GXY Blog
A blog about all things career-related.
So you’ve graduated-What the bloody hell do you do now??
So you’ve finally made it to the end of uni. No more late nights downing cups of coffee as you sit hunched over another last minute essay. No more wild evenings spent dancing till dawn, then straggling into class. No more weekends spent cramming for exams. It’s all over and chances are you don’t have a job to go to now. So what the bloody hell do you do now??
Firstly, it’s important to realise this is only temporary!! While it may feel like you are sending out an endless barrage of resumes only to receive an endless barrage of rejections back (if any at all), someone will recognize your genius, you’ve just gotta to keep plugging on.
Open your eyes to the possibilities around you! While you may not initially fall into your dream placement, take what you can from those that you undertake in the meantime. You’ll soon discover whether working for love or money suits you more and hopefully will pick up a few handy life-enhancing tidbits along the way.
You don’t even need to spend this time
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A blog about all things career-related.
What would Patrick Bateman Do?
Despite the seemingly ominous title, this post is not a dedication to the pro’s of yuppie pride, 80’s power wear or, of course, the slashing and slicing of innocent lady loves.
This is an insight into one of American Psycho Patrick Bateman’s most prized pieces, so beloved it requires it’s own public reveal and in-depth narrative-the business card. For those of you in need of a refresher, have a squiz here:
watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2Ux3vncNNLg
Just with everything in the life of the psychotic serial killer, all things must be done with utmost precision, and the business card is no exception. While his utter devotion to his card (and all other material possessions for that matter), may seem a little (read: completely) batty, he does have a point.
Your business card is often the first tangible item a potential employer or contact has to remember you by, and while you don’t need to spend a fortune on it, you should definitely put in a little bit of effort.
To start with, pick a design. What shape should it be? How thick would you like the stock? What colour
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LINKED IN vs FACEBOOK: A User’s Guide
They both boast the ability to ‘connect’ you with those around you-some you may know, some, not-so-much. Both help you get into the innermost thoughts of others, and above all, both can be supremely affective time-wasting tools. The difference with Linked In and Facebook however, is that one is for work, one for play, and never shall the two intertwine. Because as we have seen with Lindsay Lohan and her embarrassment of an acting career, sometimes unprofessionalism cannot be overlooked.
While no one will bat an eye if you add five thousand of your nearest, dearest, randomest, weirdest mates on Stalkbook, the same cannot be said for Linked In, and the reasons are twofold.
1. Firstly, It’s one thing to add the cute guy/gal from the gym you’ve had your eye on to the Book, but Linked In is for BUSINESS people-and not the funny sort you’re picturing in your dirty minds. Stick to those who are in your industry or at least are semi relevant!
2. Having said that, there are occasions when you
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A blog about all things career-related.
Let’s Get Product Savvy
Until now, when on the job hunt you were seen merely as faceless entities, portrayed with a little added panache on a curriculum vitae. Not so these days, as with blogging at an all time high, and with the introduction of social media powerhouses Linked In, Facebook, Twitter et al. YOU have become the product itself, like a puppy (or a pitbull) at a pet shop, looking for a suitable home. And it’s up to YOU to publish yourselves to the best of your ability.
So how can you ensure you are presented in the most glorious light? As simply as you would any other brand or product: marketing. And how do you market yourself in the digital age you may wonder? By giving your internet output a Queer Eye style zoosh! And here’s how:
1. Text
Ok, this may seem like a no-brainer, but text is the simplest of ways to sell yourself. Like it or not, even the shyest mouse must learn that a little bit of self-promotion is essential to furthering your career, as you aint gonna get hired
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Suck It Up
Well, well, well. Hasn’t 2012 well and truly crept up on us to send us crashing back to reality following what was hopefully an invigorating break of sun, sand, surfing, skiing, and general slacking for you all. The first week back at the office can often leave you feeling a little blue (I know I am looking ever-less tanned and ever-more the duck-egg shade of a Tiffany’s box right now).
So let us take the opportunity now to turn your work doldrums into a positive new beginning, starting the year off on the right foot and setting the tone for a bloody sensational year.
Marketing guru Chris Savage recently sat down with Iron Man great Trevor Hendy, who provided one of those lightning bolt pieces of wisdom regarding the secrets to his success- “The conditions are always great”.
Aint it the truth. I’m sure you are all already finding ways to renege on your New Years resolutions (It’s too wet/hot/early to go for a run; I’ll give up the fags as soon as January/Summer/my hot holiday fling is over etc); just as you are constantly inventing excuses
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Ho Ho Hope you have a Christmas cracker of a holiday season!
Wow-it amazes me how many awkward puns a person can inject into an opening line and yet I have managed to smush in two-You’re Welcome!
What an awesome year 2011 has been-We fell in love with Kate, Wills, Pippa and THAT derriere; witnessed the demise of Osama Bin Laden, plus enjoyed an INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT AND AMAZING WIN BY THE MIGHTY CATS!!!
In between all this we managed to place a number of fabulous candidates in fabulous roles with fabulous clients. Oh the fabulosity!
Equally, our other arm and career transition program GXY REBOOT has seen great progress amid a trip up Everest, a surfing adventure in Torquay, and a day of culinary genius at the Pantry in Brighton.
From our clients to our candidates, we can’t thank you all enough for your support and contribution to making this year a great one. May you all have a safe, happy and memorable Christmas and New Year, and we look forward to catching up when we re-open our doors on the 9th of January!
To finish off the year each GXY staffie completed a little quiz to finish off the year in style…
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On the couch with…Kate Hamilton
Melbourne gal Kate Hamilton met Mel on a recent camping trip in Wilson’s Prom and the two instantly hit it off. When Mel mentioned the GXY REBOOT Summit workshop before her last trip to Base Camp, Kate was instantly intrigued and became a last minute entrant to the gang bound for Nepal for our most recent adventure.
The former Director of Business Development for Aviation Screening provider Rapiscan, Kate has recently gone freelance taking some time off to study an MBA Executive at RMIT/Open Universities and consult and advise local businesses in strategy planning.
A trip up one of Mother Nature’s greatest creations was a sure fire way to spice things up, as Kate immersed herself in her new chosen transition from full time employment-even if it did mean she had to make do without a hot shower at the end of a long day of trekking!
For adventure-loving Kate, whose average day is spent “working & training hard then spending time with family and friends”; the opportunity to climb Everest was a once in a lifetime one. She fell in love with the beauty
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What to wear when you want to rock the workplace
Dress codes in the workplace are always an interesting topic of discussion. The lucky few whose role requires a uniform or a business suit never experience the hair-pulling frustration of those expected to don “smart casual”, or worse, “business casual”, where the lines are blurred and anything potentially goes.
Call me old fashioned, but I do believe it’s highly unprofessional and unnecessary to show excessive cleavage at work. Same goes for a blatant display of your Southern Cross tatt peeking out from your grubby wife beater. But like I said, I am old fashioned.
These are of course extreme (sadly not that extreme) scenarios of workplace wear, but the question still remains-are dress codes important?
Some may argue that with Gen Y making their way to the top of the corporate ladder, corporate dress codes may be a thing of the past. Indeed at GXY Headquarters we are well aware that business attire is simply not appropriate at every office. If you are working for a surf-wear company a sharply pressed suit jacket and Hermes tie may not necessarily set the tone as well as more informal casual-wear. And
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Introducing…Brad Sewell
Brad Sewell, current Hawthorn Hawk, adventure seeker and all round good bloke, was an integral part of the recent GXY REBOOT trek up Mt Everest.
A participant in the GXY REBOOT workshops since it began, Brad provided valuable insights and merit to the REBOOT team as he took part to combine the knowledge he gained through his recently completed business degree, with his hectic on-field training sessions, and to prepare himself for life after football.
Not only has Brad had a whole lotta fun since joining the program, he has also managed to get some real value out of it all, broadening his horizons, and making clever use of his vast network of contacts so as to really utilise his skills.
To compliment his hard work, Brad took part in the recent GXY REBOOT trip to Mt Everest summit, an adventure he found to be enlightening, rewarding and seriously enjoyable.
As the summits increased Brad truly became one with Everest, evolving into a Wolverine type mountain man replete with requisite shaggy beard.
Tougher than some (Pete I’m looking at you wimp); Brad endured the cold, without a hot water bottle, and
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Modern Recruitment and The NEW Candidate
Listen up all of you talented, currently employed, hard-working, Australian blokes and sheilas out there. We are living in a modern era and as such have had to adjust our lives and our businesses accordingly-no if’s, buts or exceptions.
