The end game is simple: Stand-out résumé = interview. Period. Any country, any industry, any language, any culture! I have 10, 000 plus reasons (and counting) why it will work. My client, recruiter and employer contacts can attest to it.

Everything starts off with a well-presented résumé. If your aspiration matters to you, then the following 5 tips are the game-changers you need to get the right attention. A game-changing résumé should:

1.Be purpose built. You cannot have just one résumé and expect it to be like the “Lord of the Rings”- one résumé to rule them all! No way. In fact you need to ensure you create different versions of yourself by designing and customising a résumé that is specific to each direction, level and type of role you want to apply for. For example, if you are an accounting professional, you will need a different résumé where you are seen as a “specialist” and not a “generalist”- so a résumé for financial accounting, management accounting, accounts payable, accounts relievable, finance officer, bookkeeper, administrator may be needed to ensure you meet the specific criteria and level of each type of job vacancy.

2.Be achievement based. This means “quantifying” all your responsibilities with numbers. This is a philosophy I have developed over the last 10 years writing résumés for clients. Not every one has identifiable or explicit achievements. However, every one can write down the number of things they performed, the targets they achieved, or the time they efficiently saved to perform key tasks in their “Responsibilities Section.” Adding numbers, percentages, dollars, sizes of teams, scope of projects, scope of tasks, defines the depth / volume of a candidate’s ability to deal with pressure- especially in comparison to other candidate résumé profiles. Whether the reader is a recruiter, the receptionist or the CEO- everyone understands numbers. Period. When I talk about this to new clients there is an epiphany they experience- the look on their face is priceless, as no one, had ever talked about this before to them, but they instantly see the benefit of doing it. Quantify every responsibility and you will make it easy for audiences to immediately understand your value.

 3. Have an online LinkedIn profile. At the very start of a résumé, in your personal details section, under your e-mail address, there should be another line that says “LinkedIn Profile”. This is where you list your LinkedIn address. In today’s job market, it is now inevitable that all jobseekers need to have a LinkedIn profile to guarantee you are seen as authentic. LinkedIn is public and can be viewed by everyone. Social media is driving how referee checks are being conducted. The endorsements and recommendations you receive will propel your standing in the job market and enhance your credibility as a genuine contender. Even if you are long term unemployed, or a parent returning to work, a LinkedIn profile is necessary in today’s job market, as you exist in the public sphere. Furthermore, it makes it easy for employers and recruiters to find you and verify your existence. I know many recruiters who refuse to consider candidates unless they have a LinkedIn profile. They use it as an authentication tool to ensure short-listed candidates possess immediate and recognisable integrity. Quite simply, you are not real without a LinkedIn profile.

 4. Have skills ranked- basic, intermediate or advanced. That’s it. All these different / fancy adjectives used to describe, distort, manipulate, hide your true skill level should be stopped. Proficient? Adept? Hands-On? Demonstrated? Good? It all needs to stop. I am imploring you to practise the KISS methodology-Keep. It. Simple. Stupid.  Basic means beginner- you need training, but can learn it; Intermediate means you have used it before or currently use it now as an end-user; Advanced means you are a genius and that you either are “administrator” or “trainer” level.  Tabulating your skills on your résumé and ranking each one makes it easier for your audience to not only read your résumé, but also quickly process and assess you against other candidates. At the same time, it saves reading chunks of paragraphs by simplifying things under tabulated categories such as: Technology / Computer Skills; Back Office Skills; Frontline Skills; Technical Skills. Simple. Effective. Straight to the point.

 5. Use language appropriate to the specific role. There is no point telling readers you can do everything when this isn’t what they want. The market today is a buyer’s market. Employers and recruiters are specific about what they want. Every vacancy has a set selection criteria. This means you need to only mention things that are appropriate to the criteria. The first priority is to use the exact language, terminologies, descriptions used in the position description and vacancy advertisement. Period. This isn’t plagiarism. This is about being seen as a candidate who speaks “the employer’s language.” Remove things from your list of responsibilities that obstruct readers from seeing you as a “specialist” in the advertisement’s vacant position. For example, if you are an accountant and are applying for a bookkeeping role (lower level), then it isn’t appropriate to mention things that are outside of what a bookkeeper can do. Plus, by ranking things outside the criteria, you open yourself up to being scrutinised as being over-qualified. Furthermore, there is a big difference between saying, “I led teams” versus “I supported teams.” Thus, the language you use dictates how your skills and experience will be judged “at the right level” against the criteria.

Overall, the intent of these tips is to encourage people to be as factual as possible in their résumés.  By implementing these tips you are ensuring that when it comes time to have an interview, you already have presented tangible facts that speeds up the recruitment process and puts you at the front of the line. Therefore the foundation of these 5 game changing tips is simple: if you intend to be in the game, then change how you play the game, so you can end up with a different result= a job offer.

