Essay: Effective Job Searching, CV Preparation, And Career Growth Guide.

Task 1: Effective Job Searching

Task 1. Searching for a job

Identify an appropriate job target, taking into account your existing skills, knowledge, and experience. You should use appropriate avenues, including: online job advertisments, industry magazine, and recruitment agencies,

Required:

1. Discuss the different channels you used to find the chosen job and evaluate the effectiveness of those channels.

2. Discuss the main reasons you selected that particular job and organisation.

Task 2.

On the assumption that you are applying for the job chosen in part 1:

Prepare a CV in the relevant format, of no more than 2 pages.

Write a suitable cover letter expressing your interest in the position.                                                                                          

Task 3.

“Time and tide wait for no man”(Chaucer, date unknown), is a phrase that means we cannot stop time, therefore we should not delay doing things.( Cambridge Dictionaries online, 2015)

In contemporary society, it is often the case people have many competing demands for their time in the form of families, jobs and studies

Required: Write an Essay (a written discussion) explaining, detailing, with the use of examples and models, how you managed to ‘fit-in’ your studies, with other responsibilities that you have in your life.                                                  

Task 4.

Write a reflective essay in which you access whether you have significantly increased your knowledge and developed your academic and business skills as a result of completing task I to 3 above. 

Business skills are consisted of the interpersonal skills of an individual, which in terms of business defines the capability, knowledge of an employee to get along with others and fit in the job. It may include the communication skills, time management and organization, presentation skills, innovation skills etc. This assignment analyses the effectiveness of the channels utilized for identification of appropriate job target, along with the explanation and details of application of knowledge and experiences into the job. The learner have chosen the company Darrell Lea for the post of Marketing manager.

1. A Channels used for choosing the job and their effectiveness

There are number of avenues for job seekers in Australia like job advertisements, industry magazine, and agencies (Beard et al. 2012). The chosen job was found through internet job portals, namely Gumtree, Australian job search, simply hired, splash find etc. The portal chosen by the learner is Australian job search along with job advertisements as well. Job advertisements in the newspapers are more effective in comparison to job agencies and magazines. The reliability of the job is more than the one offered by agencies at the cost of registering with them or paying a part of the salary to them after getting the job. Advertisements allow allows the targeting of a specific geographic location, and there is comparatively less competition among the job seekers when it comes to searching in newspaper advertisements. The exposure that newspaper job advertisement provides is not limited, and the biggest advantage is direct contact with the company and no third party involved as the advertisements are given by the recruiter itself (Brown et al. 2011).

Task 2: CV Preparation and Cover Letter Writing

 Similarly job portal are more refined way to set up communication in between the employer and the employee. Online portal used by the like Australian job search enables a wider reach in searching of the job. This is because posting of job requirements on the job portals by different organizations around the globe, which gives more options as one can search jobs according to preferences and apply directly for more than one job at a time. The concerned company gets in touch will the candidate directly. The advantage of job portals is not limited from the job seeker’s point of view, companies are also able to access the information of the applicant and approach the individual (Grant et al. 2014)

The learner has chosen the position of marketing manager in Darrell Lea, an Australian company that manufactures and sells liquorices, chocolate, as well as other confectionery. The company operates solely in Australia though the distributions done worldwide. As a marketing manager and well versed with the market functions and norms the designation is made to order. The job comes with many opportunities of learning’s and growth along with rewards on top performances. The job contains the challenges to keep the employee on the toes and it is tailored as per the core competencies of the chosen candidate, which includes marketing and sales. In the previous company the candidate had created an annual growth rate of 22% in the flat industry. The team and the work culture is friendly and not centric in Darrell Lea.

The company has been launching products and is on the way up, the human resource practices in the organization is another factor which will attract candidates towards itself. The company norms enables equal treatment, unbiased work environment along with proper training and development programmed for motivating the employee, which interests the learner to be a part of Darrell Lea and contribute to its growth in the globally spread  market. As a dedicated worker doing essential research of the market interests the learner and joining this company will give many such opportunities. The company Darrell Lea is standing tall, remembering that prosperity starts from home itself, and the organizational strategies, values and norms of the company as well as the excellent reputation gives Darrell Lea an edge over its competitors in the market.