We have heard the call here at GXY Search and are ready, willing and able to move with the times and take the journey into the 21st Century, by changing the way we find and recruit potential employees.
“So what’s this got to do with me??” you may ask and with good reason. Well here goes: You, and every other gainfully employed talent out there is a head hunting candidate, as in the new world, EVERYONE is applicable.
Greg Savage, creator of famed recruitment and staffing website The Savage Truth has made a fascinating discovery, stating:
“Research (and common sense) tells us that less than 10% of relevant talent are actively looking for a role at any given moment in time. That means that 90% of candidates suitable for your roles are not engaged in job searches. They have not registered with recruiters, they are not perusing
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Not Just a Pretty Face
An interesting article recently hit the desks of Reboot headquarters, detailing me, us, and you dear readers, plus your fellow Gen Y compatriots; and how we have all managed to come out the other side of the global financial crisis relatively unscathed.
Titled ‘Reality Bites” and penned by Joel Meares in The Good Weekend (November 12th 2011); the article was a fresh perspective on our generation and how we are a lot cleverer than we are usually given credit for.
That’s right, us spoiled, whingeing, “I want it all and I want it now” layabouts have successfully proved that despite appearances we are in fact quite capable of succeeding in this big bad world of ours far beyond the expectations of our Boomer parents and Gen X predecessors.
Here at Reboot, we see a lot of people who have hit a fork in their path (or indeed a dead end) and are at a loss for where to go next. Whilst many are prepared to write us off as Jersey Shore slackers due to our quest for career satisfaction where financial rewards are not necessarily the be all
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Starting a biz? Check out what’s so hot right now…
This week we continue on with the entrepreneurial theme, with an insight into the hottest industries for start up businesses, based on some of the more interesting suggestions found via a helpful little slideshow recently published on inc.com (see here for more info and all the pretty pictures).
So what is hot, hip, happening and more importantly, raking in the dough these days?
The beauty industry for one. Perhaps spurred on by the seemingly ageless male and female celebs who grace our televisions, movie screens and magazine pages (Tom Cruise, Kylie Minogue I am looking at you); these day you’d be hard pressed to find a lady (or a lad for that matter-GXY Business Manager Pat simply lurves a spray tan on special occasions) who will leave the house without a fresh face of makeup, manicured talons and skin as hair-free as a newborns. Inc reports that it is the fastest growing industry of 2011 with a YOY growth rate of 29%!! That’s a lot of haircuts!
Public relations firms are also on the up and up with predictions of a 6% annual
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Memories of a big fat mother of a mountain
Sometimes in life, no matter how hard we try, shit hits the fan and there aint nothing that can be done about it. Whether it be in love, lust, work or play; the reality is that sometimes reality bites. It’s how you overcome the hurdles and obstacles that are put in your path that really separates the meek from the mighty.
At GXY Reboot, we see a lot of people who are struggling with where to go next in their careers-hell we’ve all been there. We’d like to tell you that we are so wise, clever and beautiful around here that nothing ever goes wrong, but alas it simply isn’t so. Well of course the whole beauty and brains thing is true, (naturally) but the pitfalls stuff not so much.
It was fitting then, that our recent trip to Everest was not quite the dream adventure that we had initially anticipated…
Fact: if you’re looking for a good time and relaxing holiday, trekking for 13 days and roughly 25 kilometres of brutal elevations and extreme attitude probably isn’t it. We’re talking 8 or 9 hour days of hiking people.
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So you think you’re an entrepreneur…
Ever wanted to pack it all in and go off on your own? Hate the thought of being someone else’s lackey? Find yourself bursting to the brim with brilliant ideas and no clue what to do with them? Well listen up all you budding would-be business owners!
In a perfect world we would all be working in our dream roles, cackling maniacally as we fondle our wads of cash, made after we created the ultimate career with little to no risk and the click of our manicured nails. Actually if we are talking perfect worlds lets also chuck in Giselle’s body, Kate’s wardrobe and some Ryan Gosling on the side no? Or Megan Fox for those of you who lust after the ladeez…
But sadly, this is not a perfect world, and while we may lust after the chance to be master of our own personal global empires, it takes some forethought, and this is where you should, nay MUST read on.
Contrary to popular demand, successful entrepreneurs are not IMPULSIVE risk-takers. What may appear to be the end result of impulsive thinking and perilous choices, are in
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Important Ideas in Interning
Many, many, MANY jobs, no matter the field, offer internships. They are the perfect way to get your foot in the door, meet some peops and get a clue on how the biz behaves.
Tasks offered to interns are varied. And by varied we mean shitty. Filing enough paper to papier-mâché the world. Making enough cups of coffee to fill Hugh Hefner’s swimming pools, grotto and all. Cleaning out cupboards the size of Imelda Marcos’-full of litter, not Louboutins. Yes there will be a little field related work, but don’t be fooled. Those in charge are likely to go out of their way to find the dullest, most mind-blowingly crappy jobs they can find to avoid doing them themselves, evil geniuses that they are.
However, while the picture I am painting sounds more Little House of Horrors than Little House on the Prairie, DO NOT DESPAIR! We all go through it, and with good reason. An internship can be a gateway into a proper role, so it’s important to remember as you photocopy your millionth report that there
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LIVE FROM EVEREST!
It’s been a couple of weeks since the GXY Reboot gang headed off to Everest for some mountain frolicking, Sherpa hugging, and serious goat patting. That’s what happens on Everest surely!
Ok so they do have a more serious purpose, they are undergoing the awesome Reboot program, and it sounds like things are going swimmingly! Or hikingly even!
Pete “Pistol” Summers let us in on what the terrific trekkers have been up to….
“We have been trekking for six days now and the first signs of altitude sickness are starting to hit the team. We had one member get food poisoning and nearly pass out on the trek. We have been trekking between 6-8 hours a day, I now understand what Mel was saying when she said she will knock out anyone who says “are you just going to basecamp?”
It sounds disastrous but we are having the best time! Everyone is getting on like a house on fire! We have had some amazing treks along the way. I can’t explain how beautiful the scenery is, the mountains are so intimidating! You can’t imagine how magnificent they
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The Executive Monitor-Part Two
So last week we learned a few little tidbits from this totes f’amazing study “The Executive Monitor” and this week we’re going to let you in on a few more findings, to let you know what’s happening in the big bad world of work.
Firstly, people love brands. Now I’m not talking Louis Vuitton, Prada style brands (although I do truuuuuuly love those possibly mpore than my children! Ok that’s a lie I don’t have children but if I did I would surely put them on par with my Chanel 2.55) but rather universal and household business names. It makes sense that all those busy workers prefer to work at the big names, as these are perceived as the better employers. Yes this makes sense but don’t disregard the little fish either as just because you haven’t heard of them does not mean they are no good.
People also love perks. Who doesn’t! Particularly MONEY honey, with 61.3% choosing an annual bonus as their favourite thank you pressie. Seriously, who needs hugs when you’ve got some cold hard cashola!! Execs
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The Executive Monitor-Part One
Every year, a study known as “The Executive Monitor” is conducted on the behaviours of Australian high-income earners and executives, and the latest saw 890 people surveyed between December 2010 and Jan 2011, discovering what they liked and didn’t like about their jobs, what type of job they’d go for and how they’d look for it, yada yada, and so on and so forth.
As usual, the study uncovered some interesting stats which we will delve into in this post and next weeks. Now before you get all “What! Statistics! Numbers! What the hell is this- school?!” -fear not! We are not taking you on a painful ride down memory lane to rehash nightmarish moments fumbling over a calculator or sweating over equations; but rather a few key points that will give you a keen insight into how workplace peeps are feeling these days and better your insight into today’s workforce. Yay maths!
Firstly, while it looks like most people surveyed were happy with their work (49%) they sure aint loyal, as 47.4% were likely to look for other work this year with 64.1%
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Mel Bridge-Magazine Marvel
GXY Search is proud to introduce you to the latest and greatest magazine star, the very talented (and very photogenic!) Melissa Bridge, AKA GXY head honcho and entrepreneurial superstar!
To celebrate the one-of-a-kind, all new BMW 1 Series, various ACP mags interviewed 5 talented people at the top of their field, including fashion designers Yeojin Bae and Arthur Galan; industrial designer Mark Tuckey; and everyone’s favourite chef Gary Mehigan. Popular lifestyle tome madison picked our homegal Mel to star in their October issue-an inspired choice if we do say so ourselves!
