At Republic Resumes, we randomly pick a number of clients who we ‘follow’ to see how they go with the job hunt.
We check in by email nine or 18 months after we’ve written their resume and cover letter.
I liked Akshay’s get up and go immediately. He was a recent Master of Civil and Environmental Engineering graduate from the University of Adelaide.
He was having a hard time finding work. He’d done an internship in Melbourne researching water foot print methodology and he was tutoring STEM Kids in Adelaide. He pulled out all of the stops.
I created a first class resume and targeted cover letter in partnership with him and I said as we completed it – knowing how tough it was getting work as an engineer in Adelaide, “half the battle is sticking at it.”
To cut a long story short, Akshay was shortlisted for the same engineering job twice but just missed out. On the third attempt 18 months later, using the same resume and cover letter, he got the job!
Here’s something university career guidance people don’t tell you.
A first class professional resume and cover letter may get you short-listed but it’s the experience of going through the interview process a couple of times, that lands you the job.
We don’t do as many graduate engineering resumes as we used to but I’ll remember Akshay. Persistence and confidence. A winning combination.