Extend Consulting Blog

Changing Jobs and Receiving a Counteroffer

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 20:30:00 GMT

Thinking about accepting a counteroffer? Read this first. ��

Before you react off the back of your emotion, it may pay to to read the room, spot the real motivations behind a counteroffer, and make a smarter decision.

�� Watch before you decide

The moment right after you resign is one of the real tests of a job change. Your manager pushes back, maybe with a better salary, a promotion, or a promise that things will finally improve. It can feel genuinely flattering. Someone you've worked alongside is telling you they don't want you to leave.

Before that feeling turns into a decision, it's worth “reading the room”. Your resignation sets off a chain of consequences your manager now has to manage: explaining the departure upward, covering the workload gap, handling the emotional ripple through the team, and eventually recruiting, hiring and onboarding your replacement. None of that makes the counteroffer wrong, or some kind of manipulation. But it does mean there's a reason it landed on your desk, and it's rarely just about you.

The mistake most people make is deciding based on how the counteroffer makes them feel, rather than what it actually solves. Flattery is not part of a sound career strategy.

Before responding, it helps to separate the two questions that matter: why is this offer being made now, and does it fix the actual reasons you started looking in the first place? A pay rise doesn't undo your past lack of progression. A new title doesn't repair a broken relationship with your manager. If the same frustrations were there six months ago, they'll likely resurface six months from now, counteroffer or not.

That doesn't mean every counteroffer should be rejected. Sometimes circumstances genuinely shift, and staying is the right call. The point is to get to that answer by working through the motivations objectively, not by riding the temporary high of feeling wanted.

If you're weighing up a counteroffer right now, take a breath before you reply. Write down what made you start looking, then check the offer against that list honestly. The right decision is the one that still makes sense next week, not just today.

Know Your Job Timeline

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 20:30:02 GMT

It's August. If you're job hunting, the calendar matters more than you think. Do the math with me ��

Job seekers tend to underestimate how long a hiring process actually takes, and the calendar rarely does you any favours. Of course, run the numbers with a best-case scenario in mind, but do this consciously. Let’s see:

You apply today, and everything goes right from here. Interviews land the following week. Assuming the hiring organisation moves rather efficiently, an offer might come through roughly a month later. From there, most people give around four weeks' notice, sometimes longer if they want time to think it through properly. That puts a realistic start date around ten weeks after the initial application, if nothing slips.

And things do slip. Miss that window and the calendar works against you. Depending on when in the year you're job hunting, an extended public holiday period, end-of-calendar-year distractions, or a seasonal quiet patch can push everything out. What looked like a two-and-a-half-month process can quietly become a project for the following year around this time.

This isn't meant to create panic, it's meant to replace hope with realism. Understanding the timeline changes how you behave inside it. You are not a passive applicant waiting for news; you're an active participant with real influence over how quickly things move.

That influence shows up in small, practical actions: responding to messages the same day, not the same week, being upfront and complete with documents and references the first time they're requested, and following up when things go quiet rather than assuming silence means rejection. None of this guarantees speed on the employer's side, but it removes any delay that's within your control.

If you're currently job hunting, map out your own timeline from today's date. Work backwards from any known slow periods coming up, and treat every step in the process as something to move quickly, not something to wait out.

So, How is the Job Market?

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 20:30:01 GMT

Every job seeker asks me some version of the same three questions. The most common/popular of them all is shorthand for something rather different …and asking it the way most people do won't get you a useful answer. Here's how you get useful information when asking about the job market ��

As a recruitment consultant, three questions come up constantly. Can you review my resume? Are you working on anything that matches my background? And, sitting well above the other two, what's your read on the job market right now?

That last question is broad, but it's rarely really about the market as a whole. What people are usually asking is something far more personal: how hard would it be for me, specifically, to find work right now, whether I need to or simply want to. It's understandable that a recruiter can offer a general view, touching on interest rates, geopolitical noise, or broad consumer sentiment. But general answers tend to produce general, not particularly useful, advice.

The more useful version of that question is a narrower one. Instead of asking about "the market," ask about your market: how does the jobs landscape look for client-facing roles in software businesses along the eastern seaboard, for example. Specificity is what turns a vague conversation into something actionable.

It's also worth knowing that any recruiter answering this question is doing so from their own vantage point. Their view is shaped by whether their current clients are actively hiring, whether those clients are open to working with external recruitment partners at that moment, and their own read on the general energy in their particular sector. None of that is dishonest, it's simply the nature of a perspective built from a specific set of relationships and roles.

So if you want a genuinely useful answer, don't ask a recruiter how the job market is. Ask them how the market looks for your role, your industry, your location, and your level of experience. The narrower and more detailed the question, the more useful the intelligence you'll get back.

The Ideal Resume

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 20:30:00 GMT

I read 3,000+ CVs a year. Yeah... with my own eyes�� I've read 3-page-long CVs, 18-page-long life stories... and everything in between.�� There is one type of resume that is the wrong one to use to support your job application �� You think the fix is a simple page count reduction. It's not. ��

AI tools can now index a CV, rank it and turn it into a report in seconds. Despite that, any recruiter worth their title still wants to read a resume personally, for two reasons: are you a suitable candidate, and if so, are you a memorable one? The real challenge for a job seeker is giving a recruiter enough to make that judgment properly, without burying it in unnecessary detail.

This is where things commonly go wrong. After ten, fifteen or twenty years in the workforce, a CV can turn into a running list of every job ever held, stretching to ten, fifteen, even twenty pages. It's the professional equivalent of a plate of pasta at midnight: nobody's finishing that.

At best, an oversized resume overwhelms the reader with information they don't need. At worst, it signals that the candidate can't identify what's actually relevant or communicate it clearly.

So what's the ideal page count? That's the wrong question entirely. A tight two-page resume can say everything a recruiter needs to know. A six-page CV can be genuinely compelling from start to finish. Length isn't the measure of quality, relevance is.

The more useful habit is treating every resume update as a genuine edit, not just an addition. Rebalance what's included so it reflects what matters today, not what mattered a decade ago. Early achievements that once felt career-defining may no longer need the same space once more recent, more relevant experience exists.

It's also worth remembering who the document is actually for. It may be your career history, but it's being prepared for someone else's read. Keep it focused on the single job it's meant to do: getting you to the next stage of the process, not documenting your entire working life.

Interviews and A.I.

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 21:00:04 GMT

This week, allow me to open up and share the details of “my first time" In brief (!), I found it strange, uncomfortable and ultimately unsatisfactory. I think the person doing it with me won’t be too happy either, once they hear my feedback

Maybe it will get better with more practice / when the tech evolves?

#ai #interview #candidates #jobsearch #recruiting #hiring

It was only a matter of time before this happened in a live interview. During a recent video interview for a role based in London, it became clear early on that the candidate was using an AI app to generate suggested answers in real time. From the interviewer's side, the effect was obvious: pauses to read from the screen, a delivery that felt stilted and unnatural, and answers that sounded rehearsed rather than genuine.

The irony is that the tool produced the opposite of what it was meant to achieve. The candidate came across as underprepared, not polished. Worse, when asked simple, direct questions, like why specifically they applied for the role, or which skills would matter most to succeeding in it, they struggled to answer properly.

Also, know this: the live-feed approach also demands a level of acting most people simply don't have: looking natural while reading or listening to a prompt is a genuinely hard skill to pull off convincingly.

None of this is an argument against using AI to prepare. Quite the opposite. The smarter use of these tools is in the lead-up to an interview, not during it. Use an app to rehearse likely answers, map out the angles you want to steer the conversation toward, and sharpen the questions you plan to ask the interviewer. Do that preparation thoroughly, then turn the app off before the interview starts.

Technology should work with a candidate, not stand in for them in the moment that matters most. The preparation an AI tool can support is genuinely valuable. The live crutch it can become is not. If you're getting ready for an interview, use the tools to build your confidence beforehand, then walk in and let your own preparation carry you through.

Candidate 'Cloning'

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 05:35:43 GMT

A number of times, clients have given me the most straightforward job brief I can think of:

"Just get me one more like the last person you found for us."

There is nothing quick or easy about that request. Here's what it actually means.

There's a particular kind of feedback that means more than any other: a client calling to say we found them the perfect candidate, not right after the hire, but months later, once the new employee has settled in, is performing consistently, and is genuinely adding to the team's culture.

That feedback usually comes with a follow-up. A new role opens on the same team, and the first request is almost always the same: can you find me exactly the same person as last time? Taken literally, it's an impossible ask. Nobody's cloning a human being. But over time, it becomes clear that's not really what's being asked at all.

What that request actually points to are three genuinely useful questions. What skills and behaviours make that person thrive in this particular team? What experience and attitude would a new hire need to succeed here in the same way? And what does the team need to become more capable overall, not just larger in headcount?

Framed that way, "find me the same person" stops being a literal brief and becomes a starting point for understanding what actually made the last hire work. It's worth adding that not every new hire is a guaranteed success, people are unpredictable, and things do occasionally go sideways regardless of how well a role is defined.

But if a hiring manager asks a recruiter to find "exactly the same person" and walks away without being asked any further questions, there’s drama waiting to happen. A good recruitment partner pushes past the literal request to understand what's genuinely driving it, and builds the brief around that instead. That's the difference between filling a seat and strengthening a team.

JobSearch 'Stalling'?

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 05:08:53 GMT

A job search can stall for lots of reasons. But there are moments where #momentum either builds or dies.

This one's for job hunters who want to stay in control. And for anyone who partners with and supports them

#jobsearch #hiring #recruitment

Almost everyone who's job hunted for any length of time has felt it: applications go out, interviews happen, due diligence is completed, and then, nothing. The process simply stalls. It happens more often than anyone would like, and it can feel entirely out of your hands.

Think about the momentum shifts you see in a sports match. A team can spend twenty minutes under pressure, barely holding on, and then win a single ball or challenge, and suddenly the entire game changes. That's momentum, and it's rarely accidental. It's created by small, decisive moments.

The same thing is true in a job search, and the good news is that you can create those moments yourself. An interview that goes exceptionally well because you prepared more thoroughly than anyone else in the process. A prompt, well-written email confirming genuine interest in the role straight after the interview. References or certificates delivered the moment they're requested, not days later. An employment contract, reviewed and signed quickly once due diligence is done.

None of this means the outcome is entirely in your hands. Job hunting is a team effort. A capable recruitment consultant can make the right call or push the right advice to a client at the right time. An employer that recognises strong talent needs to move fast enough not to lose it. Every part of the process depends on more than one player doing their part.

Whatever role you're playing in that process right now, the lever you can pull is speed and preparation on your side of the table. You can't control every part of the outcome, but you can absolutely control whether you're the reason the process stalls, or the reason it moves.

Hiring Signals 'The How-to'

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 09:00:34 GMT

Hopefully, my video last week was super clear about the need to establish a “new normal” for job hunting. More often than not, it will be too late when you get to see a job posting.

So please do more, better, and sooner. Here is how I suggest you go about it, in actual practice.

#jobsearch #claude #cowork #ai #tech #recruitment #careers #signals

A common thread among job seekers who've applied to dozens of roles with zero replies is timing. By the time a job is publicly advertised, the process is often already well underway internally, which means the newspaper-era approach to job hunting- wait for the ad, then apply- is no longer good enough.

The better approach borrows directly from sales and marketing practices. Instead of waiting for the "we're hiring" notice, look for the earlier signals that tend to come before it: hiring intent showing up in career sites, financial announcements, or general business news well ahead of an ad going live.

Putting this into practice doesn't need to be complicated. Start by setting up a recurring, well-defined prompt in an AI tool like Claude's Cowork space, one built to scan job advertisements, career pages, financial news and business news on a schedule. Run it, review the results, and refine the prompt based on what comes back. Whether the output lands in email or a messaging platform like Slack doesn't matter much; what matters is checking the quality of what's being surfaced and adjusting until it's genuinely useful.

