Resume and Government Selection Criteria? – yes you do need both

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

How important is your resume with your selection criteria?

If you are submitting selection criteria, do you really need your resume?  I receive this question a lot. The answer is yes definitely! With government applications, your resume is read alongside your selection criteria, however the selection criteria is the main event, so to speak.

Often the government panel will read your resume for “context”. In your selection criteria you may give an example, which you do not reference with a date. The panel will flick back to your resume, to see when or which organization you are referring to.

That’s not to say your resume is not important for government applications.  It is for a few different reasons.

If you have a resume that is not aligned with your selection criteria, and, for example, you write in your resume career objective that you want a different role from the one that is advertised, you will look like a bit of a goose.  You also need to provide the government panel with that easy reference. Ideally, also, the formatting, presentation and content on your resume should convey the same impression that your selection criteria does.

As a professional writer, I find it easier to write a resume first then the selection criteria. This is allows me to order my thoughts and work out where I need to question you or prompt you to think of examples for the selection criteria. But everyone is different. You may find it easier to do it the other way around.

One final word of warning, unless the government department specifically states that they will draw information from your resume and to present your application as the one document, you will always need to address the selection criteria. I have only sat on one government panel where they were happy to take information from the resume. And that was for a “tradie” job. No matter how stunning your resume is, you simply can’t take he chance that the panel will be this kind.

Still confused? Read these selection criteria tips before you apply for a government job.

I have a series of posts on putting together a  resume . You’ll find most of what you need on this page. If not, feel free to email me any questions you have and I’ll answer them: karalyn@interviewiq.com.au

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Flunked the job interview? Ask is it me or is it you?

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

People often ask me what am I doing wrong in a job interview?  They’ve sent out fifty resumes, they’ve landed ten or so interviews, yet they’ve missed out on the job. This strike rate says to me that this person’s resume is working for them to a reasonable extent, so it probably does come down to a few things.

Here are some reasons you may not be offered the job.

1) Too many people at the one job interview. This is pretty much market dynamics and not a lot you can do about it at the time, although you should be thinking strategically about how you can stand out, whether that be by upgrading your skills, doing some thorough research prior to the interview or by really focusing on the value you can add to the job.

2) The job has been withdrawn. This happens more often than you think. Sometimes employers will interview just to test the waters. They may not tell you this. After the interview they may fill the job internally, restructure the organization or outsource the role.

3) You may threaten or intimidate the interviewer. This can happen. You may have more experience than the person who interviews you. We all have egos, and the interviewer may be questioning how well they will manage you on the job. They may also ask whether you will want their job, or how long you will actually last in the job.

4) The job does not exist. One of my clients recently had a recruitment consultant interview her over the phone. They offered to forward her resume along with two others. She waited 10 days and rang the consultancy again. Her first consultant had left, but the replacement said she would follow up with the client. Four days later and still my client had heard no answer, so she rang the employer client directly and asked about the job. The employer had not formally given the job to the agency. The agency were responding to an advertisement. This is the topic of a whole other blog post, but be warned, it does happen.

5) You don’t interview well. Here’s where it gets tricky. There are many things people do that will see them eliminated in a job interview. I’ve covered some of these in this post, on job interview nerves. It may be that you don’t answer questions, you talk over the top of your interviewer, you give the wrong information, you talk too much or you talk too little. In other words, many many things.

A lot of what I have just said comes down to communication skills. Different from “hard” technical skills, how effective you are as a communicator is hard for you to gauge. With software skills, for example, you know when you have them. How well you communicate can come down to how “self aware” you are. The reason this is hard for you to pick personally, is you can only really see your success as a communicator reflected in others.

Have I just confused you? Stay with me on this. I’m about to explain what I mean.

Other people are good at hiding their reactions to what you say and how you say it. Lots of people, especially interviewers, are good at looking like they are listening, when they’re not. In work or in your personal life, few people will be really honest with you, if you do something routinely to annoy them in the way that you communicate.

It can also be confronting for the other person to say how you make them feel, as in a sense they are bringing up unpleasant aspects of your personality. Often you may never hear the truly honest feedback you need, as deliverer may sugar coat it. Or you simply shoot the messenger who gives you bad news about how you come across.

If you want to improve your job interview skills, I suggest you do an audit. How do you really know that you are a good communicator? Ask yourself is it me or is it you?

Read here for one of my most popular posts on job interview preparation.

 

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Should you just take any old job?

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

Career advice for the long term unemployed

Last week one of the bloggers I read on a regular basis, Hannah Morgan, aka “The Career Sherpa” gave some timely career advice on whether you should just take any job, if you’re struggling to find a job. It’s timely advice because it is a question that people have asked during the downturn, and it is timely advice because it’s a question that always confronts new arrivals to Australia, who keep coming up against the barrier “no local experience”.

While you can take any job, you still need to think of your career. Hannah suggests that you do a job hunting audit on your efforts before you throw in the towel. Here are some career questions she poses:

Have you been specific about what you are looking for? And have you communicated this clearly to everyone who knows you are looking?

