Candidate Tips & Information

L J Williams & Associates is pleased to provide a range of (hopefully) useful information for candidates' general benefit.

Information on Resumes & Cover Letters

When I first started L J Williams & Associates in 1991, personal computers were much rarer and MUCH less sophisticated than they are today.

In those days resumes ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. From typewriter (remember typewriters?) prepared efforts to whiz bang computer documents using EVERY font, style, and word processing feature known to man. Generally these works of art were printed on dot matrix or ink jet printers...

Today, it seems everyone has or has access to a PC and almost every PC has Microsoft applications with "easy" resume templates. This, plus the advent of affordable laser printers and e-mail has meant much better looking resumes are quickly and easily prepared by most people.

One "downside" of this is that resumes today are often hard to read due to small typeface sizes - this is especially true if the resume is faxed...

I believe that the cover letter and first page of a resume often decides the "fate" of its sender.

Some resumes contain so much information that you have to read many pages just to get an overview of the candidate.

To me, an "ideal" resume first page contains the following information:

  • Personal Details - Name, address etc
  • Contact Details - After hours and mobile phone numbers plus e-mail if applicable
  • Qualifications - Secondary, trade and/or tertiary education - industry specific training if applicable
  • Employment History - This should be a brief chronological history starting with your current position and working back. Include period of employment, name of employer, position/s held.

You can and should elaborate later in the resume by listing your employment history in more detail by including: actual duties and responsibilities, major achievements, reason for leaving, salary package and any other information that might indicate your ability to do the job for which you are applying.

The most important advice I can offer for preparing resumes is KEEP IT SIMPLE. Unless the position requires advanced desktop publishing skills, use simple, easy to read fonts / typefaces preferably no smaller than 10 point and forget the fancy borders, colours, graphics and title pages.

Cover Letters

A good cover letter will make your application stand out and significantly increase your chances of getting an interview!

Why? Beacause most people either don't bother with cover letters or send terrible generic versions that do nothing positive!

Click here for more information on cover letters!

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Job Offers

Job offers should only be treated as firm once they have been made in writing!!

Candidates are strongly advised NOT to act on verbal job offers. If an employer is serious, they will be more than willing to put it in writing.

Acting on a verbal offer - especially resigning from your current position - could have embarrassing consequences should the employer "change their mind" or withdraw the offer for any reason...

Thankfully, such situations are rare, but better to be safe than sorry!

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Information on interviews

Before the Interview - Preparation

Be prepared for the interview. Learn what you can about the prospective employer's business and if you can't do this before the interview have the questions ready to find out when you get there.

Also, be prepared for the type of questions you might be asked during the interview. There are plenty of books available on this subject so there's no excuse for not getting in some practice.

Personal Presentation

Look the part! If necessary, "stake out" the potential employer's place of business and see how other staff dress.

When in doubt, men should wear:

  • a conservative dark suit
  • white business shirt
  • business like tie
  • clean shoes

NOTE: Definitely no cartoon ties or funny socks! It's hard to take someone seriously when they're wearing a South Park tie and FIGJAM socks. Shoes should be clean and not badly worn.

Women should also wear:

  • conservative suit
  • clean practical shoes

Hair: Should be neat and appropriate for the job. On men, facial hair should be neatly trimmed. Women need to consider the job they are applying for. Long or "big" hair should probably be tied back and colours should be suitable for the job eg green tips might go down well in a trendy boutique or hairdressing salon, but probably won't be looked upon favourably for a front desk job with a conservative city firm.

Jewellery: Men and women should avoid an excess of jewellery etc. Body piercing, tattoos are not universally accepted and any visible body piercing studs; rings etc should be removed for the interview. Tattoos that can be covered should be covered.

Punctuality

This one is simple: Be on time. Definitely don't be late and don't turn up 30 minutes early expecting the interviewer to be available. You should always allow extra time when traveling to an interview and this will often mean you arrive early. If this happens it won't hurt to call the interviewer to ask if they can see you earlier, they may have had a cancellation or be running ahead of schedule…

During the Interview

I believe that the most important advice I can offer to any candidate is:

"Use the interview process to firstly confirm your interest in a position and secondly as an opportunity to sell yourself as the best candidate for the position"

This statement might at first glance seem obvious but my experience, both as an interviewer and as a job candidate is that most people try to sell themselves first and find out about the job second!!