In addition to the fine work listed below, Mel is also involved in many, MANY other pursuits-far too many to fill one page! These include acting as head of HR for two leading Australian sportswear corporations; participating in Kiva, a charity that provides financial support to budding entrepreneurs in third world countries; and participating EO, an entrepreneurial organisation celebrated worldwide. Phew!
Read the article below:
SEIZING THE MOMENT
A SKILLED ENTREPRENEUR, MELISSA BRIDGE IS ONE-OF-A-KIND – LIKE THE ALL NEW BMW 1 SERIES.
Melissa Bridge, founder of head-hunting and recruitment company GXY Search, always endeavours to be the
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Let’s Get Passionate
When rebooting your life and undergoing a transition from school/uni to work, old job to new job, it is critical to grasp and embrace your passions so as to truly get the greatest potential from your role. We’re talking serious passion-the kind that puts a little spring in your step as you leap out of bed, a smile on your dial as you pop out the door and a trill in your voice as you laugh through the day. Not Tommy Lee and Pammy honeymoon passion though. That would just be creepy.
So how do we bring passion in our lives eh? By focusing on three key principles-Pride, Enjoyment and Flow.
Think about a moment when you were truly proud. A time you were so thrilled with your performance you beamed. Not a time that made your Mum, Dad, Sister, Brother, Granny, Boyfriend, Girlfriend, De Facto ex-Wife Living In Your Dream House proud; but YOU. Can you picture it?
Maybe it was when you were little? Did you lead the soccer team at recess? David Bowie’d the hell out of choir?
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Job Applications and Interviews-how NOT to roll
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the basics when applying for a job. CV’s printed on paper and not scrawled on the back of a napkin, a no brainer. Turning up to an interview after showering, brushing your hair and dressing in clean clothes are a given on, as is arriving on time to a job interview and not reeking of last nights Jägerbombs.
But what of those more finicky details, clever tricks and treats sure to earn you some brownie points and bump you to the top of the pile. In case you have been living under a ROCK you will be aware that the economy and job market is a little dodgy at the moment, so take heed of these handy hints and go from jobseeker to job-savvy.
• Don’t get overly creative when emailing your resume. While it’s true there are certain employers who respond to a little razzle dazzle, in the majority of cases, a plain old word document is all that is required. No zip files, pdf’s etc. While we are by no means saying do
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On The Couch With: Darcy Wright
Quiksilver Buying Manager, surfer, and all around nice bloke Darcy Wright recently took part in Reboot’s surfing workshop, with sensational results. We chat to Darcy about what he’s been up to.
First off, what is your background?
Well, I started on the frontline of retail and worked my way up the food chain reasonably fast (lucky break huh?), and had a great opportunity to get into buying with the General Pants Group in Sydney. There I learned a lot of “best practice” and worked with some very knowledgeable and inspiring characters – they knew how to have fun too which made for a great work environment. From there I had an opportunity to move across to Quiksilver – a brand I’ve been passionate about since I was a little frother – and eventually was shipped down to Torquay to where I am today.
What is your current role at Quiksilver?
I am currently the Buying Manager for our retail business looking after 43 stores in Australia and New Zealand.
Can you give us a snapshot of a day in the life of Darcy Wright?
Get up early, check the surf,
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Hang Tough Baby
Earlier this year, an article posted on ERE.net caught the eye of GXY, with its theories on why you should never accept a counter offer. Nicht, Nej, Yok. That’s ‘No’ in German, Swedish and Turkish for those of you playing at home. Wow the internet is a sensational tool for getting distracted.
A counteroffer is commonly defined as an offer or proposal made to offset or substitute an earlier offer made by another. In employment terms, it’s the offer you receive when you’ve been given a better one, and your current employer scrambles to keep you onsite.
While being showered with employment opportunities can make you feel like the most popular gal in school, choosing her formal date from an array of studs on the football team, making the wrong decision and choosing a counter offer can instead lead to an evening on the bleachers, a lonely wallflower who should have said yes when the hot quarterback asked her first, for many reasons as outlined below.
• When an employee quits, the employer is left with
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Everybody’s goin’ surfin’………
As previously touched on on this blog, we have recently developed GXY’s Reboot program, a platform for current and ex athletes to discover their passions outside the sporting landscape, and put into practice when they are no longer able to perform on the footy field, tennis court, diving board, bowling alley…you get the drift.
On April 19th of this year, a group of ex-AFL players congregated for the pilot session of the career workshop, held in sunny Torquay in Victoria to embark on a day of kickin’ it on the waves Point Break style. Without the dead Presidents masks. Or bank robberies and drug busts. Or getting shot and flung out of a helicopter. Hmmm, ok maybe Point Break was the wrong analogy….
But I digress. So these five ex-footy players, namely Shane Valenti, Simon Prestigiacomo, Taylor Gilchrist, Tristan Francis and Jamason Daniels, gathered at uber-hip eatery St Ali in South Melbourne, before embarking on the first ever Reboot program. From the café, the talented posse loaded into a mini bus (or mega car if you like), and ventured off into the unknown. Seriously, these guys
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All about online-ASOS and Myer get Aussie’s web surfing
When it comes to the world of retail right now, its all about the invasion of the overseas labels. We’re talking Zara, Topshop and now coveted shopping haven ASOS, which opened a dedicated Australian site last Thursday.
Since launching in 2000, ASOS has grown exponentially with the number of loyal customers expanding day by day. Think those cute, fluffy buggers that multiplied into squillions of gremlins when they get wet. Ok I don’t think the ASOS crew has been chucking water on their computers but you get the picture.
The Australian recently reported some pretty amazing ASOS figures proving the era of online shopping is well and truly here, including:
• ASOS’ annual turnover is currently ₤340 million ($531m) compared with Net-a-Porter’s ₤230m ($359m)
• ASOS boasts more than 990,640 facebook followers (update: now more than 1,032,111!)
• ASOS provides its top shoppers with a printed magazine-that’s 450,000 recipients!
The site not only features hot little numbers from the house design team, but also from a ton of highly respected international fashion houses including Chloe, Jil Sander, Elizabeth and James, and our own Elke Kramer; ensuring the site covers every corner of
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GXY Career Development-Life Rebooted
Some people in life are fortunate enough to know what career they want from day dot. Some are not so lucky, and flit from job to job in the vain hope of discovering the ultimate role. And then there are those, like professional athletes, who are living the dream only to have that dream cut short due to injury, age, or simply because they are no longer up to par.
Enter GXY’s Career Development’s Reboot program, a course designed to mould and mentor these young athletes both past and present, to prepare for life after sport, proving their careers can be just as fulfilling away from the arena.
Run by GXY head honcho Mel Bridge, and ex-footy player Pete Summers; Reboot focuses on five key life aspects, being passions, strengths, personal priorities, goals, and perseverance. These five essential ingredients are covered thoroughly over a one-day workshop, and following this, participants are coupled with a mentor, who can assist with their progress as the years wear on.
Pete plays host to perfection, as he too has stood in each participant’s shoes. In a recent article in
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Is it still cool to celebrate half-birthdays?
With our Media, Marketing & PR division hitting its inaugural bi-annual birthday (we like to celebrate things in double time down this end of town) – we thought it would be good to give our candidates, clients and random blog followers a bit of a rundown on the fish we’ve been frying.
With a focus on media sales and mid-to-senior level agency roles, the team has been busy getting their networking on and headhunting all across town. So far we’ve made numerous placements in radio, mags & outdoor advertising sales, a bucket load at all levels within the currently-growing-out-of-control PR industry, and a sprinkling across advertising and marketing comms agencies too.
So what is this market turmoil people speak of? Well while there may be redundancies here and there across the Australian economic landscape, the market by no means is dry for talented workers. Maybe it’s not as easy as it used to be, but there is plenty to be done and still money to be made – finding and filling roles are all about finding the right fit between a candidate’s wants and skills,
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Happy career = happy life?
At GXY Search we’re big advocates of following your passions, doing what you love for a living and working towards your dreams, but a recent article by Eve Tahmincioglu got us thinking. It’s well worth the read, and to summarise it into a paragraph is tricky, but we love a challenge. So here goes:
People whose goal is career ‘happiness’ often feel less happy than their more tangible goal-setting counterparts (e.g. save $x to pay off the handbag I bought a month ago on credit). With all the books and the blogs (guilty) and the tweets about doing what you love for a living, people are feeling pretty bummed out these days if they don’t achieve it.