The application process for these types of job advertisements will require not only an accompanying coverletter and résumé, but will also require a separate document that lists candidate responses to the KSC. This usually requires multiple pages of documents and more effort in thinking about how one specifically meets the set criteria. If a candidate is not an expert in preparing KSC responses, then asking for professional help, or staying in for the next few nights to get them right becomes a necessity.

Now before jobseekers go rushing off spending their entire weekends preparing all these documents, I wanted to share some observations. I have discovered common themes and frustrations with KSC requirements. At the same time, I have listed solutions to prevent jobseekers from wasting their time and effort:

1. There is a high incidence of “fake” jobs. I have found that many vacancies have “internal candidates” also applying for the job. This means when the vacancy is advertised publicly, then to most of us, we think it’s an equal playing field, when it really isn’t. Why are these jobs advertised in the first place, most people ask? It is extremely frustrating. From a HR perspective it is political correctness and equality laws going too far! When candidates request my assistance to write a KSC response sheet, the first thing I ask them is whether they have called the manager/ officer in charge of the vacancy (usually found at the bottom of advertisement) to ask them if the job is real. I ask them to call the organisation and ask if there is someone already “acting in the job” or if there are “internal candidates” also applying. If there are, I tell my clients to not bother applying. Now to many people this may be a defeatist attitude, however, I’m a realist. I’ve worked in organisations, where 99 times out of 100, the internally-referred candidate gets the job. Period. So the lesson here is plain and simple. Check first by calling before wasting time preparing documents for nothing.

2. KSC responses differ from organisation to organisation. When I consult with candidates, I also ask them if they have checked about what format is required for the responses. I ask them to call and get back to me. I don’t proceed with anything, unless they find this out as this could mean, once again, misguided effort. The 3 most common formats are:

• The STAR System (Situation+Task+Action+Result)- candidates need to give a specific historical example, which demonstrates factual evidence to each criterion. This is most common with universities and government organisations.
• The Summary System- candidates need to address all the criteria in a summarised format within a single page, making references that cover all criteria. Some federal government departments and corporate organisations use this format. This system can also be applied within the coverletter. The actual advertisement will point out that “only applicants that have addressed the criteria” will be considered. So addressing the criteria within the coverletter is necessary.
• The Overview System- candidates need to write “overview points” to each criterion listed. It could include specific or general examples that give a continuous / holistic overview of experience gained from a variety of jobs and not just one job. It means that under each criterion, there could be several short dot points / sentences that highlight a “history” of demonstrated experience.

Quite explicitly, it is easy to see how frustrating it can be to write responses to KSC. Personally, I’ve had candidates whom I have assisted miss out on job interviews, because they were specifically told by employers they responded to the KSC in the wrong format, which is really a terrible excuse. In this case, I think there is too much emphasis on the technicality of KSC responses within the recruitment process where high-calibre candidates have missed out due to misjudging the process. Damn shame!

3. Some jobs clearly have unrealistic expectations. I’ve been assisting candidates for many years and have discovered that some jobs are just plain ridiculous in what they ask for. I’ve read advertisements where rather than asking for just experience they have been specific about the number of years. Some have asked for experience using unique software that can only be found within the set environment, so as an outsider one pretty much doesn’t have any chance getting in. Some have asked for experience in processes or systems within a unique environment, which to most candidates, means an explicit no, despite clear, transferable and highly-regarded credentials. I often think that these advertisements and criteria have been created, because the employer already has someone in mind. They have manipulated the recruitment process to minimise the possible competition in a supposed open and equal playing field. Fair? Definitely no! However, how will we ever find out? In such situations where advertisements and selection criteria are clearly biased, I tell my clients not to bother. Or if they are persistent, then I want them to make verbal contact with the recruiting officer, to ensure some verbal guarantee the job isn’t fake or rigged.

Every jobseeker knows the amount of effort that goes into preparing KSC responses. The effort can prove to be aimless and misguided if the proper due diligence is not performed. The public perception of alleged bias, unrealistic expectations and perceived snobbery in processes, is indicative of recruitment processes gone mad.

If employers really want to simplify recruitment processes and regain public trust and confidence in their brand, then they need to use private recruitment companies. Period. Private recruitment companies exist for the very reason of maintaining integrity in all aspects of the recruitment process. They don’t need over-complicated KSC to judge and assess the right candidates. There is a recruitment company for every industry out there. So HR departments or business managers really don’t have any excuse not to use the services of an external recruitment agency.

On a final note, the “jobs for mates” assessment that surrounds many institutional and governmental jobs won’t go away until there is an explicit and transparent shift in how KSC is used to identify and select suitable talent. However, until that happens, or more organisations decide to use external recruitment agencies, then the responsibility lies with candidates properly addressing KSC. Therefore, the lessons learned from the home truths about KSC, can only serve as a positive motivational tool for jobseekers to how being accountable can ensure every piece of effort counts.

