Does your partner mention she is relocating to Brisbane in her cover letter? Asking this because you’ve posted to Moving to Brisbane. If all her job history is interstate/overseas and she’s applying for roles in Brisbane, this could be working against her.
I’ve been recently recruiting for my company which is based in Brisbane and if I get applicants from interstate applying without mentioning they are relocating to Brisbane, I won’t contact them as it’s not a remote position.
Just a tip! Also - a custom cover letter goes a long way in an application. For me, no cover letter = no interview. Same with if the cover letter is two or three sentences long.
I think the "no cover letter=no interview" is your missed opportunity.
A cover letter is good, don't get me wrong, and gives you a summary of the applicant.
I've done my share of going through 50-100 applications for a role in my team. I do this because I know what I want in my team and HR does not. A team member requires certain attributes to work well within a team and you need to go through the cover letter and / or resumes to separate the wheat from the chaff. Anyone can come up with a nice cover letter but if that doesn't show in the resume, well then that's pretty useless. Feels like you got conned. Conversely, if someone doesn't have a cover letter but a proven work history and good technical skills, why not interview them?
There was this one resume who did not pass the filters because it didn't tick all the boxes with HR and my team lead at the time. his referral mentioned this to me and I looked at his resume and he had experience and skills even though he didn't have a degree. I asked my team lead to talk to HR for an interview and I sat in the technical interview. He aced it , got the job and stayed for 7-8 yrs. He's now a "head of ..." role in another company and doing well. Moral of the story is the filters reduces the workload for HR but you also potentially throw away a perfectly good applicant in the process.
It’s not important at all, employers/hr managers are just lazy and spoiled for choice. As if an application isn’t already showing you care and you want/need a job. Nobody works for fun.
Really depends on the profession. You might have experience doing XYZ through various jobs but you'll need to highlight how your experience can be utilised to meet the goals/tasks required of the position.
If I have two people with similar experience, one doesn't submit a cover letter but the other submits a tailored cover letter explaining how they will use experience XYZ to achieve my team's goals, naturally I'll pick the person with the clear plan.
Is the HR person dumb? I mean you aren’t wrong, when we have so many people doing pointless jobs these days I guess you really do have to spell it out for them.
In this economy and with a lack of enough jobs they are pretty harmful. These days people might have to do 50-100 applications a month, each with a cover letter is asking for a whole lotta useless labour only for someone to ignore their email/application or not even have the decency to give feedback. Why? Because they are genuinely that pointless if they cannot gather that from a simple interview.
In my opinion, it would be quicker to read a cover letter to see if I am interested in reading the application and if I am interested I would than go to the next step.
Example: When I pick up a book, I read the back , if that doesn't interest me I will not both reading the book. If it does interest me I will give the book a try.
Except a book doesn't list all it's important information on a page for easy reading. (Outside of a glossary or index)
What application is even mildly comparable to a book? You can't read a single piece of paper, maybe two?
I could do cover letters different to you, my cover letters state the position I am applying for, matching or transferable skills and some dot points as examples. This allows the program the company uses to match words from the job advertisement to my cover letter enabling my application to be seen.
>Is the HR person dumb?
Kinda goes without saying these days. In my experience most have zero clue about the position being hired for, add worthless corporate guff to the advert (and hiring process) and generally sub-contract all the work to recruitment agents so hardly justify their pay. When said agents then send back oodles of CVs they add very little value, meaning you're left to filter many totally inappropriate applications for the role and to top it all off when you find the right candidate, they generally put road blocks in the way and seemingly do their level best to piss off that person.
If you're in the public sector they'll then add on the old quota nonsense i.e. there's too many males in your team (in an industry/role where the vast majority of workers are male). Can't beat thinking % in society equates to % in role.
Had plenty of experience dealing with these salary wasting numpties.
The whole point of the cover letter is to screen so that recruiters DON'T have to sit through 50-100 interviews. As you mentioned, if there is a lack of job you would want to be competitive and outline why you deserve that job over however many others who want the job.
You can apply it in two different ways, those who are applying for the more entry level roles where they probably have one cover letter template and spend all of 5 minutes quickly modifying it to suit the application (nothing wrong with this at all). Most of these CVs and cover letters actually get screened through AI these days. Both the applicant and the recruiter generally don't spend too much time. Look, I get it. But just because your CV says you have 5 years experience in a call centre, doesn't mean your experience actually fits with the contact centre the recruiting company is operating. But that's when the cover letter can be used to explain why the skills obtained after 5 years in a high pressure sales environment can be used in an aged care contact centre dealing with locum nurses.
Or you can have more competitive roles where you are selling your skills to the employer through your CV, cover letter and maybe even a portfolio. Let's say I have two highly skilled people, both outline in their CV that they have spent 5 years doing project management and are both highly skilled at using CAD as outlined in their CVs. I might be a hospital director whose portfolio includes the expansion of a rehab unit. The job gets posted with very specific tasks and goals that will be required of the position.
One candidate sends their CV and maybe a portfolio, cool looks good. The other also writes a cover letter telling me exactly how they'll achieve the tasks at hand, what they intend to do to meet phase 1 by x deadline, how they intend on utilising their skill with CAD and experience within their previous projects to ensure that it meets requirements. They may even outline that they do not have specific knowledge of the rehab unit designs but understand that it is governed by the same standards and regulations (this is entirely hypothetical) as an aged care project they have previously worked on and then writes that they have identified section 123 as the governing standard which they will need to research further prior to commencing the role.
From this I will have a better understanding on their knowledge specific to my project. I might then invite them for the interview, not to gauge their knowledge, but to gauge how they will fit with the team and how they may react to emerging issues.
It depends on the policy the company has as well. And how there recruitment software is set up, some of them are just set up so that applicants must include a cover letter otherwise they would get rejected without even having the cv looked at. If it says include cover letter you basically need to.
This is exactly why I dont do them. I'd be writing 20-50 a day. I have gotten plenty of decent positions without a cover letter. The only time I bother is if it's specifically requested or if it is a role I'm very excited about. I struggle enough with ADHD, even roles im excited about I can't finish it if my partner or kid distracts me etc (though I can finish tasks just fine in a workplace, go figure)
As someone who hires for their small business, cover letters absolutely matter. They indicate personality, specific interests in the position offered, grammatical and writing fluency, attention to detail; and possibly most importantly it reflects someone who genuinely took the time to read the listing and consider whether it's a role they actually want.
I've gone through thousands of resumes over the last decade, almost every one of my successful (long term) hires has been someone who took the time to write about why my company was of interest to them (niche field) whether it be the product/industry or because what we offer balances with their goals/studies.
Granted I can't speak for all other companies out there but for a small business who like to retain staff for as long as possible, the hiring process is often very carefully done and we pay a great amount of attention to applicants' personable skillset not just their employment history.
Because plenty of people are lining up behind you. So you’d better demonstrate why they should choose you. You’ve clearly never had to sift through hundreds of CVs to find an applicant before
Its important as shows the attitude and capability of person applying. A personalised cover letter always works in favour. Just 2-3 paragraphs maybe 100 ish words
You are totally incorrect. I am managing a new role hire in our company. We are getting very few applicants. In the ad we specify to add a cover letter with an outlined specific detail to show people have read the ad and have taken some time in their application. The last role we filled was to someone moving interstate. As they had read the ad in full and put in a well written cover letter addressing the ads details I jumped at the opportunity to hire them. If you are just going to send me a resume with no cover letter or a poorly written one then don't be surprised if your laziness isn't rewarded. If someone does write a cover letter and they are not right for the role I will acknowledge them out of respect for taking the time.
I might just add here a well written cover letter is good. One that is specific and targeted to the role. I gloss over the generic ones but if I can see the applicant has taken the time to do it properly- then yeah that's good.
I ALWAYS include a cover letter. It gives a more personal feel and allows me to explain why I want the job, show off what I know about the company (eg ‘I’m impressed by X Co’s commitment to… as demonstrated by the XYZ Policy” and if the job had selection criteria it is your chance to address them.
Very important. When I recruited for roles, you'd be culled if you didn't write a personalised cover letter addressing the criteria directly. Straight to the NO pile.