Worth noting: running a recurring, scheduled search like this generally requires a paid tier of the AI tool involved rather than a free plan. And if any setup prompts feel technical along the way, the simplest answer is usually the right one; there's no need to overthink the configuration.

This kind of early signal tracking shifts a job search from reactive to proactive, catching opportunities before they're competing with a flood of other applicants. If you want a head start on building this out yourself, get in touch; we've already put together a working schedule and prompt template worth borrowing from.

Hiring Signals

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 21:00:01 GMT

⏰ Every job ad you've ever applied to was already late. The decision to hire was made weeks, perhaps months, before the post went live.

�� Marketers have been using buying/selling signals for a long while now. There's no reason job seekers can't build a similar system to get to that job first.

#jobads #jobsearch #hiringsignals #careers
Extend Consulting

Before LinkedIn, before Seek, before any of today's job platforms, job hunting started with a newspaper: a classified ad or a display listing on an actual page. You'd read what an employer needed and reach out directly. It was simple, and it was also remarkably accurate as a hiring signal, if a job was advertised, someone genuinely needed to fill it.

Decades later, the fundamentals haven't really changed, we've just swapped the physical page for a screen. What has changed is convenience, to the point of being almost counterproductive. A single click can send off a hundred applications, and then the silence sets in, with little clarity about why nobody's responding.

The truth is that hiring signals function much like buying signals in sales, and corporate growth marketers have understood and used them for years to read purchasing intent long before a sale happens. There's no reason job seekers can't apply the same thinking. A company expanding into a new city.

A startup closing a new funding round. Key staff moving to a competitor. Even understanding when a financial year opens and closes can indicate the right moment to approach an organisation. All of these are signals that hiring activity may be coming, well before any job ad appears.

The information behind all of these signals is genuinely out there and accessible. The real challenge isn't access, it's volume and noise. Sorting a meaningful signal from the general clutter of everyday information is where most people get stuck, and doing it manually simply doesn't scale.

That's exactly the kind of problem worth solving systematically, with a bit of the right technology behind it, rather than by watching job boards and hoping for the best.

Blind Job Applications

Mon, 11 May 2026 20:30:01 GMT

��‍♀️ Sending out applications and hearing nothing back?
You might be playing "blindfold darts" ��

The algorithm doesn't know you.
Job ads are often written to a role ideal.

And yet most job seekers keep firing off applications hoping something sticks.

There's a smarter way. Watch This ��

Your Professional Network is Pure Gold

Mon, 04 May 2026 20:30:00 GMT

$400. Two suits. No contacts. Here's how a single lunch changed everything when I migrated to Australia and what it taught me about one the most undervalued assets in your professional life.

When I arrived in Australia with an economics degree, two suits and $400 to his name, I had no idea a chance introduction would eventually lead to my first job in the country. That introduction, to the Peruvian ambassador led to a business lunch, which led to a conversation with the Peruvian consul in Sydney, who then shared a list of Peruvians who had built careers here.

What followed was a long chain of calls, coffee catch-ups, and conversations with engineers, business development professionals and technical specialists, eventually connecting me to a finance manager at IBM who put my name forward for a role. That first job in Australia did not come from a job board or a recruiter cold call. It came from a network built one conversation at a time.

The lesson for job seekers and professionals at any career stage: your network is not something you pull out only when you need it. Treating it like an emergency contact list, ignored until a redundancy or a career change forces your hand, wastes years of positive interactions. A genuine professional network is something you build steadily, tend regularly and contribute to long before you actually need it.

That means staying in touch with former colleagues even when there is nothing to ask for. It means showing curiosity about what other people are working on, not just what they might be able to do for you. It means following up on introductions, even the ones that feel inconsequential at the time, because you never know which node in that chain eventually opens a door.

Intentional does not have to mean transactional. The strongest networks are built on genuine interest and reciprocity, not a running tally of favours owed. Invest in relationships consistently, and when an opportunity does arise, you will already have the trust and rapport in place to make the most of it.

Working Trends for the Long-Term

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 05:05:45 GMT

This year we have been refining the way to attend the demands of our clients and ensure we elevate our candidates and contractors care. Sustained results will show us if we are focusing on the right areas.

As we looked for an "edge", a "reset"; the insights from the people we depend on and we trust as a business, told us in unequivocal terms to concentrate in a few fundamentals to underpin any changes.

This is what they shared with us.

I reckon this will be useful for you too, whether you are in #jobsearch or #hiring mode.

The world of work feels like it is changing daily, and reactions tend to swing between excitement and outright fear. Whether you are an employee, a business owner or an investor, the sweeping shifts happening across industries can feel overwhelming. But amid all this apparent mayhem, a handful of fundamentals remain constant, and understanding them can anchor your career strategy regardless of what changes next.

First, your professional network works in mysterious ways. A connection you never thought much of, someone you met briefly at a conference or a former colleague you have not spoken to in years, might be exactly the person who opens your next opportunity. Staying open and generous with your time and attention keeps those possibilities alive.

Second, relationships with mentors, sponsors and advocates need to be earned, not assumed. These connections do not appear simply because you need them. Show up with something to offer, whether that is insight, effort or genuine curiosity about someone else's work, and give people a reason to back you rather than waiting to be carried.

Third, get comfortable being challenged on your views and beliefs. Real professional and personal growth rarely happens inside an echo chamber. Seek out people and situations that test your thinking rather than confirm it.

Finally, recognise that your professional edge today often comes from unexpected places. Cross functional experience, exposure to different cultures and a varied career path are not baggage to explain away in interviews. They are differentiators that set you apart from candidates with a single, narrow track record.

None of these principles depend on the latest technology trend or economic cycle. They are durable because they are about how people build trust and value over time, not about chasing whatever is happening in the market this quarter.

Investing in your Career

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 21:30:02 GMT

When it’s raining, you can’t fix the roof. When the sun is out, you don’t need to.

Sound familiar? ��

Watch this if you’re serious about your career. ��

There is an old saying that the best time to fix a leaky roof is when the sun is out. Yet most of us wait until it is actually raining, and once the sun returns, the leak is forgotten until the next storm. The same pattern shows up constantly in how professionals manage their careers.

When the job market is strong, there is little urgency to update a CV, refresh a LinkedIn profile or invest time in career development. It is only when the market tightens that people scramble, rewriting resumes, reaching out to recruiters, and polishing interview skills under pressure. This reaction is understandable and deeply human, but it overlooks something important.

Your career is likely the single largest project you will ever manage. It spans decades, shapes your financial security, and touches your confidence, your family life and your sense of identity. Despite this, it is one of the areas people are least likely to invest in consistently. Many of us happily pay for a personal trainer or a nutritionist, yet rarely consider paying for structured career advice or coaching.

This is not a pitch to get you to buy a service. It is an invitation to genuinely reflect on how much your career is actually worth to you, and to let that reflection shape how you treat it, in good times as well as bad. If your career matters as much as your health or your finances, it deserves the same ongoing attention rather than emergency triage during a downturn.

The advice is simple: do not wait for the storm to fix the leak. Update your CV while you are still employed. Build your network before you need a referral. Sharpen your interview skills before you are actually job hunting. Sustainable career investment, made consistently over time, will always put you in a stronger position than a last-minute scramble.

The Hiring is 'Broken'

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 03:23:25 GMT

Everyone is frustrated with hiring right now and it's quite easy to assign blame. It might not be what you think. Here's my take

A common complaint in the recruitment world is that platforms like Seek, job aggregators and even LinkedIn are the reason hiring feels so broken today. It is an understandable frustration, but it misses the real issue entirely.

Employers are drowning in AI-generated applications that barely match the role. Job seekers submit application after application and hear nothing back. Roles sit open for months while everyone involved grows increasingly frustrated. The pain is real, but the platforms carrying the job ads are not the cause.

Job boards and LinkedIn are, at their core, advertising businesses. They are paid to post jobs and generate visibility, not to run a recruitment process. At best, they sit at the very top of the hiring funnel. What happens after that ad goes live is entirely down to the employer and their recruitment process, not the platform that hosted the listing.

Blaming a job board for a broken hiring process is a bit like blaming an online marketplace because you could not sell an old set of golf clubs, and had to deal with time-wasting buyers along the way. The marketplace did its job. What happened next was on you.

If you want to improve your hiring outcomes, the better questions to ask are internal ones. What happens on your end once an ad goes live? How quickly are strong candidates actually contacted? What is your process for communicating with candidates who are not a fit, so they do not disappear into silence?

Are you activating your employer brand and reaching the right people before you even post a role?

The real fixes to a fractured hiring process live in your own end-to-end workflow, not in switching job boards or complaining about advertising fees. Spend your time and resources there, and the frustration on both sides of the hiring table will start to ease.

After the Job Interview

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 21:00:01 GMT

Most job seekers see applying for jobs as a ‘press submit and wait’ game.

The ones who end up being remembered? They do something very few do.

I've spent years in recruitment watching the same pattern play out. Being memorable has very little to do with having a perfect CV. I'll tell you exactly what separates the candidates who get to have multiple job-related conversations from the ones who don't.

#jobsearch #recruitment #jobapplications
Extend Consulting

Most job applicants submit their resume and then simply wait, refreshing their inbox and hoping for a response. A small number do something different, and it makes a biggish difference. After you have submitted an application, find out who the internal talent acquisition contact or external recruiter responsible for filling that role is. This information is rarely hard to track down.

Once you have identified them, do not hesitate to reach out directly, whether by phone or email. A short, well prepared call should cover three things: how your skills and experience genuinely match the role's requirements, your authentic enthusiasm for the opportunity, and a small human touch, such as acknowledging that they may not have had a chance to review every application yet.

It is unlikely that this call will turn into a full interview on the spot. The recruiter's real objective at this stage is simply to quickly assess whether you are worth a closer look. So keep the conversation brief, get to the point and be genuine rather than rehearsed.

What if, during that conversation, you realise you are missing a key requirement for the role? Shift the conversation rather than ending it. Ask to be considered for other opportunities within the organisation while staying energetic and positive.

It is easy to think of job applications as purely transactional, a form submitted into a black box. But on both sides of that process are people, not just systems. Leave every interaction, whether it leads anywhere immediately or not, on a positive note. A recruiter who remembers you as professional, prepared and personable is far more likely to think of you for the next opening than one you never engaged with at all. Relationships built this way often open more doors than the original application ever could.

Job/Role Re-Invention

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 21:00:01 GMT

As a recruiter, I spend a lot of time thinking about where work is going, including mine of course. The loudest narrative right now: #AI is eliminating jobs, but what I’m actually seeing is something more interesting!

People leaning into AI and #tech in general are quickly differentiating themselves….

#jobsreinvented #careers #hiring #talent

Headlines regularly warn that marketing, HR, middle management and admin roles are disappearing, with AI, automation and cost cutting cited as the culprits. It is a dramatic narrative, but it does not match what is actually happening on the ground in recruitment.

The work itself, for the most part, still needs to be done. What these changes are producing is not the disappearance of roles but their reinvention. Across our own organisation and among recruiter colleagues, the pattern in current job assignments is consistent: employers are actively seeking professionals who understand process automation, have a working knowledge of enterprise level AI tools, and have the experience and judgement to rearchitect how a role is actually performed.

In other words, these roles are not shrinking. They are becoming more valuable, provided the people in them evolve alongside the tools reshaping their function. A marketing coordinator who understands how to use AI to accelerate campaign development is more valuable than one who does not, not less employable.

