Attracting Recruiters: 5 Essential Tips

Attracting the attention of a recruiter or a search consultant can be hard work. Recruiters are extremely busy people, with several roles to fill, dozens of resumes to review and lots of interviews and meetings to conduct.

With many other candidates out there, though, how do you attract the attention of a busy recruiter and make a lasting impression?

1. Impressive Resumes

When a recruiter looks at your resume, you only have a few seconds to impress. Your resume needs to convince them at first glance that you’re a high-calibre candidate who can effectively fill their vacancy. Therefore, you will need to make sure your professional resume is of the highest quality possible and that it accurately portrays your knowledge, experience and skills. If you haven’t put a great deal of time or effort into your resume, start now!

2. Plain Language Resumes

One of the biggest mistakes many job applicants make is to try and spruce up their resume with ‘flowery’ language. Recruiters don’t have time to read every word of your resume; instead, attracting their attention means depicting your experience in clear and concise ways.

Using plain language to expand on your skills and accomplishments will help you achieve this, as will including concrete details and demonstrating successful outcomes using succinct writing and language.

Resume writing at this level is significant and if writing is not your strength, you should search for an expert resume writer who can spruce up your resume the right way.

3. Using Social Media

Since its inception, social media has come to play an enormous role in the recruitment and HR industries. The majority of recruiters and consultants today use social media to carry out further research on the candidates they come into contact with.

Ensuring your social media profiles (such as on LinkedIn, Twitter etc.) are thorough and up to date is essential. You can also include links to your profiles in your resume details, which will give your application much more strength and unity.

At the very least, a detailed LinkedIn profile is essential. The biggest challenge here is to make sure that all of your information is consistent and up to date: if a recruiter notices discrepancies between your resume and your online profiles (even with simple things like dates or titles), it may not cast a good impression.

4. Recruiter Research

You should also remember that recruiters are also diverse in their functions and roles. Many specialise in particular fields, positions or industries and only recruit in these areas. Make sure you conduct research on a particular recruiter or agency before sending off your resume and double-check that they recruit for your industry and at the level of jobs you are applying for. This means that you can (a) target your approach much more effectively and (b) you will have a much better chance of grabbing a recruiter’s attention.

5. Be Proactive & Ready

A candidate who is ready for anything will always cast a strong impression with a recruiter; proactive candidates are often the most appealing. If you have already sent through your resume to a particular consultant, make the effort to follow-up with them via phone (but without becoming a nuisance). This gives the recruiter the impression that you are organised, enthusiastic about the job and ready for the next stage of the search process.

Keen to make a great first impression with your next application? Resumes Australia offers executive candidates specialised resume writing assistance and other valuable career services. Learn more at www.resumes-australia.com.au.

Regards,

Going for Gold With Personal Branding

If you are job searching, Personal Branding can make a significant difference to your success. While writing a great resume can place you at a strong advantage, Personal Branding involves moving beyond basic job applications and infusing your value proposition into every aspect of your professional image.

What’s Your Personal Brand?

Your personal brand defines exactly how others should see you when they interact with you, whether via your resume, online or in person. Your brand should be developed based on your key strengths and talents and the value you can bring to an organisation. All of this comes together to create your value proposition and your brand.

What are your most powerful and respected abilities? What makes employers and headhunters want to seek you out and work with you? Make a list of every talent or skill that you feel contributes to your personal brand.

Your Value Proposition

In the same way a blurb often describes the essence of a book, your value proposition needs to describe the essence of who you are as a professional.

When developing and writing your value proposition, think about what you want people to think when they see your name, what you want to be known for in the industry and what your particular niche is.

Your value proposition should consist of one or two sentences and should clearly portray to employers and search consultants:

• Who you are – What type of expert are you?
• What you do – What’s your main talent? What can you offer that others can’t?
• How you do it – How do you bring success to others? Use examples if you can
• Who you do it for – What’s your market or niche?
• Why you do it – What’s the motivation or passion behind who you are?