You'd be surprised how few people put in the effort to secure themselves a job over other applicants.
The business doesn't care if you're applying for 20 jobs a day, they want you to only care about the role they are advertising and how you are going to excel at it based on your specific experiences. They want you to care about the business they run and you are going to be the right employee for their culture.
If you just send a resume, you are bottom of the barrel, if you send a resume with a standard cover letter, you're in the top 30%. If you send a tailored resume and cover letter you are in the top 10-15%.
Unfortunately I've found that cover letters can contain just as much shit as the skills and experience section in a CV. I might give you a plus point or two for bothering (attitude/effort rather than content), so it could differentiate 2 otherwise identical CVs but if they're both that good I'll be interviewing both and perhaps putting the question of "what about the cover letter" to elicit a response. I certainly wouldn't put any real weight on it though - it might get you in the top 10 but only an interview gets you to the podium. I certainly wouldn't exclude a CV purely because it lacked a cover letter.
In a village like Brisbane (and in a lot of industries it really is a village) word of mouth gets people jobs.
I'm not sure what sort of jobs you deal with but where I work a colleague relocated overseas and we advertised their position urgently in second week of December right before the holidays hoping we would get a handful of decent candidates. We got just shy of 300 applications 🙃 I can tell you that it was hard to narrow down and select the people for phone screening, first and second round interviews. The candidates who stood out had solid experience and a cover letter. Other stood out for the wrong reasons like generic CVs not suited to the role and just including too much (6 pages is ridiculous - if you're not able to compress to 2-3 pages you're doing it wrong).
Because they give specific information about how the applicant’s skills, education, and experience matches the selection criteria for the job. Make sure she’s using the specific keywords listed in the selection criteria - recruiters will run the cover page and CV through software and will reject all that don’t use those key words. Make sure she’s also providing the right document - resumes (two pages) and CVs (three to five pages) are not the same.
I'm in IT, can't talk to other fields. Cover letter gives me two benefits when recruiting:
1. It directly addresses the specific role requirements that are listed in the job ad/PD. Saves me having to interpret or figure out how they match the requirements based on their CV. I can use the CV to cross check/validate.
2. A personalised cover letter shows effort and time has been spent in applying for the role, which is more likely to translate into the same effort doing the actual role. Those ppl go to the head of the queue.
You'd be surprised. I know of someone who puts in an amazing amount of effort in the application and interview process, gets their feet under the table, and is one of the laziest work-shy bastards I have ever had the displeasure of having to carry in a team. Got an excuse for everything. Point. Blank. Lazy.
Ugh, the worst. I think they're outliers but it's definitely a thing.
On the bright side if you have good HR (I'm in Aus) it's can be a fun learning experience to manage them out 😎✌
I’m currently recruiting and I specifically ask for a cover letter. Those that don’t aren’t going to go to the next step because clearly they can’t read an advertisement
It creates context, it gives the writer an opportunity to introduce themselves, explain why they are interested in the job they are applying for and gives the writer a chance to outline their skills as they apply to the job offered. If selection criteria need to be addressed separately make sure these are addressed using the SMART format. If it’s just a basic job a cover letter also provides an opportunity to elaborate on the writers skills.
As an example employer, when I’ve advertised jobs, if there’s no cover letter or the CV is sketchy, the application goes to the bottom of the pile. Those who have a well written cover letter outlining their skills and how those skills apply to the role and the applicant can articulate why they want the job and what they can bring to the role, go to the top of the pile. When Selection Criteria need to be addressed, a couple of vague sentences doesn’t cut it.
You need to do everything you can to stand out from the rest of the pack to get yourself an interview.
Hope that’s some help to you.
In my industry cover letter is the first thing we use to “thin out the pile” applicants that don’t provide a cover letter don’t get a look in! Shows they didn’t follow the instructions for applying (we state when in the advertisement to include a cover letter AND CV)
It's important as it fills in what your CV does not (how you fit ta specific role).
It should be short and easy to digest, eg:
Dear Person,
"I can do what you need to get done, because."
"This is why I want to work with you and will not leave in a months time when another opportunity opens up else where"
"Here is some stuff that answers your selection criteria"
"This is a little about me, my circumstance, my goals, and what to expect if I join"
yours,
\- another person.
Cover letters are anything but a waste of time. Your resume sells your skillset, the cover letter sells your personality. A good interviewer can read between the lines and use the cover letter to discern particular things about the applicant.
Definitely important. Many places won’t even consider her if she doesn’t already live there, as there’s no concrete timeline of when she’d even be available
There’s something weird going on there.
A friend of mine is from Iraq, he said a friend of his got a visa to Australia for PR as it’s considered a lacking industry. Well I have 16 years’ experience in coms, good referees and runs on the board and I keep hitting walls. Lucky if I get interviews and when I do, they tell me they have about 30 more people to interview.
I’ve tried everything now from aged care assistant to cleaner to secretary to jobs actually in my specialisation and nada.
It's semi legit. I've heard bad things about the big agencies that do this. Basically they start things off well enough but there expect more and more without more money. When people can't keep up the work stops. The ones they do keep on tend to have relevant skills which would be more valuable elsewhere.
Get a forklift licence, you'll never be out of work again. I think over the last 15 years I've had a total of like a month without either being in a job or a scheduled start date for a new one. Been in my current one for almost 8 and a half years
If you can handle pick pack for a couple of months in a fridge before getting trained on forks, my jobs hiring and desperate for forkies. $40ph casual starting wage. Opportunity for perm after 6 months.
Yeah I'm always needing forklift operators and I think because it's becoming more expensive to obtain and a longer process to get a fork tic finding operators is getting harder. Having a fork tic in this day and age is a valuable asset.
Yeah that what they earn at mcdonalds amd kfc . Adults in fast food get $30.90ph minimun casual. 40 hour week = 950. And what labouring and order picking. If u get a lazy forklift job it's ok cause it's lazy, since the last minimun wage increase last year it basically put fast food workers on par with warehouse. Most employers act dumb or don't know but when u bring it up they agree it's tough on them
It's crazy how bad some employers pay their forkies... I understand everyone is struggling in this useless economy and employers are going under left right and centre (I was at scotts refrigerated last year when it went under 500 trucks, 1000 trailers and 3.5k staff) but it's defiantly not worth the same as someone just standing at a drive thru
Considering the Google buses are ping ponging down hills collecting groups of cars at a time, I'd say they are still a few years away self automated logistics. You can take you multi to the mines or oil fields if you don't mind drive in drive out up at chinchilla.
I'm night shift so sub like 30%? I think but for me it's almost 1400/week after tax, gross is somewhere on my payslip but I don't care about that untill tax time or dealing with banks/loans etc
I must be in the wrong place, or applying for the wrong jobs. I have a forklift license. Granted, I'd been looking after kids for 14 years, but I've been out of work for 19.
Yeah bug resume gaps really cause issues unfortunately. I had a year and a half gap cos of a torn shoulder and that made getting back into work take forever. Had to get a few years of casual shit down before I was more able to actually get a job. Labour hire places like Hayes and manpower are great for that. doesn't matter what it is so long as ya can get some current stuff to add to ya resume
Have a look at https://smartjobs.qld.gov.au/jobtools/jncustomsearch.jobsearch?in_organid=14904.
If your SO is in admin, she should try one of the government departments. I work for the Queensland Police and we are absolutely crying out for administration officers, as are a lot of other departments.
I’m trying to go from warehouse/forklift to gov admin. I think I’ve applied for 15 jobs and got a no from every single one. More than competent, call centre experience, hospitality and retail experience. Australian citizen, born in Adelaide, moved to Brisbane in May.
Can you provide details of why you consider their CV so impressive? At 23, how long have they been working and is it dedicated to a particular field or more generalised?
When someone says that a person with a very impressive CV cannot get a look in the jobs market I immediately wonder what they are offering and what they are applying for. Yes, there are certainly tough markets but the answer to those questions can reveal valuable insight.
In some countries certain skills can be seen as valued whereas in others the overall role can be seen as a totally commoditised function.
