Where's Char?

I've received a few emails over the last month asking where I have disappeared to. Thank you for your concern. I have sort of disappeared, haven't I?

That's because I injured myself and am in constant pain (until I can have surgery - which could still be a few more months away). Unfortunately, my injuries (and the pain) severely limit my ability to write and type at this time.

I can handle having injuries, but this not being able to do much writing or typing is absolutely killing me! I've tried speech recognition software, but unfortunately, my voice and the software have not yet become a compatible match, because what appears onscreen is nothing like what I actually state, so I can't 'cheat'.

So, thank you for asking. I drop by occasionally to do an update or post when I'm up to it, and once I've had the surgery and recovered I'll be back with renewed motivation. Until next time, happy and frustration-free job seeking!

Stop with the Excuses!

Sorry, need to vent again, to get it out of my system...

I've seen a number of jobseekers in a couple of different jobsearch groups all post to the group wall the last couple of weeks that they are looking for work, or are in need of advice, only to then slam down the suggestions given as 'already done it', 'no, I don't want to get that type of work'. Or worse, they then give excuse after excuse as counter argument to every idea and suggestion people trying to help them give.

Etiquette, jobseekers! 

If you ask for help, accept it.  If you can't do that idea or suggest for a LEGITIMATE reason, then simply say, 'Thank you. I'll look into that' and then just hope that you get a few more suggestions from some other nice, helpful people. 

But if you don't have a legitimate reason, stop with the excuses!

"Can't... I have kids." Yeah, so do a lot of the other mothers who are looking for work.

"Don't want that type of job" - why not?  Didn't you just say you are desperate and will do anything? If you are that hard up financially, then guess what?  Doing that type of work, although not appealing - and if you can get it - will help you pay the bills until you find something better.  If you are desperate, then you can't afford to be picky and choosy.

If you ask for help or ideas, don't shut people down, don't dismiss them - not for the weak reason that you don't want to do that.  There are LOTS of things about job searching that we don't want to do - but those are often (well, from what I see, anyway) the very things that actually help you get a job. Don't bury your head in the sand, or dismiss good ideas because you don't want to; or you'll soon find people aren't going to want to help you. They'll keep their good ideas to themselves next time!

Protect Yourself from Scammers

Sadly, there are people who will go to extraordinary lengths to rob another person of their money and or identity.  These people don't care if you are 'down and out'.

After a spat of scammers posting false job opportunities within the groups that I participate in, this post contains three graphics to help you avoid becoming a target...

Unfortunately, advice that had to be shared :-(

Ebook Cover Design: I made it myself, using Microsoft Word and PowerPoint!

I received a lovely message on Facebook by a person who liked my Ebook cover, a writer who wanted to know who or where I got my book cover design from, and asked if I wouldn't mind sharing the designer's details.

Sorry, but I didn't hire someone to create it for me: I made it all myself, using, as impossible as it might sound, just Microsoft Word and PowerPoint!

I have a few Ebooks projects planned for helping jobseekers - some started, some waiting for me to finish existing projects before exploring the idea further - and because of this, I wanted to create a couple of common elements within my book cover designs so that when readers see the book covers they will be able to tell that the Ebook is by me, just like publishers do for authors who write book series.

(Go have a look at the Harry Potter book covers and you'll see that the covers, even with their different titles and images, still have a consistent look to them - both the children's book releases and the adult covers). The common element for my Ebooks will be how I've stylised my name as well as its positioning on a solid, pastel colour.

At some Ebook cover design places I found on the internet charging over $500 as a starting point, I simply could not justify hiring a book cover designer, which would significantly negatively affect the pricing of the resources I intend creating, when I have some excellent computer and word processing skills. So, I decided to give designing my own book cover a try and visited Amazon.com and carried out a few different book searches to learn what I liked and disliked about the differing cover designs from the thumbnail view on the search result pages from books that were both fiction and non-fiction in nature.  My observation led me to work out that there are two very distinct types of Kindle book covers: professionally designed looking ones that enticed me to want to read more about the title (and sometimes distracted me away from what I had gone on to the site to do), and some very amateurish looking ones that looked cheap and did nothing to entice me to want to 'look inside' the Ebook to see if the book was right for me.

From this research, I decided that I wanted my cover to look as professionally designed as I could possibly make it and noticed that all the Ebooks published by a traditional publisher that I looked at had both the title and the author name readable even at thumbnail size (whereas, many of the self-published titles didn't), so this greatly influenced my design.

