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This site is getting an increasing number of hits from people searching for advice on CVs and Cover Letters.

Please read my article on putting a CV / Resume together and comment if you agree or disagree with my advice.

In regards to cover letters, I will put my list of Do’s and Don’t’s below and add some links to examples of what I think are going to give you a better chance.

Do’s

• Always attach a cover letter to your CV or Resume
• Make sure you address it to the relevant person in the business
• Use key words from the advertisement in your letter
• Address both the Skills and Experience Requirements identified in the Ad
• Put the most convenient and accessible ways to contact you ie Mobile and Email
• Space it out and make it easy to read
• Differentiate between sending it to a recruiter or the company itself
• Make it one page
• Make it unique to you and what you can offer
• Include call to action – Request an Interview, Tell them you will call to follow up in 2-3 days
• Be confident

Don’t’s

• Make spelling mistakes
• Address it to a different role or company or person by mistake
• Send a generic cover letter
• Make it more than one page
• Include unnecessary filler such as “Please find my resume enclosed”
• Explain why the role will be good for you
• Waste the first paragraph with filler, make an impact so they keep reading

So here are some example templates I have put together;

Cover Letter No 1

Cover Letter No 2

Please tell me if there are any mistakes and email me any improved versions.

Thanks

Tim

Posted under Jobs

Contracting can best be described as the ultimate try before you buy!

Rather than jumping into a long-term commitment it provides an opportunity for an employee and an employer to work together to see if the fit is right for both parties. It can however be a double-edged sword. As there is no commitment either can pull out of the arrangement if things don’t go to plan.

In recent times we have seen a shift in how employers and employees feel about contract work. The demand for contract roles has increased as the workforce continues to change under new pressures. As companies respond to financial pressures, shrinking resources and ever expanding workloads often their demands do not reduce and they need to find a solution. Staffing is kept lean and mean with no slack for over-and-above projects. Sometimes the only cost effective way around this is to hire contractors to ensure timeframes are met on those non-negotiable projects. Read More…

Posted under Jobs, Marketing

I am starting my Twitter experience today and will start posting FMCG jobs on Twitter.

Please sign up to my posts at http://twitter.com/fmcgblog

please give me any advise or feedback.

Thanks

Tim

Posted under Uncategorized

It’s pretty quiet on the jobs front, not many new roles but not a huge amount of candidates either. Last year we experienced and extraordinary December/January period where the recruitment process barely came to a stop as companies pushed to secure the best available talent even if it meant doing a reference check on New Year Eve.

So is January just going back to normal, just a slow start as people return to work and put out the fires and will start thinking about HR and recruitment in Feb/March?

I don’t have the answer, but I haven’t seen anything that points towards a great year for the job market. It will be much slower than last year and good candidates will still get good jobs and average candidates will have to work harder and wait longer to secure their next role.

We have seen more companies trying to recruit themselves through SEEK and print advertising in the past 3 months. This may continue but you need resources to do this and the success is more hit and miss than you would think. Remember to do those reference check guys.

Any feedback is most welcome.

Tim

Posted under Jobs, News, Retailers

ANZ released its’ monthly Job Survey data yesterday and it was very grim reading. The last two months have shown falls of 5.9% in October and 8.6% last month. This two month period is the biggest fall in the index since its inception over 30 years ago.

Warren Hogan, ANZ head of Australian economics, made this astute observation;

“The latest job advertisements data suggests the global financial crisis has had a substantial impact on the Australian economy in the December quarter”

The redundancies continue to roll in with ANZ playing its part yesterday, giving 2 weeks notice to middle managers, analysts and researchers not required on the merger of Institutional and Corporate Depts.

FMCG announcements have been few and far between at this stage, with the agency/advertising area taking the brunt of it at the moment.

All the best.

Tim

Posted under Jobs, News

Wrigley’s has announced that the deal has been cloed and Wrigley ceased trading publicly yesterday. Mars Inc has chewed up the maker of Juicy Fruit and Wrigley’s Gum in a deal worth US$23 Billion.