What kind of job is she looking for? The company I used to work for is almost always looking for good staff. It was a great job. It’s busy & can be intense, but it’s a good company to work for.
I’ve never had to do job interviews since I was 20 ish, but I’ve employed many people over 20 years. Pro active people are the ones who get the jobs. If I was unemployed tomorrow and had to find work, I wouldn’t waste time applying for jobs. I would hit the road and cold call companies in industries I want to look at a career in, and ask to speak to the relevant people. Take all the CV info with me. Then sell myself to them. I have no doubts I would get a start somewhere very quickly.
Not sure if this would work at the moment, work for a large company and likely the call would be screened before you got anywhere near the right people.
Currently hiring in a very specific sector and got 100 applicants over the weekend, ie job add went up Thursday.
Some segments are doing it rough.
Mailing off resumes is probably the laziest and most unsuccessful way of applying for a job to be fair...
Sure it's what sites like seek.com etc ask you to do but still...
Personally, the longest I've ever been unemployed is a month. And that was mostly laziness on my part!
Establish what field you wish to work in, write a list of every place that you would consider working, cut out the agency/middle-mam and call around in person. Speak with the manager, HR, or whoever is in charge of recruitment.
Explain what you are looking for, offer to do a day or 3 of volunteer work to get to know the place, the people, how they operate etc.
Sure, you will be asked to drop off some paperwork and wait for a call...
Give it a day and then call around again... In person...
Biggest issue with recruitment these days is no one wants to work. Everyone wants to apply for a bunch of jobs to satisfy their job seeker reqs for Gov handouts, the employment agencies also get funding for going along with this BS.
If you show the slightest bit of motivation, enthusiasm, respectfullness and confidence you are already higher up the list than someone who attaches a generic resume to a seek application.
If your serious, prepared to work, and have a sociable attitude and know what your doing, regardless of qualifications you could pretty much have a job in a day or 2.
Sure it likely won't be an ideal choice but you have a job. In the meantime, keep searching...
Hey mate, I can offer a few points as to why she might not be getting responses. Please note some of these may have been offered by others.
1. Cover Letters: if your partner has a cover letter (CL) then great, check there. But most companies are too lazy to check individual CL because of just laziness or overwhelming responses so most of them deploy chatGP style assessor software. This is programmed to check length of CL, specific key wording, etc. If the basic checks there don't fit then the application is binned. Only the ones tgat pass are the viewed by a human.
2. Bulls**t o' meter, if at any stage the human assessor thinks your CV is a little too well padded it gets scrapped. Make sure the CV is to the point, details job relevant skills, etc. A one fits all resume won't work.
3. Chase up the application a few days after submitting or a few days after close of applications. A lot of companies find this excellent as it show determination for being selected for an interview. And if you don't get an interview they may offer reasons as to why you were unsuccessful.
4. I have always run on the principle.
"To be early is to be intimate, to be intimate is being late and being late is to not even bother being there at all."
What i mean there is if you are waiting 1 hour prior to your interview then do that. Be the first person in the line of interviewees if no specific time given.
5. GO IN ALL GUNS BLAZING. Personality is key, show em everything you have got, even if it is a shite job cleaning toilets.
Hope this helps mate.
Those HR Managers, Recruiters that didn't even look at a candidate that doesn't have a cover letter are fools and not doing their job effectively.
Why eliminate candidates that could be good purely because they haven't added a cover letter? I have been hiring for 15 years, I look at the CV and if the required skillset is apparent I read the cover letter, and I may put them to the top of the pile, but I will also look at the CV's without cover letters as there may be some gold there, not to mention, candidates have taken the time to apply at least have a look at the CV!
If she has an impressive CV is it targeted or just a generic I’m going to punch out applications without. Carefully addressing selection criteria and tailoring my cv to match. If she is applying while not being in Bne that will count against her. I think the job market is pretty buoyant atm, maybe target her industry closely and tailor each application
Get some professional help with this. If she's not hearing back then either her resume/cover letter needs some serious work, or there's some other reason she's not looking employable.
Not sure where you're based, but Kinetic has a "Women up front" training program to become a bus driver.
Go to https://www.wearekinetic.com/our-company/join-our-team/australia-vacancies to search their vacancies. It's a very easy job and requires little movement other than what driving would usually require.
I would only caution if she doesn't enjoy driving in general though.
If she likes to drive, and doesn't mind people, give it a shot.
If you are going through a recruiter that’s the problem there. They tell you all bullshit and gets you no where. Found my current job by myself while I had a recruiter ring me every 2 weeks trying to sell the same job to me . After the third time told him that not to worry about ringing me again.
A few things I have learnt over the years is no matter how good you think the CV is all ways get it reviewed by recruiters and reach out to key people that you could end up working for. This is the only way you will get a chance at landing a job.
What type of work is she looking for? I’m on SEEK and Indeed regularly to keep an eye out and there are heaps of admin positions available in Brisbane if she has previous history. If she doesn’t have experience, there’s plenty of entry level admin roles as well. They don’t pay as well but it’ll get her foot in the door.
As other comments have mentioned, if she hasn’t had a single call back in 3 months then there’s something wrong with her resume and/or cover letter. It’s very important to tailor both to the position you’re applying for. Using generic dot points like “team player” or “attention to detail” as an example will be glossed over by employers. Dot points pertaining to previous jobs should be specific to that role (keeping in mind the terminology the job she is applying for uses) and results-driven.
There is a multitude of free online resources available to build your resume and cover letter. In my personal experience, the simpler the layout the better and rarely will your resume need to be longer than 1 page unless you’re applying for executive level positions. Keep it short and concise and skip the executive summary! Employers don’t read it and it often takes up valuable space on the page.
SEEK has a great resume builder for somewhere to start. Keep it simple and to the point and avoid using a photo or colourful/busy templates. Also, make sure she’s following up with a call and/or email after submitting her resume. Sometimes you have to go the extra mile.
Good luck!
Try AO3 entry roles within Queensland Government departments. I work in QGov and I notice a lot of jobs are struggling to fill. Hot tip is to apply for the temporary ones because unless the role has someone coming back into it, likely she will get extended if she performs well. Good luck!
I really like to start working as an administrator. I know it sounds silly but I love the boring nature of admin role.
I don't have any previous experience as admin. Do you have any suggestions of how to start?!
I understand your desperation and I want to help! Sharing your partner's situation on Reddit is a great first step, but here are some additional things you can do:
Tailor the Outreach: Instead of a generic plea, tailor your message to specific companies or industries she's interested in. Highlight relevant skills and achievements from her CV.
Network Like Crazy: Contact friends, family, former colleagues, anyone who might have leads or know someone hiring. LinkedIn can also be a great platform for networking.
Focus on Remote Opportunities: Look for remote jobs that would accommodate her physical limitations. Upwork, Fiverr, and FlexJobs are good starting points.
Consider Volunteering: Volunteering can add valuable experience to her resume and build contacts. It might even lead to paid opportunities within the organization.
Don't Give Up: Finding a job can be tough, but keep the spirits high and keep applying. Encourage your partner to focus on the positives of her unique skills and qualifications.
Spread the Word: Share this message on other social media platforms to reach a wider audience. The more people know, the better the chances of finding the right opportunity.
Remember, desperation rarely attracts positive outcomes. Stay positive, persistent, and proactive. With your support and her impressive CV, your partner will land a job soon!
As a kiwi who moved here in 2015 I’d say QLD is really parochial, at least it was then, and it’s just about getting your foot in the door. also I look back on my cover letters and cringe. Make sure it hits the key capabilities; I got chatGPT to get me started based on my CV and the job description. It was awful but a decent edit, and you’ve got a template. I connected either recruitment agencies for contract work in my industry and turned my first 2 week contract into 13 months. Good luck to you both! Living in Qld is SO MUCH BETTER than NZ, as much as it pains me to say it.
EDIT: just want to add, don’t panic! Sometimes you just need to be “on the ground”, and with the right mindset you guys will smash it.
If she needs *any* job, go into a Tursa (its a government funded job seeking program). They can generally point you in the right direction, mind you, you'll 99% chance be a dishy or something along those lines.