2. a Relevant CV for the job

Five years of senior level management experience highlighted by success in marketing to a diverse range of B2B and B2C target markets. Fast track and sales focused career totals six years of consistent delivery of business development results with the usage of broad range of skills and experience that cover the entire marketing mix. The key credentials include:

Strategic Marketing Planning

Market growth

New product launch

Market analysis and research

Positioning in the market

Global market management

Team training

Career Highlight

Achieved 100 % revenue targets year on year for last 3 years

Generating sales by reducing cost of the overall marketing operations of the company

Secured $800 K worth of marketing based business during 2010-2011

Recruitment, training and motivation of teams that exceed targets by + 15%

Got recognition in the company in 2013 and 2014

Experience

TrainPros Ltd, Australia- January 2009 to present

Assistant Marketing Manager

Promoted from senior Marketing Coordinator to the current designation for the strategic role in the budget accountability of $800 K. working with the head of the marketing departments, manages 11 different brands, involved in the development of the product, ensure revenue generation and return on investment and maintaining brand equity.

Task 3: Time Management and Study Balance

DataScope Ltd, Australia- July 2007 to December 2008

Global Marketing Executive

The role included PR manager for the professional services in Australia as well as other nations and also brand manager for online products. Organizing exhibitions, gaining sponsorship opportunities were the major functions of the designation

Education and Training

CIM post graduate Diploma

Chartered Institute of Marketing, London Business School (2007)

Bachelors in Arts (BA) in Business Administration

University of Melbourne, Australia (2004)

Selected for prestigious one year placement at Reuters in Paris (2004)

Additional Information

Computing: Office Software (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Databases (sales logic, Siebel, and Lotus), Desktop publishing (CorelDraw)

Languages: Fluent written and Spoken English

Interests: Painting, Basket ball, Adventure Sports

Andrew Evans

15 Cornwall Ave , Phone: 0400 000 00                                                                                                                                                                  

Melbourne, Australia ,[email protected]

20 April 2015

The Hiring Manager

Darrell Lea

Stock land The Pines

78/181 Reynolds Road

Don caster East VIC,

Australia 

Dear Mr. Jones,

My passion for delivering fresh, innovative marketing solutions, the enthusiasm as a person and proven experience make me a natural marketing manager. From seeking out new customers through e- mail marketing campaigning and maintenance of promotional events for establishing a long lasting partnership with the clients, vendors and customers of the company. I have a diverse grasp of marketing functions and market analysis skills along with knowledge in sales and customer relationship management that spans more than 6 years. These are the skills I am interested in offering to a great company like Darrell Lea, by taking on the responsibility of marketing manager in the organization.

As global Marketing Manager in my previous organization, and assistant marketing manager I have spread headed numerous critical projects that lead to commendable business development and profit maximization of the company. The projects included wide-marketing plan development of an enterprise which included the budget planning for global markets, usage of data mining techniques for improving organizational strength and creation of community outreach for the economic development of the organization, the strategic and financial planning which helped in securing $800 K worth of marketing business in the year 2010-2011. Brand development was also a part of my job for the creation of unified sales and marketing along with spreading of messages for creating better public relations and execution. If you are is looking for result oriented marketing managers for the development of Darrell Lea then it would be great opportunity for me to discuss the value that my experience can deliver. I can be reached at the above telephone number or e-mail address. I look forward to hearing from you.

With best regards,

Andrew Evans

Enclosure: Resume

Covey’s Time Management Quadrant

As per the model in the field of management studies time management has four stages which are identification of tasks and recognition of the demands on time, scheduling of the future, prioritization and planning of the activities along with the addition of  personal values in prioritization process,  and focusing on activities which are of less priority but are of importance (Bride, 2011). People preferring the fourth generation time management tend to focus on the effectiveness and results instead of methods and efficiency. The time management model emphasis on what is more important and not on what is urgent, which can be planned across different roles. According to Richardson and Gosnay (2011), the basic idea includes the separation of the activities on the basis of two categories which are Importance and Urgency. A four box matrix is used for conveying this, as it represents urgency in horizontal axis and importance on the vertical axis.