Now because I am a writer and have aspired to be a published author for many years, and as well as having an interest in using great presentation within my documents, I long ago learned of a neat little trick called a Swipe File.  This is where, when you see a design or design element that you like, you keep a copy of it and store it in your Swipe file - the file can be hard copy or electronic. I've previously done this when creating templates for business clients as a Typist. You don't infringe upon someone else's copyrighted material at all, but you use what is in your Swipe File to help you come up with ideas and explore element placement.

I took screenshots of different book titles that I liked - it could have been how the designer had created the title, or how they had angled an element instead of placing it 'squared on', and I happened to see in a Food & Recipe book a pink and white stripe background which gave the feeling of pink candy, which nicely tied in with the book being about sweet treats, so I started out just by playing around with using different coloured stripes.

As you can see, my Ebook cover idea grew from there. I had soon 'stepped' my 'fence' and added 'signage' to the fence posts - which just happened to fit each letter of the word 'resume' nicely on top. As my design started coming together as I was building it in the word document, I knew I wanted (and needed, now) to find and use the image of a construction worker - preferably a female one. I didn't have to look very far. Microsoft Word's Clip Art had just the image I had in mind!

I didn't want to use the background details, and this is where using Microsoft PowerPoint came in: because it allows you to alter existing clip art that is a .wmf image.

I converted the clip art into an image I could alter (a Microsoft Office drawing object), which then allowed me to 'Ungroup' all the images various parts and then add, remove and alter to create the image I wanted.  As you will see between the original image and the final result, I removed the background, added the girl to wearing jewellery, gave her a 'V' neckline and added some pinstripes to her trousers.

I also added the word 'resume' to the plans she is reading, and added the 'yellow screws' that she used to bolt the signs to the fence posts and the name plaques to the fencing and wall.

She was positioned to be level with the bottom of the fence posts so that nothing fell into the area where my name would eventually go, and I added the light blue slanted rectangle Shape (the shape called, Flowchart: Manual Input).

The word 'D.I.Y.' is a Text box in which I have reformatted to remove the line border.

Because I liked the colour my construction worker was wearing and felt that it didn't clash against my use of pastels, so I kept the original colour of her top.

When I had finished and was happy with my design, I 'shrunk' my word document in Preview mode, so that I could see the entire page and then took a screenshot which I pasted into PowerPoint, and then cropped out all extra background so that I could create the thumbnail images used in this blog post.

All up, it took me about four hours to create my Ebook cover design. And, I am very happy with how it turned out!

Thank you to the reader who messaged me to ask where and who I got my Ebook cover design from, it pleases me no end that you thought I used a professional service to create it for me. It means I have succeeded in my goal to create a cover that doesn't look home made! Thank you.

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How I got started as a Resume Writer

A reader sent through a question asking me 'out of curiosity' how I got started being a resume writer. I'm happy to share a few person details with you, so here goes...

How I got started as a Resume Writer

 

It sorted of started by accident, really.

A grandmother I knew from when I took my children to kindergarten, told me about a free TAFE course that she had recently completed and thought I would enjoy.

I enquired, and next semester enrolled in the course Career Education and Employment for Women As I progressed through the six month course, we not only learned how to write a market effective resume and cover letters but also explored different career paths for women who had been stay at home mums, and how to plan for your return to the paid workforce now or in the future.

This was not the first course I had enrolled in, but it was definitely the one that I got the most out of.

One thing that I found since I had been a teenager was that I had a knack for using a computer that most other women around my age didn’t. And in each of my previous courses whenever someone had a difficulty, I had usually completed the task and was able to help – and, on a number of occasions when there was technical difficulties with the computer that even the class teacher could not resolve, I could usually piece together the underlying problem which was causing things to go wrong, and most times was able to resolve the problem with ease.

So, while enrolled in the course, we explored ideas for starting our own business.  By this time we had each assessed our workplace strengths and abilities, and although I was a hunt and peck typist, with the teachers help we identified that I:

• Could type
• Had an eye for troubleshooting computer problems
• Enjoyed helping fellow students

I also had writing and proofreading skills from my personal interest in novel writing to add to my basic skill list – but as fiction novel writing wasn’t going to help me in a job without me having a completed manuscript (and I was not writing with the aim of publication at that time), we determined that I could apply for Reception and Admin roles or even start my own business offering typing, proofreading and beginner computer training.