Are you really qualified for the roles you are aiming at? You need to ask yourself are you aiming at the right level. The answer to this can only come down to how well you understand the roles you are applying for and the skills you can bring.

Have you exhausted all options? I am constantly surprised by how many people will just apply for jobs through advertisements, yet if I question them, they’ve never found a job that way in the past. Go direct, network, volunteer, play sport, do anything that puts you in touch with other people. In my own business I have found many leads from weird places, including the pest exterminator who visited my apartment (it’s a Sydney “damn cockroaches” thing) and wanted me to become his webmaster after we got talking about website optimization.

If you are contemplating taking “any job”, my thoughts are, it’s better to be working than not. I see nothing wrong with driving a cab or even stacking supermarket shelves while you’re working on finding your dream job. I have a few caveats on this, though:

–  Make sure you keep your career focus, part 1. If you take a role that is well beneath your skill level, it is very easy to lose your focus if you work the long days and try to apply for roles at nights, particularly if the TV beckons

–  Make sure you keep your career focus, part 2. It is very easy to lose your confidence, particularly if you are reporting to people when you used to manage them

–  If you take a job where you think you may want to stay then ask a few pointed questions including: Does the company promote internally? What would be a typical career path from this role? Where has the leadership team come from?

My biggest fear about giving advice about taking any job, is that it is easy to be like the “frog in the slowly boiling water”. The frog doesn’t realize he is being boiled to death as the temperature slowly rises. I have found when I have taken jobs beneath my skill level, that my expectations of what I can do, shrink with the role and how I see that others see me. I am hardly aware of this as it’s a gradual thing. It’s taken a jolt to shake myself out of this.

Hannah has these great suggestions if you want to make the most of a job:

When/if you take that job, find ways to make a difference every day. Look for opportunities to learn new things and meet new people. Consider this a form of education. By all means, don’t be resentful, negative, or give an air of superiority. Be grateful to have been given a chance.

Sounds like sound career advice to me! What do you think?

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6 career tips from 3 successful women

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

My new financial year resolution is to practice what I preach and to get out to at least one networking event a week. This week I went along to Network Central‘s forum on women and careers featuring a panel of three successful women: CareerOne’s online editor, Kate Southam, Regina Fikkers, a partner at PWC and journalist and author Catherine Fox.

Networking is hard. Nobody likes fronting up to a room full of people you don’t know and introducing yourself. But I was lucky enough to find myself in the hands of the lovely Hacy Tobias from Arbonne International. I think she may have sold me her skin care range just by being charming and interested in me, but that’s a whole other networking story!

If you don’t network, give it a go. You’ll lose nothing. The worst thing you can take away from a networking event is some new knowledge. I did so much better than that and picked up these pearls from the panel for women making their way through what still is a hard core male dominated corporate world.

–  Be yourself. Yes it’s a cliché, but it’s true. There is no point being anyone else. If you’re in a blokey environment, you’ll lose yourself if you try to be a bigger bloke than the blokes.  If drinks at the pub don’t do it for you, don’t do it. But do find different ways to connect.

–  Learn that it is OK to understand the politics of an organization.  Many women are scared of this. But politics is simply a way of understanding who really makes the decisions and the way those decisions are made.

–  You will be surprised about who is a stakeholder in your career. Regina told the tale of when she was pregnant with twins and was negotiating a major deal while suffering morning sickness. The only person who knew was the PA who quietly held the door open every time she needed to throw up. The PA knew she was pregnant but kept it to herself and gave Regina a lot of support through an incredibly stressful time.

–  Everybody expresses emotion at work. Don’t buy it if it is implied that you are too emotional as a female. Some of the most emotional people are men. An angry man is an emotional man.

–  All three women had times where they wanted to just give up and felt it was all too much. Don’t give up. That’s just par for the course.

–  You will be your own worst critic. Even when things were going perfectly Catherine says she always found something to worry about. The important part of this is that she was aware that it is part of her make up.

–  If you are not having children, then it is important to support women who do. Any concessions to work life balance your female counterparts may win, is a win for you, and a win for everyone as at some point in our lives we will all need flexibility.

Catherine Fox made the point that Australian women lack a lot of confidence. All three women spoke about supporting other women and how important that is. On that note I’d like to publicly thank Kate Southam . She has given me plenty of breaks in my career and was kind enough to give me a shout out at the event.

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Just how many Linkedin recommendations do you need?

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

This guest post is brought to you by: Jorgen Sundberg aka The Undercover Recruiter

Most of us are on LinkedIn; we have pimped our profiles and thrown in the buzzwords so that we can be found by whoever has a nice juicy opportunity for us. Apart from joining and getting active in groups, the best way to raise your profile is to get online testimonials from people you know professionally.

The beauty of LinkedIn recommendations is that everyone can see who has endorsed you. No more of that “references provided upon request” b-s, the references are right there on your profile and you can leverage them as much as you like. Recruiters, HR and hiring managers all skim the recommendations section of your profile so it’s worth investing some time in getting the right ones. Every time you do get a recommendation, it will appear on your contacts’ home feeds and thus giving you an additional plug.

How many recommendations should I have?

