Become Inspired

About Georgia Hart

Georgia moved to Melbourne from the UK, about 2 years ago. She recruits for the digital and tech sector, in particular in the roles of web development, IT, dev ops and software engineers. Georgia works across a wide range of companies, small to medium size businesses, including eCommerce and retail. 

What are the biggest challenges in your particular market? How to stand out?

·  Increase in competition 

·  You really need to make yourself stand out from the crowd

·  In the dev space, the candidates can be in very high demand, they often get headhunted a lot

·  Keep your LinkedIn profile updated and include the latest technologies you’re using 

·  If you keep your details current, you will be contacted for the right roles

·  Everyone knows everyone, it’s all about who you know rather than what you know

·  Networking is so important, it’s about contributing to the community

·  Go to conferences and attend meet-ups, talk and get to know people 

·  Keep your CV short, and to the point, 2 or 3 pages is more than enough

·  People want to know and see what your technology experience is, bullet point this rather than writing paragraphs after paragraphs 

What trends are you seeing?

·  Everyone is loving React, and Javascript frameworks

·  The product space is popular, everyone wants to work on longer-term projects

·  Product companies and the start-ups

·  Up-skill where required to show your passion and desire to learn

·  Personality traits are favoured, more than your technical capabilities 

·  Go to meet-ups, candidates working on their own projects outside of work. It’s not just a job but because they love it! Evidence of personal projects may get you the job

·  Clients want people who are engaged with the company 

·  Technology has become a lot more creative

What really impresses you?

·  Probably the places where they have previously worked

·  Their technology stack and broader knowledge 

·  Demonstrating you can do the skills but also have a desire to learn 

·  Be honest and transparent of what you can and cannot do

·  Being very specific with their project examples and responsibilities

Why is it important to make a good first impression?  

If you’re applying for that dream job you want to stand out from the crowd.  Hiring managers often will be receiving many applications. You were invited and shortlisted for an interview, so you really want to make a great first and lasting impression!

Admin/reception are not the ones making the decision but the chances are, the impression you leave with them, will rub off onto others and build a great reputation for yourself as a candidate.  This is from a recruiters viewpoint but it's no different if you are going direct.  

We share information internally, then externally with our clients. You want a positive image to be associated with you.

Different ways of making a great first impression: through the phone, resume, email and face-to-face meetings. 

What would you say are the most important things if you want to make a good first impression? 

· Be polite and courteous – not aggressive or rude 

· Smile – this really resonates on the phone – they can feel it 

· Do your homework and know who you are talking to 

· Know the role you are applying for 

· Speak clearly and confidently 

Phone 

· Introduce yourself 

· Be polite, courteous and conversational   

· Be clear about what you want and give context

· Treat every person you are talking to like they are the hiring manager – don’t assume they are junior or don’t matter

· We know it can be frustrating looking for work but you have to treat every call like it’s your first

· Be patient – we don’t always know the back story but will do our best to help with what info we have 

· Try to find a quiet spot – prepare for the call

· If you have put effort into applying, you should put as much effort into the call

Resume 

· Refer back to our first episode about CV hints and tips

Email 

· Be clear.  Remember that emails can be quite flat and we can’t get a feel for your personality

· Remember to use a greeting in your email

· Tell us what you want in the body of your email

· If you are applying for a specific role, know who you are addressing the email to.  The consultant’s name should be on the advertisement

· Keep it warm and keep it brief and concise   

· Tell us why you are right for the position

· Make sure your attachments are good to go and not too big

· Email can often be a proxy for the cover letter and more likely to get read than a cover letter 

· Very good opportunity to capture the attention of the hiring manager or the consultant.  There are a lot of emails coming every day – sell yourself well! 

· Don’t write war and peace – people are time poor these days – less is usually more

Face-to-Face 

· Dress appropriately for the job that you want. Not always about being corporate   

· Make sure that your dress reflects your level and brand.  How you are dressed will make an impact on what people think of you

· Arrive on time – take a breath before you come in. It’s your responsibility to get there on time. Don’t come too early either!