Whatever profession you are in, the message is the same: do not shrink back or assume your role is destined to disappear. Upskill deliberately in the tools reshaping your industry. Reframe how you talk about your value in interviews and performance conversations, moving away from simply listing tasks you complete and toward demonstrating how you achieve more with less. The goal is to position yourself as someone who extends what a system can do, not someone competing against it on cost.

This shift rewards curiosity over comfort. The professionals thriving right now are treating disruption as a chance to redefine their contribution, not a threat to wait out, and they are positioning themselves for the next version of their role before their employer even has to ask.

Age Bias

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 03:54:45 GMT

Age bias in #hiring is an obstacle many senior professionals face, but few openly discuss.

It’s complex to broach #ageism . A 90-second video won’t solve it for good, but it could help you tackle it effectively.

Mind you: if you ever sense assumptions being made about your adaptability, energy, or relevance, walking away is sometimes the right decision. Dodge the bullet kind of situation.

When you choose to stay in the process, preparation matters.

Here I share four areas where experienced professionals can proactively shape perception and strengthen their position during a #jobsearch .

I hope this is of practical value. Have a great rest of the week.

#careers #discrimination

This topic is especially relevant for senior professionals, broadly those with significant depth of skills and experience, often in the 50-plus age range. Occasionally, a recruiter or hiring manager may approach a conversation with preconceived ideas about candidates in this category.

Rarely is there any real malice behind it, but if left unaddressed, these assumptions can quietly work against you. Common misconceptions include the belief that you will demand above-market compensation, that you are set in your ways and resistant to change, that you are out of touch with current tools and practices in your field, or that you are more likely to coast once hired rather than proactively add value.

The best approach is to address these assumptions directly, even if they are never said out loud. Make it clear you understand the current market and know what comparable professionals are earning for the role you are applying to. During interviews, reference specific, recent examples that demonstrate your adaptability and your continued capacity to add value, not just achievements from early in your career.

Beyond your CV, actively highlight recent training, upskilling and hands-on experience with current tools and platforms relevant to the role. Finally, be clear and honest about your career goals. You do not need to pretend you want to stay in a particular role for the next ten years. Very few candidates, at any career stage, actually mean that when they say it.

The goal throughout is clarity: make it easy for the people evaluating you to see who you are as a professional, what you stand for in how you work, and the specific value you will bring if hired. Do not leave space for assumptions to define you when you have the evidence to define yourself.

A.I. in Jobsearch

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 03:14:31 GMT

⚡️Hundreds of “targeted” job applications sent in a matter of minutes

��CVs massaged to perfection against job descriptions

��‍♂️Best answers to job hashtag#interview questions suggested on the fly. You need to stop and answer this question;

��By Yourself��

Welcome to 2026

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 01:39:08 GMT

Looking for work is more often than not a full-time exerting activity, so you need the right strategy, tactics and mindset to succeed.

In this first video of ‘26, I break down actionable advice to help job seekers stand out, stay resilient, and move forward with clarity, no matter where you are in the process.

Trust this is of value to you, and it helps you start the year with a win!
Extend Consulting

Celebrating 7 Years at EXTEND

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 01:33:27 GMT

Extend Consulting is turning 7 Years

It feels like just yesterday when we started with big aspirations and tiny infrastructure. I can barely believe the success we’ve experienced and the community that has been created around Extend during this time.

That's all thanks to our clients, candidates, contractors, partners and supporters. Your loyalty and endorsements have been amazing motivators.

We're so excited for what the future holds and can't wait to continue serving you and adding value to your lives and organisations.

Nathan Albinagorta, so happy you’ve come along for the ride over the last three years.
Extend Consulting

#recruitment #asiapacific #gtm #permanent #contract

Your JobSearch Journey: Wrapping it all up

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 02:14:04 GMT

Here’s something nobody tells you:

The job offer isn’t the end of the process, but the start of a final phase.

The way you manage these last steps can decide not only whether you get the role, but how you get it.

And too many candidates give up control right when it matters most.

#employment #sales #tech #saas #customersuccess

Extend Consulting

Congratulations, you have made it through the interviews, the application process and the waiting, and you have an offer in hand. Before you relax completely, there are a few important things still worth your attention.

Start by evaluating your total compensation holistically rather than focusing solely on the upfront salary figure. Consider additional benefits, flexibility arrangements and long term career prospects with the organisation, particularly if growth within the company is part of your plans.

A slightly lower base salary attached to strong development opportunities and flexibility may serve you better long term than a marginally higher number with little room to grow. Just as importantly, stay engaged with the process all the way through to a signed and exchanged employment contract.

Offers can occasionally fall through between verbal acceptance and formal paperwork, so treat this stage with the same attention you gave the interviews. This includes organising your references promptly, confirming that reference checks are actually being completed in a timely manner, and obtaining any required documentation such as police checks where relevant to the role.

There are naturally many people involved in getting you to this point, from recruiters to hiring managers to HR teams managing onboarding logistics. Even so, it is worth remembering that you can, and should, remain as informed and in control of the process as possible right up until your first day. Ask questions if timelines slip. Follow up if you have not heard back on next steps within a reasonable window.

Getting an offer is a significant milestone, but the job search journey is not truly complete until every piece, compensation, contract and onboarding logistics, is properly closed out. A little diligence here protects the outcome you worked hard to secure.

Beyond the Interview, Winning with Follow Ups

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 01:29:44 GMT

What's the number one mistake #candidates make after they are done with a job interview?

It might be much less about what you said in the room.

It's what you stop yourself from doing afterwards

#employment #sales #tech #saas #customersuccess

#ExtendConsulting

What should you actually do once a job interview wraps up? As a recruiter, there is one habit worth building immediately after every interview: send a message, whether by email, call or text, to everyone who interviewed you, acknowledging and thanking them for the time they set aside.

If the interview went well, use this follow-up to briefly share your impressions of the team, the role and your continued interest in the opportunity. It does not need to be lengthy or elaborate, but it should feel genuine rather than templated.

Beyond that initial thank you, do not hesitate to follow up again on the status of your application, whether by phone, text or email, if you have not heard back within a reasonable timeframe. Many candidates worry this makes them appear pushy, but a well-timed, professional check-in is far more likely to be appreciated than resented.

The harder question is what to do when the response you eventually receive is not positive. In that moment, respond professionally regardless of how you feel privately. It is entirely fair to feel disappointed or frustrated, but keep that out of your written or spoken communication with the recruiter or hiring manager. A calm, gracious response leaves the door open for future opportunities with that organisation or that recruiter.

A good recruitment consultant should be able to help you unpack that outcome constructively, offering honest insight into what may have influenced the decision. Use that feedback, where you can get it, to draw genuine lessons and walk into your next interview better prepared than the last. Every interview, successful or not, is an opportunity to refine how you present yourself for the one that follows.

From Interviews to Offers

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 02:23:15 GMT

No cap, Your next interview could change everything.

So focus on the 3 things that really matter and convert your interviews into offers

#careers #jobsearch #employment #unlocking #tech #sales #customersuccess

If there is one word that should define your approach to every job interview, it is preparation. Not a quick skim of the job ad the night before, but genuine, deliberate preparation across three distinct areas, each of which deserves real time and attention rather than being rushed the day before.

First, research the team you would be joining, the organisation itself and the industry it operates in. Understanding the context you would be stepping into signals genuine interest and helps you ask sharper questions later, rather than the generic ones every other candidate is likely to ask.

Second, rehearse how you will connect your skills, experience and qualifications to the specific requirements of the role. Generic answers rarely land; answers tailored to the actual job, drawing on language from the job description itself, consistently perform better.

Third, prepare a solid set of questions of your own well in advance. Interviews are a two way conversation, not an interrogation, and coming without questions can suggest a lack of genuine interest.

A few specific moments deserve extra thought. When you are asked to tell the interviewer about yourself, keep your answer firmly in the professional realm.

This is not the moment for your life story from childhood onward; it is the moment to give a concise, relevant snapshot of your career trajectory and what led you to this conversation. Most interview questions beyond that will be behavioural in nature, asking you to describe how you have handled real situations in the past.

The STAR framework, Situation, Task, Action, Result, gives you a simple, reliable structure to answer these clearly and completely, without rambling or losing the interviewer partway through your answer.

Finally, make yourself memorable by asking insightful questions rather than generic ones about salary or hours. Ask about team culture, growth plans for the role or the department, and what specific traits have made previous people successful in this position. Questions like these show you are thinking seriously about fit and long term contribution, not just about securing an offer, and they often leave a stronger impression on an interviewer than a well rehearsed answer ever could.

Dispelling the Myths of the Job Hunt

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 02:05:50 GMT

Don't let common wisdom hold you back when job searching.

Let me bust a couple of rather popular myths about job hunting… and share what will move the needle when you’re looking for your next role.

#careers #jobsearch #employment #unlocking #tech #sales #customersuccess

Two common myths about job searching hold a lot of people back, and both are worth dispelling properly rather than accepting as simply the way things are. The first myth is that job searching is an inherently solitary process, with you as the sole stakeholder responsible for your own success. In reality, there is ample opportunity to engage your network and use other people's resources to widen your reach considerably.

Start with the people who already know you well professionally, then extend deliberately into their networks too. Second degree connections, people connected to your connections, are statistically very effective, whether you are looking for a role or trying to win business as an entrepreneur.

As you activate these relationships, remember that reciprocity matters just as much as reach. Look out for their search or business goals in return, recommend them on LinkedIn, or simply stay genuinely engaged rather than only reaching out when you need something from them. Relationships nurtured consistently over the long term will always outperform one off, transactional asks made in a moment of need.

The second myth is that more applications automatically equal more success. After two decades in recruitment, the pattern is unmistakably clear: the more applications you send out indiscriminately, the more rejections you accumulate in return.

Instead of relying on sheer volume and repeatedly clicking apply on anything remotely relevant, invest real, focused time identifying the right roles for you specifically. What makes a role genuinely right is not simply whether you are capable of doing the job. It is whether you can objectively and honestly say you would be among the best candidates for that particular position, given your specific mix of skills, experience and fit with what the employer actually needs.

Letting go of both myths changes how you approach the entire search. Job hunting becomes less about grinding through application after application alone, and considerably more about strategically activating your network while being genuinely selective about where you choose to invest your time and energy.

The Right Response to a Job Application

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 02:45:00 GMT

Applying for jobs is. not a numbers game

It's not even a game!

This is how you optimise a positive response to a job application

#jobsearch #jobhunt #jobseekers #worldofwork #extendconsulting

Applying for jobs is not, and should never be treated as, a numbers game. It is fundamentally a quality endeavour, and treating it that way from the outset will save you a great deal of time and meaningfully improve your results over the course of a search.

Of course, you will still apply to a reasonable number of roles over time. But before you click apply on any single one of them, make sure you can confidently and honestly answer one question: do I genuinely have the potential to be the best candidate for this particular role, given everything I bring to the table? If the honest answer is no, that application is unlikely to be a good use of either your time or the employer's, and your energy is almost always better spent elsewhere.

Once you have applied to roles that genuinely pass that test, there are two further things worth being unashamedly proactive about. First, connect and engage with the people involved in the selection process for the roles you have applied to, wherever you can identify them. Send connection invitations, follow their updates, and show genuine interest in the organisation and what it does, not as a shortcut around merit, but as a way of staying visible, informed and top of mind.

Second, follow up proactively on the status of every application you submit, whether it went directly to an employer or through a recruitment agency acting on their behalf. Silence after submitting an application is extremely common, but that does not mean you should simply accept it passively and move on without ever finding out where things stand.

The combination of genuine selectivity before you apply and consistent proactivity after you apply is what separates candidates who search efficiently from those who send out applications broadly and simply hope for the best. Quality targeting, paired with authentic ongoing engagement, will consistently produce better outcomes than volume alone ever could.