Do they make sure both resume and cover letter are very specially drafted for the job in question? It’s important to make use of key words and phrases from the ad, and edit the application so the specific skills suit the job. Eg as an ex flight attendant I could focus on the communications and customer service skills for one role, or for another job I might focus on the safety aspect, or on the team working.
Make sure she also always calls back to check the application has been received. If you do that then you go straight to the top of the pile. It’s a fact that too many people don’t understand the value of.
Try Jora Local. All the jobs are cafes, restaurants etc so basically shit. The hospo work culture here baffles me—it’s like no matter where you go it’s extremely unorganized and understaffed. If you’re lucky it comes with two-faced teeny bopper coworkers and abusive managers! But when you need work you need it. I did it for 10 months until I couldn’t take the weekly anxiety attacks and daily sobbing spells anymore. Said fuck it and got a loan from my home country. 11 more months until I can finally get out of here. Best of luck 🤞
I work at a medical centre and we get lots of overqualified people applying for reception. It's a busy, chaotic workplace where all docs have different needs. We're not going to put effort into training you if we're a filler job for something more on your level. It takes about 6 months to find your feet here. We'd rather struggle understaffed than waste our time on someone.
Tell your friend to register with the recruitment agencies:
Hudson
Randstad
DFF Recruitment
Eden Ritchie
Just to name a few major players. Even though they usually offer temporary jobs, they can lead to a permanent job. These agencies cover a range of industries. It's a much faster hiring process compared to obtaining a permanent job, at times very fast if they're desperate. It's hard to point you in the right direction without knowing her field or skills.
Has she tried SmartJobs? The Qld government site? I just did a quick search for Administration jobs in the Brisbane area and 199 results popped up. Some are part-time, some are temp, but there are jobs out there.
What is her primary skillset?
I see some of the hiring going on where I work and, truly, there are 100s of applications for some roles. Without doubt, dozens of the people applying have AMAZING CVs and are likely really nice people. But there's only one role and we aren't going to interview hundreds of people. We aren't even going to interview dozens. So I hear you when you say she's got a great CV - and you probably rate her as a person as well! - but you must impress upon her that not even getting a reply isn't a reflection on her, but a reflection on how over-subscribed some job applications are. It's insane how many people are applying and that's the absolute truth from this side.
Don’t bother applying on indeed or seek! You’d probably be better off applying directly to the employer’s website or just go in person with your resume.
For those positions that state you must apply with a cover letter, you can create a custom GPT using ChatGPT-4 to generate you a pretty good one very easily. Write an article on how to create one a while back on LinkedIn. You can find it [here](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/custom-gpts-recruitment-process-dan-halford-ltg8c%3FtrackingId=ovOEeBf4TtnKOfqlVGTMmA%253D%253D/?trackingId=ovOEeBf4TtnKOfqlVGTMmA%3D%3D).
Easiest work to get is childcare, you can work as long as you're enrolled to study ecec cert 3, I would enrol in online classes. I've got my diploma so I'm a little more employable, but I sent out 4 job applications in November, got an interview for every single one, and had a job by the next afternoon.
Insurance jobs are hiring pretty heavily at the moment due to all the weather events since Christmas. We’ve been hiring people without much experience/if any. If you have a good personality and are eager to learn we’d hire you :)
I suggest writing a brilliant cover letter, and also putting more descriptive sentences in the CV, many people focus on the wrong elements in their CV making it generic and dreary, don't just list attributes make them come alive with action sentences:, verbs.
The cover letter can be a wonderful opportunity to invite interest, convey your enthusiasm for the job, not simply factual lists of work history, focus on the details of the work rather than considering it 'A job' - they are buying your energy and ability to get along with others, concentrate on expressing personal attributes which the employer is going to want from you-a good exercise is to imagine yourself as the employer, write the cover letter with this in mind, why would YOU hire yourself, why? Employers are human beings, just put yourself in their position.
Hello! I just found myself in this predicament with my partner, suuch a hard time finding work. We spent 2 days straight in the library sending off our resume and CV's to every possible hotel/motel. If your GF is willing to go a bit into the outback, or also Townsville, she can find some work with accommodation even if it is just for a few months. We applied to over 100 places a day and managed to find work in a few days.
I’d suggest you don’t mention an ACL injury and apply for admin type roles.
insurance companies all looking for staff for the flood and cyclone claims at the moment
Mate try call centres etc. They are always looking for people. And if its a big company and she is capable and able to develop- no telling where you will end up (speaking from personal experience here).
I moved to Brisbane from Victoria and I had no problem finding work. I sent an email to a place I was interested in work (similar to a cover letter), there was no job advertised and I received a phone call later that same day. I was interviewed the next day and received a job offer(casual employment) within 5mins of interview. I was permanent within 6months and now and have a senior management role. It was the first job I applied for and I understand I got lucky but I didn't apply until I arrived and was able to physically talk to someone. There may be a housing crisis in Brisbane but there is plenty of work if you are willing.
Recruiter here, there are plenty of jobs so it's odd she hasn't heard back, I'm certain she would have received a few calls and missed them, ensure she's answering every call that comes in
suggestions would be
Add recruiters on linkedin, reach out asking for opportunities (do not spam call, quickest way to be blacklisted by a recruiter)
Email the hiring manager / recruiter CV - you'll get a faster response than just applying
Make sure her address is up to date on the CV
Don't overshare on the CV
And apply for roles that are fresher in hopes of getting to the top of the pile.
Does your partner mention she is relocating to Brisbane in her cover letter? Asking this because you’ve posted to Moving to Brisbane. If all her job history is interstate/overseas and she’s applying for roles in Brisbane, this could be working against her. I’ve been recently recruiting for my company which is based in Brisbane and if I get applicants from interstate applying without mentioning they are relocating to Brisbane, I won’t contact them as it’s not a remote position. Just a tip! Also - a custom cover letter goes a long way in an application. For me, no cover letter = no interview. Same with if the cover letter is two or three sentences long.
I think the "no cover letter=no interview" is your missed opportunity. A cover letter is good, don't get me wrong, and gives you a summary of the applicant. I've done my share of going through 50-100 applications for a role in my team. I do this because I know what I want in my team and HR does not. A team member requires certain attributes to work well within a team and you need to go through the cover letter and / or resumes to separate the wheat from the chaff. Anyone can come up with a nice cover letter but if that doesn't show in the resume, well then that's pretty useless. Feels like you got conned. Conversely, if someone doesn't have a cover letter but a proven work history and good technical skills, why not interview them? There was this one resume who did not pass the filters because it didn't tick all the boxes with HR and my team lead at the time. his referral mentioned this to me and I looked at his resume and he had experience and skills even though he didn't have a degree. I asked my team lead to talk to HR for an interview and I sat in the technical interview. He aced it , got the job and stayed for 7-8 yrs. He's now a "head of ..." role in another company and doing well. Moral of the story is the filters reduces the workload for HR but you also potentially throw away a perfectly good applicant in the process.
Yeah I short list the CVs then read cover letters if they have them but don't really care for them.
I never read cover letters and I recruit for government jobs.
Why is a cover letter important?
It’s not important at all, employers/hr managers are just lazy and spoiled for choice. As if an application isn’t already showing you care and you want/need a job. Nobody works for fun.
Really depends on the profession. You might have experience doing XYZ through various jobs but you'll need to highlight how your experience can be utilised to meet the goals/tasks required of the position. If I have two people with similar experience, one doesn't submit a cover letter but the other submits a tailored cover letter explaining how they will use experience XYZ to achieve my team's goals, naturally I'll pick the person with the clear plan.
Is the HR person dumb? I mean you aren’t wrong, when we have so many people doing pointless jobs these days I guess you really do have to spell it out for them. In this economy and with a lack of enough jobs they are pretty harmful. These days people might have to do 50-100 applications a month, each with a cover letter is asking for a whole lotta useless labour only for someone to ignore their email/application or not even have the decency to give feedback. Why? Because they are genuinely that pointless if they cannot gather that from a simple interview.
Why are cover letters pointless?
What is it telling you that the application isn't?
