Understanding the Kiwi workplace:

Tips on working in New Zealand

Kiwi Workplace Culture Quiz

Networking and Confidence:

The truth about networking

How to sound confident

Creating career confidence

Choosing your Email Address & your Public Image:

When you are looking for work, choose your email address carefully.  Your email address says more about you than you may realise.  If necessary, create a new email account just for job applications.  A good protocol is to use your first and last names @ (then the name of your service provider – e.g. Hotmail).com.  Take a look at: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/04/15/wacky_email_addys_dont_go/.

A good example, if your name is Joe Bloggs, would be: joebloggs@hotmail.com.  A bad example would be: drunk_dazed_and_confused@hotmail.com.  You can also use your email address as a good marketing tool, for example:  projectmanager@hotmail.com  But be careful not to go overboard:  the_best_project_manager_ever@hotmail.com.

If you regularly post information about yourself on social networking sites such as Facebook, be careful what you include. Many employers will check these sites when shortlisting candidates for a job.  Compromising pictures or information about yourself – however fun it may be to your and your circle of friends – may not make a good impression!

Voicemail:

Leave a professional and clear sounding voicemail, particularly if English is not your first language.  Record your voicemail in a quiet place where you will not be interrupted.  Practise your message until you are happy with it and re-record if necessary.  Your message should include your name (so the caller knows they have the right number), a pleasant and upbeat message, and a commitment to call back when you are available.

If you have applied for a job (whether directly with a company or through a recruitment agency) and you receive a call from an unknown number, or where the number is withheld, it is likely to be a call relating to that application.  If you are not ready to take the call there and then (you may be out shopping or have crying children in the background) do not answer the call.  Instead, wait until they have left a message with their number and call them back as soon as you can.  Do not wait too long as they may well be working through a lot of people to find suitable applicants, so spend five minutes composing yourself and running through your brand statement in your head, and then make the call.  You will feel a lot more confident and you will be more likely to perform better in the phone call.  If you want to answer the call, feel free to take the name and number of who is calling and ask to call them back at a more convenient time. 

Writing a CV:

Common CV Mistakes:

http://jobs.telegraph.co.uk/common-cv-mistakes.aspx
http://jobs.telegraph.co.uk/career-tools.aspx

CV writing for the IT Industry:

http://cio.co.nz/cio.nsf/focus/D1DC72ADA9C2A21CCC2577540003B838?opendocument&utm_source=roundup&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=roundup

Check the Spelling - Some Fun!:

Jobseekers spoil their chances of landing work by making mistakes on their CVs - such as mis-spelling their own name, according to a report. A study of 500,000 CVs by online firm fish4jobs found a series of grammatical errors, irrelevant information, wrong job titles and inappropriate email addresses such as "bigboy" or "hotstuff". Common typo mistakes included claims that candidates had worked in a "busty office", wanted a job as a "manger" or in "pubic relations"!