This isn’t a definitive or easy way to develop your brand or value proposition, but it’s definitely a great way to get started.

Promoting Your Brand

Once you have spent a considerable amount of time defining and developing your brand, you will need to find ways to communicate your brand to others.

• Rewrite your resume, cover letters or any other documentation to include details about your brand and your value proposition
• Describe your brand in other social media profiles, such as on LinkedIn, or on your own website, blog site or online portfolio
• Update your personal marketing materials (business cards, letterheads, portfolios) so that they reflect your brand
• Communicate your brand clearly throughout the course of job interviews, recruitment meetings or networking meetings
• Advocate your personal brand in professional environments (in your current role, at industry events) via the actions, decisions and conversations you undertake

How Can You Tell If Your Personal Brand Is Working?

Measuring the success of your personal branding strategy can take time, but usually you will begin to see some degree of improved results when it comes to your job search and your general success in the industry.

You might find yourself more victorious when it comes to job applications or interviews or you may find that recruiters and other executives are beginning to approach you, rather than the other way around. Online, you may see an increased amount of interest in your profiles, publications or portfolios.

If you are not seeing durable results despite your personal branding efforts, it may be because your personal brand has not yet fully “materialised” or because it still needs work. If this is the case, go back to your initial notes and consider if you are highlighting your unique talents and offerings strongly enough.

Resumes Australia offers specialised and dedicated personal branding services that are proven to enhance your executive success. To kick-start your branding journey contact us or review our packages here.

Regards,

How & Why You Should Join a LinkedIn Group

LinkedIn Groups can be extremely advantageous to any professional looking to enhance their career, find a new job or meet like-minded executives in their industry.

Groups on LinkedIn provide users with a specialised platform to make valuable contacts, discuss industry trends, professional interests, and potentially showcase their executive resumes.

 

With the rapid growth of LinkedIn members across the globe (LinkedIn now has over 150 million members worldwide, with 3 million in Australia alone), the Groups are a fantastic place to be.

“Becoming active in LinkedIn Groups,” says Lindsey Pollak, via the official LinkedIn blog, “is like attending a professional conference every time you log on.” If you’re thinking of becoming involved in one of LinkedIn’s Groups, these beginner’s tips will assist you in getting started.

#1. Decide Which Groups

LinkedIn currently has over 1.2 million groups registered on its site – so how do you choose which ones are best for you? Start by joining groups that relate to your current industry and connections. These might be groups formed by your company, business circles, university alumni, or professional associations. You can also see which groups your contacts belong to, and simply join the same group.

#2. Join Industry Groups

Joining an industry group can be very beneficial for your career. In these groups, you might choose to ask for advice, make new contacts or request informal interviews from members who belong to companies you’d like to work for. This is an excellent way to possibly progress your career and bring your professional resume to the attention of the people who matter most.

#3. Define Your Interests

If you have other specialist areas that you are interested in, try searching for these using the Group Search function. This will search group titles, categories and conversations, and find groups that relate specifically to your interests. Be specific in your searches; if you’re interested in “primary market research,” for instance, use these as your keywords instead of “market research.”

#4. Get To Know the Group

Before you begin commenting and participating in any group, get to know it first. Assess its members, conversations, hot topics, and the ‘Manager’s Choice’ discussions. Once you’ve familiarised yourself, you should start interacting with the group. Introduce yourself, showcase your expertise but remain professional at all times. Be open, yet strong in your discussions as this will help your comments and opinions have an impact.

#5. Reach Out

Reach out to any individuals who you feel might benefit or influence your career. Make contacts with these members and add them as connections to your private network. If a contact seems interested in knowing more about you, send them your well-written professional resume and/or organise a meeting (if feasible), or even a telephone conference.

As always, keep participating! The more discussions and groups you join, the better your opportunities will be and the faster your career may advance. If you require help with your professional resume, Resumes Australia can help, too.