· Handshake – still amazingly important – rapport, connection – makes a big difference 

· Come through the doors with confidence and a smile. Remember to introduce yourself

· Find a connection with who you are meeting – small talk

· Be prepared – portfolio, copy of resume, hard drive, laptop etc

For more great podcasts visit: www.becomerecruitment.com/podcast

Using LinkedIn effectively – Why does it matter?

Almost every recruiter and hiring manager is using LinkedIn for their recruitment needs. So it is important to know how to use it effectively. Today’s podcast explores why it matters! We will cover how to stand out from the crowd and how to best use Linkedin. As recruiters, we use it daily to find the top talent.

Important things to consider:

LinkedIn as a professional platform

• Have a profile to begin with, having just a CV is just not enough

• LinkedIn is a professional platform, so your profile needs to be accurate and needs to reflect best what you have done in life

• This is your chance and opportunity to really sell yourself

• Make that first impression on why you should be hired over everybody else

• Some companies may not read CVs but will go over your LinkedIn profile

Use of photos

• Photos – represent your best self, no sunglasses, keep it a nice facial shot

• Keep it simple, it should reflect you, it still has to be professional

• It doesn’t have to be a corporate photo but definitely no selfies. A decent picture is important

• Ask yourself: Is it professional? Will it put people off? If it raises questions, hiring managers may look at your Facebook and Instagram

Keep your CV accurate

• The layout and ordering of CVs can often be quite messy

• The dates, start and finish need to be very clear and accurate

• Your LinkedIn dates need to match your CV dates

• Skills and keywords are important on your CV

• LinkedIn is a search engine and to ensure you show up on searches, you need to use keywords on your profile

• As a recruiter, we use specific words to find you

• Ensure if you have particular specialisations e.g. Ad word certifications, eCommerce, digital marketing etc. that these are noted on your LinkedIn

• What are your key strengths? This information should be in your opening summary profile

• The more tech, tools and skills the better

Endorsements and Recommendations

• You can ask other people to endorse you and your skills

• Public endorsements can often be more effective than private references

• Quality over quantity in terms of recommendations, especially if it’s a specific campaign stand out as this really paints a picture for hiring managers

• Specific recommendations are more real, more telling about a story

• We do search on location, ensuring your location is up to date is important

• Be industry-specific e.g. Branding Account Manager

• Are you open to opportunities? Do you reply?

• You can include links to your portfolio or LinkedIn on your CV

• Link to portfolio is up to date, ensure the link works and ensure the work presented is the latest copy of your work

Be pro-active and make meaningful connections

• LinkedIn is a networking site too, build a profile and make meaningful connections

• Hiring managers will look at: How good is your network, how many connections, how active are you?

• No sharing rubbish on LinkedIn. Posts that should go on Facebook should not go on LinkedIn necessarily

• Consider: Will your posts help you get hired?

• Be pro-active on LinkedIn and share articles that are relevant

• Always be genuine as there is a possibility your connection can lead somewhere

• Keeping it simple at the end of the day, quick summary of your achievements in that time and position

• Draw us in to ensure we want to know more about you and your experience

• Join the mini-communities, businesses and forums and interact with other people and peers

• Being pro-active adds to the chance for you to stay on top of mind

Become a star with this killer interview technique

·  Use this technique to frame your interview answers

·  This is a way to sort out your preparation 

·  Situation-based questions can often be asked, so it’s good to be prepared

·  Gives you a bit of a framework to answer the question more effectively

·  Use this technique, not as a template but more as a guide

·  You don’t want to sound robotic 

S.T.A.R. stands for:

·  Situation

·  Task

·  Action

·  Result

Situation:Part of the interviewing process is a bit like storytelling (truthful stories!), so you want to be engaging as possible when explaining the situation. 

Task: What were you asked to do? What was the objective? What did you need to achieve to get the desired result?

Action:What did you actually do?

Result:Talk about tangible results

Remember to keep it engaging and succinct. Keep it as relevant to the question

It is really beneficial to try this out with your friends using this technique or write it out or speak it out, for practice. Muscle memory, it goes in a bit more and you will much more prepared for your interview!