It’s one of those ‘you want what you can’t have’ kind of things – once you get to a level you strive for the next, and you do this again and again throughout your working life. If you don’t celebrate those little wins along the way you can come out feeling anxious, like you haven’t gotten anywhere at all. No matter where you are or what you have, you always want more –
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2012: NostradamuSearch says…
Following on from our previous blog (FY 2011: Would you like a bag for that?), we thought why not get the ball rolling and share some of our predictions for FY 2012. First of all, in early August the Dow Jones will tumble! Wait, these blogs are date stamped aren’t they? Yeah, that one already happened…
On a serious note – as recruiters, we have a direct line into the internal workings of the Australian retail industry, and by knowing what roles are in and what are out, you get to build a nice picture of how things are shaping up. While we spoke previously about the potential of another retail bubble bursting into a flash flood of doom (perhaps that was a bit of an embellishment), the Australian economy is really in pretty good shape compared to some others. Perhaps now is the time to go all or nothing – cause let’s face it, how much worse can things get?
Anthony Wong, Chief Executive of AGW consulting describes how changes in the entertainment and technology sector are having a flow on effect to the retail world – and
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Tidy your desk and get ready for succ-esk!
Welcome to the most productive day of your life. And no, you don’t need to turn the computer on just yet (well, this is a lie – as this post is on the internet you will need the computer on. Unless you have printed it off. Then you won’t. But sometimes our website prints funny. So maybe test it first?)
Where were we? Oh that’s right. We’re talking distractions. Think TV programs – “de-clutter your life, de-clutter your mind!” and other such profound statements.
You see, for every piece (or in some cases, piles) of paper that sit on the desk, there is a distraction, or something unfinished. Not only does a messy desk make it hard to find things, but it makes it easy to forget them too – and when your boss comes over and you are scrounging to find that article they left you with / piece of work that you’ve forgotten to do / sandwich they lent you, things can start to get awkward.
So we present you with GXY Search’s 4-action plan of getting your shit together.
Your new mission in life (if you are to accept it) is to
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FY 2011: Would you like a bag for that?
As FY 2012 kicks off with a well-heeled sole, we take some time to reflect on the year gone by, one that saw some of the country’s biggest retailers bite the dust. As Ragtrader reports on soft sales for the June/July clearance period, Myer and DJ’s prepare to announce profit losses and every second article is an ode to the amount of dollars being sent offshore to ‘unfairly advantaged’ cheaper retailers. So what is really going on?
In our office, there is a distinct lack of change in our own spending habits. As Gen Y’s we like to spend what we earn and generally on things that sit above our pay line. Is it irresponsible? Perhaps. But as long as we can keep paying off that credit card, maybe we are actually being more responsible that our overly conservative counterparts who stash their dollars for the market bust that looms ahead. You see, when K Rudd handed out the stimulus package, oh did we spend it. And when we get our tax back? Yep, we’ll probably spend that too. Perhaps our disposable income is exactly what this country
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GXY Search: just like Masterchef (kind of)
Over the years recruitment has come to be a bit of a dirty word, and the pushy nature of some in the industry has provided a hurdle to others setting out what they aimed to achieve: placing the best candidates in the best roles- like a maths equation where the output is a really great career move and a really happy client.
So, what is it exactly that we do all day? Well, we are always talking to people – clients, candidates, random people at St Edmonds (that’s our local coffee shop) and people at Sportsgirl (sorry, that’s just Pip and Kristen who spend too much time in Chapel St). As a recruiter, it is a difficult thing to separate work from life – work and home hours blur at the seams, everyone you meet is a potential candidate or client, and you are only as good as your last placement. Think Masterchef, but people instead of dishes, and minus the threat of elimination. And minus the threat of overcooking your fish. Ok, so not really like Masterchef at all.
We know who is moving on from where, who is expanding and who is
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Getting career-ready with Reboot
Participants join the GXY team on the sand at Jan Juc
We’ve launched a new initiative to help professional athletes transition to successful careers after sport. Called ‘Reboot’, the program aims to give participants a clearer idea of who they are, what they want and how to get there. In late April, we piloted Reboot with five ex AFL players.
The program was the brainchild of GXY founder, Mel Bridge, and Pete Summers, who was delisted from Essendon in 2004. Mel had worked with numerous ex-athletes at GXY Search, as well in previous roles at Adidas and Ripcurl, and been struck by the unique challenges they faced in transitioning to new careers. It was not, however, until Mel was coaching Pete Summers, her (then) electrician, that the idea of a course specifically for ex-footballers arose.
Pete explains: “The process Mel took me through was nothing short of life changing. Initially I just wanted help with my business plan, but Mel could tell my heart wasn’t in it so she took me through a series of exercises to clarify what I really wanted from my career. It
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What makes WOW?
In our office we often talk about candidates having – or not having – the “wow factor”. We don’t need to define the term: we all know what it means. But do our candidates?
After a very unscientific office poll, I can confirm that above everything, the wow factor is about energy. People who have it convey the sort of passion and dynamism that hits you like a triple espresso on a Monday morning. People with wow aren’t always easy – they don’t need to be – but they are always compelling. And they generally get snapped up by the first client who meets them. It’s about charisma certainly, but also focus.
You can’t fake wow – as Mel and Kochie can testify – but you can foster it. In recruitment, people with wow have two things in common: they do what they love and they back themselves. The wow candidate knows exactly what they have to offer and asks for what they want. They have no fear of rejection, and that’s part of their alpha appeal.
There are no shortcuts to wow- you have to be seriously good at what you do, but
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On the couch with: Elle Ferguson
Considering that we spend a good 2 or so hours of our working week trawling the posts on www.theyallhateus.com (sorry Mel), we took it upon ourselves to hunt down the beautiful Elle Ferguson, part of the ’Elle and Tash’ duo. As the current National VM Manager at General Pants, Elle has what we rate as a dream job – not to mention a dream blog, wardrobe and legs! Here’s a sneak peek into the life of one of our favourite fashionistas….
Elleshia Ferguson
Blogger (www.theyallhateus.com)
Women’s National Visual Merchandising Manager at General Pants Co.
1. How did you break into the industry?
I studied Visual Merchandising for 12months and then transferred into a 4-year degree in Interior Design. At my final exhibition I got offered the National Visual merchandising job for One Teaspoon. After that, it was hard work and long hours.
2. What do you love most about your role?
For me it’s that no day is ever the same as the next. And my role allows my to be creative and passionate about the thing I love most: FASHION!
3. Do you agree that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know?
I do and I don’t.
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Why workplace aesthetics matter
When candidates come into our office, 9 out of 10 comment that they love our space. Whether they’re making conversation (or buttering us up to get them a job) it can’t be denied that the look and location of a workplace is of paramount importance to Gen Y, as confirmed by a recent study by Johnson Controls.
Unsurprisingly, the survey’s Gen Y respondents preferred urban locations, good access to social and shopping facilities as well as public transport. The findings on interior design were however more interesting. Most respondents weren’t fans of hyper-modern colourful design, but instead preferred interiors that were neutral, natural, relaxed and featured artworks. Preferences did however vary by country, with the Chinese, for example, having a taste for almost-clinical minimalism.
For Gen Y, the workplace is of critical importance when choosing a job. Which is why we at GXY Search have always put a lot of effort into creating a space that’s airy, welcoming and just a little bit quirky. In fact, Mel chose our warehouse-style Prahran office before the business even had a name. And even still, she regularly refreshes the decor to reflect current trends and
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From boots to boardroom: AFLPA’s Ian Prendergast
Ever been curious about what it takes to hold down one of those Jobs in Sport (yes, in caps) that you only ever see on television?
We thought we’d ask Ian Prendergast, General Manager of Player Relations for the AFL Players Association.
By way of background, Ian was picked by Carlton in the 1998 Draft. He was elevated to the senior list in 2001 and made his AFL debut in Round 17 against Hawthorn. He then went on to play 65 games, and became known for constantly running opponents into the ground. His supreme athleticism stemmed from his days as an elite runner.
While still playing, Ian got a law degree from Monash University. This set him up for a great career after sport. He worked as a lawyer before taking on his current role with the AFLPA.
So, what did Ian have to say about his high-profile career?
1. Tell me about your transition from sport to a professional career?
I really struggled with the transition initially, despite the fact that I was pretty well prepared (I”d just completed a law degree and knew I would be getting the flick half way through the season.). I had spent eight years playing at Carlton. Following my de-listment, I moved to Adelaide with
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Holly Curtis.. the beauty behind ‘Am I There Yet?’