An effective use of a Resume

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 01:46:48 GMT

The end of the CV has been predicted for a while now. Despite new formats and hiring trends, it remains central to how most careers begin.

Writing an effective CV is less about liking it and more about leveraging it. Here is how you do it. ��

#jobsearch #jobhunt #jobseekers #worldofw o rk

The resume has plenty of critics, and plenty of people who will tell you it is becoming obsolete, but it remains a key component of any job search today. The key to using it effectively is understanding exactly what it is for, and just as importantly, what it is not for.

Your resume is not a marketing brochure designed to showcase every achievement, hobby and personal detail about you in exhaustive depth. Its sole job is to get you to the interview stage. Nothing more, nothing less. Once you genuinely accept that framing, a number of practical decisions about what to include and exclude become considerably easier to make.

Include only the information that is genuinely relevant to the specific role you are applying for at that moment. This is also the moment to eliminate personal details that used to be common on resumes but add no real value to an objective assessment of your professional suitability: photos, the suburb where you live, political convictions, religion, and marital or family status.

None of that has any bearing on whether you can do the job well, and including it only adds unnecessary clutter that distracts from what actually matters. Resist the temptation to invest heavily in elaborate design or unusual formatting.

A clean, simple one column layout is more likely to be read easily and completely, particularly since most resumes today are reviewed online or parsed by applicant tracking software before a human ever lays eyes on them. Skip the cover letter entirely unless you are genuinely confident it adds real, additional value that is not already covered in your resume. A generic cover letter written purely out of habit or obligation rarely helps your case.

Finally, treat your resume as just one part of a broader professional presence rather than the whole picture. An updated, actively maintained LinkedIn profile complements your resume by giving employers a fuller, more current picture of your professional story, and it is well worth investing time in alongside your CV itself.

Unlocking Careers: Honing Your Role

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 03:31:32 GMT

Before you send a single application, there’s one thing you must do to make your job search faster, more focused, and way less frustrating.

It’s the step that turns “I’m open to considering what is available” into “Here’s what I am aiming for”

It’s also the step that most people completely overlook or invest very little time in

Have a look
#Extend Consulting #JobSearch #CareerTips #RecruiterAdvice

Before you can search effectively for your next role, you owe yourself something that is easy to skip in the rush to start applying, but is genuinely essential: real clarity and direction about what that role actually looks like in practice.

Start by defining your ideal next position in as much detail as you can realistically manage. That means going well beyond a job title to think carefully about the function or specialty you want to work in, the industry you want to participate in, and the level of seniority you are genuinely aiming for at this point in your career.

Layer in your personal preferences too, since they matter just as much as the role itself. Are you looking for a hybrid arrangement, or would you prefer fully remote work? What salary range is both acceptable to you personally and realistic given current market conditions? Being genuinely specific here, rather than staying vague and figuring it out later, gives your entire search direction and momentum from day one.

Once you have a clear picture of that ideal role, connect it deliberately and explicitly to your actual skills, qualifications and experience to date. This step matters even more if you are changing careers or industries, where you will need to think carefully about your transferable skills and how best to frame them for an unfamiliar context.

It is not always obvious to an employer how experience gained in one field genuinely applies to another, so part of your job during this phase is to make that connection explicit for them rather than assuming they will make the leap themselves.

Finally, once your ideal role and your transferable strengths are properly mapped out, take the time to genuinely understand the market you are about to enter. What is the current climate for that particular type of role? Is demand strong, soft, or somewhere in between? Understanding market conditions before you start applying in earnest means you can calibrate both your expectations and your overall strategy realistically, rather than discovering the true landscape the hard way partway through your search.

Unlocking Careers: Starting your First Job Search

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 03:27:44 GMT

Off the back of the Unlocking Recruitment series posted over the last few weeks, today I am starting to share 1 minute or so videos entirely focused on Jobsearch and the Applicant/Candidate Journey.

Here we go

Before you start updating your CV or browsing at career sites / job boards, there is something you need to do / prepare for. Here it is:

Hope you find this clip and the subsequent ones useful

Extend Consulting Extend Skills

#permanent #contract #jobsearch and the applicant #candidate journey #tech

For most people, starting a job search feels genuinely daunting, and that reaction is entirely understandable rather than something to feel embarrassed about. Whether you chose to make a move on your own terms or the decision was effectively made for you by an employer, being back in the job market brings its own particular stress points that are worth acknowledging honestly.

The first, most practical step in getting ready for a search is not writing your CV or immediately scrolling job boards for hours. It is a genuine shift in mindset: deliberately transforming your stressors into your motivators. The way to do that is by informing and educating yourself thoroughly about the process ahead, so you feel genuinely prepared to take on each step of the journey, rather than facing it reactively and anxiously as things come up unexpectedly.

In practical terms, this starts with establishing a job search routine that actually fits your life. Base it on your real availability and lifestyle rather than some idealised version of how much time you feel you should be spending on the search. Decide which days you will focus on your search, which part of the day works best for you personally, and how many hours you will realistically commit each week. This is not about working around the clock at the expense of everything else; it is about creating a structure you can genuinely sustain over the weeks or months a search might take.

The nature of the tasks within those sessions will naturally shift over time, moving from research and networking early on toward applications, interview preparation and follow up further down the track. What matters most is holding onto the schedule itself as consistently as possible, even as the specific activities inside it evolve considerably. A structured, sustainable routine does far more to manage the emotional weight of a job search than any single clever tactic, simply because it replaces uncertainty with a plan you actually control.

Unlocking Recruitment

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 02:10:49 GMT

Unlocking Recruitment

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing a series of 1+ minute videos unpacking the key elements of an effective hashtag#recruitment process, I made this specifically for line managers and business who are involved in hashtag but aren’t recruitment specialists.

-These tips seemed to have resonated with many, and for those who missed the individual posts, I’ve now pulled them all together into this 7+ minute, Netflix-worthy video :).

-Hope you find it practical, actionable and end up with you recruiting in a smoother and consistent manner; most importantly, I trust this guide helps your produce a superior candidate experience.

Year End Hiring

d3d2a58b@Shazamme.com (VinylFirstName VinylLastName) — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 01:55:29 GMT

Business leaders are taking on the task of posting job ads due to recruitment challenges, but this approach often does not yield the desired candidates, highlighting the need to assess the effectiveness of online activities in relation to their goals.

A pattern showing up more and more often, particularly around busy hiring periods, is business leaders, sales directors and program managers personally advertising open roles within their own teams, rather than leaving that work entirely to internal recruitment as they might have in the past.

This trend looks like a symptom of internal recruitment teams asking business leaders to support candidate attraction efforts directly, often at a time when everyone across the organisation is being asked to do more with less. With reduced resources, tighter budgets and smaller recruitment teams, however well intentioned these individual efforts genuinely are, the overall feedback from leaders doing this is that it is not delivering the traction they hope for.

Either the online shares are not reaching enough of the right people to matter, or, just as often, they end up attracting candidates who are not actually suitable for the role in question, creating extra screening work rather than saving time.

If you are a business leader finding yourself in this position, do not feel guilty if your own posts are not generating the exposure or results you had expected going in. Recruitment and job platforms, by their nature, tend to favour whoever is paying for visibility and reach, which naturally limits how far an individual, unpaid share can realistically travel, regardless of how good the role or the message behind it actually is.

Two things are worth keeping firmly in mind if you find yourself taking on this kind of hiring support personally. First, keep a close eye on the actual return on investment from time spent posting and promoting roles yourself, rather than assuming effort automatically equals results.

Second, honestly evaluate the opportunity cost every time you spend hours on these activities, particularly when candidate attraction sits outside your core day to day role and responsibilities. That time often carries a higher value elsewhere in your actual job, and recognising that trade off clearly helps you decide when to lean on your recruitment team or an external partner instead of doing it all yourself.

Reference Checking

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 03:45:10 GMT

Preparing and managing your references early in the job search process is crucial for enhancing your application and demonstrating your suitability for the role.

#australia #careeradvice #jobapplication #australia #careeradvice #jobapplication #extend #extendconsulting #recruitment

Reference checking is an absolutely vital, though often overlooked, step in your job search process. It usually happens near the end of an application process, but that does not mean you should wait until the last minute to prepare for it.

To be clear on what it involves: reference checking is the process where a recruiter, hiring manager or decision-maker contacts the people you have nominated to help round out the picture of you as a candidate and confirm your suitability for a role. Handled well, it can genuinely strengthen your candidacy. Handled poorly, it can undo weeks of good impressions.

A few practical recommendations make a real difference. As early as possible, contact the people you plan to use as references and explain what you will need from them, especially if you have not been in touch for a while. Nobody wants an unexpected call from a recruiter years after you last spoke to them.

Choose the right people to nominate; the most valuable references are usually a former manager, a peer colleague, or someone who reported to you directly. Keep your references off your CV and out of the application itself until they are specifically requested; there is no need to share them prematurely.

Once you know a reference is about to be contacted, reach out to them immediately with context: details about the role, why you believe you were selected, and what they might want to emphasise in the conversation.

This is not about coaching them on what to say, but about making sure they have the information to speak accurately and confidently on your behalf. Finally, once a reference has had their conversation, follow up to thank them for their time. It is a small gesture that goes a long way in maintaining that relationship for the future.

Job Hunting Fundamentals

Sun, 11 Aug 2024 02:06:46 GMT

Job seekers should be selective in their job applications, focus on getting to the interview stage, keep track of their applications, and not be afraid to follow up with recruiters in order to manage their stress and increase their chances of success.

#extendconsulting #careeradvice #jobhunt #australia

Economic cycles come and go, job markets tighten and loosen depending on the year, but a set of job hunting fundamentals stay remarkably constant regardless of the conditions unfolding around you at any given time:

Be genuinely selective about the roles you choose to apply for, rather than applying broadly out of anxiety or habit. The right question to ask before applying is not simply whether you could technically do the job, but whether you have a real, honest chance of being the best person for it among the likely field of applicants.

That distinction matters enormously, because it shifts your focus from applying broadly and hoping for the best, to applying strategically and with genuine conviction. Remember, too, that your CV is not intended to capture your entire life story from start to finish. Its sole purpose is to get you to the interview stage, so keep it tightly focused on what is relevant to that specific goal.

You cannot manage or meaningfully control what you do not track consistently. No matter how many applications you have already submitted, keep a clear record of every relevant detail: the role, the company, the date you applied, and any follow up you have done since. A simple spreadsheet is more than sufficient for this purpose, and it will save you from losing track of exactly where things stand across multiple applications running in parallel.

Never feel embarrassed or too hesitant to follow up and ask a recruiter or talent professional directly for an update on your application status. You are fully entitled to know where things genuinely stand in a process you are an active part of, not a passive bystander to.

Finally, accept honestly that not everything in a job search is within your control, and concentrate your energy deliberately on what is. This distinction matters especially for your own wellbeing throughout what can be a long process. Make sure the things motivating you to search in the first place do not quietly turn into the things stressing you out day to day. Protecting that boundary is every bit as fundamental for job hunting as any single tactical piece of advice.

Thank you for 2023

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 02:46:10 GMT

Thank you for coming back every week to check out these insights, we hope that these were both informative and helpful. We'll see you in 2024

A.I. and Jobsearching

Sun, 26 Nov 2023 02:36:23 GMT

Despite the high volume of job applications A.I. collects from a job advertisement, the success rate of finding the correct candidate is low, this where job recruitment is in need of more efficient and effective job application technological process.

A story made the rounds recently about an AI powered app that let a single job seeker submit five thousand job applications in only a few hours, an idea that would have sounded like science fiction a few years ago.

The actual success rate of those applications was extremely low, but the job seeker considered the tool effective anyway, since it generated roughly the same number of interviews as their previous manual, one by one application process had, just with far less personal effort involved. Recruiters quoted in the same story were far less impressed, viewing it less as a legitimate efficiency tool and more as a spamming service flooding their inboxes with poorly matched candidates.