I didn’t want the hassle of trying to drum up business, even though working for myself did appeal to me. I didn’t have to look for work, but decided to start applying for work sooner rather than later, because many of the other ladies in the course had all been struggling for a long while, and I wanted to put my new jobseeking skills into practice while they were still fresh.

Months later, still without a job despite close to two hundred applications sent and plenty of interviews having been gained, an unexpected bill came in that I just wasn’t financially prepared for. Now, it was more important for me than ever to earn some cash so I didn’t end up ‘behind the eight ball’ which would be near impossible to ever get back in front, so when a friend asked if I could teach her friend how to use a computer, the words ‘she is happy to pay you’ was such a relief and the answer I was looking for.

I had self-doubts – as a lot of mums, and particularly stay at home mums, possess – but I also thought back to my course teacher’s comments after I had had my turn presenting a possible self employment business idea to the class saying ‘you’d be very good at that’ to spur me on.

So, I started teaching someone who had never even turned a computer on, and patiently explained terminology, how to control the mouse and how to use a personal computer and word processor.

At some point, someone asked me if I would be able to type up a letter for them, so I agreed without too much hesitation, charged twenty dollars, and deciphered their very messy handwriting and created what looked like a standard business letter – I fixed up their atrocious spelling, punctuation and grammar, tweaked a few of the sentences and paragraphs so they weren’t quite so repetitive and imparted their key points more directly and concisely and which removed the anger, swearing and name-calling hostility the writer felt so that their complaint would be treated more seriously.  My customer was highly satisfied with the letter and mailed it off, and a week or so later rang me excited to advise that after all this time, all this long, drawn out fighting, the company had apologised and was giving them a full refund.

This lead to that customer telling people to contact me whenever any of her large group of friends and family needed a document typed. And, a couple of customers later, someone wanted me to type up a resume for them.

Once again, I experienced a moment or two of self-doubt about my ability to do this, but in the end just figured it was just another type of document.  I think now that the reason for my self-doubt was because I knew how important a resume and cover letter was in generating employer interest, so that they called you to invite you to attend an interview, and I was worried I didn’t have the specialised skills to achieve a good enough document for them.

I worried for nothing.

The person had handwritten something so terrible, that was so unlikely to get them any favourable result no matter how attractive I made the presentation of their content, and instead of just accepting the job and their leaving with the expectation that I would deliver their printed document and an electronic copy to their home address within the next two days, I invited the person to have a coffee or tea with me, and I discussed how I didn’t think they would get good results, and showed them the resume I had created back in that course, and worked with the person for the next two or three hours as together we created better content.

That person did a walk in to a business the following day with his lovely new resume to hand over, and I happened to run into this otherwise a stranger to me at the drop off and pick up bay at Penrith station at about 4 p.m. that afternoon as I dropped my daughter off to meet up with friends to go shopping.  And I was really glad I had decided to let my daughter go (I was quite hesitant about letting her do this without a parent to supervise them) or I wouldn’t have learned that he got the job and would be starting the following Monday.

From there, word of mouth sent more business my way, and soon I was only writing and typing resumes and cover letters – and I now had some savings to see me through any future nasty bill surprises.

I ran the business for about four years on a part time basis to suit my needs, before I discovered that the Employment Service industry existed, and now ready to obtain full time employment applied for entry-level positions so I could get a foot in the door (consultants and case managers all needed to be experienced).

So there you have it, that is how I got started as a resume writer - by stumbling my way into it. I hope this inspires you to follow your interests and skills for the type of work you are trying to gain.

Leave me a comment!

Char

What does this say?

What does this say?

Did you read that as Opportunity is 'Now Here' or 'No Where' ?

How did you read it? 

How does Employment Services work?

I received a lovely email from a person who does not wish to be identified.  In the email they discussed that they have seen that I work in the Employment Services industry, and asked if I could explain how that industry works.

Sure, I'll try to answer that question for you; as an Employment Consultant all too often clients didn't understand what was going on behind the scenes, or what basic procedures entailed and became hostile because when they didn't agree with something out of the Employment Service provider and consultants scope.

A simplified overview
There are three key 'agencies' involved in the Employment Services industry: Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR, pronounced 'Dee-wah'), Centrelink and the Employment Service provider (ESPs).

DEEWR is the government department that oversees both Centrelink and Employment Service providers. Essentially, they create and monitor the rules for Centrelink and ESPs.