Regards,

LinkedIn Establishes New Group Search

“Are you looking for a job? Because I know someone … who knows someone …”

Sound familiar? It should! Like a professional resume, online networking has become one of the key tools in the employment arena. Rather than trawling through job sites or newspapers, many job candidates (not to mention employers and recruiters) are now focusing on digital networking to search for new jobs and advance their careers.

With LinkedIn’s New Group Search, finding a network of like-minded professionals to connect with in your industry has become easier.

Introduced only a few weeks ago, New Group Search allows you to conduct searches across the 1.2 million groups on LinkedIn, to help you find those that are relevant to your employment profile or your professional interests.

So what’s new about it, exactly? Previously, if a user conducted a group search, the search algorithm only sifted through the group titles and descriptions. Instead, New Group Search also adds in the best results based on how well your search matches online conversations. Furthermore, users can actually see, in the search results, if anyone from their current network is a part of their chosen group.

From a candidate’s point of view, LinkedIn’s improvement of the search tool is a positive one, giving users the ability to locate more groups and join more discussions, thereby enhancing their professional profile and connections.

This opens up a realm of possibilities for the job hunter and the opportunity to connect with many more relevant professionals. To put it simply, this is a chance to promote yourself to people in your industry who you might not have previously linked to, and it could potentially set the scene for showing them your professional resume.

New Group Search follows shortly on from the update to the ‘People You May know’ function, which was recently improved to produce more accurate networking suggestions for users, based on their employment history, education and current network.

So What’s Next?

Ensuring you have a professional resume will benefit you greatly. While LinkedIn is fantastic for networking and building your profile, most employers will still probably request a resume from you. Is your professional resume up to scratch?

Did you know that the resume writing and executive resume services at Resumes Australia can rewrite and customise your resume, expertly highlighting your skills, experience and achievements? Contact us today to find out more!

Regards

Executive Women Australia Seeking New Members

LinkedIn Has 3 Million Aussie Members, Executive Women Australia has 5000+ and wants more…

Since its inception in 2003, LinkedIn has quickly grown to be the largest, professional networking site worldwide, now boasting 150 million members globally (as of February 2012), with 3 million members in Australia alone.

 

According to Clifford Rosenberg, Managing Director for LinkedIn in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia, “this milestone is significant for LinkedIn, as it demonstrates that professional networking online is becoming an essential part of professional life for Australians. We estimate there are around 4.8 million professionals in Australia, which means over 60 percent of Australia’s professional population is now on LinkedIn.”

Following in its footsteps is the professional networking group Executive Women Australia. Currently, only 8% of the executive workforce in Australia is made up of women, with 4.1% as line managers.

And with I.T., Financial Services and Accounting being the top three industry sectors represented on LinkedIn (and the top three companies represented by employees being Telstra, NAB and CBA). Given the above statistics, one wonders, how many of these people are women in senior positions.

Executive Women Australia is keen to change the current trend of the decline of women in senior management in Australia. They now have 5000+ members and are seeking to expand their membership dramatically.

With a strong presence on LinkedIn, Executive Women Australia is inviting new members, who wish to build their profiles and make considerable headway in the Australian business world, to join their network.

Born out of the Corporate Responsibility Network Australia (CORNA), Executive Women Australia is a professional network for Australian women in executive roles. The goal of CORNA and EWA is to inspire, motivate and provide women with useful resources so that they can further their careers, build stronger businesses, and increase the status and volume of executive women across the nation.

Through this group, businesswomen are given the opportunity to engage in career-focused consultations, attend professional conferences, enhance their business practices and strategic approaches, and gain from being part of a multi-lateral corporate social responsibility organisation. Members are also invited to exclusive events, workshops and seminars, and to engage in mentorships, all of which work to develop a universal framework for sustainable business strategies and professional networking.

In addition to its 2012 expansion, Executive Women Australia is currently offering a half day ASX Corporate Governance Council Gender Reporting Readiness consultation, as well as a strategic leadership platform through which members can communicate their unique and diverse business solutions and showcase their innovative accomplishments in regards to business, the environment and the community.

