Job Search Blog

We searched the web to find the most gruesome and terrifying ordeals which have occurred during applicants’ job interview processes. As we can all learn from the mistakes of others we thought it might be helpful to share this information with you.

In a survey done for Career Builder, over 3,000 hiring managers and human resources professionals were asked to list their top interview blunders that candidates had made. The top ten were..

1.Candidate answered cell phone and asked the interviewer to leave her own office because it was a “private” conversation.

Really…. obviously a no brainer here, turn off your phone before heading into an interview.

2.Candidate told the interviewer he wouldn’t be able to stay with the job long because he thought he might get an inheritance if his uncle died – and his uncle “wasn’t looking too good.”

If an employer has taken the trouble to advertise and screen potential candidates, they are not going to hire someone that is even a little flaky with their commitment.

3.Candidate asked the interviewer for a ride home after the interview.

4.Candidate smelled his armpits on the way to the interview room.

If you have smelly armpits, sniffing them on the way into the interview room is never going to help!

5.Candidate said she could not provide a writing sample because all of her writing had been for the CIA and it was “classified.”

6.Candidate told the interviewer he was fired for beating up his last boss.

Wow, way to make yourself spend the rest of your life on the dole queue.

7.When applicant was offered food before the interview he declined, saying that he didn’t want to line his stomach with grease before going out drinking.

8.A candidate for an accounting position said she was a “people person,” not a “numbers person.”

9.Candidate flushed the toilet while talking to the interviewer during a phone interview.

10.Candidate took out a hair brush and brushed her hair mid-interview.

Following is a list of the most damaging mistakes made in interviews according to employers. The answers are fairly common sense, but important to bear in mind when attending a job interview.

1./ Dressing inappropriately for the position
2./ Speaking negatively about a previous employer/company
3./ Not appearing to be interested in the position
4./ Providing vague answers to questions
5./ Not asking good questions

What was your worst job interview experience? If you have an interesting story of your own, we would love to hear about it.

Good luck and Happy Hunting!

In a world troubled with recession and no job really ever considered “safe” it’s hard to know sometimes exactly how much extra effort one should put into their work day.

In India a typical management position will involve a work day of 11 hours, 6 days a week. In stark contrast to this the people of Papua think of it as bad luck if they have to work two days in a row!

In the developed world however the general standard is based around the 8 hour day.

Australian Workday Hours

In a recent study Australian males were found to average a work week of 36 hours, however it varied considerably across different industries and occupations.

New Zealand Workday

New Zealand men and women work similar hours – an average of 38.5 hours a week.

American Workday

In recent surveys the average American woman worked 7.7 hours, and the average man 8.4 hours per work day.

In professional industries however a fourty-hour workweek is often considered barely adequate and can result in failure to rise through the ranks, and possibly even job loss!

A recent survey by Ipsos/Reuters showed that an astounding 43% of Americans do not take all the vacation time that is given to them. As they only get a couple of weeks a year this is indeed a sad state of affairs.

A lack of worklife balance is not our American friends’ biggest problem though. Statistics show that on average 20 workers a week are murdered and around 18,000 assaulted in the U.S..

In conclusion regardless of whether your typical work week is 20 hours or 60, it goes without saying that if you don’t enjoy what you do it will still be an unpleasant experience. All the more reason to try to find a job that you enjoy, with a work/life balance that you can live with.

Happy Hunting

The quickest, free way to get a Resume right now is simply to read this article. We will post links to only the best free templates and samples available online. You can then download them and edit them to your hearts content.

We have a couple of basic ones stored on our own server and these are available on our Resource Page.

The Microsoft website has a number of templates that you can download and use. You can find these at the below links.

Microsoft Word CV Templates – (Word 2003 & 2007)

Basic Resume Templates

Accountant Resume
Administrative Assistant
Automotive CVs
Bank Resumes
Engineering Resumes
Hospitality CVs
Legal Resumes
Manager Resumes
Receptionist CV
Medical Resumes
Retail Resumes
Secretarial Resumes
Teacher Resumes

If you find any more decent and free templates out there for our Candidates please leave a note, we will be sure to check them out before posting them.

Happy Hunting!

An apprenticeship is basically the process of learning a trade under the mentorship, experience and guidance of an experienced tradesperson.

Apprentices earn and learn at the same time. They are generally paid low wages at the beginning of their training, however end up earning a decent income by the end of their apprenticeship.

