If you were busy job hunting before COVID-19 hit, you're probably feeling a little uninspired to continue, now that so many businesses have been affected. There's no need to despair; there may be more people out looking for jobs at the moment but staying positive, focused and organised is the best way forward in this new environment.
Keeping in a positive mindset can be tough, but the team here at Hunting Hired have created a list of some sustainable habits followed by successful people to stay motivated. By implementing these habits slowly and surely, one practice each week, you should see an improvement in your overall mental and physical outlook.
Start the day off with a gentle early wake-up, which means early to bed. Sleep has such incredible powers, and significantly improves our health, aim for five to seven hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. Charge your phone in another room; leave the laptop in the office; move the TV into the family room; try and avoid technology all together after 8 pm. It has been said that 5:30 am till 6:30 am is the golden hour, so get to bed early to avoid hitting the snooze and missing the vital moments.
We often don't get time to spend on self-care or equate it with a pampering session and extensive beauty routines. However, self-care can be as simple as taking 15 - 30 minutes out of your day each morning to reflect. Start the day with meditation, write a journal entry, create a gratefulness practice each day. Take time before you switch on any of your electronic devices to be present with yourself.
Make the time to get your sweat on; exercising in the morning is the best way to start your day off on a positive note. Early exercise improves your mood, ensures you are energised and ready for the day ahead, and reduces the craving to reach for that salty, sugary snack. Early morning exercise also means that after you have finished a long hard day, you don't have to will yourself to go to the gym. Find something you enjoy, whatever you can manage to get your blood pumping.
Plan your day out, take the time to set out how you want the rest of your day to turn out. This is a great way to stay on top of things; there is a multitude of planning theories out there, pick a process that feels right to you. Reassess your plan each evening and review how your day went. If you struggled to stay on a task, perhaps you need to reassess the time blocks and work out what works best for your schedule.
Water is essential to a healthy body; the more hydrated you are, the better you will feel. It's that simple switch your soda for water; it's better for your hip pocket too!
Following these simple daily routines may seem a little silly, but when you implement a positive morning routine, you put yourself first and focus on what you want to achieve. Remember we will have the same 24 hours in a day it's how we use those 24 hours that determine how our day will turn out.
Look after yourself, try to take each day as it comes and remember to ask for help if you need it.
WHAT MORNING ROUTINES DO YOU FOLLOW? HAVE A DAILY TASK THAT’S NOT LISTED? LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW AND LET THE TEAM AT HUNTING HIRED KNOW HOW YOU START YOUR MORNING.
With COVID-19 causing havoc for small businesses, many companies let go non-essential skillsets to lower costs and remain solvent. Now that Adelaide may be on the other side of the curve, many companies are currently assessing the skills shortages or gaps in proficiency and expertise of the available staff. The best way to get a handle on this skills shortage rather than juggling new employees is to leverage the growing number of free resources to upskill and cross skill your employee base.
There are plenty of free resources around the Internet that employers can implement with employees that are working remotely to help cover any skills gaps that may have arisen through the development of COVID-19.
The team here are Hunting Hired suggest you check out the following free resources to help you up skill your team and yourself during the downtime:
The University of Adelaide is offering a plethora of free courses through its AdelaideX platform.
FutureLearn has an abundance of great courses readily available in a range of different industries.
Coursera lists a diverse range of free courses available and access to thousands of degrees through a monthly fee.
Harvard University has a diverse range of business and finance-related course currently available.
LinkedIn Learning is providing access to productivity courses and a range of other business-related topics to help navigate this complicated time.
Remember, COVID-19 will have a drastic effect on our lives, but it’s how we frame this effect that will keep us moving forward, use this time to improve if you can.
DO YOU KNOW OF ANY FREE COURSES THAT ARE NOT LISTED HERE, LEAVE A COMMENT DOWN BELOW AND OUR TEAM WILL TAKE A LOOK.
HAVE YOU TRIED YOUR HAND AT UPSKILLING? HOW DID IT TURN OUT?