This comes shorty after the ASX CGC’s release of its revised Principles and Recommendations, which have been significantly modified to encompass the much-needed change in the professional treatment of gender diversity in Australia.

With these council developments and the opportunities offered by Executive Women Australia, CORNA hopes to see a growing enthusiasm for the careers of women in the executive sphere, while giving its members the opportunity to leave their mark on Australia’s corporate responsibility arena, both now and in the future.

Do you know someone on LinkedIn who may benefit from joining Executive Women Australia’s (EWA) LinkedIn group? I encourage all executive women to join EWA and participate in their online LinkedIn discussions and networks.

Regards

Step Up and Be Ready for a Career Change in 2012!

Why You Need Executive Resume Writing and Coaching

It doesn’t seem long ago that joining a company meant you were committing yourself to a life-long career choice and sustainable employment. However we’re now living in a time of fierce business competition on a global scale, which means to stay competitive, companies need to re-examine their operations and reduce costs to be more efficient and profitable.

It’s a fact that today’s employment world is more difficult than in the past. If you read the news, you’ll soon learn that markets are dimming and job advertisements falling. There’s also plenty of information published about the worldwide economic outlook and the impact that this is having on hiring decisions.

With all this doom and gloom published daily, the best solution is to remain positive and be prepared. If you didn’t commit to a New Year’s Resolution for 2012, now is a good time to think about work volatility, risk, and to give yourself a personal job assessment.

Manage Your Career More Effectively
To prevent a career disaster, develop your own career management plan, so you are not caught off guard. Here are my top tips when times are tough, to help you avoid the most common mistakes, and stay ahead:

• Be prepared for change
• Learn to adjust quickly to change
• Start by building a strong professional network today!

Being Prepared for Change
It can be quite confronting thinking about employment change. However, by remembering that “whenever one door closes, another one opens” and by ensuring that all your bases are covered, you’ll be better prepared!

Keep Your Skills Current
This is essential if you want to offer value to a future employer. Also, keep up-to-date with your industry’s certifications, and abreast of trends.

Keep Your Professional Resume Up-to-Date
Be ready at a moment’s notice to apply for a new position and to attend an interview. There’s nothing worse than rushing to make changes to your resume and risk making mistakes.

Learn to Adjust Quickly to Change
Finding positive outcomes, when your career is edging towards insecurity, requires you to be strong. Start by believing in yourself, and you’ll be better positioned to keep your career momentum going. You’ll also be better prepared for change, and able to adapt quickly, if you think positively, avoid over-analysing, and start planning your exit strategy as soon as possible.

Start Building a Strong Professional Network Today!
Be sure your LinkedIn, social media, and career site profiles are up-to-date and an accurate reflection of your current skill set.

If your professional network is limited, get working on it! Build your connections with professional associations, university groups, and former colleagues, to foster relationships that will help you to identify career opportunities.

How Up-to-date Is your LinkedIn Profile and Resume?
Whether you are looking for employment or just thinking about your next career move, now is the perfect time to engage a professional writer to update your LinkedIn profile, professional resume and cover letter. Resumes Australia can help you to showcase your abilities and values to a potential employer.

Resumes Australia has the best resume writers in the country who can help you with a winning Professional Resume and Cover Letter. View our resume writing packages today!

Best Regards

Is Facebook Set to Reshape the Employment Scene?

Once upon a time Facebook was considered a personal “play tool” to keep you up-to-date with friends and activities. It was initially viewed as a huge distraction, and a big time waster! Taking a closer look at the world of internet popularity, Facebook now comes in at second place to Google. With over 800 million users, Facebook is no longer a social utility that connects people with friends, it is also about connecting people to work.

While many people say LinkedIn is the first choice for social-media job searches, Facebook members are also finding huge success.

Some of the biggest companies and recruitment agencies now use Facebook to tap into the job market and engage new talent. Millions of people are now also using Facebook as part of their job search strategy to follow companies they are interested in working for.

