We know that no one enjoys the tedious task of writing and tweaking their resume. Thankfully, Itch is here to help! Specifically, for those looking to start or further their career within the Drilling industry.
Here are some tips on how to make your resume more succinct and cut down on the dreaded jargon (trust me, recruiters everywhere will be rejoicing!).
If you needed to hear it from the horse’s mouth, then *neigh* this is what we’re looking for *neigh*
We don’t want to ghost you It may seem obvious, but double-check that the contact information on your resume is current and accurate. A phone number, residential address and email address are sufficient. Unfortunately, we come across missing digits, numbers the wrong way around and misspelt email addresses all too often. Make sure we can contact you. We've actually gotten rid of our smoke signal and carrier pigeon services, so stick to the phone number and email address.
History matters It’s pretty simple, potential employers want to know what you did, where you did it and when. If you are applying for work, make sure you have ALL your recent work history listed. This should make up the bulk of your resume, starting from your most recent employer and working in reverse order. Don’t forget to include the company name, your job title, start and finish dates and a list of your responsibilities. 5-10 bullet points detailing your primary responsibilities will help the reader determine whether your experience is suitable to progress.
Make it an easy read Keep it simple! Use an easy-to-read font (stay away from Windings or Curlz MT), and try to avoid italics and underlining. Submit your resume in a word document or PDF format with minimal images and graphics to ensure the recruiter can access the file without any issues. We get that all the fancy templates and layouts can look *aesthetic* but try to avoid it. It can just make things harder to read if there’s a confusing format that we need to decipher.
Mind the gap It’s not unusual to have the occasional employment gap for a varied number of reasons such as relocation, study, travel or simply taking time out. However, a resume that’s full of unexplained breaks poses a red flag. For any employment gaps of more than 3 months, an honest explanation in a resume should be enough to help you through to the next screening stage. i.e. “Spent 6 months travelling around South America” looks far better on your resume than an unexplained gap that leads us to think the candidate “Sat and played Xbox for 6 months”
Tickets, get ya tickets A simple list of valid tickets/qualifications and their expiry dates will help us quickly identify if you meet the requirements for the position and if any are due for renewal. If you have held a ticket in the past and it has expired, it's best to remove it from the list as it’s now about as useful as a fly screen on a submarine.
Keep it relevant (and up to date) We don’t need to know about your recent divorce and 3 cats that you have trained to lift the toilet seat (yep, we read all sorts of juicy information). Make sure the information is up to date and relevant, detailing your casual summer job as an ice cream scooper back in 2004 is not considered to be relevant. Then on the other end of the spectrum, we will receive a resume that's 2 years old and the applicant would be considered unsuitable. Only to find out that they have been in a labour-intensive role for the last 6 months, they do have an HR licence and are actually a perfect fit for the role. We don't know what you don't tell us.
Short ‘n’ Sweet Aim to keep your CV to two pages maximum. Potential employers and recruiters can receive hundreds of applications each day, and in our case, we read each application personally. So the easier it is to cut through the noise and get the right information, the easier it will be to move you to the next stage of the application process.
BONUS TIP! If you already have a valid National Police Clearance (NPC) make sure to include it on the last page of your resume! It'll make you stand out from the crowd! And if you don't have an NPC, they are taking weeks to process at the moment, so apply for one as soon as you start applying for Mining and Drilling jobs because you'll need it and it'll move your application along much faster.
So there you have it, stick to these tips and you're going to be in any recruiter's good graces.
Because we are total legends here at Itch (modest too) we’ve put together a FREE mining resume template for you to fill out!
Armed with these tips and your shiny new resume template, head to Itch’s opportunities page and start applying today!
Recruitment Consultant