Consolidation of sales and marketing teams across FMCG will be a challenge for us all over the next 2-3 years.

Tim

Posted under Jobs, News

Here is a list of signs we are currently seeing to back up the statistics of the economic downturn;

1. L’Oreal has flown the coop from the Flemington Birdcage
2. VALUES of Gold Coast listed companies have plummeted almost 60 per cent since last year
3. Selfridge’s on Sunday launched a new up-scale chocolate treat — the “Credit Crunch“
4. The home brewing beer industry is undergoing a resurgence
5. Job ads growth at five year low: survey
6. Restaurants Push ‘Value’ Meals
7. Wall Street banker swapped finance to become a monk in a remote Bulgarian village

Any More?

Tim

Posted under Uncategorized

SEEK is undoubtedly Australia’s biggest Job Site with a claim of 207,472 jobs online. With less than 50,000 jobs, MyCareer is a distant second.

But how reliable is the number of individual jobs posted on SEEK and how closely does this number equate to actual individual positions within individual companies?

There are thousands of ads on SEEK that fall into the duplicate or phantom categories;

• Multiple listings of the same role by the same company or recruiter
• One role being listed by the company and a recruiter
• One role being listed by more than one recruiter
• CV collecting general listings ie “Calling all Brand Managers” etc.

Now SEEK loves this because it increases their revenues. As the competition for Talent intensifies and the lack of a strong alternative the candidates will continue to go to SEEK as the first option. Unfortunately they will have to sift through this maze of duplicate roles and opportunities.

Posted under Jobs

Quite apart from the enormous impact Paul Newman had on the silver screen both as an actor and director, he has been an everyday part of our lives on our supermarket shelves and in our cupboards and fridges.

Paul Newman from Exodus (1960)

Newman’s Own is the food company founded (on a lark) by the late great Paul Newman and his buddy A. E. Hotchnerin in 1982. Starting from a range of salad dressings the brand now encompasses over 150 products across food and beverages. Since it started, the company has donated over $250m from its after tax profits, to a range of causes, with the most notable being The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp.

Grocery Marketing in 1987 reported that the success of Newman’s Own appeared to be due to the combination of the popular Paul Newman image on the product labels, a strong public relations effort, and quality products that inspired repeat sales. This is a good message to any marketeer and business.

By all reports, Newman remained actively involved in the business until recently; choosing and approving charitable and educational donations, tasting new products, acting as a spokesperson and even writing ad copy.  As he once told a New York Times reporter, ‘If we stop having fun, we’re closing up shop.’

Vale Paul Newman an FMCG Legend, whose face we will continue to see on our shelves for many years to come.

Tim

Posted under News

Lately it seems like every job advertisement says …”FMCG experience an advantage”.

Companies that aren’t even in the FMCG industry want FMCG experience in their new hires. And because job seekers are constantly faced with this barrier they all want to work with FMCG to give themselves the best chance of securing those coveted roles.

What’s the fuss over FMCG and why does everyone want it?

First of all, what does FMCG really mean? It stands for fast moving consumer goods. We all agree on that but then the definition gets grey. Everyone has a slightly different interpretation, often depending on what industry they work in! Here’s how we’ll define it…when you walk down the aisle of your local supermarket and can pick the product off the shelf it’s classified as an FMCG.

But it’s still not that easy. Stationary manufactures could argue that they’re in grocery therefore they’re FMCG. Let’s compare the difference between a carton of milk and a pen. Milk is a high volume product that is restocked several times a day (hence the name fast moving); it has a short shelf life and is considered an essential…unless you’re lactose intolerant! Pens, on the other hand, are purchased occasionally, have a long-term expiry date and could be considered a luxury items. So milk is FMCG and a pen is a consumer good. For the purposes of this article, we’ll say that FMCG are any household essentials that are sold through the grocery channel. Read More…

Posted under Jobs