Have you ever gotten frustrated applying for work and asked yourself what experiences are relevant to include on my resume? How long should a cover letter be? And what is the difference between a CV and resume anyway??? Well I certainly have! So last week I reached out for help and attended Unimelb Careers and Employability Resume, Cover Letter and Key Selection Criteria Studio session and... it was great!
This one and a half hour session is run by peer mentors who not only share some tips and tricks on job applications but also share their personal experiences and answer attendees' questions about their specific issues and concerns.
If you are feeling a bit lost and overwhelmed this is a really safe space to ask for advice and get some guidance on how to improve your resume and give yourself a little confidence boost when applying for that next job. What I loved was that the peer mentors have a variety of experiences to help different types of people, including international and domestic students and people with and without previous work experience. I felt completely comfortable to ask questions of our small group of 14 participants and get some tailored advice for me, and the mentors made sure to address current issues such as how to fill out your resume when you have some gaps during COVID.
Another thing I thought was fantastic, is that this is a FREE service run by the university! Yes, free! So if you feel like this might be even just a little helpful for you, it is definitely worth a shot. I myself was feeling a bit hesitant, thinking the advice would be a bit generic and superficial, but I found it super useful. I also used the time to edit my resume as the session was going and found it gave me the motivation I needed to help me rethink my layout and critically analyse its content. I also liked that the team didn’t advocate for spending your money on professional resume writing services, and instead encouraged attendees to build these skills themselves with support from university services.
If you want to get the most out of this session, and have some experience with job applications, I recommend reviewing your resume and considering questions you have had in the past when writing job applications to bring to the group. Or, if you are just starting to write resumes for the first time, I highly recommend scanning through the Canvas modules on ‘Building a Professional Resume’, ‘Mastering the Cover Letter’ and ‘Responding to Key Selection Criteria’ before attending the session.
But what happens when you have attended the session and are looking for another set of eyes to give you feedback about how your application comes across, if you make any sense at all and whether you have sold yourself as the superstar we know you are deep down? Well that is where Womendeavour has your back! That’s right, Womendeavour is launching a resume reviewing service for our members where you can submit your application and get some personalised feedback on those intangibles such as 'is there a nice flow to your cover letter' and 'what strengths really come across in your application'! We are here to help because we know what it is like when you are feeling vulnerable about your job application and only hear crickets after you submit.
Keep on following our socials so you can keep up to date about our service launch and find out where to submit. Let’s get to the workplace together!
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