Employers today can be risk-averse. That is naturally acceptable. However, should a company want to grow its business base with minimal investment, then looking at different ways to bring talent into the business is necessary. Bringing in staff from different backgrounds and equipped with skills sets proven in diverse markets adds another immediate dimension to the capabilities of a team. Culturally speaking, whilst they may appear and look different, their quality is evident in allowing the team to challenge itself to greater opportunities of success.

Whilst an initial investment in time and money may appear to be a non-desired exercise, it has been proven time and time again to reap the required results. Whilst skeptics may say it cannot work and requires too much investment, the truth lies therefore in the initial investment- was it real or tokenistic in the first place, because true innovation is something that requires the “entire team” to buy into the vision.

At Career Insight, we believe in shared success. We invest in people because we know the rewards awaiting both employers and jobseekers is great and worth the risk. However, in order to have guarantees we work with all parties. Our work is very much about future-proofing employment that works for both sides. If aspirations matters to you, don’t just let us tell you why, but let us show you how!

Career Insight started 10 years ago. It was designed to assist jobseekers understand how to navigate and steer their careers in an innovative, yet results-focused fashion. However, in helping jobseekers, it became immediately apparent that employers as identifiers, recruiters, decision-makers, and managers of jobseekers needed a reliable expert to also guide them. Career Insight became that “bridge” between employers and jobseekers, helping successfully synergise objectives and goals.

Steve del Rosario is very proud today to announce that Career Insight is going into a new area where the team has updated the company website and made it more responsive, flexible and accessible to everyone, anywhere around the world at any given time.

Employers can rejoice in the fact there is a genuine partner that speaks their language. The information on the website is focused on future-proofing their business brands.

Ultimately, Career Insight is more than just a website. It’s a real-time application. It’s a movement. It’s an entire community of forward-thinking decision-makers. Career Insight is all about achieving shared success between employers and jobseekers. Why? Because at Career Insight aspiration matters to them!

Career Insight is a company Steve del Rosario started 10 years ago. It was designed to assist jobseekers understand how to navigate and steer their careers in an innovative and results-focused fashion.

He is very proud today to announce that Career Insight is going into a new area where the team has updated the company’s website and made it more responsive, flexible and accessible to everyone, anywhere around the world at any given time.

The vision is clear: Whether you are travelling on the train to an interview, sitting in the comfort of your own home 3.00am in the morning, or sitting on a park bench on a weekend the day before your interview, its important for you to know that there is a reliable resource available out there that allows you to access trusted information to help you improve your chances at an interview, improve your decision making in the workplace, and more importantly allows you to make good decisions about your future career direction.

Ultimately, Career Insight is more than just a website. It’s a real-time application. It’s a movement. It’s an entire community of forward-thinking decision-makers. Steve del Rosario and his team are genuinely focused on helping jobseekers achieve career success. Why? Because at Career Insight your aspiration matters to them!

I have deliberately chosen not to make myself anonymous. I want to be responsible for my opinions and ideas and to ensure that people identify and recognise I am a real, genuine voice and face. As a “Careeralist” I want to be “responsible” and “responsive” to what people need. I don’t want to hide behind a faceless website filled with lots of sensational claims or ideas about how to get a job quickly. To be honest, there isn’t a quick fix solution to getting a job immediately. If there was, I wouldn’t be needed by those that rely on my career coaching and mentoring.

Let’s face it, finding and landing suitable employment is getting harder every day. As more and more uncertainty and competition manifests itself in the market, I want my clients to have a platform they can use to be heard. At the same time, despite my experience and expertise, I don’t profess to know everything. This is really the beauty of the website as there is a platform to also share innovative ideas and suggestions so people can help other people. I may not know everything but I certainly know lots of things that achieve results.

To date, Career Insight has helped 10, 756 clients and counting (since 2004). At the end of the day that’s why my clients choose to listen to me. I hope to use this site to share proven ideas and suggestions so I can help people anywhere and anytime- client or no client there are practical and innovative solutions that suit every type of jobseeker.

From an employer perspective, I have created this website to help support employers identify, harness and retain the talent they have recruited for their organisations. In today’s competitive market where there seems to be a lot of emphasis on meeting Quality Assurance standards- for example having the appropriate qualifications, licences or certifications, it is critical to have a partner on the ground who can decipher what they actually mean and ultimately what they are worth to the business. This is especially the case with so many people emigrating from other countries- employers want to understand their tangible and intangible value.

On the other end of the spectrum, it is also important for employers not to forget about those who don’t have the paperwork but have the experience or potential to still represent a great investment. Ultimately, it comes down to what type of risk an organisation wants to take on, which to jobseekers everywhere is the number one rule I want them to start remembering and practising- what type of risk or investment do I represent to an employer? This is the most important question in an interview.

Ultimately, as The Careeralist, I hope to improve dialogue and understanding between employers and jobseekers. The truth is “aspiration matters to both sides.” Thus, through this website I hope to achieve greater employment opportunities for jobseekers and better retention and productivity for employers: the ultimate win-win for all parties.