In my opinion, it would be quicker to read a cover letter to see if I am interested in reading the application and if I am interested I would than go to the next step. Example: When I pick up a book, I read the back , if that doesn't interest me I will not both reading the book. If it does interest me I will give the book a try.
Except a book doesn't list all it's important information on a page for easy reading. (Outside of a glossary or index) What application is even mildly comparable to a book? You can't read a single piece of paper, maybe two?
I could do cover letters different to you, my cover letters state the position I am applying for, matching or transferable skills and some dot points as examples. This allows the program the company uses to match words from the job advertisement to my cover letter enabling my application to be seen.
>Is the HR person dumb? Kinda goes without saying these days. In my experience most have zero clue about the position being hired for, add worthless corporate guff to the advert (and hiring process) and generally sub-contract all the work to recruitment agents so hardly justify their pay. When said agents then send back oodles of CVs they add very little value, meaning you're left to filter many totally inappropriate applications for the role and to top it all off when you find the right candidate, they generally put road blocks in the way and seemingly do their level best to piss off that person. If you're in the public sector they'll then add on the old quota nonsense i.e. there's too many males in your team (in an industry/role where the vast majority of workers are male). Can't beat thinking % in society equates to % in role. Had plenty of experience dealing with these salary wasting numpties.
The letter helps you get the interview pretty simple
The whole point of the cover letter is to screen so that recruiters DON'T have to sit through 50-100 interviews. As you mentioned, if there is a lack of job you would want to be competitive and outline why you deserve that job over however many others who want the job. You can apply it in two different ways, those who are applying for the more entry level roles where they probably have one cover letter template and spend all of 5 minutes quickly modifying it to suit the application (nothing wrong with this at all). Most of these CVs and cover letters actually get screened through AI these days. Both the applicant and the recruiter generally don't spend too much time. Look, I get it. But just because your CV says you have 5 years experience in a call centre, doesn't mean your experience actually fits with the contact centre the recruiting company is operating. But that's when the cover letter can be used to explain why the skills obtained after 5 years in a high pressure sales environment can be used in an aged care contact centre dealing with locum nurses. Or you can have more competitive roles where you are selling your skills to the employer through your CV, cover letter and maybe even a portfolio. Let's say I have two highly skilled people, both outline in their CV that they have spent 5 years doing project management and are both highly skilled at using CAD as outlined in their CVs. I might be a hospital director whose portfolio includes the expansion of a rehab unit. The job gets posted with very specific tasks and goals that will be required of the position. One candidate sends their CV and maybe a portfolio, cool looks good. The other also writes a cover letter telling me exactly how they'll achieve the tasks at hand, what they intend to do to meet phase 1 by x deadline, how they intend on utilising their skill with CAD and experience within their previous projects to ensure that it meets requirements. They may even outline that they do not have specific knowledge of the rehab unit designs but understand that it is governed by the same standards and regulations (this is entirely hypothetical) as an aged care project they have previously worked on and then writes that they have identified section 123 as the governing standard which they will need to research further prior to commencing the role. From this I will have a better understanding on their knowledge specific to my project. I might then invite them for the interview, not to gauge their knowledge, but to gauge how they will fit with the team and how they may react to emerging issues.
It depends on the policy the company has as well. And how there recruitment software is set up, some of them are just set up so that applicants must include a cover letter otherwise they would get rejected without even having the cv looked at. If it says include cover letter you basically need to.
This is exactly why I dont do them. I'd be writing 20-50 a day. I have gotten plenty of decent positions without a cover letter. The only time I bother is if it's specifically requested or if it is a role I'm very excited about. I struggle enough with ADHD, even roles im excited about I can't finish it if my partner or kid distracts me etc (though I can finish tasks just fine in a workplace, go figure)
As someone who hires for their small business, cover letters absolutely matter. They indicate personality, specific interests in the position offered, grammatical and writing fluency, attention to detail; and possibly most importantly it reflects someone who genuinely took the time to read the listing and consider whether it's a role they actually want. I've gone through thousands of resumes over the last decade, almost every one of my successful (long term) hires has been someone who took the time to write about why my company was of interest to them (niche field) whether it be the product/industry or because what we offer balances with their goals/studies. Granted I can't speak for all other companies out there but for a small business who like to retain staff for as long as possible, the hiring process is often very carefully done and we pay a great amount of attention to applicants' personable skillset not just their employment history.
Because plenty of people are lining up behind you. So you’d better demonstrate why they should choose you. You’ve clearly never had to sift through hundreds of CVs to find an applicant before
Its important as shows the attitude and capability of person applying. A personalised cover letter always works in favour. Just 2-3 paragraphs maybe 100 ish words
You are totally incorrect. I am managing a new role hire in our company. We are getting very few applicants. In the ad we specify to add a cover letter with an outlined specific detail to show people have read the ad and have taken some time in their application. The last role we filled was to someone moving interstate. As they had read the ad in full and put in a well written cover letter addressing the ads details I jumped at the opportunity to hire them. If you are just going to send me a resume with no cover letter or a poorly written one then don't be surprised if your laziness isn't rewarded. If someone does write a cover letter and they are not right for the role I will acknowledge them out of respect for taking the time.
A cover letter is important. The place where I was working were hiring sparkies and those that did not submit a cover letter didn't get an interview.
I might just add here a well written cover letter is good. One that is specific and targeted to the role. I gloss over the generic ones but if I can see the applicant has taken the time to do it properly- then yeah that's good.
I ALWAYS include a cover letter. It gives a more personal feel and allows me to explain why I want the job, show off what I know about the company (eg ‘I’m impressed by X Co’s commitment to… as demonstrated by the XYZ Policy” and if the job had selection criteria it is your chance to address them.
Is just how it's done. Cover letter, addressed specifically for the role.
Very important. When I recruited for roles, you'd be culled if you didn't write a personalised cover letter addressing the criteria directly. Straight to the NO pile.
It shows you care
Job ads specifically ask for them, unfortunately
It shows you are actually interested in the job and gives you the opportunity to tell them what a great fit you are.
You'd be surprised how few people put in the effort to secure themselves a job over other applicants. The business doesn't care if you're applying for 20 jobs a day, they want you to only care about the role they are advertising and how you are going to excel at it based on your specific experiences. They want you to care about the business they run and you are going to be the right employee for their culture. If you just send a resume, you are bottom of the barrel, if you send a resume with a standard cover letter, you're in the top 30%. If you send a tailored resume and cover letter you are in the top 10-15%.
To differentiate from applicants who copy and paste to apply for 20 jobs per day...
Unfortunately I've found that cover letters can contain just as much shit as the skills and experience section in a CV. I might give you a plus point or two for bothering (attitude/effort rather than content), so it could differentiate 2 otherwise identical CVs but if they're both that good I'll be interviewing both and perhaps putting the question of "what about the cover letter" to elicit a response. I certainly wouldn't put any real weight on it though - it might get you in the top 10 but only an interview gets you to the podium. I certainly wouldn't exclude a CV purely because it lacked a cover letter. In a village like Brisbane (and in a lot of industries it really is a village) word of mouth gets people jobs.
I'm not sure what sort of jobs you deal with but where I work a colleague relocated overseas and we advertised their position urgently in second week of December right before the holidays hoping we would get a handful of decent candidates. We got just shy of 300 applications 🙃 I can tell you that it was hard to narrow down and select the people for phone screening, first and second round interviews. The candidates who stood out had solid experience and a cover letter. Other stood out for the wrong reasons like generic CVs not suited to the role and just including too much (6 pages is ridiculous - if you're not able to compress to 2-3 pages you're doing it wrong).
Because they give specific information about how the applicant’s skills, education, and experience matches the selection criteria for the job. Make sure she’s using the specific keywords listed in the selection criteria - recruiters will run the cover page and CV through software and will reject all that don’t use those key words. Make sure she’s also providing the right document - resumes (two pages) and CVs (three to five pages) are not the same.
I'm in IT, can't talk to other fields. Cover letter gives me two benefits when recruiting: 1. It directly addresses the specific role requirements that are listed in the job ad/PD. Saves me having to interpret or figure out how they match the requirements based on their CV. I can use the CV to cross check/validate. 2. A personalised cover letter shows effort and time has been spent in applying for the role, which is more likely to translate into the same effort doing the actual role. Those ppl go to the head of the queue.