Finding the perfect attire for an interview can be a struggle, there are so many differing opinions out there. Do you wear all black? What is too casual? What is too formal? Where do bright patterns sit? How short is too short for a skirt? Are peep-toe heels acceptable?
Honestly, the list goes on and for a good reason, the outfit that you choose to wear to an interview needs to align with the appropriate dress code for the company.
Below are a few tips you should keep in mind when preparing your interview attire:
WHAT OTHER QUESTIONS DO YOU HAVE ABOUT INTERVIEW ATTIRE? POST THEM IN THE COMMENTS BELOW AND LET HUNTING HIRED KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS.
Networking, the one word in business that can strike fear in any introvert's mind! The idea of walking into a room full of professionals, pulling out a little business card and getting to work can be incredibly intimidating for just about anyone. Still, for introverts, the idea of putting yourself out there can be more than intimidating it can be debilitating.
Networking is a skill that we aren't born with, so if the idea of walking into a networking event makes your stomach turn, you can change this. The concept of networking is merely pitching to strangers why you should know each other. Improve your small talk and self-pitch and you are on your way to networking like the best of them.
Below is a set of six small talk topics to keep in the Rolodex of your mind whenever the opportunity to network arises.
Asking someone about their role is a stock standard question that most people throw into the conversation straight away. An excellent follow up to the job role query, is to ask them how they got started or what led them down that career path.
Occasionally people may not want to dive too deep into this matter as they may believe it is a little personal. Still, more often than not, you will find that individuals love to share their humble beginnings, it's an excellent springboard for people to brag about their achievements and it is quite interesting listening to how people chose their current position, creating an exciting and in-depth conversation between both parties.
People don't just head to networking events for the food and wine. There is always an underlying reason, and often it can be the same factor for most people present. Asking what led the person to the event can generate some great discussions and a sense of camaraderie, you may both be in similar positions and work required it, or perhaps you both work from home and wanted to make more connections.
Whatever the reason; chances are you aren't the only person in that room there for that particular purpose, improving the chances of meeting similar individuals.
This is a simple and straightforward conversation topic. Moving away from the professional line of discussion can help people drop their guard and expand on interests that you may have in common. Discovering that you both have a love for badminton or perhaps both follow the same Big Bash Cricket team can led to a comfortable and enlightening discussion. People also love to speak about their families, opening the conversation up to a topic that they have a wealth of knowledge about puts people at ease. Asking what keeps them busy outside of the office, lets the individual chose which avenue they would like to talk about most, be it sport, holidays or family. This question creates a discussion as apposed to a general two sentence answer.
This can be a bit of a dangerous line of discussion, as you do not want to appear that you are boasting about yourself, so read the tone of the discussion. If it seems appropriate, then start with your recent trip and ask the person if they have also been. This opener is excellent at building a rapport, having a destination in common gives plenty of connections for you to build upon.
If you are not feeling confident starting the conversation with your own recent getaway, simply ask them about their most recent getaway or where they would recommend. It is a great way to prompt the other person to gloat a little about their holidays, while also giving you great tips if you are in the market for a trip.
Use the food and drink supplied to your advantage, food is a quick and easy discussion point. Discuss how great you think the all-vegan hor d' oeuvres are or how wonderful it is they are supplying wine from the beautiful local winery you have been meaning to try.
Discussions about the food and wine supplies are often light and easy to segue into further conversation points about restaurants, wineries and recipes.
Asking the other person what they thought was most impressive during the event helps to create a soft point of discussion. As you were both in attendance, you most likely have a similar experience and can easily chat about the musings of the presentation without too much thought or effort.
If you are looking for openers, then don't forget to save a few of these one-liners in your back pocket. They may not lead to extensive conversations, but they can at least help you break the ice and get the discussion started:
Don't forget that while it is all good and well to have a backlog of questions ready to fire away at any unsuspecting attendee. It is just as essential to have your own in-depth responses to these questions. Once the conversation has reached its peak, you can be sure you will be asked the same question in return. Be prepared with an insightful answer that could possibly lead to further discussions.
What do you think of these conversation topics
Do you have another conversations starters we should be aware of?
Leave a comment down below and let the team at Hunting Hired know your thoughts.
