clairey b

Hi everyone

We moved over to Perth about 5 weeks ago now, and my husband is really struggling regarding work (surprise surprise!!!) He is a Health & Safety officer by the way!

His CV is great, but i just wonder if anyone has any tips on how he can adjust it so its more tailored to the aussie market?

He is applying for every job going, even taking cv's in by hand, but the problem is majority of the jobs are through recruitment agencies, and even for jobs he should really be shortlisted for he is hearing absolutely nothing-is this quite normal? Bless him, he's trying so hard but i can see it's beginning to get him down already

Any advice would be really greatly received.

Thanks for reading,

Claire x

Sally Simpson

This thread may be interesting to you!
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...2&highlight=CV

In fact, if you put CV into advanced search & narrow down so you only get the Aus forums, you should get loads of useful info!

Good luck & 5 weeks is early days I'm afraid!

Dorothy

First, get rid of superfluous apostrophes. When I worked at the recruitment agency in Adelaide one of the first things I looked at was spelling and grammar. Next thing is to tailor it to each individual employer. So, if he's applying to a hospital highlight his medical experience. Alternately if he's applying to a mining company highlight his mining experience and so on.

clairey b

Many thanks SallyClaire & Dorothy.

Your advise really is very much appreciated.

Claire

mecheng

I am one who subscribes to the view that there is not much difference between UK and Australian CV's (although it may depend on professions & industries of which I am unfamiliar). I'm sure many people on this forum may disagree. CV's should be set out well, i.e. avoid paragraphs and use bullet points instead, highlight key achievements that are applicable to the job you are applying, use action words as the first word when outlining your responsibilities, i.e. implemented, prepared etc etc. Also important is length, I would keep it to roughly 3/4 pages if your husband has 20+ years experience. If not, then 2/3 is better. Keep it short, sweet and to the point. Other factors to effect CV style and length is profession and industry but I am not a HSE officer so unfortunately I can't help there. Good luck!

seang

I dont work in health and safety but could your husband maybe (finance and times permitting) do a short Australian H&S course. I would imagine there are ones for just a few days/ 1 week.

I would hazzard that it would look really good on his CV

NickyC

If your husband is applying for an advertised job make sure that his resume always addresses each of the specific requirements for that job.

Have a section on the front page of his resume which lists the individual requirements (as listed on the ad) followed by details of how he fits them.

Usually people put this stuff in a cover letter and leave the resume unchanged. A recruitment agent once told me that cover letters are the first piece of info to get lost or separated from the resume. You avoid this by incorporating cover letter info into the resume itself.

It's also easier for the agent/employer to see all relevant info in the one document. You've got to make it easy for them - they're looking for any reason to bin a resume.

Pommy Dan

i see what you've done there...

Amazulu

Just don't spell it like that on your CV......

mecheng

In the engineering & finance industry, if a resume is called a CV it does not go straight to the bin. Excuse me if I say that is a load of nonsense. CV & resume are one and the same thing and an employer is not going to put aside what may a very good applicant because they submitted what is essentially a resume. I have used a CV my entire working life in Australia and the UK and if they tossed it aside like it has been suggested, then I would never have been hired (and the company would have lost out). Further, I disagree that you should specify your referees on your CV. It does not convey the message you have something to hide at all and Australian employers are no different to UK employers in this respect. I honestly can't believe people think you would be hiding something.

Amazulu

And recruitment agents wonder why they have such a bad reputation - it's not surprising with an attitude like this.

Fortunately, the agents that I deal with don't give a shit what you call your piece of paper, they are more interested in your technical ability, qualifications and what you have done in the past.

Actually, I think CVs are a load of crap and a waste of time but that's another story.

canadaeh

Agencies don’t care what you provide them with, in most cases they will only use their own template on their system anyway. I don’t work for a recruitment agency, but I am part of the interviewing panel at my job. Did I say I agree with those statements? No, I’m just pointing out how employers are over here.

If we get two applications, exact same qualifications, one sends us a Resume to the standard format and one sends a CV, with a photo on it to a UK format, who do you think we would look at first?

Australia is different from the UK and with that some things are different, like job applications, for example, don’t put down that you have an ECDL Certificate (that European Computer Drivers Licence thing) it’s silly, no one here knows what it is, or cares, and it is assumed that you know how to use a computer if you are applying for a position that requires you to use on.