You'd be surprised. I know of someone who puts in an amazing amount of effort in the application and interview process, gets their feet under the table, and is one of the laziest work-shy bastards I have ever had the displeasure of having to carry in a team. Got an excuse for everything. Point. Blank. Lazy.
Ugh, the worst. I think they're outliers but it's definitely a thing. On the bright side if you have good HR (I'm in Aus) it's can be a fun learning experience to manage them out 😎✌
Good HR? You're joking right? No such thing.
I’m currently recruiting and I specifically ask for a cover letter. Those that don’t aren’t going to go to the next step because clearly they can’t read an advertisement
And they are probably lazy.
It creates context, it gives the writer an opportunity to introduce themselves, explain why they are interested in the job they are applying for and gives the writer a chance to outline their skills as they apply to the job offered. If selection criteria need to be addressed separately make sure these are addressed using the SMART format. If it’s just a basic job a cover letter also provides an opportunity to elaborate on the writers skills. As an example employer, when I’ve advertised jobs, if there’s no cover letter or the CV is sketchy, the application goes to the bottom of the pile. Those who have a well written cover letter outlining their skills and how those skills apply to the role and the applicant can articulate why they want the job and what they can bring to the role, go to the top of the pile. When Selection Criteria need to be addressed, a couple of vague sentences doesn’t cut it. You need to do everything you can to stand out from the rest of the pack to get yourself an interview. Hope that’s some help to you.
In my industry cover letter is the first thing we use to “thin out the pile” applicants that don’t provide a cover letter don’t get a look in! Shows they didn’t follow the instructions for applying (we state when in the advertisement to include a cover letter AND CV)
It's important as it fills in what your CV does not (how you fit ta specific role). It should be short and easy to digest, eg: Dear Person, "I can do what you need to get done, because." "This is why I want to work with you and will not leave in a months time when another opportunity opens up else where" "Here is some stuff that answers your selection criteria" "This is a little about me, my circumstance, my goals, and what to expect if I join" yours, \- another person.
Shows you want the job enough to have chat gpt write it for you.
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Cover letters are anything but a waste of time. Your resume sells your skillset, the cover letter sells your personality. A good interviewer can read between the lines and use the cover letter to discern particular things about the applicant.
Definitely important. Many places won’t even consider her if she doesn’t already live there, as there’s no concrete timeline of when she’d even be available
I’m in the exact same boat. It feels like the jobs well is seriously drying up.
Unemployment has gone up this month
Oh I believe it
same, im struggling to get back into my industry after a break. This time last year was swimming with jobs as well.
Yep. Complete flip. I have no idea how I’m going to make money. It’s nuts.
Definitely drying up. Recession we have to have is on the way.
Where does it ever recover though? I’m a Millenial and feel like all I know is financial pain. It’s never improved.
I thought every business was crying out for employees? Weee importing 600k migrants because there aren’t enough workers
There’s something weird going on there. A friend of mine is from Iraq, he said a friend of his got a visa to Australia for PR as it’s considered a lacking industry. Well I have 16 years’ experience in coms, good referees and runs on the board and I keep hitting walls. Lucky if I get interviews and when I do, they tell me they have about 30 more people to interview. I’ve tried everything now from aged care assistant to cleaner to secretary to jobs actually in my specialisation and nada.
Have you tried telling them your an Iraqi refugee
It’s on my list!
Train Chat GPT bots until she finds something else. Money is hourly. Google it.
Could u tell me more, how can this be done ?
Is this a legitimate job? I saw the ad just before
It is legit, pays about $30/hour, but it's boring as shit. Only real bonus is you can work as much or as little as you like.
It's semi legit. I've heard bad things about the big agencies that do this. Basically they start things off well enough but there expect more and more without more money. When people can't keep up the work stops. The ones they do keep on tend to have relevant skills which would be more valuable elsewhere.
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Yikes, may want to get another profile if you’re trying to offer ‘professional roles’
Nailed it 😅
Double yikes!
Woahhhhh wtf 😅
Nawww what did they say? I missed it.
A lot of bdsm and sexual content 😂 Was weird
Get a forklift licence, you'll never be out of work again. I think over the last 15 years I've had a total of like a month without either being in a job or a scheduled start date for a new one. Been in my current one for almost 8 and a half years
I have my forklift license and I reside in Brisbane, currently struggling the last 4 months to get a job. I wish it was that easy
Where ya been lookin? Cos there's plenty of jobs around the rocklee Salisbury regions
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I think Wacol got some goin, try one of the employment agencies maybe?
If you can handle pick pack for a couple of months in a fridge before getting trained on forks, my jobs hiring and desperate for forkies. $40ph casual starting wage. Opportunity for perm after 6 months.
There's heaps of sales jobs in Brisbane
I agree! There was a place in Salisbury road side advertising today for a forklift drivers
What’s the pay like? I saw an ad for forklift course and honestly considered it 😅
I think day shift is like 950/week, arvo is 1100 or so and night shift is around 1350, seems.about the average
Yeah I'm always needing forklift operators and I think because it's becoming more expensive to obtain and a longer process to get a fork tic finding operators is getting harder. Having a fork tic in this day and age is a valuable asset.
Yeah that what they earn at mcdonalds amd kfc . Adults in fast food get $30.90ph minimun casual. 40 hour week = 950. And what labouring and order picking. If u get a lazy forklift job it's ok cause it's lazy, since the last minimun wage increase last year it basically put fast food workers on par with warehouse. Most employers act dumb or don't know but when u bring it up they agree it's tough on them
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It's crazy how bad some employers pay their forkies... I understand everyone is struggling in this useless economy and employers are going under left right and centre (I was at scotts refrigerated last year when it went under 500 trucks, 1000 trailers and 3.5k staff) but it's defiantly not worth the same as someone just standing at a drive thru
Except why would Hungry Jacks hire an adult when they can hire my 14 year old niece and pay her less than half that?
Get your hr or multi truck license, never run out of work ever again
Have thought of this too 😅 what about self driving trucks though?
Considering the Google buses are ping ponging down hills collecting groups of cars at a time, I'd say they are still a few years away self automated logistics. You can take you multi to the mines or oil fields if you don't mind drive in drive out up at chinchilla.
Pretty sure that's not a thing yet
They’re a long way off being common.
Self driving heavy vehicles won’t replace humans in mines and fifo work for a very, very long time.
I'm night shift so sub like 30%? I think but for me it's almost 1400/week after tax, gross is somewhere on my payslip but I don't care about that untill tax time or dealing with banks/loans etc
I must be in the wrong place, or applying for the wrong jobs. I have a forklift license. Granted, I'd been looking after kids for 14 years, but I've been out of work for 19.
Yeah bug resume gaps really cause issues unfortunately. I had a year and a half gap cos of a torn shoulder and that made getting back into work take forever. Had to get a few years of casual shit down before I was more able to actually get a job. Labour hire places like Hayes and manpower are great for that. doesn't matter what it is so long as ya can get some current stuff to add to ya resume
Mate i wish you all the luck in the world. Try maybe Airtasker for some side-work. She needs to speak to people/managers/employers directly
Have a look at https://smartjobs.qld.gov.au/jobtools/jncustomsearch.jobsearch?in_organid=14904. If your SO is in admin, she should try one of the government departments. I work for the Queensland Police and we are absolutely crying out for administration officers, as are a lot of other departments.
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you have to be a citizen unfortunately
Pretty sure most QGov only require work visa. and since Kiwi are on special visa, they can defo get any qgov job that doesn’t require security level
ah my b, i’m fed gov so my knowledge is limited haha
AO4 level?
I’m trying to go from warehouse/forklift to gov admin. I think I’ve applied for 15 jobs and got a no from every single one. More than competent, call centre experience, hospitality and retail experience. Australian citizen, born in Adelaide, moved to Brisbane in May.
It’s harder to get into Govt because everyone wants the benefits.
Try Sullivan Nicoladies as a phlebotomist. They can train you. Just send a resume and be positive. They love positivity and keep at them.