Getting the Most out of Your Facebook Job Strategy

Here are my top Facebook strategies to help you get the best results in your job search:

1.    Spread the word to your Facebook connections. If you’re searching for new job opportunities, don’t be afraid to ask your Facebook friends if they know of any roles, or if they can refer you to a recruiter or hiring manager.

2.    Expand your social networks with LinkedIn and Facebook. Make sure you edit your profile on Facebook to include as much information as possible, and also ensure your LinkedIn profile is current.

3.    Be careful with your privacy settings. Remember that employers do look on Facebook and they will find out more about you. They will also make a judgement based on the image that you portray. If you’re using Facebook for your family and friends only, then make your profile completely private, and create a new profile or page for your professional image. If you are using Facebook to attract recruiters and hiring managers, be careful what you post, and ensure that employers can only locate your professional page!

4.    Join Facebook groups related to your career.

Follow groups and share information. Look for job search resources.

How Up-to-date Is your Corporate Profile and Resume?

Whether you are looking for work on Facebook or LinkedIn, embrace these social media tools, and consider getting a professional writer to update your profile, professional resume and cover letter. Resumes Australia can help you to attract new career opportunities. Our exclusive LinkedIn Profile writing service is designed to get you noticed. Once you have this completed, you can use snippets of it elsewhere so that you maintain a consistent and professional profile online.

Rgds

The Importance of LinkedIn Recommendations

Having good recommendations appear on your LinkedIn profile is so important in today’s world of online recruitment. Endorsements from your former colleagues are an extremely effective selling tool, particularly if you are job hunting.

Asking for a recommendation from a relevant colleague or business manager is considered the norm on LinkedIn, so there’s no need to feel awkward.

The main objective of a LinkedIn recommendation is that someone feels strongly enough about you to provide you with a written testimonial. What’s the worst that could happen? If you were to receive negative comments, take the information on board for personal evaluation. There’s no rule that says you must post negative feedback about yourself!

Recommending others on LinkedIn…

On the flipside of receiving recommendations, is, in turn, providing endorsements for your colleagues. Whilst it is essential that you gather the best testimonials for your own profile, it is equally important that you give honest recommendations about others. Remember that your profile and reputation will be associated with the recommendations you make.

Changing Your Mind

Whilst it is always a good idea to think long and hard before committing to a recommendation, it is never too late to change your mind! A colleague that you once well-respected, may now have a different perspective on work, and your positive recommendation may no longer be applicable.  The good news is that removing your recommendation is possible, and transparent. The recipient will not be notified if you withdraw your recommendation. It is simply removed from their profile.

To withdraw a recommendation:

•    Position your cursor over Profile at the top of your home page.
•    Click Recommendations.
•    Click the Sent Recommendations tab.
•    Click Edit next to the recommendation.
•    Click the Withdraw this recommendation link under the member’s name.
•    Click Confirm.

Need help with your LinkedIn Profile or Resume?

Did you know that every day more recruiters and companies use LinkedIn to search for new employees? By boosting your LinkedIn profile and professional resume, and by building strong networks and referrals, you can improve your online visibility and hopefully get more interviews.

Resumes Australia offers an exclusive range of Executive Resume Writing and LinkedIn packages, visit Resumes Australia today to learn more!

LinkedIn News – Volunteer Work Makes You More Employable!

Announced this week by LinkedIn, you can now add your volunteerwork,and the causes you are most passionate about, to support your LinkedIn profile.

You may be thinking that your volunteer contributions are irrelevant to job search or that this new LinkedIn feature is pretty small in the grand scheme of Social Media job networking?

Power Your Career with LinkedIn

One of the most rewarding aspects of my job as an Executive Career Coach is helping people reach their full potential. So often candidates are on the verge of success but don’t have the background or know-how to showcase their skills and abilities in a way that is relevant to today’s tough job market.

Relationship building is the most relevant way to explore the many career choices and opportunities available to you. There are now over 100 million professionals who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas and career opportunities, giving you access to the largest audience of influential professionals worldwide.