With an office which spends a decent amount of time each week reading blogs, we got chatting the other day at Market Lane Coffee (our latest coffee hangout – we don’t like to get too attached to any one place) about the wonder of these magical online spaces. To quote the master, Perez Hilton says that 19% of young people aged 12-17 have their own blogs. Gen Y never ceases to amaze.. who knew they could even touch type at that age.
So, what better way to find out more, than to get it straight from the horse’s mouth? Or, in this case, a very pretty Peninsula-born pony. We sat down for a chat with ‘Am I There Yet’ blogger extraordinaire, Holly Curtis (this time at The Cullen). Part Uni Student, part Beauty Editor for Onya Magazine, part Tiffany & Co sales assistant and part blogger, if you haven’t yet read this busy girl’s blog, it’s time to get on board. The perfect mix up of make up and madness, we love Holly’s way with words.
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Everest, what the brochures don’t tell you…
For those who haven’t been following our fearless leader’s adventures, after hospitalisation and rescue by a Nepalese billionaire, she rejoined her group on the trek about a week ago.
We just received this priceless email from her…
Hello from Dingboche. We are on our way down, thank Christ!!! What an ordeal it has been – so physically and emotionally challenging.
So let me tell you the things the brochure never tells you:
• Every hour people are being flown out by helicopter with altitude sickness. People dying, or nearly, dying is a daily occurrence!
• The ‘tea houses’ you stay at are as classy as a public toilet block at home
• All day you trek in the wake of yaks, who shit and fart the entire time
• Most days all you can eat is potato, yak cheeses sandwiches and Mars bars that expired in 2009. Black tea and water are the only drinks on offer
• At night we gather around a fire that is filled with yak shit, while at least one person projectile vomits
• Most days 80% of the trekkers are taking medication for chest infections, colds, flu or food poisoning
• On average
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Friends in high places
As you may have heard, Melissa’s Mt Everest trek has been interrupted by a nasty bout of food poisoning in Kathmandu. Mere mortals would abandon the trek at this stage, but not our fearless leader. She just did what she does best: got on the blower to a friend. Fortunately, the friend was a Nepalese billionaire who promptly had Mel and her similarly afflicted brother transferred to the best private hospital in the country, which he owns. Natch. Hopefully, Mel and Simon will soon be well enough to rejoin their expedition (via helicopter!)
So, after months of discussion about wee bottles and altitude training, it turns out the most useful preparation Mel did for the trek didn’t involve fitness or equipment. What actually saved her freeze-dried bacon was her astonishingly broad personal network. If you’ve got someone you can call when you get into trouble in Nepal – someone who can provide a bodyguard to sit by your bed ensuring you are given the correct doses of medicine – the world is a much smaller and safer place.
Mel wasn’t born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and
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Mt Everest – pee bottles and pretty dresses
There’s only a week to go until Mel leaves for Everest, and she’s been getting some exciting things in the mail in anticipation. Not quite on par with the I-tried-to-send-a-puppy-in-the-post styling of Stacey Champion, but fun none the less. On a daily basis she is reminding us where her will is kept (if anybody would like us to add in some clauses, let us know – currently she is donating her car, house and wardrobe to those in the office) and just in case she doesn’t come back, she is buying herself a little happy before she goes.
Getting mail is always fun, even if it is not your own. Each day as the couriers deliver more goodies, the girls gather around Mel’s desk to see what is coming out of the ShopBop / NetAPorter / FrockShop boxes. So when Mel unwrapped her ‘pee bottle’ (seriously) the other day, safe to say we were less than stoked.
Apparently, in addition to a pee bottle (for your sake we won’t go into the technicalities of this device), there are a whole bunch of stuff one needs for a sneaky trip to base
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Office romances – good for your love life, bad for your career
Our director has a rule. No dating within the office. Simple. And we stick by it too, you see, as she knows everything. Everything. What ever is going on, she always finds out. Alwayyyyys.
So while Monday mornings are always a buzz with who did what with whom on the weekend, we can’t help but feel a little left out when it comes to Valentines day and nobody is sneaking stolen glances over the top of their computer screens.
You see, there is this new phenomenon, and we’re not allowed it. It’s called a work lover. Or ‘WL’ for short. And apparently everyone is doing it – a recent survey found that 8 out of 10 people have shared more than a stapler at work. While my girlfriends send daily updates of their dealings with their WL’s (for example, ‘WL asked me to play in his indoor netball team’ or ‘just found out WL wears fake tan – eew’) we live vicariously thorough those who, at a larger company, get to sweep their indiscretions underneath a rug of client briefs and new business proposals.
With young professionals spending
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If the shoe fits..
This week I met a woman who sells shoes to women with big feet. And not just sensible shoes: glamorous shoes, quirky shoes and borderline S&M shoes. Being six foot tall herself, she understood the pain of not being able to find a striking pair of high heels in a size 12. Now she’s making shoe shopping a joyful experience for the large-footed women of Australia (not to mention quite a few drag queens!)
Even with my bog-standard size 7.5 feet, I felt happy just stepping into her store, Glamazon. I recognised it as a place that could change lives, perhaps because I’d stepped into just such a store about five years ago myself. You see, despite my ordinary size 12 frame, my bra cup size comes from the middle of the alphabet. Yes, there is life beyond a D cup. And until I moved to the UK and discovered Bravissimo, the store for women with more than a handful, it was a pretty dismal life lingerie-wise.
When I entered a Bravissimo store for the first time, what really struck me – apart from the fact
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Febrolutions: like NY Resolutions, but much more achievable.
Statistics say that by February, on average 90 percent of New Years resolutions made will be broken. In fact, 30% don’t even make it past the first week of Jan. While this doesn’t say much for the follow through of the human race, it certainly does lend some consolation that we’re not the only ones failing miserably on our annual quest to be a better person.
In the recruitment world, the third week of January is typically the busiest of the year – after some peaceful time relaxing and lapping up the joys of the Christmas break, we get a stampede of candidates banging down the office door going for that fresh year, fresh start kind of thing. And every year we ask ourselves… what is it about the New Year that makes us all a little stir crazy?
To quote the experts, each New Year is seen as the chance at a new life. Out with the old and in with the new! Apologize for our bad behaviour of days gone by and make our lives better –generally by acting more responsibly.
But wait, don’t we all do this anyways? I’m
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Y are people so unkind?
This week I thought we might go a bit Dr Phil. I’m going to share some “hard truths” about how Gen Y is perceived and our Gen Y readers are going to sit on the couch ignoring me because I’m kind of boring and they are busy tweeting pictures of the tea-cosy they just knitted out of hemp.
Here’s the thing: Gen Y’s work ethic is a hot topic of conversation amongst “old people” or, as you might know them, “those assholes who bought a four bedroom house in Northcote for $185,000 a few years back”.
Fact is that if you’re under 30 (and some members of Gen Y aren’t, I know), people currently over the age of 30 are probably going to give you your next job or promotion. And lots of them aren’t sure they want you on their team.
Just in case you missed the 9,452 articles on this topic published over recent years (and didn’t overhear Uncle Geoff going on and on and on about his latest dud apprentice at Christmas), here’s how old people are describing you: unskilled, disloyal, spoiled, impatient and barely literate.
This is largely bullshit
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Death by cliché
Question: what’s the difference between the following sentences from two hypothetical CVs?
(A) “I leveraged my extensive experience to motivate the sales team to come up with innovative solutions to drive performance”
(B) “I got the sales team fired up and thinking about new ways to boost sales; this doubled sales in three years.”
Answer: (A) makes me want to kill myself while (B) makes me want to pick up the phone to the candidate (and not just because s/he knows how to rock a semi-colon). When I read (A) I can almost taste the soggy sandwiches I’m eating out of boredom while enduring a two-hour PowerPoint presentation on payroll systems. When I read (B) I am left with an impression of energy and speed: a red sports car dashes past the periphery of my subconscious.
Pretty much everyone hates management speak. Using bland buzzwords that convey nothing except the sadness of your sex life doesn’t make you sound like the head of the Boston Consulting Group – it makes you sound like a 52-year old public servant who’s just done a course on Respect in the Workplace.
Professional networking site LinkedIn recently
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Retailers in denial
After a lacklustre Christmas, a consortium representing more than 2200 Australian retailers, including David Jones, Myer, Target and Harvey Norman, has decided that the reason they’re losing business to foreign online sellers is – wait for it – the GST.
To which we say WTF?
In our view, the GST is way down the list of disadvantages that our larger retailers face when competing with foreign online stores. (And in any case, surely the 10% tax is usually offset by the hefty cost of international postage?)
