October 08 Newsletter

Temp of the month

A big warm congratulations goes to our October Temp of the Month Freya Rogul. Freya has been working for PinPoint Marketing for the last 6 months and this is what her manager had to say about her:

"Freya’s willingness to assist staff and customers alike, her ability to pick up instructions easily, her excellent attendance record, her reliability and her flexibility with start and finish times make her one of the best employee’s that we currently have on board. Freya gets the job done whilst always maintaining a smile on her face in what can sometimes be a very frustrating business. If we could order another dozen just like her our jobs as managers would be easy!"

Freya, we're so pleased that you have won our monthly award, you're a true Temp Star - hope you enjoy spending your gift voucher too!

In addition to our fantastic winner, we also received some excellent and very well deserved nominations this month. We would like to make a special mention to the following people..

Jarlath Mcateer – Jarlath was nominated by his manager who has been impressed by his continuous high performance since starting in his role. Jarlath has performed excellently in his role and has assimilated well within the team. He thinks outside the box, comprehends new processes easily and is an autonomous employee who shows commitment to his role.

Well done Jarlath – such positive feedback for your first role with Beaumont Consulting. Thank you!!

Eveline Hughes – Eveline went in for a short term reception position and they love her so much that if she could work full time, they would want to snap her up!! Eveline will ideally be looking for part time work though so we will be looking hard for her! Eveline, thank you for all of your hard work and conscientiousness - you have been commended for your use of initiative, warm friendly attitude and dedication. It's a pleasure working with people like you.

tell

Tell me about yourself?

“Tell me about yourself?” is a common interview question and one that people often have difficultly in answering. Why do employers and recruiters ask this when they already have your resume? There are a number of reasons:

They can learn a lot from the way you articulate yourself, what you say, weather you have a positive attitude. The tone of your voice and your body language reveals your belief in yourself and your abilities, and it shows whether you've come well prepared or not.

When answering it is important not to talk aimlessly, and keep your response to 1-2 minutes. Generally employers and recruiters want to know 3 things and your responses need to be in the context of these points:

   1. You have the skills, training and experience to do the job.
   2. You are motivated and want to do the type of work on offer.
   3. You will fit into the organisation and work well with others.

Your resume should include a career summary detailing your skills, experience and personal qualities, so restate basically what's in your career summary. Also include some of your career accomplishments and let the interviewer know what attracts you to the position. Practice this before going to an interview.

resume

Constructing Your Resume

Many people face writing their resume with dread. However, it’s not so difficult with a good plan that covers both content and lay out. The plan below will help you write a resume that is easy to read and full of the information that employers want.

Contact details:
Your contact details should be centred at the top of the page, including your name, address, phone, mobile and email. Make sure your name, phone and email details are on each page in case the pages get separated. Only use professional-looking email addresses. Don’t use email addresses for couples or those which have zany names.

Birth date and marital status:
You are not obliged to include either, marital status is unnecessary, and most advise against showing your date of birth.

Lay out:
Keep it simple. Font style should be easy to read in 11 point. Centre contact details and your career history or career summary then place the other information flush left. Bold headings are easier to read than bold with underline. Use dot points if you want, but only the one type. A table format is unnecessary and can have a displeasing look. Avoid colours, content is the most important thing.

Summarising your strengths:
There are two ways to do this, either as a list of key strengths presented with dot points, or by creating a section under a heading such as ‘Career Profile’.

Key strengths: A key strengths area presented with dot points is a popular option. The aim of this section is to present the reader with a quick summary of what you offer to get you placed on the short list.

For example:

• High level computer skills including Excel, Word and Powerpoint.
• Five years experience in customer service both face to face and phone based.

There is no real rule but six points is optimal. Be specific, a statement like "Excellent Communication Skills" doesn’t mean much.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills acquired via study and customer service work.

Career Profile, Career Overview, Career Summary, Career Objective:
Starting a resume with a Career Objective is popular. This is fine for school leavers or recent graduates but for everyone else a career overview is better. Employers want to know what you offer them, not your expectations. Conclude with a career objective if you want, eg. "While currently a product manager, my career goal is to move into general management".