Centrelink is, of course, the government agency that handles the financial assistance side of things for people requiring government funded assistance. There are many different payment types, and each come with different sets of criteria to determine eligibility, requirements and level of assistance.

Employment Service providers are agencies contracted by a service deed to deliver employment service outcomes for DEEWR.

The programs
There are two programs:
* Job Services Australia (JSA), and
* Disability Employment Services (DES).


When a person applies for Centrelink payments, as part of the application process, the person's capacity to work is assessed using an instrument called a JSCI (Job Seeker Classification Instrument).  This is a set of questions, which assigns points values depending upon the person's answers and is used to determine whether the client is eligible for the JSA program or the DES program (IF the person has what is called a Participation Requirement).

JSA levels of servicing
For clients assigned to the JSA (mainstream) program, there are four levels of government support.  These are called Streams.

Stream 1 is where most new clients are placed. Stream 1 is support at the lowest level - Centrelink payment plus Job Readiness.

Streams 2, 3 and 4 are progressively higher levels of support based on the person's individual circumstances.  Over time, a client with a participation requirement reaches timeline 'milestones' and naturally progress to higher levels of support. But the Employment Service provider has tools such as the JSCI to review clients level of servicing if a Change of Circumstances is detected, and or can refer the client for a Job Capacity Assessment (JCA, now called an ESAT, which is an Employment Service Assessment) - Centrelink payment, plus Job Readiness, plus higher assistance including additional qualifying financial assistance.

DES levels of servicing
For clients referred to the DES program, there are two levels of government support:
* Disability Management Service (DMS) for health conditions, injuries and disabilities that can be controlled within a 2 year timeframe, and
* Employment Support Services (ESS) for health conditions, injuries and disabilities that are more permanent and or uncontrollable within a 2 year period. Further to this, the ESS program has two-levels of funding.

The DES program participants generally have reduced capacity to mainstream, so because the client is already receiving increased financial support from Centrelink, financial assistance is not as available as they gain an increase in servicing.

Participation requirements
All Centrelink recipients are determined to either have a participation requirement (to look for work), or can do so on a voluntary basis. Centrelink also assesses and provides a Job Seeker Identification Number to clients registering to look for work who are not in receipt of or eligible for Centrelink payments, but these clients are not being covered in this article.

DEEWR and Centrelink determine the clients level of participation - how many jobs the person is required to look for each week, the frequency of engagement required with an Employment Services provider, the level of assistance.

Each of the different programs comes with its own set of rules and requirements.

ESPs service delivery
DEEWR only allows a set number of Employment Service providers to exist at any one time within each designated Employment Service area.  When a business tenders for a contract, they have to submit details such as how the business proposes delivering employment services to clients and how they will gain employment results.  Only those businesses with approved delivery models can be awarded contracts, so each of the different providers deliver the exact same service in their own, approved way.

For some, the delivery model might include job seekers having to attend jobsearch sessions, for others it might mean set number of review appointments - the difference in how the job seeker participates can vary significantly between same programs and service levels, as well as between the different programs.

A common misconception is that Employment Service providers 1. Have to find a client a job for the client, and 2. Have to pay to help a client get skilled and job ready.

Find Clients a Job
Employment Services providers (ESPs) are contracted to monitor clients are job seeking as per their requirement (so Centrelink can concentrate of the financial side of things), not find work for them. Employment Service providers assist clients achieve this by providing advice and direct assistance during contact appointments and job search sessions. But, I do not know of ANY provider who does not have a marketing team working tirelessly to try and find or create vacancies to help every level of client, every client gain work! ESPs know that they will only deliver results to DEEWR if they put every effort into helping clients, so they offer training, resources and the like - often behind the scenes - to help clients find 'suitable and sustainable employment'.

Pay for Clients to get skilled and job ready
ESPs do have access to a pool of funds provided by DEEWR to assist clients; however, there are very strict rules about when and where, how and why those funds can be used. Much of it depends on the program you are assigned to, and the stream or funding level.

For instance, one jobseeker it may be allowable for the ESP to pay for a course so the client can gain employable skills, but for another, that financial assistance isn't allowed.  But before anyone starts complaining about the 'unfairness' of this, consider that our government
1. only budgets a certain amount each year,
2. restricts its additional financial support to those most in need, and
3. is already paying the client payments for them to live on, and
4. already subsides training etc in other ways so does not support a person 'upskilling' just for the sake of it (via this avenue).

