August 06 Newsletter

Temp of the month

Outstanding performance from our temps doesn’t go unnoticed. We truly appreciate their efforts and therefore would like to acknowledge the great work they are doing for us.

Our August Temp of the Month award goes to Emily Howman. She has received fantastic feedback with her employers saying she is a tireless worker and has been worth her weight in gold!

Emily is pictured here whilst on assignment at Walker Corporation. She gets a $100 voucher from the store of her choice.

Work your way into a job

Just because you've never been paid for work doesn't mean you haven't had work experience — or that you don’t have skills and experience that are valuable and relevant to working life. Work experience can be a great tactic for people looking to enter the workforce for the first time or those returning after a break from paid work. It can be a way of learning new skills or updating rusty ones, greatly benefiting your search for a paid position.

Most people have been involved in many situations where they have learnt skills that are useful to the work force. Employers are looking for people with skills and abilities that are transferable. Recognising and valuing the environments where you've gained relevant work experience is the first step to convincing potential employers that your skills and experience are relevant to the organisation.

Maybe you've worked on a stall during a garage sale or on the door at a dance party. You might have raised children, cared for an aged relative and managed a household. All these activities require and develop skills and personal qualities that transfer to the work force.

Work experience is often organised by schools and tertiary institutions to help their school leavers gain some understanding of an industry or occupation. It offers young people the chance to get hands-on experience in a formal working environment. However, work experience is also valuable for people who are looking to move into a new area of work, the long-term unemployed or for those who are re-entering the work force after a long absence.

Work experience can help shape your employment plans in a number of ways. It may:

confirm that this is the industry for you — you can then start to look for paid employment in that field;
confirm that this is not the industry or type of job you want to work in;
suggest certain aspects of an industry that you would like to focus on.

Finding a placement
Students will often have work experience organised for them as part of their formal learning programme. If your institution doesn't organise work experience as part of your course of study, approach your lecturer, teacher, career guidance counsellor or other staff member who may be able to assist. Outline what kind of placement you're interested in undertaking and ask if they have industry contacts they can refer you to.

The ideal work experience placement is in your chosen field of endeavour (or closely related) and with a host organisation that is committed to your growth. It is difficult to find companies with strong work experience guidelines but ideally a learning programme should be established for you. This would outline:

your supervisor or key contact;
what departments you work in;
who you work with;
how long you'll be in each department;
what tasks will be assigned;
what the learning outcomes are.

Benefits;

Contacts
This is possibly the most valuable aspect of work experience. Meeting people who can help you is the key to success in job hunting. Even if there is no vacancy in their company, they may know of a job elsewhere. You get access to the "word-of-mouth" hidden job market.

Knowledge
Employers are more interested in what you can do than where you've been. If you can demonstrate an understanding of the industry and support that by outlining key tasks you have completed while on work experience, your chances of gaining paid employment are much higher than if you have just studied it at college.

Confidence
Confidence grows when you feel that a task is within your reach. Work experience gives you the chance to watch people doing the job, to ask questions and often the chance to try your hand at it.

Discipline
The simple act of getting out of bed each day at a certain time is a discipline that helps you generate more momentum in your life. Getting to work on time, finding appropriate clothes, scheduling appointments, time management — these are all skills that are learnt through doing.

Being able to list work experience on your resume demonstrates a number of qualities, such as:

a genuine desire to work;
initiative;
work ethic;
enthusiasm;

These are qualities that an employer may value more highly than qualifications. Never underestimate the power of work experience.

Article from: seek.com.au, Bernadette Schwerdt

Some commonly asked interview questions…

Q: "So, tell me about yourself"

This question may be used to assess your personality, preparation, communication skills and ability to think on your feet. Prepare a list of what you do (your current or last job), your strengths (stick to job-focussed skills), and a summary of your career trajectory, linking your experience to the job at hand.

Q: "Why did you leave your last job?"

Respond positively — "...for better career advancement or promotion opportunities, increased responsibility, more greater variety at work..."

Q: "Why do you want to do this job / work for this company?"

Demonstrate your knowledge of the company and re-emphasise your suitability for the position.

Q: "What do you think you have to offer this company?"

This is a chance to sing your own praises — concentrating on the skills you have that are required for the position.

E.g. "I have strong sales skills, am a good team player and am very keen to be involved in the new markets you are developing in the Asian region." Q: "What do you think this position involves?"

This question is designed to reveal if you have thought about the position, done some research, listened to the interviewer, and can summarise all of this information clearly.

Q: "What do you know about the company?"

Demonstrate your interest in the job, and your understanding of the organisation and industry. Talk about the research you did into the company's key areas of interest, its size, its main customers or current status, making reference to your source of information.

Q: "Do you have any questions you would like to ask?"

Always prepare a question to ask the interviewer. Ask about the position, request clarification of general information about the company, or summarise your understanding and request confirmation. If they have already answered your questions tell them (be specific) so they know that you have thought about the position in preparing for the interview.

For example: "What do see as being the main focus of this role?"

"Am I correct in saying that the position involves mediating between A and B departments and monitoring and developing new approaches to...?"

"I'd like to ask about the organisational structure... are the publications produced on a national basis or individually by each regional office? How are budgets controlled and allocated?"

Q: "What do you believe are your key strengths?"

Prepare responses that give specific examples of your strengths at previous positions that will support your job application.

Q: "What do you believe are your weaknesses?"

