come from being in the dark. So do your research. I have written about this in quite a few other posts, but I feel I need to repeat myself this after this past two weeks. I have helped two clients with government applications and selection criteria. The language on the position description so was woolly, I had to ring the contact. For the first job, the advertisement turned out to be different from what the manager had specified. For the second job, the role was an IT programming role, however the way the employer had written the advertisement, made it sound like a project management role. Big difference in the skills the employer requires.

If there is an opportunity to check what the role is really about, do so. Even if the position description accurately reflects the role, it’s hard to tell from a bullet list of responsibilities, which responsibilities are a priority. A good question to ask the contact is “what will I spend the majority of the role doing?” Something on the bottom of the list could be more important than what’s on the top of the list and a lot of what you read on a position description can be just fluff and padding.

Once you understand the job, think of examples of where you’ve held similar responsibilities.

Many interviewers now use behavioural interviews. The questions you’ll be asked may sound general and you may be tempted to roll out any old example. But the interviewers will be judging you on the relevance of the examples you present. Leadership, for example, at senior levels, can be more about leading through others. That’s different from managing a team directly.

Pick examples that you’re proud of…

Read this post on body language in interview. Your best examples will make me, as an interviewer, feel like I am in the room with you. They’ll be vivid. Your excitement in delivering them will be reflected in your tone, your mannerisms, and on your face.

Practice.

Don’t learn your lines. You’ll never remember them, but do talk out your examples. I say this because often when I coach people in interview skills, we do a mock interview. The first time someone talks through a scenario, or an example, that reflection is really obvious in their tone. Do practice, and if you can’t practice with a professional, practice in front of a mirror.

Record yourself.

This is excruciating, but it works. James a very good friend of mine recorded me when he interviewed me for his blog. He kindly pointed out that I said “you know” 27 times. OK it might have been 47 but I’ve blocked out the number I was so embarrassed. The thing about this is that I had zero idea I was saying this. When you need to be believed, you tend to use words to seek someone’s approval. In my case “you know” was a shortened version of “do you know what I mean?”

Get a good night’s sleep.

Pull the interviewer into your bubble.

What this really means is that you should try and focus 100% on the interviewer and what they’re asking, without being slightly creepy about it. Make the interview about the other person, not you. So, for example, instead of concentrating on getting your sentences out on perfect order, focus instead on whether the interviewer understands you. Try to understand the intent of the question that the interviewer asks. Check their body language to see if they’re receptive to you.

The bubble idea is a much better trick than picturing your interviewer naked. You really don’t want to share that bubble with someone you might find unattractive!

Five weird ways people have found jobs

Karalyn — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:54:43 +0000

How to get a job with no experience

I write a lot on how to find a job. I talk a lot on how to find a job. I’ve helped a lot of people find jobs. Over the past five years I’ve answered thousands of emails to CareerOne’s “Ask Kate” from people desperate to find a job. Yet when a friend of mine, James Evangelidis, interviewed me for his blog and asked me: “what’s the the number one thing people should do to to find a job if they have no experience?” I had to stop for a minute. Then I didn’t say “get your resume in order.”

I didn’t say get your resume in order as the number one priority because if you don’t have much experience a snappy resume will only take you so far. You’ll be competing with hundreds of equally snappy resumes. You’ll all make claims that sound the same on paper.

There is no one right answer to how to get a job with no experience. So I thought a few small case studies might help. Here are five ways people have found a job without experience.

One client of mine was an engineering graduate. He had solid marks and some university work experience with one of Australia’s biggest miners. However he was older than other graduates. He’d completed his masters and had a few years work experience in India. I suspected he wasn’t having much luck as his background didn’t quite fit the bill of “typical graduate.” He went door knocking. He picked a light industrial area, where there were small to medium sized businesses and where he knew that if he dropped in his resume to the receptionist, he was one level away from the owner. So he knew his resume would make it into the right hands. He found his first job as a draftsperson this way.

Another client of mine had a long career in the public sector, then she went overseas. She wanted to work in HR but had trouble convincing anyone that her public sector skills were transferable. Plus she felt that she was being labeled as someone from the “public sector.” She was sun baking at the beach one day and started to chat to the people next to her about what she had done. It turns out that they needed an HR Manager. The next week they interviewed her.

A third client came to me a year ago. She had had a long break from the workforce and spent a large part of that helping her child who had a disability. Her English was poor. She was lacking in confidence, plus she wanted to work in accounting. This is a really tough ask without any experience. This client volunteered in a tax agent’s office, joined a few social groups and read heaps of English books. One year later she came back to see me. We then put the volunteer work on her resume as a “real job” and the tax agent gave her a glowing reference. She applied for two professional public sector roles and was offered both.

James and I interviewed 25 Australian employers for our book” “What do employers really want?” We asked them about the strangest way they’d recruited someone. The Director of one of Australia’s biggest manufacturing successes said that she had hired one person from a bus stop and one person from a service station. Both of them had no experience and both are now in management roles within her company.

There’s no simple moral to this story, but there are a few common themes.