The honest take on this is simple: bring it on. Technology gets used by everyone, everywhere, across work and life in general, so there is little genuine sense in telling job seekers not to use tools they honestly believe will help their chances. If we resisted every new piece of technology on principle, we would still be filling out paper applications by hand and mailing them in via Australia Post.

The real caveat, though, is using that technology well rather than carelessly or lazily. There are genuinely useful applications of AI in a job search that go far beyond simply mass submitting applications and hoping something sticks. Using an AI tool to quickly learn fifty relevant facts about a company you are genuinely interested in, for example, can meaningfully sharpen how you present yourself in an interview or cover letter.

Similarly, software that compares your CV directly against a specific job description can help you understand and close genuine gaps before you apply, improving your actual chances of reaching interview stage rather than simply increasing your raw application count.

And if some job seekers do choose to send out five thousand applications regardless, so be it. If anything, it is a useful reminder for recruiters and employers to keep refining their own use of technology, so that the genuinely best candidates, not simply the most prolific applicants, continue to be the ones who actually get found and hired.

JobSearch over the Holidays

Sun, 19 Nov 2023 02:16:46 GMT

Holidays can be a tough time for Jobsearchers but that doesn't it should be something to stress over

If you find yourself actively job searching during the holiday period, the waiting can feel especially drawn out, perhaps more so than at any other point in the year. A single day between updates can feel far longer than twenty-four hours when you are anxious for news on your next step, and that feeling is completely normal.

There are a few things that can genuinely help reduce the uncertainty during this particular stretch of the calendar. Never feel hesitant about asking your contact, whether that is the hiring manager, an internal recruiter or an agency recruiter, about realistic timelines for the next step or for the process as a whole.

Realistic is the key word here. No one is scheduling interviews on Boxing Day, and expecting movement in that window is only setting yourself up for unnecessary disappointment and frustration. It also helps to remember that while landing your next role might feel like your absolute top priority right now, it is not necessarily the top priority for everyone else involved in the process at this exact moment.

People on the other side of the table are also wrapping up their own work for the year and thinking about their own families, holidays and time off. Factoring that in can genuinely help you manage your own expectations and emotions around the pace of things over this period.

As a general guide, many organisations hiring over this stretch are realistically expecting successful candidates to start around February rather than immediately in the new year. No recruiter has a perfect hit rate on timelines, and things do shift, but that does not mean you should stay quiet if you are genuinely wondering where things stand.

Reaching out for a call or an email update, simply to check in or have a chat, is always a reasonable thing to do, holidays included, and it beats sitting with the uncertainty alone.

Job Searching and Resume Tips for 2023

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 01:13:41 GMT

The year may be almost over, but that doesn't mean that people are still searching for jobs

Starting a New Job in 2024

d3d2a58b@Shazamme.com (VinylFirstName VinylLastName) — Sun, 15 Oct 2023 03:58:10 GMT

2024 feels like its not like a long way away but when preparing to move into, or start new job plan out the full process leading up to your first day

If you are actively job searching, your eventual first day at a new employer can feel like a distant, almost abstract point on the calendar, especially early in the process. In practice, though, a handful of concrete, practical factors determine exactly how much lead time sits between accepting an offer and actually starting in a new role.

On the job seeker's side, personal factors come into play. How much time off do you genuinely want to take between roles before diving into something new, particularly if it has been a while since your last proper break? What notice period do you owe your former employer, and are you planning to work that full period out rather than rushing an exit? These decisions shape your own realistic start date as much as anything the new employer ultimately decides.

On the hiring organisation's side, there are equally real constraints at play. Some companies run structured onboarding and welcome activities on a fixed calendar, meaning new starters are grouped into particular intake dates rather than starting whenever it happens to be convenient.

In other cases, the colleagues who need to be present to properly onboard a new hire might themselves be away or on leave at certain points in the year, pushing a start date out further than either party would ideally prefer.

The element that makes all of these factors work smoothly for both employer and employee is simple: clear, early communication and genuine visibility into each other's priorities and timelines. Assumptions on either side tend to create unnecessary friction and avoidable delay further down the track.

One clear exception to these longer, more considered timelines is contract work. Plenty of contract roles need someone in place immediately for urgent projects, with contractors expected to start within days rather than weeks. If a fast start genuinely matters to you, it is worth specifically looking at contract opportunities on the current job board rather than assuming every role follows the same extended onboarding runway.

A Tip for Career Management

Sun, 10 Sep 2023 03:32:46 GMT

The Johari Window is a model that helps individuals understand themselves and how others perceive them. These different quadrants have very helpful insights to improve your career management.

Understanding yourself better does not require a personality quiz or a horoscope. One genuinely useful model worth borrowing for career management purposes is the Johari window, first developed back in the 1950s to generate insight into how you see yourself compared to how others around you see you.

The model is organised into four quadrants. One covers what you know about yourself that no one else knows, essentially your private thoughts and attributes that stay entirely internal.

A second covers what both you and other people know about you, the shared, visible parts of your professional or even personal identity that everyone would broadly agree on.

A third covers what other people know about you that you do not fully recognise in yourself. And a fourth covers the subconscious space that neither you nor anyone else around you has fully uncovered yet.

In the specific context of managing your career, whether you are considering a change of profession following a long held calling, or simply trying to grow steadily in your current path, two of these quadrants are particularly worth paying deliberate attention to.

The quadrant covering traits both you and others recognise is useful because it confirms genuine alignment, giving you solid, confirmed ground to reinforce or deliberately shift certain behaviours with real confidence.

Arguably the most interesting quadrant, though, is the one covering traits you do not recognise in yourself but that others around you clearly do. Deliberately exploring this space can surface genuine blind spots, unexpected strengths, or attitudes and habits you never realised you carried into your work.

The next time you sit down for a performance review, a regular catch up with your manager, or an honest conversation with peers or direct reports, consider deliberately asking about this particular area. It is a simple way to surface insight that can meaningfully shape how you manage and grow your career.

Job Advertising

Sun, 27 Aug 2023 02:59:49 GMT

Job seekers should carefully analyze job ads to ensure they meet the requirements, while recruiters should be clear and precise in writing job ads to attract suitable applicants.

As job seekers, we owe it to ourselves to clearly understand the actual requirements laid out in a job advertisement, not just so we can perform the role competently if hired, but so we can honestly assess whether we have a genuine, realistic chance of being the best applicant for it among everyone else applying.

At the same time, recruiters, whether internal or agency based, carry an equal obligation to write job ads that are crisp, accurate and genuinely descriptive. It is easy for recruiters to blame external factors, a tough market, scarce skills, general economic conditions, whenever an ad fails to generate enough applications or enough genuinely suitable ones. Sometimes, though, the more useful and honest exercise is looking in the mirror and examining the ad itself for what it might be getting wrong.

There is no single magic formula for writing the perfect job ad, but one habit worth adopting consistently is spending real, deliberate time crafting a posting that is as accurate as possible while remaining genuinely attractive and engaging to read.

It helps to mentally separate the job description, the internal document that precisely and technically defines the role, from the job advertisement itself, which is fundamentally a piece of marketing designed to generate interest and attract applicants. That said, the essential elements of the job description, the core requirements, skills and experience genuinely needed, still need to carry across clearly and descriptively into the final ad copy.

Because most roles are posted and tracked entirely online these days, there is also a genuine, ongoing opportunity to refine an ad partway through the process based on the quality and volume of responses it actually generates.

There is real maneuvering room throughout the life of a posting, and treating job ads as something to actively test and iterate on, rather than write once and simply forget, ultimately benefits both recruiters trying to fill roles well and candidates trying to find a genuinely good fit.

Following Up

Sun, 06 Aug 2023 02:00:33 GMT

Job seekers should proactively follow up with recruiters to inquire about the status of their applications in order to demonstrate continued interest and engagement.

#jobsearch #extendconsulting #recruitment #jobseekeradvice

The waiting game that comes with job hunting is a genuinely uncomfortable experience, and it is one worth remembering vividly from the recruiter's side of the table too, having lived through it personally after first arriving in Australia and applying for a role here.

At the time, the anxiety of not hearing back became overwhelming enough to eventually pick up the phone and simply ask the organisation what was happening with the application. That decision felt genuinely risky in the moment, with a real, nagging fear of coming across as too eager, too desperate, or of somehow jeopardising the entire process just by asking a reasonable question.

The actual response received was the complete opposite of that fear: a clear, genuinely appreciated update on where things stood, why there had been a delay, and what the realistic next steps would look like from there.

From the other side of the desk now, as a recruiter, few things feel better than hearing from a candidate proactively following up, whether that comes through a text message, a LinkedIn message, a phone call or a simple email. It signals genuine ongoing interest and engagement, which is exactly the kind of candidate most recruiters want to keep front of mind as a process moves forward.

So if you find yourself hesitant to reach out to a recruitment consultant or an internal recruiter to ask what is happening with your application, that hesitation is genuinely worth pushing past. Following up like this does not risk your candidacy the way it might feel like it will in the moment.

If anything, it tends to help your standing rather than hurt it, and it will make you feel significantly more in control of a process that can otherwise feel entirely out of your hands throughout. Treat it as a normal, expected part of the process rather than an imposition, because most recruiters genuinely welcome it.

Getting in Control

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 01:03:11 GMT

To alleviate job seeker anxiety, it is important to understand the application process and timelines, gather information about remote interviews and follow-up conversations, and communicate with the talent acquisition team or recruitment consultant for more control over the recruitment process.

#jobsearch #extendconsulting #recruitment #jobseekeradvice

A significant source of anxiety during a job search comes simply from not having a clear picture of what the recruitment process actually looks like, how many stages it involves, or how long it is genuinely likely to take from start to finish. The good news is that this particular source of stress is almost entirely within your own control to address, with a bit of proactive effort.

As a job applicant, you genuinely owe it to yourself to understand as much as possible about the process you are involved in. Your first useful stop is the careers section of the company you are targeting, or the website of the recruitment agency you are working with, since many publish a helpful overview of their typical hiring process there for exactly this reason.

Beyond that, do not hesitate to ask direct, specific questions of the internal talent acquisition team or the recruitment consultant you are partnering with. Ask them to walk you through the different stages of the process and what each one actually involves in practice. Does it include any tests or formal assessments?

Will interviews be conducted remotely, or will you need to attend an office in person at some stage? It is also worth asking about the people you will meet along the way, what the recruiter or hiring team knows about them beyond their formal role, and how they have been to work with in previous hiring rounds they have run.

Finally, ask directly and specifically about timelines. Schedules in recruitment can be genuinely fluid and subject to change at short notice, but having even a rough sense of how long the overall process is likely to take helps you plan your own diary, stay genuinely available for follow-up conversations, and manage your expectations realistically throughout.

Gathering this information consistently puts you back in the driver's seat, giving you a significantly clearer, calmer view of a process that can otherwise feel opaque and entirely out of your hands.

"Key Words"

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 01:59:03 GMT

Choose your keywords carefully when preparing your online profile or resume for job searching, as recruiters use databases and keywords to find the right candidates, but make sure the keywords align with your actual experience.

For as long as job search advice has existed in its modern form, using the right keywords in your resume and online profile has been a consistent, repeated recommendation. The logic behind it is straightforward enough: recruiters rely on algorithms and keyword searches to surface matching candidates for their open roles, so using the right terminology genuinely helps you get found in the first place, ahead of candidates who are not using that same language.

There is, however, an important condition attached to that advice that often gets left out. Those keywords need to be genuinely backed up by real experience, involvement in relevant projects, hands-on use of the right technologies, and, where applicable, the right professional accreditations to match. Getting found through a keyword search is only ever the first hurdle in a much longer process.