If local retailers are serious about competing with online sellers from overseas, we think they should stop focussing on changes to our tax regime – which look unlikely – and start thinking about what they can do better, including:
• Getting online themselves. And doing it well. A lot of people shop online because they can’t or don’t want to leave home – or because they live miles from the shops they need to visit or don’t have time to track down what they need. Price is only part of what drives these shoppers. They want convenience. We really believe that if large Australian retailers offered a
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Happy Holidays from GXY Search!
Every year we are amazed by how quickly Christmas comes around, and this year is no exception. It seems like only yesterday that Mali was eight weeks old and we were arguing over whose responsibility it was to pick up her, erm, messes. And in January 2011 it will be déjà vu time as she gets a baby sister – a golden retriever (much to Tom’s delight).
It’s been a fantastic year at GXY Search, with new staff, new offices and new jobs coming at us faster than the growth of Katherine’s wardrobe! We’d like to take this opportunity to thank both our AMAZING CANDIDATES and BRILLIANT CLIENTS. You are the reason we actually look forward to coming into work each day.
So, here’s wishing you all a fantastic festive period, and an exciting 2011. We’ve certainly got big plans for next year. Watch this space to see our Sports & Entertainment division give Fashion, Marketing & PR a run for their moneywith more DREAM ROLES than you can poke a hocky stick at.
So, stay safe, eat lots and try not let get the rain get you down. We wish you
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Working for the brand…
With retail spending down AGAIN (despite a puzzling boost in consumer confidence), smart brands are having to get even savvier to prize the pennies out of our Mimco purses.
Let’s face it, the modern consumer is a bit of a nightmare for retailers: we’re ordering things from overseas to get them cheaper, we’re haggling in stores (no kidding, people in boutiques are acting like they’re in Bali) and we’re mending and making do instead of chucking stuff out. Suddenly people have remembered how to sew, and everything ‘vintage’ is new again.
So, what’s a smart retailer with an ever-diminishing market budget to do? Get their customers to do the work them. Seriously. Consumer-driven PR is the latest PR trend and it makes sense for two key reasons: firstly it relies on smarts not dollars, and secondly it recognises the fact that Gen Y are more interested in being sold to by their peers than ‘the man’.
This sort of marketing works best when it’s simple, there’s something in it for the consumer and there’s no manipulation involved – think Yellow Pages hidden pizza campaign. We know, bad example as that crusade was
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Office Party Etiquette
With another year coming to a close, its time for the silly season, to get, well, really silly. Office Christmas parties are in full swing and we at GXY have been reminiscing about Christmases past and passed out. After much discussion, we have agreed on the following definitive list of office Christmas party etiquette points.
1. Do attend the party. Even if it involves paint ball or a Startrek theme.
2. Don’t take someone you’ve just met to a work party. If your boss/colleagues are anything like ours, there’s a good chance your date will be harassed by drunken colleagues who will fess up that they’ve all checked him/her out on facebook.
3. Don’t hook up with the wait staff. As a professional you should at least be capable of scoring your boss’s spouse (joke).
4. Don’t go near the mistletoe. This applies equally to the photocopier, the bottle of tequila someone smuggled in and the sex toy the girl from accounts got at her hen’s party.
5. Do dance, but only if you’re good. Guys, as soon as you register the urge to grind up against another person (or architectural feature), call a cab.
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Take the silly out of your shopping this Christmas season…
As all our favourite stores go online (think Country Road and David Jones as of late), we have been busy recruiting the latest role to appear in the job market, the Online Store Manager. In order to, you know, ‘research’, we then thought it was necessary to check out the market by trawling the websites of our International retailers as these guys have been doing it much longer that we have…
While this has been educational in seeing the different ways in which stores both here and abroad structure their online offerings, this has not been so good for the bank balance. Excuses such as “oh its my Christmas present to myself” and “but it was free shipping so I saved heaps of money” are being thrown around the office, so we thought the least we could do was share our “research findings” with you so all can benefit and like us, “get organised for Christmas.”
So, as Santa oils his sleigh, take advantage of our strong dollar and leave those car keys and carpark rage in your handbag. Its time to get online.
While many people are tentative to shop
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Our friend Motherbird.
Three young guys, brains for business and a killer design instinct – Motherbird is emerging communication design studio on the path to greatness. And we think they are awesome.
Last week our consultant Pippa heading to Sydney’s big smoke for the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards. Held at the waterfront Museum of Contemporary Art in the Rocks, it was a star studded evening. Brushing shoulders with everyone from the Zimmerman sisters, Dion Lee and New York based Art Director Deanne Cheuk to Academy Award winning film producer Jan Chapman – it was truly fantastic evening. Plus there was heaps of free booze and food. Couldn’t really go wrong.
But, specifically, we would like to congratulate our good friends over at Motherbird for taking out the SOYA Award in the Visual Communication strategy. Up against some of the best rising talent in the industry, they were chosen by the category mentor, Deanne Cheuk, for being the “most inspiring,” and having work that really “captured her.”
A three-way collaboration between Dan Evans, Chris Murphy and Jack Musset, the studio has built up an impressive client list in their 18
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Spring Carnival Fashion: Bra, yes. Straps, no.
With another Spring Racing Carnival down, it’s the perfect time for a fashion wrap-up. Please welcome Lucinda Ormonde, our guest blogger for the week. Part writer, part bookie and avid tea-drinker, she takes us through the fashion do’s and don’ts of Flemington’s big week.
After many, many years of working on the racetrack over the Spring Carnival I’ve seen it all – the good, the bad and the very, very bad. And on that basis, I’ve compiled this little list of common fashion failures and how to avoid them.
Ladies:
Bra straps, let’s talk about them. There’s a reason it’s called underwear and there’s also a reason God/Calvin Klein invented the strapless bra. The only time a black bra should be seen is when Carrie Bradshaw is wearing it. And you know those “invisible” plastic straps? I can see those too.
And still on bras…. If you’ve got boobs, I suggest you wear one.
Flesh coloured tights. Yes, I know many of you think they’re non-existent, but here’s a little secret: when you wear them with SANDALS, the seams that gather at your toes make those “invisible” …
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Who needs Seek when there is Twitter?!
There is a digital revolution going on. I know, I know, the internet, is so great and all that. But its not like the dot.com boom of the nineties, it’s different. It’s bigger. And in terms of finding a job, it’s much more useful.
When you’re job hunting, do you spend your days trawling through Seek or MyCareer, page after page? Or you search the same key words under five different categories because you aren’t totally sure what heading your dream role will come under? Or you’re not sure what your dream role is, but before you find it you go cross-eyed and have to have a nap?
If this is you, you will probably feel irked by my next profound statement. A lot of jobs don’t make it onto career sites anymore. Sorry. But this doesn’t mean they aren’t out there and up for grabs, they are just getting advertised differently – namely, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. And just as much as companies can put their roles out there, you can do the same with your availability.
With the majority of businesses having a solid social media
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Guess Who! to win a double movie pass to Village Gold Class!
With many our favourite stores expanding their portfolios into kidswear (think Country Road, Big by Fiona Scanlan, Witchery and Zimmerman) we’ve been reminiscing in the office about our childhood fashion sense.. While Pippa had no say and was always put in the same outfit as her older sister, Yvonne cemented her fashion guru status early in life- she was always wearing pretty dresses, come to think of it, she still is now.
Second born Erin was right into country kid hand-me-downs– or if you go by modern day terms we can call them ‘pre-loved, vintage pieces’. Another country baby, Nick, describes his early styling as “understated farmhouse chic,” and Jayde followed the trend refusing to wear anything but overalls. And no need to laugh at this, the jumpsuit is back in fashion so really she was just ahead of her times. Waaaaay ahead.
Much like Yvonne, others developed their fashion know how early; Katherine has been in floral dresses since pretty much before she was even born, and she still loves ribbons and the colour pink as much as she did then. Mel’s first purchase
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Six things you don’t want to hear from a recruiter
Don’t make us say it!
Fortunately, the vast majority of our candidates impress us from the outset – after all, we only place A-graders. Occasionally, however, a less than slick job-seeker penetrates our security. If you hear us utter one of the following lines, be afraid…
“Could you please ask your Mum to wait outside.” Yes, adult candidates of normal intelligence do sometimes bring their parents to interviews. Take note: we don’t want to meet your parents. Unless you’re Kelly Osbourne.
“Try to wear something professional looking.” Usually, this is code for “You are unbelievably talented, but please don’t visit our client looking like you might be packing heat”. And also, sometimes, “Deodorant. Try it.”
