Katie Roberts Career Consulting

Job hunting and/or making a career change can be demoralising and downright confusing. Applying for endless roles, and not hearing back, or worse still receiving automated rejections within minutes of submitting an application can dent even the most positive person’s confidence. With a raft of online and digital resources out there to help, this article summarises our top recommendations and what they’re useful for.

I have listed just some of my favourites, and incorporated others from my career coaching and interview training colleagues. Our number one tip for job seekers is to always conduct comprehensive research. We suggest researching the role you are seeking to achieve; gaining an in depth understanding of the requirements of the role in terms of qualifications, skills and experience; identifying any industry specific recruiters you should be talking to; having an appreciation of the keywords used by employers to seek candidates; and understanding the salary expectations. Without this understanding you may not achieve the success you deserve.

Some of the many resources we use on a regular basis to help our clients include:

• www.seek.com.au – in addition to listing open positions across Australia and within many global locations, Seek also provides significant other resources for job seekers. You can quickly and easily set up job alerts to ensure you don’t miss any viable opportunities and you have the option to establish a personal profile which can be viewed by potential employers who make direct contact with you. I also recommend clients use Seek as their personal online career database – it’s a great tool to help you clarify many aspects of your job search – use it to understand what roles are being advertised and where, identify keywords and transferable skills, clarify required qualifications, pinpoint companies and industries that may currently be advertising, identify potential relevant recruiters, and access current salary information.
• www.insightsresources.seek.com.au/employment-trends – Seek’s insight and resources area contains a raft of information on employment trends (broken down by State).
• www.seek.com.au/Recruiter – another of Seek’s resources that allows job seekers to search for some of Australia’s leading recruitment agencies and view their current job vacancies on SEEK. This is particularly helpful if you’re in a niche market with just a small number of recruiters retaining most of the advertised roles.
• www.aqf.edu.au/aqf/in-detail/aqf-qualifications – this is a great resource for school leavers or people looking to change careers since it’s the simplest way we’ve come across to explain the hierarchy of qualifications.
• www.myskills.gov.au – this government resource provides a national directory of vocational education and training (VET) organisations and courses. It is a federal government initiative targeted towards enabling consumers to search for, and compare, VET courses and training providers.
• www.careerone.com.au – this site lets you browse jobs in a variety of ways and offers a range of career advice, time saving and job hunting tips under the career advice section. It can be used in a similar way to Seek to better understand your different career options.
• www.livesalary.com.au/search-salaries.aspx – a specialist salary exchange website created as a resource for people seeking relevant, real time salary information. Salary data is entered by Australian employees and compiled anonymously so all Australians, free of charge, can determine how their salary compares to their colleagues. Salary information is available on literally thousands of different job titles with data shown in real time – so the moment salary data is entered it becomes available to the entire community.
• www.fairwork.gov.au – The FairWork Ombudsman aims to provide an effective and efficient workplace regulator that is responsive to the evolving needs and expectations of the Australian Government and the community. This website is a great resource that provides a vast array of advice and information about workplace rights and obligations.
• www.moocs.co – a simple central directory of existing free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) available in K-12, higher education and other areas for anyone looking to learn. A Mooc is a free online course available to anyone and is a great concept if you don’t want to commit to a long term study option or would like to ‘try before you buy’. Most courses are structured similar to paid online courses in terms of the teaching and learning methods – where video, group chat, assignment and tests are all included – but they don’t generally provide academic credit for use in other traditional courses, nor will you have much (if any) interaction with the lecturer.
• www.business.gov.au – if you are considering establishing your own consultancy or small business, this site provides everything you need to know – including business setup advice, taxation obligations, financial and insurance information, general business planning, information on employing people, grants and assistance, and a vast array of other useful facts.
• www.google.com – with so many resources on recruitment, training and career advice available at a national, state and local level, it’s worth spending some time conducting some general research to identify what’s available in your particular area.
• www.katieroberts.com.au/career-advice-blog/ – finally, our own blog contains a raft of articles on various topics relating to choosing a career, resume writing, job searching, LinkedIn, writing job applications, and preparing for interviews.

Are you searching for the right career but unsure which path to take? Do you trawl the internet looking for career and/or training inspiration? Are you struggling to make sense of all the career resources out there? Perhaps you are confused about which course to study.

If you would like help developing a comprehensive job search plan or career strategy, please see our Career Counselling Services and our one-on-one Career Guidance Counselling, which we provide over the phone or in person in locations across Australia.