Summary
The main role of an Employment Services provider is to report upon compulsorily job seeker complying with participation and job search requirements to Centrelink and DEEWR; its secondary role is to assist job seekers with gaining employment. And not just a clients dream job, but any job for which they are both capable and suitable from a public opinion.

I hope this clarifies things for you, emailer.

Char

Update

I received the follow on question by another reader asking: 'How does the ESP earn money?" Great question, which I probably should have addressed in the original article!

ESPs earn money directly from DEEWR for achieving Outcomes.  What this means is that DEEWR have service expectations and when these are achieved, the ESP receives income.

For example, the ESP receives a small set amount for every client commenced into servicing with that provider.  From that moment on, the service clock starts ticking, for the job seeker and the ESP.

ESPs also earn income each quarter just for providing a job seeker with service - if all conditions have been met e.g. if the client is required to attend five appointments over a certain period of time, and the client has attended each of those appointments, then the ESP can claim a small fee for having achieved this Participation Outcome. (But they may be entitled to still claim the fee, if the ESP has correctly reported non-compliance by the job seeker - after all, the ESP can't physically force people to attend).

When the client obtains a job that meets minimum requirements of being at or above award rate conditions and is suitable and sustainable and expected to achieve a six month outcome, then the ESP earns another small fee for having assisted the client gain employment - whether the client or the agency finds the job (one very strong area of contention by many jobseekers is that when they find the job themselves they don't believe the agency has done anything - but this isn't true, the agency has still reviewed their circumstances and provided assistance to help that job seeker gain that work).

But the real money earner for ESPs is achieving employment outcomes.  This means that the client reaches six months of 'continuous sustainable' employment, which is measured at 3 months and 6 months. For this reason, every ESP provides what is called Post Placement Support (PPS) to every client who gains work regardless of who found the job for them.  PPS is crucial in assisting clients remain employed - DEEWR recognise that the rate of falling out of employment is highest for people in their first six month period - where probationary periods haven't been passed, where it can all become so overwhelming and difficult and where the highest number of problems become evident for both the employer and the employee.  (NB, a client is still a job seeker until they successfully complete this six month period).

DEEWR can make ESPs return payments received - which no business ever wants to do - if DEEWR believes the ESP is not entitled; so contrary to many job seekers belief, an ESP only submits a claim for payment when they are absolutely certain they have met all conditions to receive the payment, and when in doubt, won't claim a fee that they are probably entitled to because it is better practice not to claim than to have to return payments - which are spent on business overheads and wages and resources etc.

Just HAD to share this one

Why are you still unemployed? Questionnaire and Competition

Have you been unemployed for a while now?

In support of my last two posts on the importance of creating a Job Search Action Plan, which you can read here and here, today I am posting a Job Search Questionnaire that I often give to my new training groups, as it is highly useful in helping participants understand some of the possible reasons for them still being unemployed.

Note: I usually provide participants with a worksheet for them to complete, but you can just record your answers on a blank sheet of paper if you like.

Tick whichever reason(s) you consider are the cause of you being unemployed:

What do you feel is the main reason(s) you are still unemployed?

__ I don’t know how to apply for jobs properly

__ I don’t have a decent resume

__ I don’t write decent cover letters

__ I don’t address selection criteria properly

__ I don’t interview very well face to face / over the phone (confidence, knowledge, nervousness etc)

__ I don’t have confidence at job interviews

__ I don’t know how to sell myself effectively to employers

__ I don’t have the necessary / required skills

__ I don’t have the necessary / required qualifications/licences

__ I don’t have the necessary / required experience

__ I don’t have suitable interview clothing

__ I have poor employment history

__ I am too old

__ I am too young

__ I don’t have enough / good references

__ I have personal issues / barriers that interfere with my being able to look for, accept and or keep work (e.g. transportation problems, criminal history, personal circumstances, medical problems etc), please specify: ________________________

__ Employers / agencies don’t give me a chance

__ I don’t want to find work, and or my efforts are only half-hearted

__ Other: please specify: _______________________________________________

 

In group training situations I usually have my clients complete the exercise and then we have a group discussion afterwards: I go through each of the points listed one at a time, asking for a show of hands who ticked having this - or possibly having this, because I lot of clients are unsure - and then I invite the group to contribute ideas and discuss ways and means for how they can resolve that particular problem and these are all written on the whiteboard.