Job interviews are hard; there is a lot of time and effort devoted to ensuring that you make the perfect first impression. The lead up is often fraught with doubt, hours spent umming and ahhing over the right outfit, practising what want to say, worrying about unnecessary things and over analysing how to sound right for the role.
All this preparation can be in vain, as there are certain no-no's you cannot afford to make in an interview. These mistakes can often cost you substantially, and you may be unaware that you have even made them. Before putting your foot in your mouth, check out these common interview mistakes so you can avoid them.
This is number one for obvious reasons! The employer needs to know that you are reliable and showing up late demonstrates a lack of time management and a disregard for the recruiters time. Arriving late is a great way to get yourself placed in the firm no category.
Life is unpredictable! Your car might not start; an accident can happen; traffic can be bad; the train could be late and blah blah blah blah the recruiter has heard it all before. There is a genuine risk that something could hold you up, be prepared and leave early enough to avoid being late if something does hold you up.
You want to be prepared for every individual interview. It is great to practice your standard answers for the basic questions that will always be asked; however, the recruiter doesn't just want to know your soft skills. The recruiter will want to know why you think you are right for the role, what you think about the company and what makes you more desirable than the other candidates. Be prepared, research the company, know the mission statement, understand the role inside and out, be able to establish a valid reason why you would be the perfect candidate for the position other than the experience listed on your resume.
We all know that the way we carry ourselves matters, even more so when being judged simply on first impressions. Body language can be the difference between landing the role or not. You should arrive looking put together and behave pleasantly; this is an exciting and happy moment for you.
You do not want to be rude, grumpy, negative or unresponsive. This will most likely end the interview right on the spot, but you should also check the way you display yourself. Don't sit with your arms crossed; don't become distracted; give the recruiter your full attention and remember to try and smile whenever someone makes eye contact. It is these little details that can make all the difference and show you are actively engaged.
This is not always vital, some recruiters will let you get away with a slip-up, but others will not. When the recruiter introduces themselves to you, remember the name. Not only is remembering someone's name useful in general conversation, but it is also a sign of respect and shows you have been paying attention.
Small talk is by no means unimportant, its a great way to connect to the recruiter on a personal level and build a relationship. Small talk is an excellent vehicle for recruiters to gain an insight into your personality. After all, they are not just hiring someone solely on their skills and knowledge.
Follow up can be crucial! If a recruiter interviews 50 applicants; likes 10 for the position and then receives a follow-up email thanking them for their time from 1 of the 10. You can guess who just moved up to number one pick on the recruiter's list. A simple thank you email is not only professional and polite but shows that you are actively interested in the role.
What do you think of these common interview mistakes?
Do you have another common interview mistake we should be aware of?
Leave a comment down below and let the team at Hunting Hired know your thoughts.
Recruiters have to spend hours looking through resumes, to help fast track this process there are certain Red Flags that these recruiters look for. These red flags help weed out resumes that don’t fit the role or are considered unprofessional. Some red flags are obvious, but there are a few that many applicants without knowing.
Avoid these simple red flags and find yourself more likely to move to the next stage in the application process.
There is often not enough emphasis put on the importance of format, having a messy and unattractive resume is less likely to be read by the recruiter. It doesn’t matter that the resume made it past the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) if the resume is so basic and unattractive, it ends up in the no pile.
Stick to no more than three to five dot points per work experience, keep it basic with a heading font and a body font, use a simple F shaped template, stick to two or three colours for backgrounds and titles only.
This can be a real issue when returning to the workforce after having children. It is confronting when you have a gap spanning a few years, and you don’t know what to put down.
Don’t just leave this space blank, an unexplained employment gap will raise more questions. It is best, to be honest, and upfront and let the recruiter know that you are returning to the workforce. While you are on leave if you have a little time, it is excellent to invest in some part-time education and volunteer work. These added skills can help to close the gap in your resume and are looked upon favourably by recruiters.
A resume’s length isn’t super important, but you can bet a recruiter doesn’t want to spend hours reading pages upon pages. In saying that you also don’t want the resume to be too short and lack the appropriate information.