I'm sure I'm not the only person to have walked out of an interview having been offered a job and wondering if I'd done the right thing…

To prevent this situation, candidates should go into the interview primarily to ask questions rather than answer them.

Have a List

When making the interview appointment, try to obtain a written job specification or job description from the employer. This document will not provide all the answers but at least it demonstrates that the employer has at least thought about their needs and requirements for the particular position. It might also provide an insight into the company's "culture"…

Questions You Should Consider Asking Include:

  • Company background / structure / performance
  • Actual duties and responsibilities
  • Why is the position vacant
  • What are the employers expectations
  • How do they justify these expectations
  • How will performance be registered
  • Salary package structure
  • Future prospects
  • After asking these types of questions you should at least be able to confirm your interest or elect not to pursue the position.

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Information on dealing with Recruitment Consultants

Many candidates find the process of dealing with Recruitment Consultants difficult for all sorts of reasons. Maybe they've had negative past experiences but unfortunately, many candidates view consultants as a nuisance or necessary evil and fail to communicate effectively.

In the ever changing workplace of the 21st century, Personnel Recruiters are a fact of life and candidates who make the effort to build long term relationships with consultants will enjoy long term benefits.

As a consultant, one of the things we're always looking for is feedback, especially after interviews. Despite asking every candidate to call after their interviews, very few actually do so. Yet most employers will call their consultants to see if the candidate they interviewed has followed up the recruiter.

The other important thing for candidates to do when dealing with personnel recruiters is keep in touch. The old saying of "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" is true so keep your name in the consultant's mind and increase your chances of hearing about the good jobs first... | Return to top

Information for Overseas Applicants

Candidates living overseas are advised that to live and work legally in Australia they MUST be Australian or New Zealand citizens or have the appropriate VISA.

L J Williams & Associates is a personnel recruiter and is not able to offer assistance or advice to people wishing to migrate to Australia .

Advice on immigration issues can be found on the internet or obtained from the Australian Embassy.

Generally, our experience suggests that employers will only seriously consider overseas applicants if they have the appropriate visa and if they are either already in Australia or have a confirmed arrival date within 30 days. | Return to top

Information for sending email applications

Common sense email Etiquette

Despite the fact that email has been around for some time, there still seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the "rules" or "etiquette" of its usage...

Consider the following:

  • Treat business email as you would any other business correspondence
  • Use the spell check
  • Conclude the email with a "signature" containing your name and contact details
  • Expect a reply by email - we reply to all legitimate emails so remember to check your email regularly
  • Use standard grammar and punctuation in emails - it makes them easier to read
  • do not use all lower case letters - it makes you look illiterate and is hard to read
  • DO NOT USE ALL UPPER CASE LETTERS - apart from "shouting" in "email talk", it is simply too hard to read
  • Use the subject line effectively - use words that let the reader know the exact purpose of your email
  • Do not send jokes or chain letters - most people have better things to do
  • Be polite - say please and thank you
  • Never assume an email has been received unless you get an acknowledgement - if it's important, follow up to make sure it has been received

Email job applications & attachments

  • Include the reference number or position title in the subject line
  • State clearly in the email which job you are applying for
  • Include a cover letter as the first page of your resume, NOT a separate attachment, and preferably in Word document form. Word documents "page setup" should be "A4" rather than "letter" - this will ensure the document prints as the writer intended...
  • KISS - simplicity is the key for all business correspondence, especially resumes! Better to have 4 pages of useful info rather than 12 pages of waffle and graphics...
  • Use the spell check! Also pay attention to common grammar mistakes eg "their" and "there".
  • Conclude the email with your name, contact details and email address
  • Expect that the recipient of your email will reply acknowledging your application so if you are sending the email from an unsecured email address make a note on your email asking not to reply to this email address
  • If you don't receive an email acknowledgement within 24 hours you should make a follow up call to ensure the application was received

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