	URGENT	NOT URGENT
IMPORTANT	QUADRANT I- URGENT AND IMPORTANT	QUARDRANT II: NOT URGENT AND IMPORTANT
NOT IMPORTANT	QUADRANT III: URGENT AND NOT IMPORTANT	QUADRANT IV: NOT URGENT AND NOT IMPORTANT

Task 4: Reflection on Academic and Business Skills Development

Table1: Covey’s Time Management Quadrant

(Source: Williams and Reid, 2011)

Quadrant I represents the work which requires important and immediate attention and has close deadlines of completing it. Quadrant II involves work that demand long term planning, strategy building up and development process where as Quadrant III is for time pressure distractions, they are not really important but the current circumstances demands it immediately. Quadrant IV includes the activities which do not yield anything of great value. These are meant to be used for taking a break from time and pressured and important activities. As per Varga (2011), quadrant II is of great importance as it implies that an individual has to work in a strategic as well as tactical manner. The application of the above model is beneficial for the organization as it helps in the achieving of favorable factors for organizational development like coherence in the planner including values and mission, healthy balance in between work and life, focus on important issues of work and life too, flexibility and improvement in the relationship with others. The grid explains that urgency is related to time whereas importance is related to value of an activity, they can even coincide, and time management is the key for dealing with important tasks prior to becoming urgent, as completing important task is easier when they r not urgent.

The grid was used by the learner in the present organization for carrying out a better work planning, focusing. The grid basically has much application, which can be used as per the requirement (McCabe, 2011). For example the learner utilized the grid in two ways, firstly by taking the to-do list and sorting out the list by placing them in respective quadrants, this is followed by assessing of the time that will be needed for accomplishing the lists and relocation of the activities as per requirements. The second way of applying the grid involved one week assessment strategy, where copies of the grid is made and each grid is used on each day of the week, along with the listing of all activities done and respective time taken in completion of activity. The data of five days are collated and combined and summarized in another grid and percentage of time is calculated individually. This judges the utility of the time, which is whether the time was spent effective and whether there are any changes that are required to be done in the work load respectively.

The topic of the study business skills gives an idea about the skills and qualities that are needed for carrying out a better and successful professional life. it is clear to me that application of business skills starts from the very starting of a career, as it is not an easy task to understand business, education and reading about it develops the knowledge but the application of the knowledge is more vital. Being a marketing professional corporate functions play the role of a testing ground where all the principles of management are to be applied and studied. The study gave me an insight about the various avenues that help in the choosing of an appropriate job by an individual with respect to the skills, experience and knowledge level, and how these avenues prove to be advantageous  in the process of job search. I got to know that newspaper job advertisements can be more advantageous than job agencies and magazines, as they are more reliable, and are cost effective due to absence of registering cost or other fees. Advertisements tend to have less competition due to the decrease in pare reading population; despite of the fact that many organizations still prefer to avail newspaper publishing due to better geographic coverage.

Another mode is using online job portals, like Australian Job Search is used for searching of job without the involvement of the any third party recruiting body. I got to know that online job search provides the candidate with more options and applying for more than one job at a time, which enable a direct communication with the organization. It is now understood to me that availing of these modes proves to be beneficial for the companies as well, as they also get access to personal information of a candidate. The effectiveness of job portals increases as it automatically sends the job updates to the job seeker without having to miss it. Online job portals provide almost majority of the services for free inclusive of the creation of profile, regular updating of the CV, regular job updates to the job seeker etc. although it also gives a choice of paid services which depends on the individual to take or not. The renowned job portals are very much reliable, and are consisted of genuine job listings on the portal without any unauthenticated information.

The study also explains the reasons for choosing the particular job of Marketing Manager at Darrell Lea, which elaborated how the key competencies of an employee are applicable in the organizational functions, and also how this will help in the grooming and development of the employee. The section also threw light on the important factors that and employee preference to have in a company, like Darrell Lea have got employee friendly human resource practices and training programs which ensures employee sustainability and better performance. The company Darrell Lea is standing tall, remembering that prosperity starts from home itself, and the organizational strategies, values and norms of the company as well as the excellent reputation gives Darrell Lea an edge over its competitors in the market.

I learnt the concept of time management more illustratively, by understanding the concept of urgent and important activities in an organization. The application of the model will prove to be very important in planning of processes in an organization, as different works will be categorized according to their importance and urgency level and result in better planning like whether the activities need more time or less time and the work load will be increased or decreased, because the matrix discussed in the study elaborates the effectiveness of the time being spent on a particular activity.

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