The numbers are in – 7.1% unemployment, now is not the time to be invisible in the job market. This is the time to stand out.
Scott Morrison says “these are our dark times” as “heartbreaking” jobless figures show another 227,700 people lost their jobs in May thanks to coronavirus.
Learn the skills, get the right training, don’t fall for fake job scams, be careful and considered about what you apply for and how you go about it.
One good application is better than 30 average ones, and remember one resume will not cover every application.
When writing an application
- Start with a quality resume then edit it for each application to meet the criteria of the job
- Lead your resume or cover letter with a concise summary and take your time to write it well, matching the advertised criteria
- Hirers see people try and use a ‘one size fits all’ resume and cover letter, which rarely helps
- Cookie-cutter resumes and cover letters sometimes show hirers that you are not interested in making much of an effort with your application to address their advertised job criteria
- Do not assume a hirer will read your entire resume in every detail on the first pass
- Do not expect the reader to piece together their advertised job criteria from the skills you gained in five different roles
- Provide relevant references from supervisors and managers, not selected colleagues
Think about a resume like you are a shop, and the hirer is a customer.
- Display the key products first – your customer has arrived at your shop for a reason – don’t lose them before they walk in
- Use your summary to greet the customer to your shop and give them a reason to have a look at what else is in the shop
- Make the key products not only easy to find – make them impossible to miss using signage, or headings
- Do not hide good products at the back or expect your customers to dig through your stock to find the things they visited the shop for
- Put your new stock at the front, older stock at the back
- Do not be afraid to ask the customer if you can do anything to help with decision making
- Give your customer a fault-free method of talking to you – phone first, email second
- Provide your customer with details of other customers they can talk to about the quality of your products
- If your customer calls your shop later, make sure the phone is answered professionally, including your voicemail outgoing message
- Ask for feedback from your customer whether they buy from your shop or not
- These ‘customers’ are being asked to go to more and more shops every day, so now is the time
Stay positive, stay polite. Just because they did not buy from your shop today, doesn’t mean they won’t tell a colleague about this great shop for what they are looking for.
‘These are our dark times’: Unemployment soars again to 7.1 per cent.
