Dave the job seeker assured me he had prepared this elevator pitch. “Okay!” I said, “Hit me with it”. He began. “I was born in 1969 in Melbourne Australia” he started. I went to school at Box Hill South Primary School until I was 12 or so, and then I became a student at Box [...]

Your heart skips a beat as you disconnect the call. A combination of nausea and elation hit you as you turn to your partner wide-eyed, incredulous. “I got the interview” you say quietly as if by saying it louder you’ll somehow make it untrue. As you grasp the reality, you grin and laugh. “I got [...]

Cinderella 2010: Taking a break from hearth cleaning at home, Cinderella scours searchforaprincess.com when she spies the perfect role advertised at Prince Charming Inc. Seems the CEO, Prince Charming, is looking for a Princess to co-manage his kingdom. The successful candidate need have no actual experience in kingdom management, but must possess a demure smile, the [...]

Some people have a knack for walking into roles for which they are, on paper at least, entirely unqualified. Passion and wanting it so much it hurts, as any failed Australian or American Idol contestant can tell you, doesn’t make it happen for the rest of us. I’ve seen hundreds of people over the last [...]

Give someone your undivided attention. It’s not old-fashioned to stop multi-tasking for a minute. Manners are what makes us civilised; and they also appear to be in decline. Just last week I was talking with an Operations Manager friend of mine, who was hiring. He told me he couldn’t count the number of people striding into [...]

As a member of a new community of resume writers and career coaches called the Career Collective, this post is one of many responses to the question, “Are you a cookie cutter job seeker?” I encourage you to visit other members’ responses, linked at the end of my reply! Please follow our hashtag on Twitter: [...]