No-one readily admits real weaknesses in an interview situation. It is general knowledge that this is an opportunity to turn the question into a positive. Think of something that relates to your experience of work that is plausible as a weakness but is not really a negative point. Eg; "I am very particular about detail", "I become very focussed on the projects I am involved in"

Q: "Why have you had so many jobs?"

If you have had jobs in different industries or several positions in a short period, describe the positives — that you were learning new skills, following different career paths, and travelling overseas etc. Refer to the experience you gained in past jobs that relates to the position under discussion.

Q: "What do you enjoy most about your current / last job?"

The trick with this question is to list what you have enjoyed about work that strongly relate to the key competencies of the position in question, and mention that you are looking forward to expanding your experience / scope in these areas.

Q: A question requesting confidential information about a previous employer

This may be a testing of your discretion and professionalism. It is best to reply that you would prefer not to divulge any confidential information (sales figures, for instance), citing the fact that you are sure your interviewer would expect the same discretion from their employees.

Q: "Where do you see yourself in five years time?"

This is an assessment of the extent of your ambition and career planning. You should demonstrate that your long term goals are appropriate for the position being discussed and your commitment to them.

Q: "Can you give me an example of your creativity / managerial / organisational skills?"

Think of some examples that prove that you possess the key attributes and competencies requested in the job ad and description. These are probably the areas on which your interviewer will probably focus.

Q: "Do you work well under pressure?"

Answer with a 'yes', and give a specific example of a time when you were under pressure and how you rose to the challenge.

Q: "Tell me about when something went wrong"
Q: "Tell me about a time when you have encountered conflict in the workplace"
Q: "Have you ever had to deal with conflicting deadlines? How did you decide which task to complete?"

These are behavioural questions designed to elicit information about the required competencies for the position. Cite experiences in your past jobs, and always try to inject a positive note into your answer (e.g. that you learnt from the experience).

Inappropriate questions
Equal Opportunity (EO) guidelines limit the questions that can be asked in job interviews. By being aware of EO considerations you can recognise possibly discriminatory questions when they are asked. If asked a question that you consider inappropriate or that you suspect may be the basis for discrimination, you are under no obligation to answer it.

For example, an employer may ask whether you have children as part of idle chatter, or they may be motivated by their prejudice that working mothers are not able to commit fully to a full-time position. Alternatively, in asking about your childcare arrangements they may for be trying to assess your level of preparation and professionalism.

If you are uncomfortable with any question, politely and professionally refuse to answer it or request clarification on its relevance to the position. Some suggestions are:

"I don't think we need to talk about this. I would rather focus on issues relevant to the position and the requirements of your organisation."

"I don't understand how this question is relevant to the position or my ability to perform in the role. Could you clarify for me why you think it is important, and I will try to provide you with the relevant information."

'Difficult' questions
If you have had a negative experience with an employer (retrenchment or redundancy, sexual harassment, or clashes with colleagues), prepare to be asked about them in job interviews. The best strategy is to be honest, positive, and to avoid criticising former employers or expressing grudges.

For example:

Termination:
"I was asked to leave that company. The grounds my employers gave were dissatisfaction with my performance / attitude...

"but I disagreed with their assessment and believe that the termination was based on personal differences rather than performance issues. If you check with my referees from other positions you will find that I have not had problems of a similar nature anywhere else and I am confident that they will not occur again."

"Unfortunately, that year I had some personal commitments that I had to deal with. I had to make a choice to focus on these commitments or on my job, and I chose to concentrate on personal commitments. Unfortunately, this did mean that my work suffered, but I am now able to fully commit myself to my work again and am confident that I will be able to meet your performance requirements"

Sexual harassment / personal clashes:
"I decided to leave because of some personal issues within the workplace which I would rather not discuss."

If legal proceedings took place:
"There have been some legal proceedings regarding my position there and so for confidentiality reasons I would prefer not to discuss it."

Article from: mycareer.com.au

What’s going on with that Beaumont lot?

Earlier this month the Beaumont team joined up with Camp Quality and ran the City 2 Surf! We ran the hill and all survived, so far approximately $40,000 was raised through the event and we are glad that we had the opportunity to be a part of this magnificent event. Even better was the fact that we knew with each step we took it was going towards this great cause. If you would like to learn more about Camp Quality and all the great work they do follow this link – www.campquality.org.au Because Laughter is the best medicine!

A HUGE THANK YOU to all 550 people ran for this fabulous charity!

Joke of the month

A young Aussie lad moved to London and went to Harrods looking for a job. The manager asked "Do you have any sales experience?" The young man answered "Yeah, I was a salesman back home." The manager liked the Aussie so he gave him the job. His first day on the job was challenging and busy, but he got through it. After the store was locked up, the manager came down and asked "OK, so how many sales did you make today?" The Aussie said "One." The manager groaned and continued "Just one? Our sales people average 20 or 30 sales a day. How much was the sale for? " ....... £124,237.64 pounds" The manager choked and exclaimed £124,237.64 pounds! What the hell did you sell him "Well, first I sold him a small fish hook, then a medium fish hook, and then I sold him a new fishing rod. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down at the coast, so I told him he would need a boat, so we went down to the boat department and I sold him that twin-engined Power Cat. Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to car sales and I sold him the 4 x 4 Suzuki". The manager, incredulous, said "You mean to tell me....a guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a boat and 4x4?" "No no no......he came in here to buy a box of tampons for his lady friend and I said......... 'Well, since your weekend's buggered, you might as well go fishing."

Quote of the month

The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.

Ben Stein