A perfect resume length is usually 2 pages. This provides enough room to add 5 previous places of employment, extra room for references and a good-sized paragraph at the beginning of the resume for a professional profile.
Keywords are essential when applying for a position, they are little hidden gems that prove you are the right applicant for the role. Recruiters will be looking for specific keywords that will include both hard and soft skills relevant to the position.
Search the application and pick out the keywords that seem to be listed a few times and then include them in your resume, ensuring that they are relevant to your experience.
These days recruiters want to see tangible ways that you have applied your experience and knowledge. Having no actionable results leaves questions about your actual skill level and expertise.
When writing your work experience, include results that you have achieved. Think about using the ARTA (Achieved Result by Taking Action) method. List the results and then work backwards and display what steps you took to achieve those results.
What do you think of these resume red flags?
Do you have another red flags applicants should be aware of?
Leave a comment down below and let the team at Hunting Hired know your thoughts.
Are you not feeling fulfilled in your current role?
Is it time to come back from maternity leave but not sure which career path to choose?
Perhaps it’s time to make a change but you don’t know where to start?
Get ready to discover your ideal career. Simply block out ten minutes, grab yourself a cup of tea, find some paper and a pen, then sit down, get comfy and get ready to do some thinking.
Your ideal career is hiding up in your conscience somewhere so to find out what really would make you happiest in business its time to think about your strengths, values and try to get out of your comfort zone.
When trying to work out what your strengths are, think about area’s that you excel in, aspects of your personality that people often compliment you about. Evaluate why these are strengths of yours and what career options these strengths would benefit.
Alice is unfulfilled in her current role as an IT manager. She thinks one of her main strengths is her baking ability. Her friends always compliment her on her bubbly and tenacious attitude.
The next step is to think about your personal values. What do you want to achieve within your lifetime? Do you want to help people, do you want to earn a certain amount and live a particular lifestyle? Are you focused on starting a family and being present?
Whatever your values, think about career paths that are in line with them. Think about how you could improve your current values through future career options. Your values are central to who you are as a person and your happiness, by spending time researching your core values, you can help to unlock what will genuinely make you happy.
Alice wants to make people happy, she wants to celebrate with them in their achievements She values hard work and commitment and wants to be her own boss.
Often the things we want the most, often seem like the hardest to achieve. Stepping out your comfort zone can be intimidating and stressful, but it leads to amazing rewards.
This scary space will teach you more about who you are, what strengths you poses and gives you a clearer understanding of your true desires. It is essential to try new things and give your all, there may be something that you are a natural at but would never have discovered the talent if not for trying a new skill.
Alice thinks starting her own baking business is something that she might like to try. Alice begins by baking birthday cakes for friends and family each weekend. She asks if people could recommend her to their friends.
Visualisation is such a fantastic tool, once you think about what you really want to achieve, you can start to manifest these skills. Keep visualising your ideal career to keep yourself motivated, the road will not be easy, but it will be worth it in the end, stay present in your current situation but visualise your future.
Alice visualises herself opening up her own bakery business and selling sweet baked treats to people for special celebrations. She begins visualising a bakery in her local shopping mall called “Sweet Celebrations” which creates one of a kind birthday cakes and cupcakes. Using this visualisation Alice began creating a business plan, spoke to her bank about possible start up loans and began looking for suppliers and the perfect location.
By taking these steps you can start to really confront what makes you happy in life, use that to create an action plan and begin working towards the career of your dreams.
Have you submitted hundreds of job applications without getting anywhere?
Are you starting to feel like there is something wrong with you?
It’s not you. I promise, it is your resume!
Recruiters have seen thousands of resumes, they know exactly what they are looking for and can pick apart the good from the bad in a matter of seconds. If you don’t tick the required boxes in a quick once over, your resume is going straight into the shredding pile.
Don’t fret, there are a few quick changes that you can make to your current resume to help boost your success rates.
Target your resume for each individual job application, recruiters want to know that you have the specialised skills for the role. Pay close attention to the job application, highlighting skills and previous examples that demonstrate the value you would bring to the position.