“Don’t be late for the interview” If we have to tell you this, you have already pissed us off with your unreliability and we are really scared you are going to piss off our client and miss out on a great job. DON’T DO IT AGAIN.
“Have you thought about going back to uni?” There’s not much call for actor/model/stylist/street performers with no qualifications or experience. But yes, you are VERY
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Open your mind & watch for opportunities…
Meet Clare. Clare is a London based copywriter who currently works for cult fashion and lifestyle brand Anthropologie. In the past, she has also spent time scouring the London streets as a freelance trend predictor – now that’s a job! Her career has led her to some pretty enviable organisations including Harrods, Cath Kidston and even our beloved Net-A-Porter. Clare is testament to the fact that passion is what ultimately leads you to finding job bliss. Clare’s also a digital social butterfly and blogs about all things vintage, fashion, art and music here.
When you were in school what did you want to grow up to be?
I went through various ideas – from air hostess to hairdresser to film star – I think every girl wants to be an air hostess at some stage in their life. Although, with so many budget airlines now, I’m not quite sure the ‘glamour’ exists as it once seemed to.
Where did you start? Did you have a career strategy when you went out and got your first job?
I’ve taken many, many paths but I didn’t work out that I wanted to
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A blog about all things career-related.
Introducing.. New GXY Tribesters!
The GXY tribe has grown and this week with three new starters– Erin, Haylee and Pippa, joining Nick who has been with us now for three weeks. The girls have come on board with wide eyes and big smiles and have quickly slotted in alongside their respective partners in crime; Dave, Yvonne and Jayde.
Amongst the excitement (and continuing office renovations) we have upgraded our database system, or as Mel likes to say “traded in the Ford Fairmont for a Porsche.” As we write this, Dave is letting out sporadic gasps of excitement at its amazing features – seems the only thing it can’t do is make us lunch, which is ok because apparently Pippa is a great cook so we may add this to her job description instead.
Speaking of job descriptions, we may have to include “Dave-Watch” to Erin’s role as she is to head up our Sydney division with him. Erin is a mover and shaker –a Perth girl at heart, she has lived in 6 different cities so far including London. Soon she is to go back to City #4 when she joins her fiancée and their Maltese-Shih tzu, Bongo,
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A blog about all things career-related.
Should you plan your career?
This week I’ve been thinking about the twists and turns that my own career has taken, and whether I am where I’d thought I’d be by now. The answer most definitely a resounding NO. Which is a good thing, because if my teen dreams had panned out, I’d be a corporate lawyer wish my life away in six-minute increments (well, either that or I’d be in jail for criminally negligent failure to bother reading or checking anything that crossed my desk.)
At GXYSearch, we spend a lot of time discussing candidates’ careers with them, and it strikes us that there are two types of careers: the planned and the haphazard. The planned career starts with a vocational degree (or even before, that with work experience at a relevant establishment) and then proceeds in a fairly straight line through a number of roles that build on each other until it arrives at the ‘destination role’. The haphazard career meanders around a skill-set or industry until it settles comfortably into a role which just ‘feels right’. Surprisingly, we find the haphazard career often results in greater job satisfaction.
There is much to be said
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A blog about all things career-related.
Our Digital Dollars Going Offshore!
Something we bemoan a lot around here is the failure of Australian retailers to offer us a compelling online shopping experience. Don’t they know that Australians LOVE to shop online? Why are they letting more than half our (multi-billion dollar) online spend go overseas, often to stores which are smart enough to actively court the Australian market, such as Topshop and The Book Depository?
We have heard various excuses thrown around – the market’s too small, early adopters were burned years ago when the market wasn’t established, franchisees won’t support it – but none of them are washing with us. We think the industry needs to put on its big girl pants and face up to the realities of 21st century retailing.
The fact is that Australians are big online spenders, and given that many of us are geographically isolated (from high-street retailers at least), and all of us are spending more time online, we’re only going to spend more this way.
There are a few local retailers who are getting it right: JB Hi Fi, Dick Smith, Sportsgirl and Witchery are notable for their online success. Just recently Big W
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A blog about all things career-related.
More Than Window Dressing!
This week we’re on the sofa with Justin Compton (pictured above with Yvonne Hughes and Katherine Incledon from our team), visual merchandising expert and lecturer at RMIT School of Design TAFE.
How did you get started as a visual merchandiser?
I actually started off doing graphic design, but then did a course in visual merchandising. My first job was with Henry Bucks on Collins Street, and from there I went to Nike, Daimaru and Myer. Department stores provide a great training ground for visual merchandisers because you get to work on such a wide variety of projects – everything from perfume displays to fashion shows.
What makes a good visual merchandiser?
Primarily, it’s about creativity and an eye for design, but there are a lot of other skills that you need, like being able to think on your feet and take directions. You need to enjoy a challenge and very hard work. It’s very hands on. Being able to interpret what the client wants – and help them work this out when they aren’t sure – is also very important. This means asking the right questions and really listening to the answers.
What sort of jobs are out
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A blog about all things career-related.
Mel’s life on the D-list
Lately, Mel has been profiled in a range of publications, including the Herald Sun, where she was described as a “no-fuss Melbourne A-lister” (which had us wondering: “No fuss compared to whom? Mariah Carey?!”)
It’s been interesting for the rest of us to watch the process of Mel becoming (very vaguely and locally) famous. Her lack of vanity has shocked us: who would have thought she’d back up for a photo shoot sans slap?! We’ve also been surprised by her concern that she might be perceived as a “bit of a wanker” despite the fact that she is extremely self-aware and earthy.
Overall, we suspect she’s enjoyed the attention, but we’re pretty sure that the next person who asks her for an amusing anecdote about her childhood will receive a sharp slap.
Electile dysfunction
This will probably be the first and last time we blog about Federal politics, but how about that election…
We hope that when the votes are counted and the backroom deals done, we end up with a government that puts social justice and addressing global warming high on its agenda. (We also hope that we get to
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A blog about all things career-related.
On the couch with AFL player agent, Lucy Mills
Lucy is an AFL player agent who was actually the first woman to gain accreditation by the AFL Players Association . Lucy works for Connors Sport Management, who manage many high profile players including Luke Hodge, Adam Goodes and Chris Judd (as well as his bride-to-be Rebecca Twigley!). Lucy completed a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Sports management at Deakin University.
What does an agent do? Amongst other things, we negotiate contracts for clients, liaise with the media and work hard on building networks with potential clients and families.
How did you get started in the industry? I’ve been with Connors Sports Management since 2002. After completing an 80-hour work experience placement for my university degree they offered me a part time job while I finished my degree, and I’ve been here ever since!
What do you enjoy most about the role? I love the fact that no two days are the same. Dealing with a wide variety of people is really interesting and challenging at times. Also as ours is a very small agency so I work across all aspects of the business.
What is the toughest thing about you role?
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A blog about all things career-related.
Blog bliss!
Instructional or diary blogs have their place, but when you want a really good laugh – with a life-affirming side serve of shadenfreude– it’s a bitchy blog that you’ll be needing. So, grab yourself a cuppa, put a continence pad in your knickers, and check out our favourites…
Regretsy
The cleverly titled regretsy is the work of April Winchell, an American humorist who was only recently outed as the blogger behind this gem. Regretsy features (for which read ‘mocks’) art and craft works for sale on etsy.com. (If you don’t know what etsy is, do yourself a favour and get over there NOW.)
The blog has its own catchphrases and mascots based on particularly memorable etsy items and while it is funnier if you’re familiar with the bizarre etsy sub-culture (teddy bears with vulvas appliquéd on them, anyone?), you’ll find it a riot even if you’ve never lusted after a homemade dream catcher.
People of Walmart
What’s not to love about a blog with such a simple and compelling premise: it’s fun to look at photos of ugly Americans. This one isn’t good for the
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A blog about all things career-related.
On the sofa with wardrobe organiser, Yvette Sormann
Yvette, you bravely took on the job of sorting out (GXYSearch Director) Mel’s wardrobe. What did her wardrobe say about her?
She’s a very casual, chilled-out person with a sense of fun.
Well, nothing says fun like a dozen fake fur gillets! What is the scariest thing you’ve found in a client’s wardrobe?
Sex toys aside, a particularly hideous ball gown that looked like something from a Disney film. It took me a while, but I finally helped the client to see that it did her no favours (even a cartoon Cinderella would have struggled to pull it off!) She eventually agreed to give it to her daughter as a dress up.
What makes someone call you?
It’s usually one of two things: they’re bored with their look and ready for a makeover or their wardrobe is a total mess and they can’t face tackling it alone.
What exactly do you do for your clients?