In coming posts, I will address some of the solutions to each of the problems, but for now, why not contribute some of your own ideas and suggestions on how some of the problems can be easily resolved.

And then, head over to my Win a Free Rescue-My-Resume Review page, here, to see why you should participate!

Punctuality in the Workplace

If you have an appointment at, say, 11 a.m., what time do you arrive?

Ten to fifteen minutes ahead of time, five minutes, right on time, a couple of minutes late?

Employers care about punctuality - not just at the job interview (which most people try to be there on time), but when you are an employee too.

From an employers perspective, if they hire you to start work at 9 a.m., they expect you to be arrived, set up and ready to commence work at 9 a.m; not have you arrive at this time.  This might seem like common sense to many people, but as many of the employers reported I worked with while I was Post Placement Support officer too many employees arrived at their start time and by the time the person set themselves up they were not productive for five to fifteen minutes.  And those same employees 'shut down' and packed up so that they could leave spot on finishing time.

From an employees perspective, many people think "I only get paid from 9 a.m." and believe that the set up and pack away part of the tasks is part of the job and therefore done on the 'employers time' not their own. And this is reasonable enough.  But it is a sign the the person is only prepared to do 'what is required' and is not prepared to 'give and take' within the employment relationship.

My own opinion is that under a 'fair's days work for a fair days pay' it is not unreasonable for employers to expect you to be productive, and there is no harm in the employee arriving a few minutes before their start time to settle in and set up so you can commence 'working' at your start work time - and again packing up once you have reached your finish time, so long as your employer gives as well as takes.

For example, if you routinely arrive for an office job fifteen minutes early to enable you to fire up the computer, make yourself a cup of coffee, print out the day's appointment list, and write out a To Do list, so that you can open the office to its customers right on 9 a.m., then you are indeed performing some of your work tasks in your own time.  If down the track you need to leave a few minutes early to go and pick your child up and your employer knows you don't leave early every day, only on the occasions when you really need to, then I would expect that your employer repays some of your 'give' by 'giving' to you in return - a win win situation for you and your employer.  But, if down the track you have been arriving early every day, and staying back ten to fifteen minutes after hours and you need to leave a few minutes early to go and pick your child up and you don't request time off like this very often and then the employer refuses (without good reason), then I would say as an employee you have the right to feel upset.

But too many employees arrived and left work 'right on time' and then when a situation arose where they wanted/needed to leave work a few minutes early, they got upset when the employer refused (usually with good reason). These employees are so focused on their own wants and needs that they are the ones doing all the 'taking' within the employment relationship and not doing enough 'giving'.

From personal experience, the best working environments are ones where there is an (relatively) equal amount of give and take from both the employer and the employee, and neither side ends up nitpicking about the expectations of the other.

What are your thoughts about punctuality in the workplace?  Is your employment relationship lopsided in favour of one of the two parties, or is it based more equally?

Char Mesan

Welcome to the Char Mesan Job Search Training Blog

Hello and welcome to the Char Mesan blog that will focus exclusively on my offering advice, services and resources for job seekers who need a (professional) helping hand.

For those of you who are not familiar with my other (personal) blogs to know a little bit about me, I am an experienced Employment Consultant.  I have been assisting and training long term unemployed clients with disabilities, injuries and health conditions to overcome their barriers to employment and find suitable and sustainable ongoing work for over five years now.  And, I have been highly successful in this type of work, and I love what I do! Prior to entering the Employment Services industry, still along the same field of work though, I ran my own business as a typist, vocational trainer and private resume writer for about five years. Now I'm am combining things by being back to working for my own self, while simultaneously still very much attached to the Employment Services industry (where I still act in a contract training capacity).

Yet even with so many professional agencies around assisting registered job seekers get off or reduce their Centrelink benefits and return to full or part time employment, I have found that too many job seekers still don't fully understand how to submit quality applications so that they are the candidate invited for an interview - and that's where this blog should be of benefit!

In the coming weeks and months, I am going to share my wealth of accumulated knowledge with you, so you too can improve your chances of gaining work quickly and more easily, not just how to create a good resume, but also things like developing good job search habits and attitudes and overcoming barriers to getting work.

At this early stage, the site and my services are only in their infancy (and the site still undergoing page construction!), so please bear with me while I juggle my many competing commitments and priorities to get it all happening over the next few weeks and months.

I look forward to working with you and with my help: may you get the job you want, quickly and easily!

Char Mesan