As a recruiter, there is little more deflating than opening a resume that matches perfectly on keywords, only to work through the actual content in detail and discover those keywords do not genuinely correspond to the candidate's real, demonstrated experience. It undermines trust in the rest of the document almost immediately, and it rarely ends well for the applicant either, since the mismatch tends to surface quickly once a genuine conversation begins.

If your goal is to be both found and genuinely chosen for a role, select your keywords carefully and honestly, because they will only ever carry you part of the way through the process. The rest depends entirely on what a reviewer actually finds once they open your CV in full: how clearly and articulately you explain your real experience and skills in your own words.

Used well, keywords do exactly the job they are meant to do, which is simply getting your resume in front of the right person and, from there, into interview conversations where your genuine substance can finally speak for itself.

The Golden Rule for CV Writing

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 01:03:06 GMT

Incorporating elements from both tech and non-tech CVs can improve the chances of career progression.

#recruitment

Working across a range of professions, from technical roles like software architects, development managers and DevOps engineers, through to less technical roles such as sales and customer success, makes the different conventions between technical and non-technical resumes very clear.

Each type tends to have very specific characteristics shaped by the profession it represents, and interestingly, each type can genuinely learn something from the other.

Resumes from IT professionals tend to comprehensively list technical qualifications, accreditations, certifications and detailed platforms of expertise, sometimes at the expense of explaining the actual business impact of that technical work.

Strong resumes from non-technical professionals, on the other hand, tend to clearly describe the function of the role and how it adds value to the wider organisation, but sometimes miss an opportunity to reference expertise on specific tools or systems that would add credibility.

The practical takeaway for technical professionals is to make a deliberate effort to also outline the type of application or project you were personally involved in, and how that specific work contributed to real, measurable value for the company, not just the technical specifications of what you built along the way.

For non-technical professionals, the equivalent takeaway is to include relevant platforms, systems and any technical certifications you hold, even if your role itself is not technical in nature on paper. Doing so educates whoever is reviewing your CV about how sophisticated and technically fluent you genuinely are in performing your role day to day, which adds a layer of credibility that a purely functional description alone simply cannot provide.

Borrowing this one habit from the other side of the technical divide, regardless of which side you personally sit on, can meaningfully strengthen a CV and help it stand out for genuinely the right reasons at the next stage of the process. It is a small addition, but it consistently changes how thoroughly and confidently a reviewer can assess your suitability for a role, which is ultimately the entire purpose of the document in the first place.

State of the Market July 2023

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 02:17:12 GMT

Even though the news might be pessimistic, ensure that you analyse the market for your own skills and geography

A question that comes up occasionally is why so much content shared here covers news about retrenchments, both locally in Australia and globally, across tech and non-tech industries alike, rather than sticking to lighter subject matter.

The alternative is usually to focus more on positive, upbeat content about job search, careers and recruitment instead, and to leave the harder news out of the conversation entirely.

There are at least four genuine reasons for deliberately choosing to share the tougher side of the market alongside the positive. First, and most importantly, being realistic matters more than feeling comfortable in the short term.

Approaching your own job search or career decisions with as much accurate information as possible about actual market conditions puts you in a genuinely stronger position than approaching it armed only with optimism and hope.

Second, organisations letting staff go in one part of the business are very often hiring in other parts of that very same business at the exact same time. Understanding how this flow of people happens within organisations, and how it might realistically connect to your own specific skills and experience, can surface genuine opportunities that a purely negative headline on its own would otherwise obscure entirely.

Third, when companies you are applying to have downsized their own internal recruitment teams, it is worth keeping firmly in mind that the remaining team is very likely carrying a proportionally heavier workload than before.

That context is genuinely useful when interpreting response times and communication delays during your own application process, rather than mistakenly assuming disinterest where there is simply less available capacity to respond quickly.

Finally, it is always worth asking openly and directly whether a recruitment agency involved in your application process has an existing, established relationship with the hiring organisation in question. In a tighter market especially, that existing relationship can be a genuinely critical factor in how smoothly and effectively your application actually moves through the process from start to finish.

Deal Breaker

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 01:59:24 GMT

When preparing for a conversation or interview, know the position and have all relevant information, find a quiet space, avoid distractions, and don't hesitate to ask for interview tips and/or questions.

A first conversation with a recruiter or a hiring manager, even an informal one, can shape the entire rest of your candidacy for a role, so it is worth treating it with some seriousness rather than winging it. There are three genuine deal breakers worth avoiding at all costs if you want that first impression to work in your favour rather than against you.

The first is walking into the conversation without an understanding of the actual position being discussed. Few things are more off-putting to whoever is on the other end of the call than hearing a candidate ask, apologetically, what the role is actually about. Before any call or remote interview, however informal it seems, take the time to properly refresh yourself on the specific role, the company, and why you applied for it in the first place, so you can speak confidently from the very first question.
The second is failing to give the conversation your full, undivided attention. Find a quiet, ideally indoor space where you can genuinely focus, rather than attempting the call while walking down the street or stepping out of a noisy venue. This matters even more for video interviews, where background noise and distraction are immediately visible as well as audible to the person interviewing you, and where a scattered environment can quietly undercut an otherwise strong answer.
The third, and perhaps the most easily avoidable, is eating during the conversation. A glass of water is perfectly fine, but having a meal, however light you think it is, during an interview or recruiter call is a genuine mistake that undermines the seriousness of the moment. As the saying goes, crunch time is not munch time, and it is a rule worth taking literally.

Avoiding these three simple things costs nothing but a bit of preparation and awareness, yet it makes a disproportionate difference to how seriously and professionally you come across from the very first conversation.

Job Market

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 01:36:04 GMT

In a competitive job market, always remember to stay focused, focus on quality over quantity when applying for jobs, and be prompt in evaluating offers to increase the chance for success.

Whatever headlines you may be reading, the reality of the current job market is more balanced than the more alarming stories tend to suggest.

Some of us have certainly been more directly impacted than others, but recruiting is still genuinely happening, hiring is still genuinely happening, and the highly sought after skills of a couple of months ago remain in strong demand across most sectors.

New opportunities continue to open every single day, even when broader public sentiment feels overwhelmingly negative. As candidates, we understandably want to hear back as promptly as possible after sending an application, and recruiters and hiring managers do have plenty of tools available to keep candidates informed and engaged quickly throughout the process.

But it is worth remembering that behind those tools are real people, and internal talent teams have often been reduced in size themselves, meaning proportionally they may be managing an even heavier volume of applications and communication than before.

As a job applicant, it is worth being your own toughest critic when honestly assessing your suitability for a role. The person reviewing your resume or application is fundamentally asking whether you are the best person they can find for the role, whereas candidates often only ask themselves whether they could technically do the job.

Making sure we assess our own applications critically, rather than playing a volume game and applying broadly, helps avoid unnecessary and avoidable rejections.

Finally, it is worth remembering that the strongest candidates almost always have more than one offer to consider, regardless of what the broader economic climate looks like at any given time. Make sure you, as an employer or hiring manager, do not miss out on great candidates simply because your own evaluation process takes a little too long to run its course.

Speed and thoroughness are not mutually exclusive, and getting that balance right matters more in a competitive market than in a quiet one.

"Micro","Macro"

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 01:39:07 GMT

When looking for a job, making a hiring decision, or committing to invest, Who do you Trust?

As job seekers, hiring managers and businesspeople, it is genuinely hard to stay unaffected by the news cycle. On one side, macro-level indicators can look reasonably positive, while at the same time headlines about massive layoffs, both globally and closer to home, seem to be pointing in the opposite direction entirely.

Take Australia's low unemployment rate of around three and a half percent as an example. That figure means very little at the level of an individual household. In a family of four working adults, if even one of them loses their job, that single household is effectively facing a twenty five percent unemployment rate of its own, regardless of what the national headline number suggests.

The point here is not to add to anyone's stress, but rather to highlight that while it is genuinely worthwhile keeping an eye on macro level trends, there is enormous value in also understanding your own specific, local context. That means actively working to close your own information gaps rather than relying solely on national or global headlines to inform your decisions.

In practical terms, that looks like talking to your clients, your suppliers, peers working in similar companies, and people working in your own city or industry.

Those conversations help you understand what is genuinely happening at the micro level around you, giving you a fuller, more grounded picture that complements the bigger, broader trends you read about online rather than replacing them entirely.

Doing this deliberately, and consistently rather than only when anxiety spikes, helps ensure that the very things motivating you, whether that is your career, your business, or your job search, do not quietly turn into your biggest sources of stress instead. A balanced view of both the macro and the micro tends to produce far better decisions than either extreme on its own.

No "BUTS"

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 01:29:21 GMT

Most Four Letter Words don't faze me, but this Three Letter Word, can put someone in a "defensive mode" .

There is one particular word that consistently causes more damage in conversation than almost any other: "but". Whether it comes up in a formal interview, a client meeting, or a casual conversation with a friend, hearing that word tends to put people instantly on the defensive, bracing for bad news or an objection before it has even fully arrived.

A couple of familiar examples illustrate the point well. A client might say they need someone hired as soon as possible, "but" the budget will not be approved until much later in the year. A candidate might describe an excellent run of achievements at a previous company, "but" then explain how they felt held back by management along the way.

In both cases, the word "but" tends to overshadow and undercut everything genuinely positive that came just before it. Words genuinely matter, whether the setting is business, family, or friendship, and it is worth being deliberate about avoiding that particular three-letter word wherever possible.

One simple substitute is "and", which continues building on a point rather than seeming to cancel it out. In writing, a semicolon can serve a similar purpose, linking two related ideas without the abrupt pivot that "but" creates.

In practice, this might sound like saying "I'm busy right now, and I will be able to help you in the second week of May", or "I understand you don't have the budget for this right now, so let's work out a plan for the next few months."

Neither version loses the honesty of the original message; both simply deliver it without triggering an unnecessary defensive reaction in the person listening. There is a good reason people talk about wanting "no buts" in a conversation, and it is genuinely worth taking that advice literally rather than treating it as a throwaway phrase.

Soft Skills

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:38:29 GMT

Soft-skills are good to mention from a face value so how do you connect those skills to your technical skills to your actual performance?

In conversations with job seekers, it is genuinely encouraging to see candidates who have a strong understanding of their own soft, non-technical skills and can speak about them with real insight and self awareness. The challenge, more often than not, is what happens next in the conversation.

When you tell a hiring manager or a recruiter that you are insightful, resourceful, a natural leader, or persistent, you are taking on a real risk if you leave those claims unconnected to any concrete outcome relevant to the role you are applying for.

Labels on their own, however accurate they might genuinely be, do very little to convince someone who has just met you and has no other evidence to go on beyond your own word, especially when every other candidate is likely using very similar language to describe themselves.

What actually helps both you and your interviewer is making the effort to contextualise those attributes with specific, real examples. Rather than simply stating that you are a natural leader, describe how that leadership actually lifted the morale of your team during a particular period, or helped a group navigate a specific challenge together. Instead of claiming you are creative, explain how that creativity translated into devising a genuinely new business process that solved a real problem your team or organisation was facing.

Making this connection consistently between your soft skills and tangible, real-world outcomes transforms a list of pleasant-sounding adjectives into genuinely persuasive evidence of how you actually operate day to day. It gives the person assessing you something concrete to evaluate, rather than asking them to simply take your word for it, and it is a habit well worth building into how you talk about yourself in any interview, performance review or professional conversation going forward, since it rarely fails to strengthen your case.

A Resume's Top 5 Tips

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 13:09:35 GMT

Going into the New Year with a Fresh Start, Here are 5 Tips to make your Jobsearch more effective for 2023

For anyone actively looking for work right now, here are five practical resume tips worth keeping close at hand throughout the entire search, from first draft to final submission.

