With unemployment levels rising on the Sunshine Coast, applicants are now considering lower level employment opportunities in an effort to keep them on the payroll. These applicants are faced with many challenges, including:

• Competing with a large number of applicants who have recent, proven support level skills and experience
• Tailoring their resume to highlight their basic level skills, rather than their management experience
• Overqualified paranoia, where employers assume you will leave their company as soon as a suitable management position becomes available

It’s not an easy challenge, but making some minor tweaks to your application may help increase your chances of getting to interview stage.

Cover letter is key

Explaining your situation and pleading your case before they have the chance to judge you based on your resume may be your ticket to their shortlist. Explain your current situation, list skills and experience that are only relevant to the position and mention why you would be happy to stay in a position such as theirs long term.

Be yourself

Don’t lie on your resume. Completely removing positions that are of a higher level than the one you are applying for will make your resume look disjointed and may come back to bite you when question time comes around. Altering a few points and including a few keywords such as “assisting” “supporting” and “reporting to” may be all you need.