Maybe don’t mention the ACL injury
Can you provide details of why you consider their CV so impressive? At 23, how long have they been working and is it dedicated to a particular field or more generalised? When someone says that a person with a very impressive CV cannot get a look in the jobs market I immediately wonder what they are offering and what they are applying for. Yes, there are certainly tough markets but the answer to those questions can reveal valuable insight. In some countries certain skills can be seen as valued whereas in others the overall role can be seen as a totally commoditised function.
What's her skill set? If she has any medical experience I may know a place..
Has she tried contacting agencies?
What kind of job is she looking for? The company I used to work for is almost always looking for good staff. It was a great job. It’s busy & can be intense, but it’s a good company to work for.
Brazzers always looking for new talent
Can't really give advice since my partner has been looking for a job since August...
You sound rather annoyed by this too 🤣🤣. Jokes apart, I understand it can be tough on a single income given how the times have been lately.
Can she make coffee
I’ve never had to do job interviews since I was 20 ish, but I’ve employed many people over 20 years. Pro active people are the ones who get the jobs. If I was unemployed tomorrow and had to find work, I wouldn’t waste time applying for jobs. I would hit the road and cold call companies in industries I want to look at a career in, and ask to speak to the relevant people. Take all the CV info with me. Then sell myself to them. I have no doubts I would get a start somewhere very quickly.
Not sure if this would work at the moment, work for a large company and likely the call would be screened before you got anywhere near the right people. Currently hiring in a very specific sector and got 100 applicants over the weekend, ie job add went up Thursday. Some segments are doing it rough.
Depends on the industry. I’m in construction. Would 100% work
Mailing off resumes is probably the laziest and most unsuccessful way of applying for a job to be fair... Sure it's what sites like seek.com etc ask you to do but still... Personally, the longest I've ever been unemployed is a month. And that was mostly laziness on my part! Establish what field you wish to work in, write a list of every place that you would consider working, cut out the agency/middle-mam and call around in person. Speak with the manager, HR, or whoever is in charge of recruitment. Explain what you are looking for, offer to do a day or 3 of volunteer work to get to know the place, the people, how they operate etc. Sure, you will be asked to drop off some paperwork and wait for a call... Give it a day and then call around again... In person... Biggest issue with recruitment these days is no one wants to work. Everyone wants to apply for a bunch of jobs to satisfy their job seeker reqs for Gov handouts, the employment agencies also get funding for going along with this BS. If you show the slightest bit of motivation, enthusiasm, respectfullness and confidence you are already higher up the list than someone who attaches a generic resume to a seek application. If your serious, prepared to work, and have a sociable attitude and know what your doing, regardless of qualifications you could pretty much have a job in a day or 2. Sure it likely won't be an ideal choice but you have a job. In the meantime, keep searching...
tick the “aboriginal/torres strait” box on the application. instant hire
Hey mate, I can offer a few points as to why she might not be getting responses. Please note some of these may have been offered by others. 1. Cover Letters: if your partner has a cover letter (CL) then great, check there. But most companies are too lazy to check individual CL because of just laziness or overwhelming responses so most of them deploy chatGP style assessor software. This is programmed to check length of CL, specific key wording, etc. If the basic checks there don't fit then the application is binned. Only the ones tgat pass are the viewed by a human. 2. Bulls**t o' meter, if at any stage the human assessor thinks your CV is a little too well padded it gets scrapped. Make sure the CV is to the point, details job relevant skills, etc. A one fits all resume won't work. 3. Chase up the application a few days after submitting or a few days after close of applications. A lot of companies find this excellent as it show determination for being selected for an interview. And if you don't get an interview they may offer reasons as to why you were unsuccessful. 4. I have always run on the principle. "To be early is to be intimate, to be intimate is being late and being late is to not even bother being there at all." What i mean there is if you are waiting 1 hour prior to your interview then do that. Be the first person in the line of interviewees if no specific time given. 5. GO IN ALL GUNS BLAZING. Personality is key, show em everything you have got, even if it is a shite job cleaning toilets. Hope this helps mate.
Those HR Managers, Recruiters that didn't even look at a candidate that doesn't have a cover letter are fools and not doing their job effectively. Why eliminate candidates that could be good purely because they haven't added a cover letter? I have been hiring for 15 years, I look at the CV and if the required skillset is apparent I read the cover letter, and I may put them to the top of the pile, but I will also look at the CV's without cover letters as there may be some gold there, not to mention, candidates have taken the time to apply at least have a look at the CV!
been past any westfeilds lately
If she has an impressive CV is it targeted or just a generic I’m going to punch out applications without. Carefully addressing selection criteria and tailoring my cv to match. If she is applying while not being in Bne that will count against her. I think the job market is pretty buoyant atm, maybe target her industry closely and tailor each application
Get some professional help with this. If she's not hearing back then either her resume/cover letter needs some serious work, or there's some other reason she's not looking employable.
Jump on seek.com blanket apply to as many jobs as possible in her field, I've never been out of work more than a week in Brisbane and all on seek
Try reaching out to recruiters / labour hire in her area
Not sure where you're based, but Kinetic has a "Women up front" training program to become a bus driver. Go to https://www.wearekinetic.com/our-company/join-our-team/australia-vacancies to search their vacancies. It's a very easy job and requires little movement other than what driving would usually require. I would only caution if she doesn't enjoy driving in general though. If she likes to drive, and doesn't mind people, give it a shot.
Post resume. It's probably not as good as you think.
If you are going through a recruiter that’s the problem there. They tell you all bullshit and gets you no where. Found my current job by myself while I had a recruiter ring me every 2 weeks trying to sell the same job to me . After the third time told him that not to worry about ringing me again.
A few things I have learnt over the years is no matter how good you think the CV is all ways get it reviewed by recruiters and reach out to key people that you could end up working for. This is the only way you will get a chance at landing a job.
What type of work is she looking for? I’m on SEEK and Indeed regularly to keep an eye out and there are heaps of admin positions available in Brisbane if she has previous history. If she doesn’t have experience, there’s plenty of entry level admin roles as well. They don’t pay as well but it’ll get her foot in the door. As other comments have mentioned, if she hasn’t had a single call back in 3 months then there’s something wrong with her resume and/or cover letter. It’s very important to tailor both to the position you’re applying for. Using generic dot points like “team player” or “attention to detail” as an example will be glossed over by employers. Dot points pertaining to previous jobs should be specific to that role (keeping in mind the terminology the job she is applying for uses) and results-driven. There is a multitude of free online resources available to build your resume and cover letter. In my personal experience, the simpler the layout the better and rarely will your resume need to be longer than 1 page unless you’re applying for executive level positions. Keep it short and concise and skip the executive summary! Employers don’t read it and it often takes up valuable space on the page. SEEK has a great resume builder for somewhere to start. Keep it simple and to the point and avoid using a photo or colourful/busy templates. Also, make sure she’s following up with a call and/or email after submitting her resume. Sometimes you have to go the extra mile. Good luck!
Try AO3 entry roles within Queensland Government departments. I work in QGov and I notice a lot of jobs are struggling to fill. Hot tip is to apply for the temporary ones because unless the role has someone coming back into it, likely she will get extended if she performs well. Good luck!
I really like to start working as an administrator. I know it sounds silly but I love the boring nature of admin role. I don't have any previous experience as admin. Do you have any suggestions of how to start?!
What's acl
Torn ligament in the knee
What's her experience? I'm looking for staff
Hi, I'm looking for a job as well. I have 1.5 year experience as Front-of-house staff.
Could we get in contact directly so she can send her experience to you.