Love them or hate them, resumes remain firmly in use across the recruitment process, so it is worth remembering their actual purpose: getting you to the next stage, most likely an interview, and nothing more grandiose than that. It is not a biography, and it is not marketing material, so treat it accordingly and keep it tightly focused throughout.

Secondly, make sure the document contains information that genuinely helps a reviewer objectively assess your application. At the same time, protect your own privacy by leaving out details like your home address or marital status, which add nothing to that assessment.

Third, check, recheck and then check again for mistakes and typos before you send it anywhere. Having someone else review it with a fresh pair of eyes is invaluable here, since there is nothing more damaging than claiming strong attention to detail on a resume that itself contains an obvious, avoidable error.

Fourth, from plenty of personal experience, it is remarkably easy to convince yourself you can do a job the moment you see an appealing ad. Push past that instinct and critically assess whether you are genuinely among the best, or potentially the best, candidates for that specific position, to avoid unnecessary and avoidable rejections along the way.

Finally, remote or hybrid work arrangements are no longer a perk or a special privilege, and a requirement to be in the office is not a punishment either. Make sure you have a clear, candid, transparent conversation with any prospective employer to properly understand the real world working arrangements moving forward, rather than assuming or guessing based on the job title alone.

"Open to Work"

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 12:09:53 GMT

Are you, "Open to Work? I am!"

Following a wave of serious redundancies across the tech sector globally, with a number of CEOs publicly explaining those decisions as a correction after overhiring in previous months, plenty of people understandably began signalling on LinkedIn that they were actively looking for work, often using the platform's green "Open to Work" badge.

What stands out, particularly on LinkedIn, is how much anxiety and second-guessing surrounds using that particular badge and publicly announcing an active job search. It is worth reframing that anxiety entirely.

Everyone who takes their presence on LinkedIn even half seriously is, in some sense, open to work. Recruiters are open to work in the sense of actively looking for candidates and clients. Business owners are open to talking with potential customers. Suppliers are open to new partnerships. Being open to opportunity in some form is essentially the entire reason the platform exists in the first place.

Once you genuinely accept that framing, there is no real debate, no stigma, and no shame in visibly signalling that you are looking for a role, the same way everyone else on the platform is quietly or openly signalling their own version of the same thing. If you are currently wearing that green badge, that is a genuinely fantastic and proactive thing to be doing, not something to feel self-conscious about.

The one piece of practical advice worth holding onto is this: do not waste time on tire-kickers or curious passersby who have no real intent behind their interest. Quickly and honestly assess the companies, recruiters and internal talent people you engage with, and focus your energy and time on the ones who can genuinely help you move toward the outcome you are actually trying to achieve, rather than spreading yourself thin across every conversation that comes your way.

And if you feel you could use a bit more encouragement or more specific career guidance along the way, reaching out is always worthwhile.

Uneccessary Rejection

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 01:43:11 GMT

You noticed how many 'starting a new role' posts are showing on LinkedIn, right?

LinkedIn's "new role" announcement feature has been getting a lot of use lately, with plenty of people sharing that they have started a fresh position.

That is obviously a great thing to see, driven partly by LinkedIn actively promoting the functionality, but also by genuine, real shifts happening in how people approach their careers today.

If you are considering a new role or a career change yourself, you absolutely owe it to yourself to explore new opportunities as they come up. The one thing worth actively protecting yourself against along the way is unnecessary, avoidable rejection.

Avoiding that kind of rejection largely comes down to one shift in mindset: applying because you can genuinely prove you can do a role, not simply because you believe you could do it in theory. There are two practical ways to do this:

First, go through your CV; make sure your experience and skills are directly and clearly connected to the actual requirements of the new role. Where the connection is not direct, take the time to explicitly outline the transferability of your skills and experience rather than leaving that link for the reader to guess.

Second, once your CV has done its job of getting you to the interview stage, use that opportunity deliberately to confirm everything you claimed on paper and to help your interviewers understand your suitability from multiple angles, including cultural fit, how your prospective team collaborates and operates day to day, and your general approach to work.

I don’t know anyone who enjoys being rejected, so being tough and stringent in your own honest self-assessment before submitting an application is one of the most effective ways to protect yourself from that outcome in the first place. A little extra discipline before you click “apply” saves considerably more disappointment further down the track.

Behind the Numbers

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Tue, 24 May 2022 00:33:05 GMT

Sometimes, the numbers that we see from a "face value" perspective don't always tell us the truth, sometimes they could be lies to cover up something, here are some statistics that demonstrate what really happens "Behind the Numbers"

Looking back at recruitment activity data gathered from working directly with clients and candidates since January 2021 turns up a handful of genuinely interesting, hard numbers worth sharing rather than relying purely on anecdote.

Every single candidate placed over that period started their new role and had their first day at work without ever having a face-to-face interview or in-person interaction beforehand. That held true regardless of whether restrictions were in place at the time, and regardless of whether the candidate and hiring manager were based in the same city or working across an entirely international recruitment process instead.

From July 2021 onward, eighty per cent of candidates being actively worked with in connection with specific role openings were also participating in other recruitment processes simultaneously, with other organisations and agencies at the same time. This is a strong reminder that genuinely strong candidates are rarely sitting still waiting on a single opportunity to come through.

Also from July 2021 onward, the clients who were most successful in having their offers accepted consistently ran a process with only two key interviews. When hiring organisations became too hesitant or overly deliberate about a particular candidate, and later went back to reconsider them, those candidates had typically already accepted a role elsewhere within a window of just two to four weeks, across the entire period examined.

And finally, across many years of running this business, there has been exactly one candidate who ghosted me and my client after receiving a formal letter of offer. If you are reading this, Mike, this one is for you :)

These small pieces of data hopefully offer some useful, grounded insight into how your own recruitment activities might be tracking against broader patterns visible in the market right now, whether you sit on the hiring side or the candidate side of the table.

"Changes"

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 07:12:48 GMT

Ok, so you've decided... You're changing roles, or making a more substantial career move. Who and what do you rely on? #jobseekers #careers #worldofwork #hybridwork #video

Whether it is a fairly informal career conversation or a more formal job interview, there are three key areas that consistently come up when speaking with customer success professionals about their roles.

The first is a genuinely detailed conversation about the technology stack, the platforms and the systems these professionals use in their day-to-day work.

That conversation speaks directly to the level of sophistication with which someone approaches their job on a regular basis, beyond what a job title alone can convey. As part of that same thread, it is also worth exploring whether they have had the opportunity to actually deploy or roll out customer success-related applications themselves, rather than simply using tools someone else set up for them.

The second area is understanding the organisation itself, including what the reporting hierarchy looks like and which broader part of the business the person sits within. Are they part of a technical team, or aligned more closely with customer support?

Do they report into a chief revenue officer, or somewhere else entirely? These structural details give real insight into the underlying ethos of the organisation, along with the drivers and genuine perceptions of what the role is meant to achieve.

The third and final area is compensation, and specifically how these professionals are rewarded for their work. Understanding the incentive structure behind a role reveals a great deal about the behaviours and priorities it actually drives day-to-day, whether that emphasis falls on service, support, product feedback, renewals, or some combination of all of them.

CS: Interviews

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 23:47:18 GMT

Having #career conversations with or #interviewing #CustomerSuccess professionals? Me Too

Candidate Attraction

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 23:37:21 GMT

Might this be one weak link in your #candidateexperience workflow? Here is what you can do about it

A Message to End the Year

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 01:31:25 GMT

Our Warmest greetings and wishes to you for the Holidays

Salary Negotiation

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 00:48:58 GMT

Have a full understanding towards the pay levels in the market, and be prepared to have an articulate and informed conversation when discussing this topic

Attending Succuessful Meetings

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 00:13:38 GMT

Always ask yourself this, "What is that's going to make your meetings successful one from your perspective along with the perspective of your counterparts?"

The Great Resignation

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 23:43:53 GMT

There are many views and perspectives on this theme, it is best for you to go to the source itself to make and form your own opinion.

Here is the Link to the Reading so you can make your own opinion on this subject.

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/great-attrition-or-great-attraction-the-choice-is-yours

Remember the Role

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 02:36:32 GMT

As a jobseeker, when applied for multiple roles, keep go track on which role in order to have a effective conversation with the recruiter

The "Success Hack"

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 00:28:29 GMT

Lifehack gadgets are not always the only answer, with your own knowledge and skills you can create your own lifehacks

"Don't do it for the LIKES"

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 03:23:21 GMT

No matter what the the purpose behind is sharing your posts online, make sure that you keep an eye on the key outcomes you want from them

It's not always about Money and Prestige

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 01:07:26 GMT

Money is important, but you must look at the job comprehensively

Taking the "Monkey" off the Client's Back

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 01:31:47 GMT

"Customer Centredness cannot be faked, but cannot be hidden either"

The Candidate said "Yes", What Happens Now?

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 01:02:25 GMT

As an Employer, don't hesistate to promote your company's perks to the candidates

Your "Special Sauce"/Unique Attribute at Interview Meetings

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 01:04:19 GMT

What is it that your Job Interviewer really wants to find out about you?

Crunch Time is not "Munch" Time

jorge@extendrecruitment.com (Jorge Albinagorta ) — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 01:25:42 GMT

Eating and Drinking during your Video Conferences, What do you Think?

Applying for a role vs Selling

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 03:57:22 GMT

Applying for a role just the same as selling a product-service? Mnn kinda sorta yeah nah. Here is how you make that analogy work for you as a job candidate!

Negotiating Salary? Don't !!

Sun, 02 Aug 2020 16:48:00 GMT

Never ever again have salary negotiations! - there is a better way to get the compensation you want. Watch the video and give us your feedback....

Making Yourself Memorable

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 04:03:11 GMT

This week's #video: Make yourself memorable!

Interviewing Customer Success Professionals

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 03:55:39 GMT

Are you interviewing or having career conversations with #customersuccess professionals? If you are, let me share with you the 3 themes I like to touch on whenever I speak with them... hope it adds value #video #recruiting #talentacquisition #work #interviewing

The Business Of You

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 03:42:32 GMT

... I reckon there is no difference between a business owner looking to secure new work and a job seeker gunning for their next role. Here's why.. agree? let me know what you think.

Your Email Superpower

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Sat, 30 May 2020 03:44:09 GMT

…. here is a quick tip to increase the chance of you getting the response you need when you need it.

Be Ready!!

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Thu, 21 May 2020 03:11:19 GMT

This week's video "Be Ready"... just a practical recommendation to tackle opportunities promptly, no matter the circumstances.

On Mother's Day

Fri, 08 May 2020 16:37:00 GMT

Super pumped to come to you on this #Sunday - a special day for sure..Some things have changed some things are rather constant ... like a Mother’s Love.Could not help sharing my appreciation to the only #influencer I've ever paid attention to.#video #australia

A Leveraged Pivot

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 03:45:06 GMT

I Won't get in your way if your goal is to be the next top LinkedIn influencer, Instagram model or Facebook DJ... :).... Here is a simple suggestion to give your professional or business pivot a high chance of #success, whether you are an individual or organisation.... Enjoy!

Do You Like or Love your job?

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 03:46:22 GMT

I have been a bit guilty of watching a bit too much Netflix recently; I caught a straight-to-streaming movie the other day that had one of the characters saying something like:

Is your CV the sharpest tool in your job search shed?

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 02:48:23 GMT

CV resume IT technology customer success sales cloud saas advice careers recruitment jobs australia

Extend's Holiday Message

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Tue, 24 Dec 2019 02:49:07 GMT

Our most sincere holiday message for what has been a crazy and amazing 2019

Skill up and get that job!

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 05:35:00 GMT

Picking up skills and getting formal accreditations might be a straight path into a new career...