Trade skills are in demand around the world, and apprenticeships are thriving as a result of this demand.

Apprenticeships in Australia & New Zealand

Wages
The minimum wage for workers in training in NZ is $10.40 per hour.

For Australian apprentices the minimum wages are scaled as below.

• Year 1 of apprenticeship $9.93
• Year 2 of apprenticeship $11.74
• Year 3 of apprenticeship $14.45
• Year 4 of apprenticeship $17.16.

More Information
NZ – Modern Apprenticeships
Aus – Australian Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships in the UK

The UK has a strong apprentice focus with more than 150 apprenticeships available in a variety of different sectors including nuclear engineering, seafishing, scaffolding, carpentry, ceramics, manufacturing and many more.

Wages
The minimum wage for apprentices in the United Kingdom is £2.60 per hour. Many employers pay more than this and consequently there is an average salary of approx £170 per week.

More Information
National Apprenticeship Service (NAS)

With today’s high demand for skilled tradespersons, an apprenticeship position may be a viable option for you to consider whether you are stepping into the work force for the first time or looking for a new and different change in career paths.

Apprentices wanted now!

Here at Jobhunters we are looking for apprentices to advertise themselves on our site for free. If you are looking for an apprenticeship we have now added “Apprenticeship” as a job type, select this on the registration page as per the example below.

We recommend you use it in the title as well, so employers will pick up on it.

To register on our sites the NZ, Australian and UK currently offer this option. Click on the relevant country for your own situation below.

Australian Apprenticeships
NZ Apprenticeships
UK Apprenticeships

Happy Hunting!

It seems a simple enough question, however it is one that is seldom answered in any depth. So here at Jobhunters we have taken up the challenge – we are going to spell it out.

So how best to find work?

We have split this into three main areas, and then drilled into further detail for each of the steps involved.

1 – How to Find Jobs

Network – with your family, your friends, old work colleagues. Let everyone know you are on the hunt and what you are looking for. Often jobs are found because someone knows someone who happens to be looking for new staff. You know the drill.

Social Media – Read our article Finding jobs on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. It’s fair to say that Linkedin is one of the most powerful tools for connecting with recruiters.

Jobsites – Register on your local Jobhunters site, Set up email alerts on other job sites, like Seek, Trademe Jobs, Monster and so on.

2 – Applying for Jobs

Research the company as much as you can. Head to their website, read the “about us” page to find out when the company started, how many staff they have and their core products or technologies.

Your cover letter or email should be tailored to the specific company or recruiter to whom you are responding. Don’t fall into the trap of spamming recruiters and employers with the same template letter that you are sending to dozens of others. Focus is the key here.

Cover Letter – Write a powerful cover letter. Read our articles below regarding cover letters and templates.
Resume Cover Letter Job Search Secrets
Career Change Cover Letter

Resume – Prepare an outstanding Resume! Below are articles you should be reading to do exactly that.
How to write a Resume
How to find a Job Faster by Improving your Resume (video)

3- Interview and Follow up

Dress standard – Follow the simple rule here, dress to impress. It’s a nice idea to attempt to dress as per the standards of the organization, however if in doubt you are better to err on the side of caution and be better dressed, rather than risk being under dressed for the interview.

Interview Techniques – These articles will help with the interview itself, take time to read and take note of all the pointers and advice.
Job Interview Tips – 5 Things to remember
Job Interview – How to give a great one
How to Get Hired – Job Interview Tips (Video)
Typical Interview Questions
Salary Range – How to Answer The Question

Follow up – It may help and will certainly not harm your application if you follow up with a brief thank you email after a job interview. You should mention how you are very interested in the position and state what attracted you about the role as well as highlight what a great fit you think it is for your personality and skill set.

Throughout this entire process the key is to stand out from all of the other applicants. You need to work harder than everyone else at attracting the attention of the employer and perform better at every stage of the process to keep their attention. If you do this, you put yourself in the best possible position for success.

Good luck and happy hunting!

Here at JobHunters we have come across more than our fair share of employment scams. We constantly have people signing up as “employers” and trying to contact our candidates with all manner of get rich quick schemes.

Because we screen all employers first (and their emails/questions) we can catch and veto these scammers before they ever reach our valuable members.

Some scams are fairly harmless, others are downright criminal. Here are some of the more common schemes.

