Checklist for job hunters

With unemployment soaring, this checklist will boost your chances of finding a role

With more than 800,000 Australians unemployed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the ever-present threat of more losses, understanding how to give yourself the best chance of landing a job is more important than ever. Securing a job involves finding opportunities, tailoring your skills – and, if necessary, undertaking further training – preparing an application and presenting yourself in the best possible light at the interview.

Despite government intervention with the JobKeeper scheme, the pandemic has seen the number of those without a job hit high levels.

Unemployment jumped in April by 104,500 people to 823,300, while the unemployment rate increased from 5.2% to 6.2%. The impact on hours worked was also significant. The total fell by around 9.2% between March and April.

This meant a high number of employed and unemployed people left the labour force – which also means there was a high number of people without a job who didn’t or couldn’t actively look for work or weren’t available for work, says Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ labour statistics.

The number of underemployed people also rose sharply, by 603,300 to a total of 1.8 million, while the underemployment rate rose to a record high of 13.7% (up 4.9%).

1 The search

Before you can prepare for a job interview, you first need to understand what is available.

The federal government’s Jobs Hub website is a good place to start. Here you’ll find job listings categorised by sector and geography, a list of in-demand jobs and a range of other resources.

Then there are the private job search agencies, including SEEK, Indeed, CareerOne, Glassdoor, Ethical Jobs.

However, while formal job searches are important, so too is informal networking with friends, former colleagues and other connections.

According to research undertaken by the Department of Jobs and Small Business, about 69% of higher-skilled jobs are advertised online, while 62% of medium-skilled jobs and 50% of lower-skilled jobs are advertised online. That leaves a huge percentage of open roles that aren’t advertised online, with candidates found through direct approaches or word of mouth.

2 The application

“If you’re applying for a job, the first thing you have to have is a comprehensive curriculum vitae. If you don’t have that, you can’t present yourself well,” says Linda Jeffrey, from the Career Development Association of Australia.

It’s best to create a generic CV, which can then be tailored to each application.

“The role you’re going for will have specific needs, so you need to target those,” says Jeffrey.

Much like the way companies carefully word the text on their websites to maximise their hits on Google, you want to align the wording of your CV with the key words in the job ad.

“If you apply online you’ll go into a tracking system. Human resources will do a word and phrase search, and on matching they’ll list the candidates from best to worst match. If you see a job you like, look at it and be realistic about whether your skills match the job description.”

The essential requirements listed in ads should be viewed differently depending on whether the job is in the public or private sector. While less experience than is required may still leave you eligible for many jobs because you can make up for it with other skills or experiences, for some positions, including all those in the public sector, it’s more black and white.

“Because the government is an equal opportunity employer, they’ll only hire people who at a minimum meet the essential job criteria,” says Jeffrey. “There’s a lot of work that goes into making applications, so make sure it’s targeted to things most likely to get you results.”

Even though gaining employment should be the first priority, that doesn’t mean you should forget about your career trajectory.

“Redefine your career goals to ensure that you are moving in the right direction towards your ultimate career ambitions,” says Nick Deligiannis, managing director at Hays.

A five-year career plan can easily outdate itself, he says. “Add on the rapid changes that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought and it’s the perfect time to revise your career plan.”

Job seekers should also make sure to highlight transferable skills. “Ask yourself if you can pivot these skills into another industry or job roles that are actively recruiting,” he says.

3 The training

The more skills you have in your arsenal, the more employable you are. “Learn a new skill that will make you a stronger candidate in your existing field,” says

Deligiannis. “Jobs change over time and perhaps there is a certain skill that you lack that employers now look for when they recruit. Or perhaps you could upskill your technology expertise.”

He says you should use downtime in the pandemic to bridge any gaps by looking into online and virtual courses, events, conferences and webinars that could enable you to develop these skills remotely.

“There are a lot of state and federal training assistance schemes around currently, so it’s worth seeing if you’re entitled to them,” adds Linda Jeffrey.

However, she says that training should be done, if needed, in a way that complements existing job experience.

“You don’t necessarily have to go through an expensive training course,” she says. “Often people jump into training, then realise they have no experience so they can’t get a job anyway.”

4 Stay positive

Despite the doom and gloom brought on by the pandemic, the situation isn’t hopeless. Many industries have remained unaffected while others have even benefited from changing service demands and social patterns.

Deligiannis says the industries most actively recruiting include:

• Healthcare for nurses and support workers; procurement and logistics for warehouse operatives; and transport and delivery drivers.

• Supermarkets.

• Telephone-based hotline call centre professionals.

• Information technology.

• Mining.

The best way to navigate the job market is to have a positive and flexible mindset. “Labour market information is not that negative. Lots of employers are actively employing, and more will do so as the situation improves,” says Deligiannis.