Watch this week's video.

Motivators and Stressors

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 05:20:00 GMT

The Importance of Customer Success (Video)

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 09:23:00 GMT

My take on the importance of the Customer Success function not only for tech business, and why CS investment should not be seen as overhead costs

Perkbox for Extend Contractors

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 02:50:49 GMT

Great news to share!

Tips For Hiring Customer Success Professionals

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 02:53:05 GMT

You may have your interview structures down pat. or maybe not! In any case you will benefit for factoring in Five ares to explore specially when interviewing or having chats with Customer Success Pros. Have a look!

Turbocharge Your Job Hunting Effort Immediately!

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 02:53:42 GMT

Just a simple but powerful strategy to adopt in order to ensure that those helping you get the next role are effective and efficient for you.

Tackling Problems That Seem Unsolvable

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 22:18:00 GMT

This is what a simple phone game app has taught me about resolving issues that apparently cannot be fixed. Deceptively simple, but if you are like me, it will work for you too!

Extend Recruitment Turns One!

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 02:54:49 GMT

Enhance Your CV In Seconds

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Sat, 19 Oct 2019 02:55:15 GMT

Just one small change in your CV can make a big difference when it comes to get to the next stage in the recruitment process. Make it work for you!

The State of Customer Success (PDF)

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 20:25:00 GMT

TSIA (Technology Services Industry Association) Report for Customer Success in 2019. US-centric but I found very valuable.

Download the report here

Or sign up if you want to connect with TSIA directly (which is what I did :)

Enjoy

The Pillars Of Your Business Success

Tue, 10 Sep 2019 06:42:00 GMT

Sharing the first Extend Recruitment Paper with clients and candidates. Download it here !

Happy Fathers Day

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Mon, 02 Sep 2019 06:34:00 GMT

A special Sunday edition of my weekly video to wish all fathers ad father figures a great day!

The Best Employee Experience

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 03:56:49 GMT

"Employee Experience" can be a fairly sophisticated affair; having said that, there are a few fundamental elements to put in practice before overcomplicating matters. Here is my view on how I was positively influenced by an amazing experience. Enjoy!

Extending Into Contract Recruitment (Video)

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 03:57:29 GMT

Delighted to announce that we are "Extending" into Contract Recruitment, and sharing an insights on professional decency and online/offline behavior. Enjoy!

Moving out of Doubt into Action (Video)

Sun, 11 Aug 2019 16:51:00 GMT

When it comes to move out of a stage of 'fear' and 'doubt' there is no better friend than your brain. Here is how you get into "Joy" asap :)

How Fragile is Your Career? (Video)

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Sat, 03 Aug 2019 17:27:00 GMT

How fragile is your career? How vulnerable are you to changes in your job that you may not be able to influence. What can you do to have a more antifragile career?

On Being Realistic and Generous when Job Hunting

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 03:58:59 GMT

A quick video sharing a few insights on being realistic and generous when Job Hunting

Jobs and The Economy Cycles

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 04:36:00 GMT

Not many people are betting as to when a recession will hit Australia, but most are betting that it will happen. I have a view on what is "the" profession that will thrive (in terms of demand for talent) if/when the economy slows down

The AWS Summit 2019 - Sydney

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 03:19:00 GMT

Very impressed with what I saw at the Amazon Summit in Sydney this year. Here is my super brief summary of the event!

What makes a marketer Great? (video)

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Thu, 02 May 2019 05:47:00 GMT

My take on what makes a marketer Great. Spoiler alert: it's not technical know-how, it's not about functional expertise, it's not about using martech

Optimising The New Employee Onboarding Experience

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 04:00:22 GMT

Joining a new organisation as an employee is quite a bit like traveling to a country you've never visited before...

My take on #onboarding and how #newhires can maximise the ramp up experience in the immediate and long term.

On Mentoring and Being Thankful (Video)

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 07:24:00 GMT

A number of things were the catalysts for this video.

Firstly, remembering how many people have supported me in my professional life with their guidance and tangible help; this was also the week where I was part of a panel to speak to MBA students about their future, their careers, and what an MBA qualification truly means.

I truly believe that a mentor is a "must have" at some point in your life.

What employers look for in UX/UI Designers (Video)

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 02:58:30 GMT

The key traits employers look for in UX / UI designers to select the best of the best from the rest

Your Customer Success Journey Starts Now!

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 07:24:39 GMT

Have you heard about Customer Success (CS) yet?

You certainly may want to know a bit more about this term, as businesses start to focus on what Success means to its customers, organisational performance and profitability.

Here is a quick Q&A on CS that hopefully will get you better acquainted with the term:

1. What is the definition of Customer Success?

The most accepted, answer comes from the work developed by Lincoln Murphy, who has helped develop a benchmark in Customer Success since the term and activity began to take shape in the market: "Customer Success is when your customers achieve their desired result through interactions with your company".

2. Is CS a method, a business strategy or a concept?

Let's look at the definitions of these terms to help answer this question.

A method is a procedure, technique, or steps to do something.

Strategy is the art of effectively applying available resources and exploiting favorable conditions to achieve certain objectives.

A concept is an opinion, point of view, conviction.

So, if there is conviction about steps to be taken to achieve a superior business outcome, this will trigger the application of certain techniques and procedures, making effective use of the resources available to achieve a desired outcome.

From this it follows that CS is a concept at its root. From then on, the concept will translate into a company value, business culture trait, a team, etc.

3. Where did the Customer Success term come from?

The first company that applied techniques to improve customer interactions was Salesforce in 1999. From then on, these techniques spread through employees who moved to different companies and applied the concept to their new business environments.

The first reports where CS is actually named so, go back to 2014 in Brazil.

4. Is CS an isolated department or a ad-hoc practitioner in my company?

Neither.

If you agree with our previous arguments - that CS is a concept - then it will be easy to understand that it goes beyond an individual or business area.

The conceptualisation of CS helps understand what is its place in organisations, as it drives the setting of a parameters and guidelines to gauge if the client service mix is actually being delivered by the entire business.

5. Is CS a type of premium support intended to be provided only to customers that pay more or are considered more valuable?

It is not.

More to the point, the goal of CS is to understand customer success, not only when clients need support, but in all the interactions they have with the company, including product/service research, buying decision, onboarding, etc.

6. Can any company apply CS concepts?

Yes.

If the company has customers, it needs to worry about customer success. Simple!

Currently the concept is predominant in startups, SaaS and technology companies, but it is just a matter of time before it is adopted by other businesses and markets. We are aware of clinics, radio stations, bakeries and law firms who have embraced CS.

7. Will the application of CS help you get actionable data?

Yes.

Some metrics are already very popular among technology companies and SaaS, such as CAC, lifetime value, Churn, net promoter score. But these metrics need to go beyond specific transaction satisfaction; they need to tell a customer's life story.

Other important data driven insights from CS practices: customers segments trends, regional trends, contact level habits; how frequently do you need to contact clients to preserve and enhance their engagement with your business? And much more!

8. Who works with CS, who are the professionals in the area?

There are various nomenclatures, such as CSM (customer success manager), CSE (customer success experience), CSI (customer success implementation).

There is still no formal professional education or courses for CS practitioners. Roles connected to CS are administration, training, pre-sales, marketing, technical.

The profile of the CS professional is that of a dynamic individual and group, always closely connected to the product areas of the company and a strong tendency to use well rounded communication and relationships skills to become client advocates.

It is my observation that the majority of companies are developing CS experts by selecting talent with strong comms and relationship skills who then go onto being trained in the products and services their business delivers.

9. As a business, where to begin with Customer Success?

Putting the customer as the center of your business and mapping their journey is essential.

You can start by separating customers by groups, and looking for commonalities in terms of their experience with your product or service. This segmentation will also create streams of work within your business as to what to tackle first in terms of your teams’ focus areas (e.g. onboarding).

If the company already has a large number of customers, we hope that you have some history for these customers. If you have not, do not worry, today is the best day to start gathering this information.

10. How do you actually find out how your customers define “Success”?

Two quick steps that may sound obvious: Mapping the client's journey AND asking them.

Let's take an example: have you noticed how the "journey" in a supermarket unfolds in front of you?

Usually you enter from one side; in the corridor where the pasta is the cheese and sauce will be handy; the exit is on the other side. That is the journey

Success to me would be to have the desired brand, but also to have olive oil, perhaps a quick recipe sheet in the same aisle and being able to pay without having to queue!

What I tried to illustrate is that mapping the journey is different from knowing what Success is for each one of us. So it is important to stay in tune with how you customers use your product, how they generate value from it, and how you ultimately enable “Success” from their perspective,

Now that you are more familiar with what Customer Success is I hope you put this concept in your business radar. Implementing Customer Success in organisations, as I will try to argue in subsequent articles is both an operational task but also involves deep buy-in at corporate culture level.

** This article is the translation of the original post written by Ms Roberta Silva, Customer Success Specialist. Her article was adapted, translated and posted here with her permission.

An Employer Branding analogy

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 01:00:00 GMT

Recruitment agencies and corporate recruiters are all over social media, identifying and attracting the talent they (or their clients) need. Recruitment marketers spend significant resources pimping up Linkedin / Facebook Pages, producing cool Insta / Twitter streams, enabling prompt job-related online chats, etc.

Awesome!

Observing the current breadth and depth of social in recruitment might lead you to think that it is self-sufficient to place candidates (e.g. filling a temp role over Messenger) as well as build candidate loyalty in the long term. In this scenario, the recruiter’s brand experience IS the interaction over a specific channel.

I reckon this will be the case only on a number of occasions.

Rather, social apps are the spokes of a business’ online marketing; but there is still a need for a hub, a home base to stimulate a deeper, more familiar - dare I say special - connection between company and potential employee and applicant. This hub is your agency website or corporate careers site.

When I look at the recruitment marketing ecosystem for agencies and employers, I feel there is a strong risk of over-investing in social and undernourishing your website. The best way to test that for your own particular situation might be to ask:

Can you sustain and enhance the buzz generated by your social presence when your visitors reach your website?
This is how I see the risk of this imbalance of investment between social and your website.

Imagine you go to a great, glitzy bar: perfect music and lighting, sophisticated people all over, amazing atmosphere. You’re so in your element playing the part to perfection, in the company of a few friends who just add to your comfort and confidence.

Suddenly across the room, you grab someone’s attention; in an instant, they come into focus for you as well. You approach, say hi, and spend the next few hours enjoying amazing moments of conversation, laughter, connection.

It’s late now. you hear the call for a last round, but you and your soulmate don’t want to leave yet; both of you want to know more of each other. A coffee down the road to continue the chat, and then you pop the question: “Come to my place?”

At that moment (or before you say the words) you think: In which condition will this person find my apartment? When did I last vacuum? What is in the fridge other than milk?

I am hopeful you know where I am going with this…

If you engage job seekers (and clients) on social, and they are gracious to connect, and generous enough to give you their time, and finally accept your invitation to your place - your company website - What they find there? Will your site help you grow closer to them or will they be let down because it is not a shiny as you appeared at the bar?

Stills from Wong Kar-Wai's movie "In The Mood for Love" (2000)

If you want a pay rise, don't ask for it! (Video)

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT

My take on the best way to guarantee a pay increase, without having to move jobs!

The rise of Tech needs more of our humanity in our work (Video)

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT

There are many predictions about the world of work and how it will change with the rise and rise of Technology. Most of them depict a gloomy picture.

Not for Tech Sales

Your External Locus of Control

wow@shazamme.com (Default Author) — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT

Whether you are job searching, leading a business, or focused on a personal project...

Do you believe your successes or setbacks are of “your own making”?

Or rather feel that you are not in control of most of what you experience?

I have my own bias ... and this is what I do to keep myself on check...