Hi everybody, good evening, it's Caroline from newhorizoncoaching.com.au, career coach
and job search strategist.
Overnight I received an e-mail from John, and John wrote me the following e-mail.
He said, "Thanks Caroline, thanks for providing a platform to ask questions.
It's been challenging to get any feedback from recruiters, and it's hard to know what
you need to change in your job search to make it work.
I've been made redundant eight months ago, and I have been looking for a job ever since.
I'm feeling so frustrated, I'm applying for jobs I can do but no one is giving me a call.
I'm worried now that I have a gap on my resume which is only getting bigger.
Do you have any advice for me?"
Well, yes I do, I do have some pointers.
First of all I would encourage you to send me your resume, because I would love to have
a look to get a better understanding of what it is that's holding you back.
But, the couple of pointers that I have is first of all you need to change your mind
set, and when you're actively looking for a job this is the most important tip that
I can give, and strategy I can give.
Because, being unemployed or being actively looking for a job, and having a gap on your
resume- having a gap is just a part of life, or of your career.
A gap is a gap, and so many people have gaps.
I have two kids, so I have gaps.
People take sabbatical, people relocate, people get made redundant, and so on.
It is part- most likely, people have gaps on their resume.
There are two things that can happen, or a company can screen you out straight away,
and there are companies that do do so.
I've recruited for companies that had a minimum requirement of somebody staying at a certain
company in a certain role for like five years, and which is just a way that you have to cope
with that.
But, most companies will give you a fair go, and they will call you to get a better understanding
of your current situation and of your career experience.
Now, it's very important what you do next, because once you receive that call you need
to actually give the confidence to them that you actually are not desperate.
A lot of people that I call and I say like, "Can you tell me a little bit about your current
situation?"
And, they're actively looking, they say like "I want the job, I want the job!"
That is not what you need to do, it's like "I will do anything like, just give me a fair
go," no, that is not how you actually attract people to your job.
You attract people by saying look, "I have been reevaluating what I wanted, have been
exploring the job market, and have been looking what's out there and have started having certain
conversations," and it's how you confidence you are saying that that actually will make
a difference.
That brings me to the second point.
If I have a really good CV, and good CV is not somebody that works for 10 years in a
certain job, it could be just the way it's structured, the way it flows, the way it's
articulated, that I immediately get what they specialise in, and that makes a good resume-
and I see gaps, I will give that person a go, because I know how hard it is to find
good talent in the market.
Good talent is still very, very difficult to find, because people want to retain them
people want to keep them, so if you have all the skills on your resume and your resume
clearly articulates what you can bring to an organisation, and is not a washing list
of stuff that you have done and skills that you have mastered, but really targeted and
really organised and structured, then I will give you a call.
Then, it's up to you to actually convince me that you are suitable for the role.
That's the second thing.
So, the first thing is your mind sent, the second thing is your resume that you have
to make sure that communicates correctly what you're all about and stuff like that.
The third thing is your job search.
Now, what a lot of people do is when they're desperately looking for an opportunity they
say, "Oh my god, I will spread my net as wide as possible, and I will just apply for every
single job I can do.
Whether it's under my level or under my salary expectations, or a little bit outside my core
expertise, it doesn't matter."
They go for jobs that actually are a little bit different, or below what they ideally
wanted, and they think like "Oh my god, I'm being flexible, I'm spreading my net really
wide," but actually they are doing the opposite.
When you actually lower your salary expectations, or not salary expectations just the salary
that you actually might have been on, or really drop significantly, then you are going to
put yourself in competition with a whole other category of people, and you are going to increase
your competition.
That will do you dis-justice, because hiring managers they will say "Why isn't he going
to jump ship the first occasion that he has, or he or she has," and they will raise too
many questions.
In today's competitive market, when you raise questions you end up in that maybe pile, and
in the maybe pile that's for me a translation of sitting in my inbox and I will delete you
when I have a standout resume or a standout candidate.
So, you don't want to really be on the maybe pile.
You don't want to be on the no pile, but the maybe pile is also not good neither.
Anyway, you have to really look at the jobs that are very suited to you in terms of- even
if you go for transferable skills, you have to make sure it's crystal clear, and people
who read your resume don't have to assume things.
The problem these days is people make a resume, they list all their skills and experience,
which is basically what you need to do but they forget to tell their story, and to really
make it powerful.