This section is worth its weight in gold, don’t squander it. The summary / professional profile is one of the first area’s of eye contact for recruiters and can help guarantee a little extra attention. Use this top section to clarify and illustrate your abilities, the value you will bring to the role, and what differentiates you from other applicants.
I cannot stress enough the importance of ATS friendly format when creating and submitting an application. There is no point crafting the prefect resume if the ATS cannot read the document and deletes it before the recruiter can even see it. Check out our tips to beat the ATS.
Pronouns on a resume are a sin, there is no reason to include “me”, “I’ or “my” on your resume. Each experience block should be written without the need for any pronouns, don’t waste valuable space with unnecessary wording. Think you can outsmart the no pronouns rule by using the third person, think again. Writing your resume in the third person is a one-way ticket to the shredder.
Recruiters are aware of day to day tasks, the soft and hard skills required for the listed role. What recruiters really want to see are results based achievements. Display your achievements in the best way possible using the ARTA (Achieved Result by Taking Action) method.
Increased sales by 17% in 2018 by implementing new XXX marketing strategy.
Achieved Results: Increased sales by 17% in 2018
Taking Action: by implementing a new XXX marketing strategy
Creating content that provides insight into your abilities and achievement rate will help to give you a point of difference from other resumes.
What are your thoughts on these top tips?
Do you have any suggestions to increase resume success rates?
Leave a comment down below and let the team at Hunting Hired know your thoughts.
Interviews are stressful, there are no two ways about it. You are sitting down being judged by another person, and at the end of the process, you will either succeed or fail it's that black or white. If that is not enough to send you on a downward anxiety spiral, then hats off to you. I struggle with stressful situations, I am the kind of person who can feel the knot in my stomach before even entering the building. My hands only ever start sweating right before I need to shake hands. The minute I sit down to talk, I suddenly have a mouth dryer than the Sahara!
These problems are all just symptoms of the stress that many job applicants face. However, there are some simple steps that you can implement to avoid the dreaded interview anxiety, help ace the interview process and land the job:
Don't just turn up on the day without preparing for the interview. Once you have received the email or call to set up the meeting take time to research the role that you have applied for and the company itself. Make sure that you are aware of the companies vision and that it aligns within your own ethics and beliefs. Think of different conversations you can start with the interviewer about your fit with the company itself. Study the job description for the role and think of real-life examples that you can use to prove you have experience and would be qualified for the position.
Hold mock interviews with family or friends, print off a list of commonly asked interview questions and use this time to practice answering these questions in an interview scenario. Let the person interviewing you take notes and be honest. Practice your delivery of specific issues, think of practical and relevant small talk that you could use when first meeting the interviewer.
These days we often are so eager to answer that we don't actually listen to the full question. Usually, we respond with something that takes us off onto a different tangent. Listen deeply to the interviewer that way you can feel more in control of the answer.
Don't slip into the trap of keeping up with the interviewer's rapid-fire pace. Take time answering each question don't just pull from the top of your head. If you are struggling with a solution and need more time to think pause for a moment and use an opener like "I am glad you asked that" or "that's a good question". Create more time to think about what you want to answer and also show that you are interested.
This may seem like a simple task but can be hard when you are feeling stressed or anxious. Exuding confidence is all about body language. Focus on keeping eye contact, don't forget to smile. Use a firm grip when shaking hands and remember to sit up straight and avoid crossing your arms. Focusing on exuding confidence can also calm you down as you can quickly implement these simple steps which make a world of difference.
Asking questions at the end of an interview is essential, it helps put you in control of the conversation and shows strength. During the meeting, think about the different issues that would relate to anything has been discussed. Demonstrate your listening abilities once again and confirm you have researched the company. A helpful tip is to ask the interviewer to imagine if you were given the role. What would your day to day role look like? Who would you work with? What skills would you be implementing each day?. Asking the interviewer to imagine you in the role places you in that position in their thoughts which bodes well for the future.
What are your thoughts on our tips to stay calm in an interview?
Do you have any suggestions to help stay calm?
Leave a comment down below and let the team at Hunting Hired know your thoughts.
