Star MAW shares his success tips
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| Ian Blair (69), senior consultant with Prima Consulting at his office in Melbourne. Picture by David Crosling. |
Ian Blair knows his stuff. After a year of job searching, Ian landed a very cool job with a Melbourne-based software consulting firm.
At 69 Ian was not ready to retire. Besides, he had a wealth of experience to share and has now become the office guru on the hot topic of environmental sustainability.
Here, Ian shares the "tools and techniques" he crafted and refined to help with the job hunt.
"These tools and techniques have lifted my productivity rate in applying for jobs from one application an hour to one in a few minutes," says Ian.
"Also my success rate has improved on obtaining interviews from the smallest number of job submissions. I have also improved the number of unsolicited job inquiries from recruitment consultants," he says.
We have used jump links to help you get the tips that will most interest you.
Use the Internet [job boards] to select a number of similar jobs looking for similarities in their selection criteria that match your skills and experience. This can enable you to develop a standard approach for all these similar jobs.
Print out those jobs that match your skills and meet your selection criteria - i.e. jobs: within your radius of travel, requiring your skills or that have a recent listing date - from the Internet as you go through them. Select all those that have a consultant's email address.
Develop a standard short letter covering your main skills that match the listed selection criteria and attach your tailored CV matching those skills.
Send the personalised email with this standard letter and CV pasted in, to each of the Recruitment Consultants, saying that you will ring them at a certain time, after they have had time to read your application.
Next day ring them at the nominated time to discuss the position. You get rapid feedback before you do anything specific for this one job. Ask the Recruitment Consultant for any advice on your application and how you compare with any other applicants. This enables you to modify your approach if it is not working and if you are on the favoured list for the position, to write a letter tailored for the position.
Ian says that in case there was a problem with sending your application via the Internet, the chat with the consultant "gives you an opportunity to correct the situation in time to respond to the job application."
Remember that Recruitment Consultants use search engines on their databases, so you should include a summary of all your skills at the beginning of your CV with the skills that apply for the position highlighted, so that they catch the consultant's eye.
Also, search for similar roles in other industries, don't search in one industry but in every industry that you have had experience, e.g. accounting can be used in sales, manufacturing, IT, Agriculture and consulting.
For those job advertisements that do not have an email address or a consultant telephone number, go to the White Pages - Business and find out their phone number. Ring the consultant and give them a few answers to their key selection criteria that show your suitability for the position. Then ask them for their direct email address and send your CV to them. Then follow them up as above.
Only on one occasion out of 50 have I been asked to submit through the website.
Leave the advertisements that require an application direct through the Internet till last, as they take longest to complete. I have also found that they never reply personally to your application and thus you get no feedback. Always try and speak to the Recruitment Consultant.
Develop your CV using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) format. It can be a paragraph or a page but you should follow the structure as it builds your expertise in the Consultants' minds and you help the consultants as they have to respond to the clients' briefs in similar format.
The covering letter should follow the structure of the selection criteria. One can list the selection criteria from the advertisement, by copying into Word and then pasting it into your standard letter. From the selection criteria you should build up a master database of suitable paragraphs, under headings that you can search for. Then writing a letter becomes a simple number of steps:
- Name and address of agency (from advert or white pages),
- Selection criteria from the advert,
- Summary of your skills as they match the selection criteria (from the first section of your CV),
- Paragraph one on the first selection criteria from your master list of paragraphs,
- Paragraph two on the second, and so forth,
- Summarize how you match the selection criteria and why you would be excited to get the job,
- Your availability and any other little personal items that show how interested you are in the position,
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Final close with thanks for the opportunity to apply for such a job that you were so suited for.
Ian says that by phoning the Consultant, you allow him or her to bring your CV up on their screen so you can talk them through your relevant experience and ask them what needs to be emphasized to their client. If they say that you are unsuitable, find out why so that you can build your case for future applications. They will often accept your CV and put it on their database. This saves you writing a letter but, because 30 per cent of jobs are unlisted, Consultants search their DB first, as it saves them time and the clients' money. Thus you increase your chances to find a job by 30 per cent by getting your CV onto many recruitment databases.
He says that after sending a cover letter, he would ring the Consultant to see if they had received it and in 10 per cent of cases, something had gone wrong at either end.
"You have a chance of correcting it. Also a chance to find out if they have many applications and how long it will be before a decision is likely. Obtain permission to ring and follow up. It shows that you are keen and forces the consultant to look at your CV."
On the due date, follow up the Consultant and if not successful ask for some guidance:
- How could you improve your CV?
- What was the client looking for?
- How many others were reviewed?
- Were you in the short list etc???
This will give you some pointers on improving your CV, but also of writing another paragraph into your database on something that you had skills in but did not mention.
Keep a table or spreadsheet on all the jobs so that you have everything at hand. Name the jobs with a standard format, I find: date submitted, agency, phone number, consultant's name, position title, then dates of submission, f/u, closed, (dates in reverse order e.g. 070809. I save each job application in one computer file headed with the date, as above, with the agency and job title. You can break this down into active, pending and lost to keep the list short. The jobs are listed with the most recent at the bottom of the list for easy retrieval. I keep a folder with all the printed active job advertisements, using the advertisement to keep all the notes in the margin of all my calls and results. This means that you have everything at your fingertips when you are on the phone to the Consultant.
Where I have done something special in a job or a project I write it up as a story or as an operating manual. This shows that you really know your stuff on that subject. Then when it is relevant, I attach it as some additional supporting information for the Consultant. I have had feedback that my notes on data warehouses, ETL, manufacturing systems, activity based costing, EVA and performance management have enabled the Consultants to talk sensibly with their clients. The notes have also helped them with interviewing candidates, who often don't know as much as you do, thus giving you the edge for the job selection. In addition as I have taught in Agriculture I have my course notes on Agricultural topics, which I use when I apply for Agricultural positions.