If you want any job just to pay the bills, go to where the job is
As the saying goes, go to where the fishes are.
Are you prepared to go anywhere for a job?
Working in the mining industry may require you to live in regional or even remote areas. Regional centres around Australia generally offer full services such as health care and schooling for children.
Australia’s capital cities will have industry and job clusters where employers in specific fields and job families will base themselves.
For example, Richmond and South Yarra in Melbourne have a high concentration of advertising and marketing agencies. In Sydney’s CBD, there are many investment banks headquartered.
Do note that some roles and skills are in higher demand in Australia and others less so.
If you have highly sought-after skills such as digital abilities, it may be relatively easy to find work. Or, if you are willing to work somewhere remote, you may have fewer competitors for jobs. Find jobs, job locations that have fewer job seekers.
Applying for the job
Tailor your resume and cover letter to the job
Each job application should be specifically tailored to the role you are applying for. Address all job requirements. Don’t make it generic.
Employers are looking for candidates who have a true desire to work with them and aren’t just submitting 100 applications randomly.
Use your resume and cover letter to tell the reader what you are passionate about and what motivates you. Use it to paint a picture of who you are and what your story is. Highlight your character and what sets you apart.
Do tell your story using good English and grammar. Poor communication is a sure-fire way to get rejected.
These documents are the first thing a hiring manager or recruiter will read. So, they must be good.
10-second test
Above all, your cover letter and resume must pass the 10-seconds test. If you cannot immediately get the interest of the reader to continue reading your resume, it is game over.
Don’t assume that local employers have heard of your overseas employers. Include a paragraph in your resume explaining their business and its functions.
For resumes, try and keep this shorter than two pages. List your employers, starting with the most recent. Keep the descriptions short, to the point and relevant to the job you are applying for. Format the layout to your own unique, professional style so that it won’t look like others.
Your cover letter must be clear, concise and easy to read with good English and grammar. Try and keep this shorter than one page. This is essentially a letter directed to the person responsible for hiring. It will describe a little bit about yourself, why you would like to work with the employer. It clearly explains how you align your skills and experience with each of the selection criteria.
Submit these documents as PDFs to avoid any formatting errors.
Common problems with resumes include:
(1) Listing job duties rather than key achievements – they tell rather than show.
(2) Do not contain keywords or phrases for the job that are set out in the job advertisement.
(3) Not visually appealing where it lacks white spaces – it’s just too crowded.
(4) Contain English, grammar and typographical errors – it’s just too hard to read!
(5) Have irrelevant or unnecessary information. This shows lack of interest and preparation on your part.
(6) Lacked overall impact or presentation. It shows a lack of effort to convince the reader of your capabilities.
Focus on your achievements – show, rather than tell
Focus on your key achievements and success and what you will do for the employer if hired. Do not aimlessly listing your qualifications and employment history and duties. You need to show evidence of how you have applied your knowledge to the real world!
Rather than saying that you have “event management skills”, you should be saying that you have “chaired the organising committee for the international environment conference 2012 in Melbourne which hosted 900 delegates and 50 profile speakers over 4 days and 5 different venues.”
Your achievements must tangible and relatable. It clearly shows how you delivered on the outcome using your event management skills.
More importantly, employers may do a reference check to verify that you delivered on the expected outcome you said you have delivered. If you lied about it, it’s game over.
Find supportive referees
Where possible, ask someone in Australia to be your job or character referees. Chances are that employers may not want to call overseas referees unless they are very relevant to your job or if it is a senior position.
Referees must know you enough to tell the person making the reference check something about you and the work you produced or our character. They will ask how long your referees know you.
“Would you hire this person again?”
If your previous manager is your referee, how would he or she respond to this question?
It is best to leave your previous employment on a positive note. This will ensure that you are welcomed back and that your referees can say positive things about you. This will increase the likelihood of you securing your next job.
Always focus on what’s in it for the employer
The reality is that your resume and cover letter is NOT about you. It is about how you can positively add or create value for the employer. It’s all about what you can do for the employer to make more money for them!
Businesses exist to make money. They make money to pay their employees. When they don’t make money, you don’t get paid.
Consider the employer as your ‘customer’. Ask yourself why they should hire you. Developing this mindset will give you a different perspective on your skills and approach to marketing your skills and experience during your job hunting.
Give hiring managers some compelling reasons to hire you. Include those reasons into your cover letter and resume.
Remember to have answers to this question – What’s in it for the employer?
Address key requirements in your cover letter and resume
Your cover letter must address all key requirements of the job. You must show (not tell) how you are going to meet those requirements if you are hired.
You are essentially providing a marketing proposal to a prospective ‘customer’. Selling your skills and experience will be your aim. If you don’t sell, you will not get that job.
Demonstrate how your previous achievements are linked to the requirements of the job. By demonstrating relevance, you can show that you are the best hire for the job.
Skills are the new currency of the workplace
Traditional resumes today do a “poor job” in representing job seekers. Instead, resumes need to highlight the best traits and skills you have to offer and potential to learn new ones.