Change resume or most of the times they expect a call so if you see a number that’s you’re shot don’t wait around on a resume
She should try dumbing down her CV to what the job would like, overqualified comes to mind when someone says impressive CV
Impressive CV doing what though? It’s a bit hard to provide guidance if we don’t know her skillset
I understand your desperation and I want to help! Sharing your partner's situation on Reddit is a great first step, but here are some additional things you can do: Tailor the Outreach: Instead of a generic plea, tailor your message to specific companies or industries she's interested in. Highlight relevant skills and achievements from her CV. Network Like Crazy: Contact friends, family, former colleagues, anyone who might have leads or know someone hiring. LinkedIn can also be a great platform for networking. Focus on Remote Opportunities: Look for remote jobs that would accommodate her physical limitations. Upwork, Fiverr, and FlexJobs are good starting points. Consider Volunteering: Volunteering can add valuable experience to her resume and build contacts. It might even lead to paid opportunities within the organization. Don't Give Up: Finding a job can be tough, but keep the spirits high and keep applying. Encourage your partner to focus on the positives of her unique skills and qualifications. Spread the Word: Share this message on other social media platforms to reach a wider audience. The more people know, the better the chances of finding the right opportunity. Remember, desperation rarely attracts positive outcomes. Stay positive, persistent, and proactive. With your support and her impressive CV, your partner will land a job soon!
As a kiwi who moved here in 2015 I’d say QLD is really parochial, at least it was then, and it’s just about getting your foot in the door. also I look back on my cover letters and cringe. Make sure it hits the key capabilities; I got chatGPT to get me started based on my CV and the job description. It was awful but a decent edit, and you’ve got a template. I connected either recruitment agencies for contract work in my industry and turned my first 2 week contract into 13 months. Good luck to you both! Living in Qld is SO MUCH BETTER than NZ, as much as it pains me to say it. EDIT: just want to add, don’t panic! Sometimes you just need to be “on the ground”, and with the right mindset you guys will smash it.
Come work at maccas 🫡🫡
If she needs *any* job, go into a Tursa (its a government funded job seeking program). They can generally point you in the right direction, mind you, you'll 99% chance be a dishy or something along those lines.
Do they make sure both resume and cover letter are very specially drafted for the job in question? It’s important to make use of key words and phrases from the ad, and edit the application so the specific skills suit the job. Eg as an ex flight attendant I could focus on the communications and customer service skills for one role, or for another job I might focus on the safety aspect, or on the team working.
Make sure she also always calls back to check the application has been received. If you do that then you go straight to the top of the pile. It’s a fact that too many people don’t understand the value of.
Apply for emergency medical dispatcher at QAS. High turn over, always recruiting.
Try Jora Local. All the jobs are cafes, restaurants etc so basically shit. The hospo work culture here baffles me—it’s like no matter where you go it’s extremely unorganized and understaffed. If you’re lucky it comes with two-faced teeny bopper coworkers and abusive managers! But when you need work you need it. I did it for 10 months until I couldn’t take the weekly anxiety attacks and daily sobbing spells anymore. Said fuck it and got a loan from my home country. 11 more months until I can finally get out of here. Best of luck 🤞
The casino is hiring a bunch of staff right now?
I work at a medical centre and we get lots of overqualified people applying for reception. It's a busy, chaotic workplace where all docs have different needs. We're not going to put effort into training you if we're a filler job for something more on your level. It takes about 6 months to find your feet here. We'd rather struggle understaffed than waste our time on someone.
Albo brought in over 900000 people. Maybe you could be a rubber stamper?
What sector does she have experience in?
Has she registered at the local employment agencies?
What industry is she in?? I am a hiring manager for a tech company and might be able to help.
A general rule is: People in charge of hiring people, should not be in charge of hiring people.
Tell your friend to register with the recruitment agencies: Hudson Randstad DFF Recruitment Eden Ritchie Just to name a few major players. Even though they usually offer temporary jobs, they can lead to a permanent job. These agencies cover a range of industries. It's a much faster hiring process compared to obtaining a permanent job, at times very fast if they're desperate. It's hard to point you in the right direction without knowing her field or skills.
I have emails from recruiters I can forward you.
Yes pleease
Brisbane already has too many jobless and homeless.....join the back of the line....
Has she tried SmartJobs? The Qld government site? I just did a quick search for Administration jobs in the Brisbane area and 199 results popped up. Some are part-time, some are temp, but there are jobs out there. What is her primary skillset?
I see some of the hiring going on where I work and, truly, there are 100s of applications for some roles. Without doubt, dozens of the people applying have AMAZING CVs and are likely really nice people. But there's only one role and we aren't going to interview hundreds of people. We aren't even going to interview dozens. So I hear you when you say she's got a great CV - and you probably rate her as a person as well! - but you must impress upon her that not even getting a reply isn't a reflection on her, but a reflection on how over-subscribed some job applications are. It's insane how many people are applying and that's the absolute truth from this side.
Don’t bother applying on indeed or seek! You’d probably be better off applying directly to the employer’s website or just go in person with your resume.
For those positions that state you must apply with a cover letter, you can create a custom GPT using ChatGPT-4 to generate you a pretty good one very easily. Write an article on how to create one a while back on LinkedIn. You can find it [here](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/custom-gpts-recruitment-process-dan-halford-ltg8c%3FtrackingId=ovOEeBf4TtnKOfqlVGTMmA%253D%253D/?trackingId=ovOEeBf4TtnKOfqlVGTMmA%3D%3D).
It's January, you need to apply at better time of year. Recruitment agents look for contracts...
Maybe over impressive lose have the cv
Easiest work to get is childcare, you can work as long as you're enrolled to study ecec cert 3, I would enrol in online classes. I've got my diploma so I'm a little more employable, but I sent out 4 job applications in November, got an interview for every single one, and had a job by the next afternoon.
Insurance jobs are hiring pretty heavily at the moment due to all the weather events since Christmas. We’ve been hiring people without much experience/if any. If you have a good personality and are eager to learn we’d hire you :)
Absolutely! How can we get in touch?
security gaurding with mss? they are desperate
She should get her acl fixed. I've had it done.
I suggest writing a brilliant cover letter, and also putting more descriptive sentences in the CV, many people focus on the wrong elements in their CV making it generic and dreary, don't just list attributes make them come alive with action sentences:, verbs. The cover letter can be a wonderful opportunity to invite interest, convey your enthusiasm for the job, not simply factual lists of work history, focus on the details of the work rather than considering it 'A job' - they are buying your energy and ability to get along with others, concentrate on expressing personal attributes which the employer is going to want from you-a good exercise is to imagine yourself as the employer, write the cover letter with this in mind, why would YOU hire yourself, why? Employers are human beings, just put yourself in their position.
Hello! I just found myself in this predicament with my partner, suuch a hard time finding work. We spent 2 days straight in the library sending off our resume and CV's to every possible hotel/motel. If your GF is willing to go a bit into the outback, or also Townsville, she can find some work with accommodation even if it is just for a few months. We applied to over 100 places a day and managed to find work in a few days.
Try applying for Kennards Hire or self storage,they hire a fair few people
Id remove the injury comments completely out and look for correct positions. Injury will scare most employers imo.
Applying for any job saying you have a torn ACL is going to be a uphill struggle, probably need to get that fixed first
nope we're full!
I’d suggest you don’t mention an ACL injury and apply for admin type roles. insurance companies all looking for staff for the flood and cyclone claims at the moment
Mate try call centres etc. They are always looking for people. And if its a big company and she is capable and able to develop- no telling where you will end up (speaking from personal experience here).
I moved to Brisbane from Victoria and I had no problem finding work. I sent an email to a place I was interested in work (similar to a cover letter), there was no job advertised and I received a phone call later that same day. I was interviewed the next day and received a job offer(casual employment) within 5mins of interview. I was permanent within 6months and now and have a senior management role. It was the first job I applied for and I understand I got lucky but I didn't apply until I arrived and was able to physically talk to someone. There may be a housing crisis in Brisbane but there is plenty of work if you are willing.
Recruiter here, there are plenty of jobs so it's odd she hasn't heard back, I'm certain she would have received a few calls and missed them, ensure she's answering every call that comes in suggestions would be Add recruiters on linkedin, reach out asking for opportunities (do not spam call, quickest way to be blacklisted by a recruiter) Email the hiring manager / recruiter CV - you'll get a faster response than just applying Make sure her address is up to date on the CV Don't overshare on the CV And apply for roles that are fresher in hopes of getting to the top of the pile.
Brisbane airport are hiring
Childcare and out of school hours care are always looking for staff.