Utilise The Potential of Indeed for Finding a Job in Australia
Over 1.2 million monthly visitors, is a pretty decent statistic, and it shows you why Indeed has cemented itself as Australia's top online job site.
You gotta be on here, even if you want to use other spots like Workclass or LinkedIn, that’s fine - but you’d be missing out on a lot of options if you cheaped out and didn’t put in the time to get on Indeed. As well as signing up, uploading your resume and scrolling away will not get you noticed - there are a tonne of features and you want to be all over them if you’re gonna to stand out.
So here’s the rundown on how to get ahead of the rest:
Firstly, have your resume right.
Don't just upload your existing, or any old resume to Indeed. Take time to build a new resume directly on the Indeed site itself. Yeah, it can feel like a pain in the backside, but it allows for way better optimization with relevant keywords that recruiters search for.
Quick Tip: You can set your resume visibility to "private" so only employers you apply to can view it - if you’re in a job at the moment and don’t want it known you’re on the hunt or applying.
Get a pro profile photo
Your profile picture is obviously going to be one of the first things employers see - make sure it’s not some silly photo of you shirtless at the beach with your boys and a couple of bevvies. Select a high-quality headshot (if you don’t have one - get one) that portrays you in a polished, professional manner. Preferably fully suited and looking fresh and alert. Beter photos tend to progress more frequently to interview shortlists - we may not like to admit it but we all judge based on appearance.
Get attention with a grabbing headline.
It’s a rare feature so you really should leverage the headline section right at the top of your Indeed resume. Put together a good summary of your value/achievements in a few punchy words that grab attention. For example, "Award-Winning Marketing Strategist with FMCG Experience." Catchy headlines help you get found as well as encouraging responses.
Showcase off your skills and expertise.
Make sure you’ve run through all of your technician skills, dropped in a lot of soft skills and of course the big industry buzzwords. This gets you found by recruiters searching for those terms, and don’t be tempted to overdo it and hope for the best, trying to accurately display your skills gets you better responses, rather than wasting people’s time.
Quantify with numbers and figures.
Back up your resume by quantifying accomplishments from your experience. Use numbers like “20% cost savings” “60% customer retention” “5 years as the top performer” for things you’ve done throughout your career. Recruiters strongly favour achievement-focused resumes.
Explain away gaps in your experience.
As long as you can fill in any gaps in your work history with career changes or downsizing etc, then they’re really no big deal. This nips in the bud any assumptions recruiters may make about gaps, if you’re the one explaining gaps it gives no room for negative assumptions.
Make the most of the “annoying” alerts.
Most people won’t even bother with the customizable job alerts because they don’t want the spam in their inbox. But if you tweak it so it’s matching your goals and keywords, these results can be more efficient than your own, human, general searches.
Keep tabs, instead of keeping a bunch of tabs.
You can make the most of Indeed's dashboard to monitor saved jobs, applied jobs, scheduled interviews and offers etc, rather than keeping open a million things on Google chrome. Yes, you know what I’m talking about, those 37 tabs you keep open - being busy doesn’t mean you’re being productive.
Don’t forget to go directly, when needed.
There’s always the choice of applications directly to Australian employers. Some won’t spend the money or bother with the job boards and only advertise on their own site. So check out the companies you actually wanna work for and set a reminder to check back in every couple of weeks or so.
All together, between its vast catalogue of openings and intuitive interface, Indeed is invaluable for Aussie job seekers. Don’t forget about us too, over at Workclass - so you’re hedging your bets. Mastering Indeed's features will immensely aid your hunt for that perfect role.