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Get Resume Ready

Now is the best time to pull a polished, professional CV together and be ready for the job market BOOM that’s ahead. 

When the BOOM hits, Recruiters, HR Managers and Hiring Managers will be pulling your CV apart for 15-20 seconds (max) looking for keywords, brand info, agencies that you have worked for and key tertiary qualifications. If they don’t see this information listed on your CV, it will end up in the trash folder. 

The job market will be VERY competitive. I’m already speaking with highly skilled talent who are willing to work for free for the first month of employment (DO NOT DO THIS) to get ahead of other applicants as they understand how competitive the market will be when clients are ready to open their doors again. 

Here’s some resume crafting tips to follow to ensure you stand out…

Contact details 

  • List them! As a recruiter, it’s very frustrating to receive a CV with the phone number missing 
  • Pop your email and phone number at the top of your CV
  • Non-Australian residents need to clearly state whether or not they require any form of sponsorship for permanent roles. This doesn’t go “against” you. It simply makes it easier for me to identify which clients are set-up to sponsor and can consider you for jobs
  • Personal email addresses need to be appropriate. anna@boob69.com isn’t going to look professional when sent to the Head of HR at Deloitte. Use your brain

Selfies / profile pics

  • No, no & no
  • We want to encourage decision-makers to hire you for your brain, not your appearance
  • Your LinkedIn profile should be active (if not why not?) and include a professional photo of you 
  • On that note, please ensure all your social media profiles are either professional or private. When your CV is sent to a client to review Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn are the first places they’ll go to learn more about you. Are you comfortable with your future Boss seeing a photo of you coming out of Revolver at 2 am on your Facebook feed? Change your personal profiles to private.

Consistency 

  • Ensure the font, size and alignment of your CV are consistent. 
  • PDF is the best format to send your CV in, as it ensures the information is not changed or reformatted
  • Keep the format of your CV plain & avoid lots of images and fancy artwork. Have an external link to your artwork if it’s appropriate to the role that you are applying for
  • Spelling and grammar are critical. You need to check your CV at least three times before sending it off to anyone. Don’t rush this document. An error-free resume showcases your attention to detail and your ability to produce polished work. 

Keywords 

  • It’s critical to ensure you tailor your CV to the job that you are applying for 
  • What do I mean? For example, if you are applying for a PR Account Manager role within a PR Agency that has a niche focus in the property industry, you had best pull out all of your property (commercial or residential) client experience and ensure that this has been listed in your CV. 
  • Where did you work with these clients? What was your job title? Who were the property clients specifically? Can you list them? 
  • How long did you work across each client or project for? Can you list some achievement or success stories? How big/small were the budgets that you managed? Did you manage anyone directly? 
  • Why are you passionate about the property industry? 
  • List as many keywords as possible to ensure the decision maker’s eyes remain glued to your CV

Long-Winded Resumes 

  • A cover letter is great to have (and very polite when it’s addressed to me) when we are tailoring your CV to match a specific client job. However, 9/10 times I don’t read them. As a Recruiter, I parse 100’s of CV’s to each day. Save your time and wait until I ask you to write a specific Cover Letter for a job that you have been shortlisted for.
  • For your previous three roles write up half a page (max) of dot pointed info. For earlier roles, you only need to list the company name, your role, dates you were there and reason for leaving from there onwards. Simple.
  • One pager (New York style) Resumes are not OK. They tell me nothing about you other than that you have rushed your CV and put little effort into the job search. Take the time to make your Resume an extension of yourself and how you would normally present your “client work”

Digital 

  • Clients love to see your work. Including links to any relevant client work (please ensure you have permission to share this work) that you have created or presented in the past is fantastic. If you want to go one better, bring these work examples to your first interview on an iPad or laptop and talk through your ideas or strategic thinking processes with the client
  • Folio links need to be active (please test the link to ensure it’s not broken!) and your page needs to be current. Please make sure any folios have client work only (we don’t need to see your personal artwork unless you are asked by the client – save that for your Instagram please).