The contemporary resume format is shown below. Each skill listed has a corresponding key achievement. It demonstrates how you have applied that skill to achieve tangible results. This format avoids the problem of mindless listing of your previous job duties for each job title.
It also avoids dating your resumes which allows the readers to guess your age. Ageism is a problem in Australia.
Soft skills such as creativity and communication must be included.
Indeed, more than 57% of senior leaders say they value soft skills over hard skills, according to a recent LinkedIn skills survey.
More tips for securing a job
(1) Remove all irrelevant information (and words) from your resume (and cover letter) – Your age, marital status, photo, referees or even salary expectations. If you are applying for a job that may not require a specific degree or qualification, but you still mention your degree, you are very likely to be perceived as over-qualified. Listing them will not do you any favours.
(2) Make sure your Australian contact details are up to date and they look professional. The first impression counts.
(3) Don’t use an email address containing irrelevant and unprofessional words.
(4) Even if the job description explicitly mentions a degree, you shouldn’t focus much on it in your application except for very specific jobs requiring certifications, like an accountant or nurse.
(5) Remove the information about your degree as it’s irrelevant for the work that you are applying for. Keep things relevant and short to the point.
(6) Don’t apply for multiple roles in the same organisation. Their Applicant Tracking System can tell whether the same person has applied for a developer, customer support, and marketing analyst positions.
(7) Personalise your cover letter and resume so that your personality and story stand out over other candidates. Storytelling has become a communication tool.
(8) Hiring managers and recruiters are increasingly looking for a good cultural fit for the organisation. Indicate how you will fit into the culture through your research about the organisation.
(9) Make your cover letter and resume very easy to read with enough white spaces even if you have more than 10 years of experience. Your communication skills will shine through these documents – show, not tell!
(10) Tell your story about your career journey without information gaps (i.e., a missing year) in order of date, with the most recent position at the top. Show a clear progression into senior roles, taking up more advanced responsibilities.
(11) Link your resume to your LinkedIn page and professional or personal website that has a portfolio of your work. Showcase your expertise and authority. This will make it easier for the hiring manager to fact-check your resume and background.
(12) Always tell the truth. Studies have shown that inaccuracies in resumes can be as high as 60%. Be mindful that you are not intentionally lying about your details on the resume. You may have forgotten the details like the day or month you started a job.
(13) Avoid generic and high-level claims such as “creative,” “hard-working,” “results-driven,” “excellent communicator” or, my least favourite, “team player.” If you are an “excellent communicator” but your cover letter has grammatical errors or poor formatting, you will not get that job!
(14) Where possible, try to find out the name of the person who will receive your application and formally address the application to them, rather than ‘To whom it may concern’.
Find a professional to write your first cover letter and resume
Your spelling, grammar, phrasing, and expression should be perfect. Remember that it is a competition for the best candidate.
Hire an Australian professional resume writer or career coach to help you structure and craft your cover letter and resume based on what you have done to suit the Australian context and job. Then use them as templates and modify them to suit specific job titles.
This is an investment that you must make.
Don’t rely on your friends to help you make those amendments.
And don’t blindly follow those common resume templates found on the Internet just to save money. It will not do you any favour.
Address all job requirements
Generally, there are four main parts of any job description.
Your job application should address each one of them. Use solid achievements that you have done (show, not tell) to show how you will fulfil each of these.
(1) Values – How the employer works? What does it expect of its employees? Check that you are comfortable with these. You may be asked about how you can fit into the organisational values during your interview.
(2) Accountabilities – The day-to-day responsibilities and duties of the role. Your previous work history should have skills and experiences that are transferable for the Australian role. You may need to be creative in mapping them out.
(3) Key selection criteria – Often listed in the job description, these outline the qualities, knowledge, and skills required for the role. Include specific achievements, examples of situations where you have demonstrated the qualities they are seeking in a clear and concise manner. Resumes must only be two pages long! And don’t use font size 8 to fit in all the words! (Use Arial Narrow, with minimum font size 10 for a resume and size 12 for a cover letter)
(4) Qualifications – Sometimes specific qualifications or certifications will be required. They will form part of the screening process for the employer. It may include a specific industry or sector requirement for the job.
After you submit your application, follow it up
Put yourself in their shoes.
The employer must filter through an abundance of applications often on top of their usual workload.
If you have not heard back in a week or two after application close it is a good idea to make a polite inquiry especially if you know the name of the hiring manager. It shows that you are eager and have initiative. Employers appreciate those who are driven and determined.
It also puts your name into their mind making it easy for them to identify your resume when they are going through them.
Use technology
It’s becoming more common for initial screening interviews to be carried out on the phone, Skype or other digital platforms, especially if you are still overseas. But don’t expect employers and recruiters to use the technology that necessarily suits you.
Make sure you have an account on all major communication platforms such as Skype and Google Hangouts. Learn how to use them to your advantage. Find a quiet place in your home for these interviews to take place.