So, you just have a list of things, verbal diarrhoea on a piece of paper, and they just
assume or let the reader make assumptions.
"Oh, it's because they've done this and this, so therefore they should be able to do that."
It's about keeping it concise and really keeping it clear and structured and targeted, so your
message comes across really in a proper way.
Basically, you have to make sure you do that.
Back to your job search.
Your job search need to be targeted to organisations that you know you can bring the biggest added
value.
Now, how do you define those organisations?
The quickest and simplest way is to take a marker, highlighter, and to highlight on your
resumes all the companies you have worked, and take a pen and write all the competitors,
or suppliers, vendors, or people that actually work with those organisations next to it.
So, you come up with a whole list of types of organisations, types of industries, and
so on.
Those are the organisations that you going to bring the biggest added value.
When you're doing your job search, you actually can say "Okay, this is my target list.
I'm also going to look at the jobs advertised on Seek, I'm going to network with people
on my target list," to actually diversify a little bit your job search and not really
sitting back and just cross-fingers, hoping that something actually will come up.
It's taking control of your job search, and really making sure it gives you the right
results.
Now, there's a whole lot of tips I can give you on job searching, because there's a lot
of different ways you can expand your job search.
I will just give you maybe one or two to give you an idea.
But, when you actually look at jobs look at more unusual jobs, that you know that people
might not be jumping for to apply, but those jobs can give you your foot in the door back
to employment.
For example, when jobs in the CBD will be more popular than jobs a little bit outside.
It's looking at the locations, locations that might not be immediately available by public,
or reachable by public transport.
Those locations and those companies might receive less applicants than when you're a
really hot-shot startup organisation in the city with loads of money to spend and to hire
away.
That might be a very competitive company to work for.
So, it's really important for you to define when you're looking at companies that you
want to apply for, that you actually make that judgement already like "Okay, those companies
I would have more chance."
Then when you apply for those companies, you have to make sure that you have a really targeted
cover letter, and that again your resume really clearly articulates what is that you can bring
to the table.
I will put a link below this video to a resume template that I have, that I know has proved
this way to be very, very successful.
I might, I will put a link below this video.
Also, with your job search, when you look at contracts it might be quicker than permanent
opportunities.
The reasoning behind that is if I'm looking for a person to start tomorrow, I had just
somebody getting sick, it's really horrible but, I just need somebody in the role tomorrow,
I'm going to be more flexible on what I'm looking for.
So, even though you might be looking for a permanent position in the long term, a contract
position that even is like a couple of weeks might actually get you started because, when
you're employed you're not checking your inbox or e-mail every five seconds, you're not looking
at Seek every five seconds like "Refresh, refresh, refresh," to see if there is a new
job going.
Or, you're hassling the recruiters like "Ah, I want to a break now."
You're going to be more relaxed in terms of your job search.
So, those are the three things that I would do is change your mind set, and if you can't
change it just pretend because you have to sometimes fake it before you actually believe
it, and if you keep on doing the same thing over and over again and thinking about it
over and over again, you start to believing in and adopt that new behaviour.
Second thing is look at your resume, make sure it's crystal clear, your message comes
across.
Don't worry about the gap.
Thirdly is looking at your job search strategy, and making sure you are not just relying on
being reactive, apply online and cross-fingers, or fingers-cross what do you say?
This is Binglish; Belgium English, Binglish?
Anyway, so sorry to digress.
So, your job search; make sure you actually are being proactive and being more in control
of your job search and your direction of what you're doing.
I hope this helped you and gave you an idea.
Thank you so much for your question.
What I would recommend is you sending me your resume anyway, so I can have a good look at
it and maybe help you and give you a call to give you some quick pointers, because the
last thing I want you to do is bash your head against the brick wall and thinking like "I'm
stuck and nobodies helping me," because that's just an awful feeling that I wouldn't want
anybody to have.
Besides this, if anybody has a question for me that they want me to do a Facebook Live-
and I kind of liking this Facebook Live vibe because it's, like John said, it's a platform
for me to quickly tell you what I would suggest.
I have put my two kids to bed and now I'm doing it, so it's actually quite working out
for me very well.
Anyway, bringing it back, if you have anymore questions for me please let me know, you can
post it below this video, or you can e-mail me directly on caroline@newhorizonchoaching.com.au,
and I will come back to as soon as I can.
Thank you very much and have a lovely evening, thanks bye.