Some employers claim not to consider applicants with less than ten recommendations on their profiles. Other employers couldn’t care less. To play it safe, I would recommend anyone to get to at least ten recommendations and build from there. Getting them is not going to hurt and it will also allow you to pick up contact with old colleagues, clients, and partners. A good rule of thumb is to get two to three recommendations from each job you have had.

How do I get them?

Social media networking is all about karma and the best way to get a recommendation is to write one first. Pick someone that you would love to get an endorsement from, write them an honest and useful recommendation and they are bound to reciprocate.

Another way is to ask people just after you have done them a favor; your goodwill is still fresh in their minds. This is a classic trick of the trade for recruiters and is typically applied just after you they have found you a new job. If if you have got more money and responsibility, you will be happy to write something nice for the recruiter in return. Learn from the masters and apply this to your situation. Whatever it is you do in your profession, ask for the recommendation when you most deserve it.

Make it easy for the other person

Everyone is busy these days, or at least they think they are. You will get people promising to write you a recommendation but they don’t deliver and keep dragging their feet. Just like with your typical employment reference, you can provide them with a little text or bullet points you put together. They can then choose to publish it or make amendments. The point is that you make it easy enough for them to take action.

Who should I get them from?

Whoever you request a recommendation from, consider how it will be perceived by the reader. Recruiters and employers are likely to rate it by who wrote it and therefore the more influential people, the better. Having a CEO endorsement on your profile could do more for your job search than ten from your colleagues.
Strive for diversity as well as quality. You will want your recommendations to be from a tasty mélange of colleagues, customers, managers, partners, suppliers and anyone else that is relevant to your professional career. Too many from one of these groups will look weird, so try to keep a nice balance.

Stay away from any recommendations written by friends and family unless you have actually worked with them. In case you are a LION, you might be requested to write a recommendation for a random connection. Although they promise to do the same for you, it’s not worth it as it will completely wipe out your credibility as a networker.

Call to Action

Get busy with recommendations today; it will typically take a few weeks to get to ten of them. Just like with any personal branding, you want to get cracking on it now so that you are prepared for when you need it the most.

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.

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6 strange things your nerves make you do in a job interview

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

Many people come to me for help when they freeze up in interview, which they attribute to panic and nerves.  That’s true. Your nerves can make you freeze up under the spotlight of an interview. What you may not know however, is that your nerves will make you do other strange things. So if you’ve ever had an interview that you thought went wonderfully well, only to receive a knock back a week or so later, read on. Many recruiters see the way you handle yourself in interview, as an indication of what you will be like under pressure in real life. That is, you give at your weakest points. Here are a few examples to show you what I mean:

Answering the question before an interviewer finishes asking it: I list this first as I honestly loathe this behaviour. I’m not sure why people do this, but my take on this is that the person has poor listening skills. Interrupting someone before they finish asking you a question is like a verbal kneecapping. unexpected and painful.

Not answering the question: Sometimes interview questions are too long. Sometimes an interview question has too much preamble. Sometimes interview questions are too confusing. So as an interviewer I don’t mind repeating a question, but when I need to rephrase and simplify a question three or so times, I give up and move on to the next question.

Talking too much: Some people don’t seem to take a breath in interview. This is fine if you have an engaging story and you can remember the question you are answering a few minutes into your answer. However many people keep talking and forget to keep checking to see if their interviewer is listening. The tricky thing here is to know whether your interviewer is a person who likes detail or who likes bullet points. It’s also difficult to know if interviewers are actually listening. Some interviewers, particularly experienced interviewers, are professional at looking like they’re listening.

Shutting down: Often people switch into “interview mode”. They’re engaging in reception. They’re lovely over the phone. But when they get into interview they talk in a completely different way. As an interviewer I think “whatever happened to?”

Injecting odd phrases: “Like”, “like you know”, “do you get what I mean?” This verbal stuffing can completely detract from your appearance as a competent professional. The public speaking group, Toastmasters, is good for eliminating this kind of thing, as is recording yourself in an interview practice session.

Forgetting to listen: Sometimes people launch into an answer that they want to give, rather than listening to what a question is actually asking. The danger in this is that it may take the interviewer a couple of minutes to realise you are off tangent. If your interviewer is short on time, or simply impatient, you may have missed your chance.

Need to get ahead of the pack for your next interview?

Get our free e-book The 7 Deadly Sins to Avoid at Job Interview!

Deborah Barit wrote this book. She is one of Australia’s leading interview coaches.

To get your free e-book and some of our best interview tips direct to your inbox, simply click on this link.

Here’s what happy readers said about the e-book and interview tips:

“Deborah Barit is a very smart lady…She is good at figuring out what an employer is looking for. It’s like she has ESP, with her help in preparing, I found no surprises in a recent interview and I was prepared for every question….” Cathy, Leichhardt, NSW

“Because I read so many of your posts, I feel as if you were my personal employment coach. I start my new position in two weeks. I had so many obstacles to overcome and each day you posted a solution to my dilemma and how to improve my search. Thank you so much for your input and PLEASE continue to do what you do!”

Click here to get access to the e-book.

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