A range of things: whatever it takes to get their wardrobe working for them, basically. Usually a clean out, an audit and some help with shopping and putting outfits together. I can help organise other areas too: desks are a favourite of mine.
Are
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A blog about all things career-related.
On the sofa with… Melissa Bridge – Director of GXYSearch
What do you love about your job?
What’s not to love about running GXY Search? We have amazing clients, inspiring candidates and really cool staff. And I can bring my dog to work!
How did you get started in the industry?
I served a life setence in corporate HR before realising that if i wanted to use a really excellent recruitment agency I’d have to start it myself.
What do you love/hate about working in recruitment?
Love – I still get a real buzz from connecting talented people with great employers. Hate – the dodgy reputation that the industry has.
How do you maintain a work/life balance? If at all…
I’m really big on this. I do tai chi (which everyone thinks is hilarious given how hyper I am) and take regular holidays.
Where do you find inspiration?
Everywhere! I’m always travelling and meeting people and reading (embarrassing) management books. If I stop learinng I get really bored.
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made at work?
Thinking I could get surfers to act like ‘suits’ (when I was at RipCurl).
Who do
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A blog about all things career-related.
Why we’re lovin’ LinkedIn
LinkedIn – the dominant social networking site for professionals – is often referred to as “Facebook for grown-ups”. It’s not. There’s nothing fun or goofy about LinkedIn. You can’t play idiotic games on it, you can’t join stupid fan clubs, and you definitely wouldn’t use it to share photos of yourself desperately necking a bottle of Bacardi at your bogan cousin’s 21st. Put it this way: if Facebook is Buenos Aires, LinkedIn is Brussels.
So, given our preference for beach parties over bureaucracy, we were as surprised as anyone by how much we’ve fallen for LinkedIn. And apparently we’re not alone, as it now has over 70 million users worldwide.
Basically, LinkedIn is really good at what it does, which is connecting professionals and helping them manage their careers. It doesn’t look sexy (I’ve heard it described as “myspace designed by Microsoft”) but it is easy to use and much of its functionality is free. Currently, it’s dominated by the more conservative professions, but this is changing. We’re seeing more and more people in fashion, media and sport getting on board.
LinkedIn is also becoming extremely popular with recruiters, who can use it to
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A blog about all things career-related.
Finding your first job in fashion
Looking for a graduate position in fashion is a bit like searching for the perfect bikini: you know it’s out there somewhere, but you suspect that by the time you find it you will have lost all your self-esteem (and found yourself wearing bondage gear with a straight face).
So no, it isn’t easy. But nor is it impossible. As specialist fashion recruiters, we’ve seen a lot of people successfully launch careers in fashion (and even helped some through our XYG Graduate Service). Basically, there are two things you need to do to get a great first job in fashion (apart from being talented and passionate): stand out from the crowd and make yourself a low-risk proposition to employers.
Let’s start with your resume: it needs to be short, sharp, visually appealing and convey who you are. The creative types who work in fashion will no more wade through an 8-page CV than they will forgive an ugly font. Get it down to two pages and make it sexy. Show that you speak the same language as the tribe you’re approaching. Your CV for a job at Roxy needs to be
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A blog about all things career-related.
Is the CV dead?
If you’re anything like me, you find updating your CV to look for a new job about as enjoyable as cleaning up vomit. In fact, a good friend of mine is so intimidated by the thought of putting a new resume together that she’s stayed with the same organisation for 15 years. Seriously.
Accordingly, when I heard rumours that the CV was “dead” – or at least dying – I could not have been happier. What I didn’t realise, however, was that it’s being replaced (or supplemented) by something involving a lot more work: a compelling online presence.
At this stage, the trend is confined pretty much to creative and digital fields because blogs, web profiles and social media provide an excellent showcase for creative work. They also provide evidence that you’re social or digital media savvy, which is increasingly valued by employers. That said, the trend isn’t confined to sexy industries. A linkedin profile, for example, is pretty much expected if you are a professional in middle or senior management.
The benefits to employers of these ‘alternative CVs’ are obvious: a person’s online presence tells you way more about them
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A blog about all things career-related.
Contracting – are you cut out for it?
Who hasn’t – on a day when office politics seemed particularly Machiavellian or that promised pay rise has been postponed AGAIN – fantasised about chucking in a permanent job and contracting? The freedom, the flexibility, the power… it’s seriously attractive. But will it work out for you?
Basically, the answer depends on two things: the demand for your services on a contract basis and your personality.
The former is easy to assess: check the job ads, talk to some recruiters, check with your industry contacts. In most industries, the demand is there. But if you want the big money that you should be getting in exchange for less job security, fewer benefits and a lack of conventional career progression, you need to be offering something that’s in limited supply (and not being off-shored to Bangalore). Contracts typically range from 1-24 months in length. Twelve months is common, probably because contractors are often used to cover people on maternity leave.
Once you’ve established that there’s a strong market for your services, you need to get real with yourself about whether or not you’ve got the personality to make the most of the opportunities
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A blog about all things career-related.
Mentor as anything…
Finding a mentor is something we’d recommend for anyone who’s serious about their career. Mel herself has had one for years and thoroughly recommends the experience. Mentors can play a number of different roles:
A sounding board to help you make decisions
A cheer squad when you’re feeling low
An amateur psychologist, helping you get to know yourself better
A business advisor, finding weaknesses in your business strategy and processes
A source of contacts and referrals.
Finding a mentor can be hard. Some corporations run formal mentoring programmes, but are you really going to spill your guts about how much you hate your current boss/job to someone senior from the organisation? Maybe in smiley HR land, but not in the real world!
When looking for a mentor, think outside the square. It doesn’t have to be someone in your own industry or even someone who’s older than you, although business and life experience are prerequisites. A great mentor could be a successful relative, a friend’s entrepreneurial mother, or someone you used to work for. You could even approach people you’ve admired from afar by writing a compelling letter.
When you approach your potential new mentor, be clear
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A blog about all things career-related.
Decoding job ads
Like real estate ads, job ads are often written in an arcane language designed to sell rather than inform. So, just as buyers need to know that ‘renovator’s delight’ is code for ‘uninhabitable’, job seekers should understand that ‘employee with a flexible attitude’ often means ‘someone happy to work 16-hour days without overtime’!
Having written thousands of job ads for previous corporate employers, we’re fluent in dodgy-job-ad-speak and happy to provide the following translations…
• ‘we’re looking for someone to grow into the role’ = ‘we pay peanuts and want someone under 25 who will do what they’re told’
• ‘challenging environment’ = ‘toxic culture’
• ‘opportunity to fast-track your career’ = ‘turnover is so bad that you can go from receptionist to CEO in a year’
• ‘fast-growing family business’ = ‘workplace devoid of any professionalism’.
Alarm bells should also ring if an ad isn’t clear about who the role reports to. This usually means they don’t know, which in turn means they haven’t really thought the role through and may not even proceed with hiring someone. An unusually vague job description should also have you on high alert: it often means the organisation doesn’t want
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A blog about all things career-related.
Great job – bad interview.
One of the things I get asked all the time is “How do I recover from a crap interview?”
It’s not uncommon for an interview to go badly, even when you really want the job and know with absolute certainty that you were born to do it. Fortunately, a bad interview doesn’t mean that it’s all over (unless of course you smoked a joint or forgot to wear clothes – and let’s face it, even those moves could work if you’re interviewing at a certain large American-owned hipster chain store.)
If you only stuffed up part of an interview, perhaps by saying something indiscreet about a previous employer or by giving a lame answer to an important question, the best approach is to acknowledge this as soon as possible. It’s best if you can do this while still in the interview, but it’s OK to do it afterwards, and after consultation with your recruitment consultant. It can be worth sending an email to the interviewer along the lines of “Hey, thanks for meeting me. Really want the job. Thought I could have done better when you asked about X. On reflection, what I
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A blog about all things career-related.
We’ve had some work done!
Yep, we’ve had a rather dramatic make-over here at GXY Search. And we’re feeling frisky!
We know a lot of you loved our old website, but we really needed a new brand to reflect the fact that the business has grown and branched out into sport and media recruiting. (Also, Dave and Tom were so embarrassed by the old website’s girly whimsical illustrations that they had started telling candidates that we didn’t have a website!)
The new brand was the result of lots of collaboration with Truly Deeply, a brand agency in South Melbourne that really knows its stuff and uses a really interesting methodology. We loved working with them. Check out their blog post about how they helped us come up with our new brand, and let us know what you think of our new look (we can take it, I think!)
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