A career overview should provide the reader with a quick summary of what is in your resume. It should be a few sentences within one paragraph and contain an overview of your professional, academic and industry training. Some personal attributes are optional. As stated, you may conclude with your career objective as the last sentence.

Professional history:
Show your career history in reverse chronological order. Show job title, employer, dates, and what you did, including responsibilities and achievements.

Description of employer: This is appropriate for those coming from overseas or if the company might be unknown, however the large well known organisations need no explanation.

Responsibilities: It is a mistake to believe the more responsibilities listed the better. Include only the key things you were responsible for. Don't list everything you did. There is a difference between "Attended a weekly team meeting" and "Chairing the weekly team meeting”.

Achievements: Up to three per job is optimal. This is where you may list details such as staff awards, special commendations, an implementation that led to cost savings or an increase in revenue, access to new clients, higher levels of customer service, or time efficiencies. Meeting a target is not an achievement; it's doing what is expected. Exceeding monthly targets is an achievement.

Achievements show potential employers your capabilities and what they can expect of you. Indent your achievements by one tab on your resume to make them stand out.

Education and Training:
Start with your highest qualification first. Unless you’re straight out of school, don’t include secondary school. Education and training should cover university, TAFE, industry courses and in-house courses.

Professional Memberships:
Only show those relevant to your career and show how active you are in that organisation.

Referees:
Put referees at the end. Names and phone numbers, preferably not mobiles, is the acceptable presentation. If applicable you may add: "Written reference available upon request".

Hobbies and interests:
There are various views about including hobbies and interests. Some career experts warn this could go against you if the reader dislikes or is threatened by the activities listed. If you want to include this, place it before your referees.

How long should a resume be?
For school leavers and those that have only been in the workforce for a few years, two pages are acceptable but for everyone else three, up to five pages is advisable. Managers and recruiters want to see your career development and some of your achievements.

Don't go back more than 10 years. You can include a paragraph under the heading "Other professional experience" if you want to include earlier work of particular relevance. Or, you can provide a summary of your professional history and end with the sentence: "Full resume available upon request."

The structure above gives an employer the information that they want, in the correct order, to help them decide to interview you or not. No one gets a job on their resume alone. The purpose of the resume is to get you into an interview.

challenge

Challenges for parents returning to work

In a recent survey by CareerMums some key themes emerged about the challenges faced by parents returning to work:

A need for work from home arrangements for some of the week.
A lack of support by employers in attracting their staff back to work after parental leave.
The cost of child care and the failure of the 50% child care rebate in drawing parents back to work.

Kate Sykes, Founder of CareerMums said “There are some quite straightforward means to overcoming these persistent challenges. Employers and the Government need to make some simple and long overdue changes to practices and policies which will only improve productivity. There is a hidden workforce that is ready to work. Let’s start using home grown talent before we become too reliant on importing it.”

Finding flexible work was one of the biggest barriers, according to 72% of 420 parents surveyed. The flexibility parents were seeking included; job share arrangements, work from home arrangements for some of the week, part time as in a reduced number of days, part time to fit with school hours, and leave during school holidays.

‘Stay in Touch’ programs are essential in retaining employees on parental leave; only 15% of those surveyed said their employer had offered support in a return to work plan.

The cost of child care is one of the biggest barriers, as pointed out by 40% of respondents. The 50% child care rebate makes little difference to returning to work for many parents. Only 2% of respondents said that it made a significant difference. The Government needs to readdress issues with child care, including the over-privatisation of child care centres, and the monitoring and control of child care costs.

humour

Workplace humour lifts job satisfaction

A climate of humour in the workplace contributes to as much as 40% of employee engagement, according to new research from Melbourne's Swinburne University.

The survey of 300 workers from 20 countries also found that individual personality and mood were major drivers of job satisfaction.

Lead researcher Maren Rawlings said the study found that the more positive, rather than negative humour was used in a workplace, the more satisfied and engaged staff became. She said the survey also found that no humour, or negative humour, was associated with lower levels of job satisfaction.

oct

Whats on in Sydney in October

Walk to Work Day – Oct 3rd

Manly Jazz Festival - Oct 4th - Oct 6th

Sydney Childrens Festival – Sep 27th – Oct 11th

Ride to Work day – Oct 15th

Spring Cycle 2008 – Oct 19th

Danks Street Festival – Oct 26th