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How to Stand Out from the job seeker crowd

It’s an ongoing problem, and one that most of the job search training organisations ignore. It is all very well to have an amazing resume, sublime job interview skills and a carefully structured job search plan. However, none of this is going to help you if you don’t stand out from your competitors…

Landing that perfect role is like a business landing a big contract. You have to out gun your competitors and provide a unique selling point, or value proposition. So what is it that you are doing during your job search to distinguish yourself from the hundreds of other job seekers out there?

At HeadStart, we pride ourselves on providing this point of differentiation during our job search training.
To be honest you will have to attend our job search training to be privy to the kinds of actions that will distinguish your application from those of your competitors, but as food for thought let me provide you with some statistics.

The Numbers Game… Let me throw some numbers out there for you. A colleague of mine was recruiting for a Level 1 Help Desk Role back in October (2008). He received 33 applications via the on-line job boards in the first week. He read all applications, phone screened 9 applicants (27%), interviewed 5 (15%), short-listed 3 for the client (9%) and following the client interview phase 1 was successful (3%).

Another opening for the same role became available in October (2009). The Recruitment Consultant placed the same advertisement and received 367 applications in the first week. Now this Consultant was working on other roles at the same time and was very ‘time poor’. He knew from previous experience that if he followed the same formula as before the likelihood was that he would make a successful placement. So, he read only 30 applications, and was successful in making a placement.

The simple numbers don’t read very well. In fact, in the second example only 9% of application emails were even opened.

So how do you ensure that you are in the 9% of applications even read? Your resume won’t help you, neither will your interview skills….. But HeadStart Job Search Training will…… Call/Email us today.

Let's address the elephant in the room

We have all heard of the big ‘D’ word – DISCRIMINATION. And we have all been assured by recruiters that they never, never do it.

Well make sure you are sitting down for this bombshell – they do. ‘Surely not!’ you reply. ‘That’s illegal!’ Well pick yourself up off the floor and face reality – recruiters discriminate daily. Mostly under duress and on the insistence of their clients, but let’s call a spade a spade – discrimination is prevalent, no rampant in the recruitment process....

Drop and Give Me Twenty!

Unemployment is on the up - projected to grow to 1 million by the end of 2010.

Downsizing, re-structuring and redundancy are seeing thousands of professionals joining the unemployment ranks month on month. The Job Networks are struggling to cope, particularly when their previous experience has been spent primarily helping the long term and disadvantaged unemployed, along with school leavers and graduates.

Image - Your key to success!

Is your outdated sense of fashion....flimsy handshake and B.O. costing you the job you want?

You have experience.... GREAT!
You have the necessary skills and qualifications... FANTASTIC!
Your resume doesn’t confuse me and is easy to follow.....

Well then come on down for an interview for the role you’ve applied for.

But wait......consider this before you go to the meeting.....

HeadStart in Partnership with Entity Solutions

Headstart, in association with Entity Solutions has developed a career training course specific to independent contractors.

The 3 hour course will cover: Personality Profiling, Resume Building, Career Planning, Image Consulting, Interview Training and an overview of the Contracting Market in Australia.