Here are some examples to help you:

Example 1- Question: Tell me about the time you had to resolve conflict?

Let’s use the frame work for this question:

·  Situation: During this time I was working for (company), this was the size of the team, we had a tricky client with super high expectations. They made a complaint. 

·  Task: I was involved in smoothing out the relationship.

·  Action: I conducted a phone call with the client, listened and worked through their concerns to come to a resolution

·  Result: Due to inefficiency in the team,  further training was provided. I took over the next 3 months to manage the account and our sales went up etc. 

Using this format demonstrates, good communication and leadership skills.

Example 2 

·  Situation: We provided a weekly magazine, which had a strict timeline. The printer let us down and this threw everything out and we risked missing the deadline. 

·  Task: I had to ensure the magazine was printed on time. 

·  Action: I spoke to three new printers and negotiated new rates and managed to secure a better rate overall.

·  Result: We now have a back-up printer for future situations like this. I made sure this, doesn’t happen again.

It’s more for you to get this in your mind. You should practise this at home, it’s a muscle memory. Say it out loud, so it is much easier to recall.

Go through the job description, see what they’re looking for and come up with an example and think of why you’re right for the role and why they should hire you. 

Keep it engaging and get enough detail so you can really paint the picture. 

Visit us at: www.becomerecuitment.com/podcast 

This is a great resource to see examples of situational based questions you may be asked: https://insightsresources.seek.com.au/page/interview-building-tool

Hope this podcast has been useful and makes a difference for when you’re interviewing. Good luck!J

Common Mistakes Jobseekers Make 

Hosted by David Valks & Ashely Dodd 

10 common mistakes that job seekers make when applying for new roles 

Today’s podcast is to help guide you to land that dream job! 

1.    Using an unprofessional photo  

•    Either on CV or LinkedIn, linking social media to a professional profile. Our advice is to take your photo off – some people just don’t like photos 

•    If you do have one, you should get it right. Personal Facebook, e.g. night out, as pretty as you might look, is not appropriate 

•    It does reflect on you. Inject personality but keep it in the parameters of professionalism. We do not mean using a stock photo of yourself or shirt & tie. Should reflect your personality but just got to be careful 

•    Clients do look up candidates on social media to check if they’re a good fit for them 

•    Look at it objectively, how does your profile present to clients? 

•    Content is relevant to yourself and brand – Linkedin, Facebook etc.  

•    Must be in good taste 

2.    Not tailoring your application to the role that you’re applying for 

•    Applying for the wrong type of roles 

•    Provide too much detail of irrelevant experience, jobs that have completely no relevance for the one you are applying for 

•    Remember to keep it relevant 

•    Adding jobs to your CV that were 10 years ago 

•    It’s about drawing client’s attention to where you want it to be 

3.    Tailoring the cover letter to the relevance of what you’re applying for 

•    Hiring managers will glance at CVs and cover letters 

•    Provide key information at the top of the CV  

•    Agencies will look for other agency competitors on your CV, where there are transferable skills 

•    You can still include retail experience if it goes well with role eg. project management or account services 

•    Make cover letter relevant to make application – really stand out 

4.    What makes your CV relevant  

•    Having a CV that’s too lengthy, e.g. 12 pages is too long 

•    Keep CV to 1-2 pages max, 3 pages is a real push 

•    Make every word count! 

•    Every word you write is a chance to sell yourself to the future employer 

•    In terms of education, no need to state primary school. Higher education and above is all you need 

5.    Sending out a generic cover letter 

•    Addressing the wrong person, wrong company, really shows lack of care 

•    Cover letter – use this to explain succinctly your situation, e.g. moving interstates, your visa etc. include these key details. Or if your wishing to make a career move from Account Executive moving to design etc.  

•    Write these details in an email is fine too, can be in place of a cover letter 

•    Make it good, if you do have a Cover Letter,  make it count, make it stand out, don’t just say I’m good at team working!  

6.    Spelling and grammar 

•    No excuses! – especially in this day and age, you have access to Spell Check and Grammarly for example 

•    It only takes 5 minut