All of the people I describe were active in ways that didn’t directly relate to their job search. They were happy to talk to people and tell them what they wanted. They look trustoworthy. They didn’t look like they’d sell their grandmother in her sleep

My first client, by door knocking, was demonstrating things he could only ever claim to have on his resume – initiative and good communication skills. My second client was an engaging listener. My third client was prepared to do a number of things with one end goal, making herself more employable. So if you do have no experience and you do need a job, one of the best things you can do is get out and get active and take a read James’ blog here.

(Sorry about that. I really couldn’t help myself and have just written a moral)

What to expect from a second grilling, sorry I meant interview.

Karalyn — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:49:50 +0000

I had an interesting email today. My emailer wanted to know what she could expect from a second interview. She had a first interview with her potential direct manager. The interview was reasonably casual and covered questions around why she wanted the role, the skills she could bring, her salary expectations and what the role involved. She was then invited in to a second interview with a large panel. She was worried about going over old ground with the first interviewer who was going to be on the panel.

So what could she expect from a second interview? My answer was this:

The first interview sounds like, as we say in the trade, a “screening” interview. The interviewer sizes you up for a broad match. Do your basic skills fit? Does what you want, match the company’s offerings in both the short and long term? How much money do they need to pay? Do they like you enough to push it any further?

The second interview if it’s with a panel has to be structured. More than two people in an interview, without some sort of a script, spells chaos.

To prepare for the second interview, I would go back to the basics. You’ll have insights from the first interview. But think about what you now know about the challenges of the role. Then come up with some really meaty examples to show you have the skills. Talk through your answers so you sound confident.

For a second interview like this you probably will have some of the same screening questions. So just be prepared to answer them again. Be consistent. The first interviewer will have briefed the others, but you don’t know what he or she has said.

Don’t think you can’t go over what you have said. But if they ask the same questions about what you want, add a bit more. You will have gained some insight from the first interviewer about the role. So you can preface any answer with that knowledge. For example: “I understand from my first discussion with so and so, that you offer abc in this role – I have had a further think about that and this appeals because xyz”

That way you’ve shown that you have listened to what’s been discussed.

Interview panel members always seem to ask at the end of the interview “do you have anything further to add?” (As if they haven’t grilled you enough!) Most interviewees forget to tell people that they actually want the role.Give your elevator pitch here, by all means.But don’t forget to tell the panel you’d like the role. And sound like you mean it!

Gone in seven seconds – the resume review

Karalyn — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:44:02 +0000

I really liked this article from Brad Remillard at Impact Hiring. Here he is really honest about how he, as a recruiter, reviews a resume. He says he doesn’t give a resume in 20 seconds to make an impact. He actually reviews an entire resume in 20 seconds. He gives you and your resume 5 – 7 seconds to pass the first cull.

Those numbers again. That’s 5 -7 seconds – per resume – to make an impact. Twenty seconds for a full review.

If Brad is reviewing hundreds of resumes, he’s looking first up for a quick match with what the client wants, who you are and what you offer. Here is his order of knock out blows:

Location – you need to be close to the role location
Industry background
Your role/ function
Your title or your level
How recent is your experience?
Education
Turnover – are you a job hopper?
Is your resume a functional resume, rather than presented chronologically? Brad doesn’t like functional resumes, as he suggests you’re hiding something
Format – spelling, grammar, consistent presentation

So if you want to pass the recruiter resume review test you have to make it easy for them to make a quick decision on your resume. That’s the obvious message dealt with.

The other thing to think about here is that hiring someone is a risky and expensive business. Recruiter’s fees often start at 10% of your salary. Technology now allows for many employers to do their own hiring easily. So often they are asking recruiters to be their eyes and ears in the market beyond what they can do themselves.

If the employer is paying a high fee, what they want from a recruiter is the ideal match for their requirements. So if the recruiter can’t find this through an advertisement, instead of broadening the net of skills they’ll consider, the recruiter may simply head hunt. It’s a recruitment “truism” that the best people are working.

Generally this means, no matter how confident you are that you can do the role the recruiter advertises, if you are not the ideal match on your paper resume, you will find it very difficult to convince them. This will be even harder if there are several people in the mix who are a closer match.

A recruitment consultant will generally offer their client a guarantee that you are the right person for that role. If you leave the role within three months, they attribute that to a poor hiring decision – perhaps you are not skilled enough for the role. Beyond three months your reasons for leaving may have more to do with something internal to the company. The recruiter has sold their recruitment skills to the employer. So they may be even more conservative in hiring than the employer would be. Your match for the role is the recruiter’s reputation

What I am trying to say, in a long winded way, is that you present less risk to the recruiter if you are already doing a role close to their advertised role, or a large part of your role covers that. The guarantee that the recruiter offers their client, is that they will replace you, if you don’t work out. They’ve earned their fee once they will not earn it again if they have to replace you.

So what’s the take out here?

If you are applying for a role, make sure your resume reflects what’s advertised. Make sure you include the key words and phrases. Use recruitment consultants as just one part of your job searching strategy as they don’t hold all the jobs in the market. If you can call the recruiter, try to connect with the recruiter, so they can see you are human, not just a static piece of paper.

Don’t take it so personally if you can’t convince them to look at you. The entire formal recruitment process is built around minimising risk.