Resumes, Cover Letters & Interviews

I have recently started my career in recruitment and I wanted to share some insight into the dreaded CV writing, and job application/interview process in the hopes that job seekers can take away some useful information to help with their job search – the type of information that I would have found really useful when I left school, or decided on a career change. I am now a candidate resourcer, so I spend my day searching platforms such as LinkedIn & SEEK to find candidates, looking through job applications that we have received and discussing with potential candidates what they’re really wanting to achieve in their next role & making recommendations of organizations we work with based on that.

It can be so nerve wracking when you are putting together a job application for a role that you are super keen on, that sometimes you miss out important details or don’t actually get across the most important skills that you have – this can mean your application is overlooked for missing certain keywords, as HR departments tend to be very busy and you don’t get the chance to interview. I have put together some information to bear in mind when writing your CV and cover letter, that can help your experience get noticed.

• Check for basic mistakes – I know this seems like the most obvious thing someone can tell you, but I still seem to receive a large amount of CV’s that still have ‘Your Name’ written in huge writing at the top – we understand you may use templates – just make sure you update your personal details
• This leads nicely onto my next point – include your contact details! If your resume doesn’t include your phone number or email address, it’s impossible for anyone to contact you
• Format – keep your resume easy to quickly scan over. Organizations I’m sure would love to read everything you have done and accomplished but some days they may receive over 100 CV’s and will be looking for key words words/skills that transfer to the role they’re recruiting for. I would recommend including the following format:

Name

Contact information

“Short snippet / Overview of your experience & objective for your next role”

Education

Name of institute & dates attended

Course attended & grade

Employment History

Name of organization, dates worked there (from and to) & position held

Bullet points summarizing your duties while there

If there are gaps in employment because of family, career break, travel, etc. you can list this.

Placements (if applicable)

Name of organization, dates worked there & position held

Bullet points summarizing your duties while there

Voluntary Experience/professional development

• Keep it professional & relevant – while it may be great that your 6 foot 4 and single, it’s a professional resume, not a Tinder profile
• Similar to this – leave off your religious or political views
• When doing the bullet points for your duties, keep the thing you did the most at the top of the list. Read the position description of the role you applying for and make your duties relevant to that role - employers will be looking to make sure you have transferable skills
• You do not need to include reference contact information – if you are successful in obtaining a role then they will put in a request for these details
• I think this is one of the most important points – get someone outside of your profession to read your CV. When I was writing my resume a few years ago, I kept finding myself rewriting the same parts to make sure they made sense while also sounding professional, one of my friends had a read over from an outside perspective and explained that it was unclear what I actually did. Remember the person reading your application may not be a specialist in your field – if you use too much industry jargon then your skills may be completely missed.

The dreaded cover letter

I understand that nobody particularly likes writing a cover letter - you’re worried you’ve repeated yourself from information on your resume, you don’t know what to include and it ends up being really generalized along the lines of ‘I am a motivated and hardworking candidate, who would love the chance to work for your organization, I believe I have the right skill set and could be a great asset to your company’

Writing this type of cover letter isn’t going to get you noticed, you need to provide evidence to your claims. Why would you like to work for that particular organisation? Do their values align closely to yours? Have you had a friend work there that was really passionate about the company? Give some background so the person reading your application gets an insight into you as a person, explain why you would be a great asset using the position description as a guide, and include information about the company – it looks great if you can show you’ve done some research.

Don’t just skip the cover letter – it can be a great way for the HR team to learn more about you than just your professional work experience, they will want to make sure you fit into the company culture and that you will be happy in the role.

Follow up

I was speaking to one of my friends who had applied for her ideal role – she had been following the organization for some time and keeping an eye on job boards, she eventually saw a role come up and put together her application. A couple of days later she was stressing as she hadn’t heard back from them and was worried she had missed her chance, I asked if she had called them and she said ‘no why would I call them?’

After sending an application I would recommend calling the company/recruiter (dependent on how you applied – if you applied directly to the company then call them, however if you applied via a recruiter, then call the recruiter as they will be managing the applications for the company), it puts you on their radar and shows that you’re really interested in the role and haven’t just sat at your laptop sending off 40 different applications. Some roles have over 100 applications that might come through and it will take a while to work through (adding them to the system, calling them, follow up calls etc..) so calling just to make sure the application has been received can be really beneficial, and they may bring your resume to the top of the file and start the process rather than calling you further down the line.

Interview

Hopefully after putting together your application you are invited to an interview and interviews can be terrifying - you worry you will go mind blank, you worry that you won’t be able to get across your experience, you worry about what to wear, and you worry about everything else you could possibly think of.

The way to combat this is to prepare and I cannot stress how important this is, if you arrive to your interview and can’t show that you understand the role, or can’t answer questions about your experience then your most likely going to be unsuccessful. I would advise to take a notepad with you with a few notes that you have prepared, this can include information about the company, questions you wish to ask and your strong points that you want to make sure you vocalize. You will not be penalized for having it written down, if anything it shows that you are organized and prepared.

Most interviewers will not want to fire questions at you and then wait to hear your answer, they want you to demonstrate that you can turn the situation into a conversation. Prepare questions that you can also ask them, some ideas are below for the type of questions you might ask;

• What is the organisations growth plan?
• What does a typical day look like for this role?
• What opportunities do you provide for professional development?
• What are the biggest challenges in the role?
• What are the most important qualities for someone to succeed in this role?

The answers to these questions should give you a good platform to fit your own strengths into the conversation. You are also interviewing them about the company and role – you need to make sure it’s going to be a good fit for you.

Remember – if you’ve been successful in securing an interview then the organization are impressed by your experience and want to explore your skills further

Arrive early to your interview, make sure you know where the building is and go get yourself a drink from a café nearby if you need to kill time

Dress professionally, you may feel overdressed when you arrive if the dress code is more casual, but it will be noted that you’ve made an effort

Make sure you know your own resume – they will ask you questions about it

Take water to the interview – you will be talking a lot and will naturally get a dry mouth

Most importantly – Be Yourself!