When receiving hundreds of applications for a position the Employer needs to weed them out, the first ones to go are usually ones that cannot follow simple instructions, such as “Send your covering letter and Resume”, people who don’t send a cover letter go out, people who send something other than a Resume go out, next is the crazy Resume’s, ones with pictures and logo’s, pointless colourful designs to try impress employers, then go the ones with mistakes, then go the ones who are not qualified/experience enough.

Then we are left with about 15 – 20, who we will go through in detail and narrow down.

Personally I don’t agree with putting Referees on a Resume as it’s no one else business until you get the position, but the other people who I work with (3 of us do the interviews) will not interview someone who doesn’t have referees listed. They also nitpick about it being called a CV.

I’m just giving an opinion from my experience, no one is forcing you to take it, or agree with it.

Oh and contrary to belief, a CV and Resume are different things. Some info from the web:

Features of a CV

A CV, or Curriculum Vitae, to give it its Latin name, is an account of your entire education and employment history. The term translates as 'course of life', and it really is that - a record of your working life so far. It is far more detailed than a resume, from which elements are often excluded if they are considered irrelevant. A CV should include everything you've ever done, listed in reverse chronological order, to make it easier to prioritise more recent information. As a result, a CV is longer than a resume, although two pages is the recommended length.

Information in a CV is arranged according to subheadings, to make it easier for the reader to quickly skim through and find the information he or she needs. Remember, your CV is intended to let prospective employers find out about you in the hope that they will offer you a job, so it's in your interest to make it easy to understand!

The sections of a CV may include the following, although many sections can be moved up or down depending on what information is relevant for the specific job.

1. Profile/Objectives - a short statement, tailored to fit the requirements of the prospective employer;

2. Education/Qualifications - a list of institutions and courses, with grades awarded and dates attended;

3. Skills/Competencies - any skills or achievements that are relevant to the job. You can include most things, but be sensible - there is no need to mention the 10m swimming badge you got when you were six!

4. Career Summary - this should be the most detailed part, it can be moved higher up the document if necessary. Each job should have a short description of the skills you used and your achievements within the role. A few bullet points are sufficient, with more detailed accounts of more recent/relevant positions.

Features of a resume

A resume should be a shorter, more focused account of your relevant skills and achievements. Although the exact length of a resume is open to debate, in general it should not exceed one page in length, and it's safer to be conventional; after all, you want to get the job. It's fine to miss things out of a resume to keep the length down; you should only include the things that are most relevant to the position you are targeting. Resumes also often miss out some of the more personal details that CVs include, such as hobbies and interests.

As with CVs, resumes are usually organised into a few essential sections. However, one key difference between a CV and a resume is that resumes are focused on your skills and accomplishments, rather than providing an objective account of your history. As a result, resumes often feature aggrandising language, and tend to be more obviously self-promoting than CVs.

You can afford to be a bit less formal with the structure of a resume than with a CV, and there is a wider scope for creative presentation. That said, there are three main formats that are generally used:

1. Chronological - this is the most common format, and is very similar in organisation to a CV;

2. Functional - your skills/qualifications act as a backbone, around which the rest of the resume is structured;

3. Focused - as above, but with the content organised in relation to the targeted position.

Dorothy

So yours would be one of the binned ones, then seeing how you bin the ones with mistakes?

canadaeh

I guess so, but as I’m not looking for a position I guess I don’t need to worry about mistakes, and also seeing as this is a forum and not a job application I doubt mistakes are that important.

mecheng

Well you must not have agreed with your original post because you have since deleted it. I never mentioned (you can see my original post above) anything about the UK format of including a photo with it, which I also say is not entirely true these days. Maybe some people do but I don't subscribe to the view that photos should be included in any application, regardless of the country. The instances of people including photos and license details would likely be extreme cases and I'm sure Australian natives are guilty of the same thing (like also including DOB). Do you mind saying what industry you work in?

Your colleagues can nitpick to their hearts content, and it's not my place to say anything against them or you. Each to his own. I would be surprised if they were HR personnel however. I would think that the majority of employers do not hold anything against applications with no referees included. It is common practice to only provide this information once an applicant is more advanced stages of the recruitment process. Your organisation appears to be the exception.

Regardless what the great and wonderful internet says, CV's and resume's are seldom differentiated between nowadays. Alot, if not most, people are going to state their working history, achievements in those roles, education, etc. All CV's/resume's will be targeted for the position one is applying for at the end of the day.

As you say, each has their own opinion but don't misconstrue healthy debate for criticism.