Mule scams
This is where you are offered the chance to make money, just by receiving a deposit into your bank account and then transferring it to another account. Make no mistake though, this is not a legitimate way to earn money.

Money Mules may be subject to criminal prosecution.

Bogus job offers
Sometimes scammers will pose as a real company and even post jobs on legitimate job sites. Often even a convincing telephone interview will take place once the applicant has sent in their CV and details.

After the applicant has been told they have the job, they are often asked to pay travel fees or similar costs in advance, however – you guessed it! Once the money has been sent through, little or no trace will ever be found of the hiring party.

Bogus job offer II – Identity theft
In recent times, bogus job offers have started appearing that do nothing more than take personal information and then onsell it to a third party – or use the details for identity theft.

Be extremely wary of these scammers as they can look and sound very convincing.

Envelope Stuffing Scam
One of my all time favourites, the envelope stuffing scam. Who wouldn’t want to get paid for watching TV and having a bit of fun at the same time?

Well think again, there is no such thing as getting paid hundreds or thousands of dollars a week for envelope stuffing. Often the company will require you to send a small fee along with a stamped self addressed envelope. Once received, they then stuff that envelope with the same ad they placed and send it back to you, advising you to take out the same ad in your local paper!

Bear in mind that if they were a legitimate business they would not be asking you to pay them money for the honuor of working for them.

How to protect yourself against Employment and other scams
It always pays to be on the alert, so here are some tips to help you weed out the good from the bad when it comes to work/job offers.

Email address – Does the company proposing to hire you (or take your money) have a company email address – or is it a Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail etc, that could have been set up by anyone?

Website – Do they have a proper website? Don’t be fooled by imitations – does it have phone numbers that work along with legitimate email, contacts, etc?

Are they asking for money? – If they are, stop right here and remember that this is highly unusual no matter how good the reason sounds.

Google it – Whatever email or job listing that you are looking at, copy and paste the body of the text into Google. You will then quickly see if this is a commonly used scam that you should be steering well clear of!

Contact – Can you pick up the phone and talk to them, or is it all via email? If you can’t talk to them, you will likely never hear from them again once they get what they want. If they are a reputable company and employer, you should be able to find out a great deal about them online. Even small companies have some sort of internet presence these days.

In conclusion, if they have a proper email address, website, a phone number that you can contact them on, they don’t show up on search engines as spammers and they are not asking for your hard earned money up front, more than likely you are going to be ok!

Good luck and happy hunting!

Most of us will experience a range of different management styles throughout our careers. How one reacts to different styles is unique to each and every person.

Some people prefer to be left to alone to work independently, others need to be micro managed and hand held as they work through their tasks. Whatever your preference, it is important to know and understand your boss’s management style in order to serve the company better.

Outlined below are the three most common management styles:

Autocratic
To put it bluntly autocratic leaders make decisions without consulting their team. It is a very direct and authoritarian style of leadership.

There are times when this is an effective method to use, for example in the military, where immediate, decisive actions are often required. However, if used with a team that is independently minded and the situation does not warrant this style, it can lead to low morale, impacting productivity and causing resentment amongst staff.

Paternalistic
A paternalistic leadership style is where the manager shows an interest in the happiness of workers’ feelings, and acts in a paternal manner.

Unlike the autocratic style of leadership, paternalistic managers listen to the feedback and opinions of their staff. The manager will still however make the final decision.

Democratic
A democratic style of leadership, as the name implies, puts the power of decision making into the hands of the workers.

This method requires a great deal of trust and two-way communication between the groups.

Democratic leadership can be very motivating, however it also has it’s disadvantages as mistakes can be made if the workers are not experienced or skilled enough to be making these decisions.

What is your boss?
Now that you are familiar with the three main types of leadership styles, it’s time to decide where your manager fits in.

Depending on your job type you may have any one of the three, or a combination depending on the task and situation.

Please share with our readers, your experiences with different managers and the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of their chosen leadership style.

The other day I was working on one of my other sites, World Oldest People and noticed that one of the oldest guy’s in the world Shigechiyo Izumi had what is deemed to be the longest career ever spanning an amazing 98 years!

Shigechiyo claimed that he began his career in 1872, at a sugar mill goading draft animals, and ended his career as a sugarcane farmer at the spritely old age of 105.

I can’t even imagine being alive for that long, let alone spending 98 years at the office!

Here are some other amazing long careers.

Longest career at the same store

The holder of the longest career at the same store world record is another amazing story. Roy Goggs started work in the corner shop in Hudderfield back in 1940.

He ended up owning the store and now has been there for over 70 years!

Many of Roy’s customers have passed away over the years and supermarkets have begun to take their toll on his business. Although trade is not what is was in the past, he plans to stick it out.

Longest career as a radio presenter (female)

Annie Nightingale is a radio broadcaster for the BBC. She is known for having the longest radio career in history spanning over 40 years.

It’s amazing to think she has anything left to say after that long behind a microphone.

If you have some time on your hands you can even listen to her online – BBC Radio.

Longest Career as an Entertainment News Host

Mary Hart holds this record thanks to her 29 years as the host of CBS’s Entertainment Tonight Show.

She left the show in May 2011, and in August 2011 Mary was formerly announced as the Official Spokeswoman of Edith Sanford Breast Cancer Initiative.

So next time you think you have spent too long at the same job and are ready to move on, maybe it’s not yet time and you should stick it out for the next few decades!

Often we talk about what you should do in an interview and the right things to do prior and during the job interview process.

This time however our focus is on what NOT to do in an interview.

Once you have had a read of this article we also have several previous posts with a positive spin on the best Interview tips and tricks.

As always we are interested in your feedback, so whether you are a job hunter, or an employer please leave us a comment with anything we may have missed here.

If it’s a good suggestion, we will and do, update our articles to provide the best information to our candidates.

Appearance – DO NOTS

• Wearing Sunglasses
• Wrong clothes
• Too much perfume or aftershave
• Unshaven
• Not enough anti-perspirant
• Smelling like cigarette smoke

Timekeeping- DO NOTS

• Arriving late
• Arriving too early
• Trying to speed up the interview because of somewhere you need to be

The interview – DO NOTS

• Talking about salary first
• Lying about your experience/skills
• Bad mouthing your ex employer
• Forgetting what is in your Resume
• Not researching the company or the role for which you are applying
• Flirting with the Interviewer
• Making racial or politically incorrect comments
• Negativity

So as long as you fully prepare yourself by also reading our other articles showing the right things to do and say, you will be ready for whatever is thrown your way!

Goodluck!

There is no better time than now to be seeking employment in Retail. The holiday season is upon us and retail sales are fast approaching their peak. Jobhunters site statistics for the last few weeks show that retail staff are what most employers are looking for right now..its up there as one of the most popular searches we get.

Retail can be a rewarding career that is relatively easy to get into compared to other industries.

What you make out of your opportunity in Retail is up to you! Like many things in life, what you put into it will be what you get out of it in the long run.

What key qualities do I need to succeed in Retail?

• Customer service skills
• Friendly and helpful attitude
• Familiarity with cash handling
• Honesty
• Punctuality
• Well dressed/presentable

We looked at a sample of the jobs available in Retail – and have some examples below highlighting the typical qualities that employers are looking for…

..”enjoys selling, can meet targets, and most importantly enjoys the world of retail. We want someone who is a confident salesperson and who can really engage with our customers.”

..”displays not only a high level of customer service and a strong sales approach but has the ability to assist the manager to motivate, drive and develop the team to a level of outstanding success.”

..”will have retail experience and be keen to develop your career in a forward thinking, team environment. You will be hungry for success and keen to keep up with the pace.”

..”•Display excellent communication and interpersonal skills
•Strong sales focus and commitment to customer service
•Disciplined approach to customer follow up
•An eye trained for detail
•A drive to be the best you can be
•Above all else, ethical and honest in all dealings”

What kind of Salary can I earn in Retail?
When looking at the salary ranges offered, we turned straight to the trademe jobs salary guide.

Here is what the average salaries were for different Retail roles in a recent salary survey:,

Assistant Store Manager – 35K
Management – 45K
Merchandising – 35K
Retail Assistant -32K
Store Manager – 42K

As you can see, if getting rich is your primary ojective then landing a job as a sales assistant is probably not going to cut it, however if you are at the beginning of your career and wanting to get a start in the work force there are some amazing opportunities out there in the world of retail!

Where else do you get paid to talk to people all day, have fun and get to work with iconic companies and brands? Also don’t overlook the fact that many companies offer substantial employee discounts for their products. This can be a significant factor depending on the product and how it relates to you.