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Student help - introduction and general tips

Lode provides you with a way to put your CV before a large number of desirable employers. Lode walks you step-by-step through the process of creating a CV, covering all the key information in which employers are interested.

Below are a few ideas on how to:

General tips on using the Lode site

Save each page as you go

On most pages and forms there is a Save button. Use it!

Introductory text on the page

On most Lode pages, you'll see some brief introductory text. This contains useful guidance about how to fill in the page, and the kind of content employers expect. Well worth reading through!

Mouse tips

You'll often see helpful comments to the right of an answer field. For further tips on how to fill in fields, run your mouse pointer over the label (caption) to the left of each field. You will occasionally see a tip appear, with useful information about the content for the field.

Required fields

When filling in pages, you will sometimes see fields with a red zigzag underline. You must fill in these fields.

Underlining may also appear if you have put the wrong content into a field, or have made a spelling mistake.

Managing and developing your CV

Step 1: Take the interview

When you first log into the Lode site, you are taken the the first page of the Interview. The Interview covers the information that an employer needs as a minimum to consider contacting you. Completing the Interview doesn't take long, and the payoff might be your ideal job!

As you start the interview, you'll notice a progress bar along the top of the page. To progress forwards or backwards through the pages of the interview, click the arrow buttons at either end of the progress bar, or click the Next or Previous buttons at the bottom of the page. To go to a specific page of the interview, click on the label for that page on the progress bar.

You can exit the interview at any time by clicking the Save & Exit button at the bottom of the page, but your summary CV will not be searchable by employers until you have completed all the interview pages.

You can also complete or update interview questions from the Resume Essentials pages on the EDIT PROFILE tab (see below).

Once you have completed the basic interview process, employers will be able to search for your CV.

Step 2: Improve or update your CV: the EDIT PROFILE tab

The EDIT PROFILE tab allows you to update or expand the information you provided in the Interview. You can also improve your chances by filling in additional pages (called Optional Extras) not covered by the Interview. These pages cover the kinds of things that help employers fill out their picture of you: referees, memberships of organisations, your interests, your publications or research, and so on. It is always to your advantage to provide a profile that gives employers lots of useful information about you; it may be your winning edge over a profile that is sparse and cryptic.

When you click on the EDIT PROFILE tab (available anywhere outside the Interview), you'll see a list of links on the left side of the page. These are divided into Resume Essentials and Optional Extras.

Resume Essentials

Each link accesses an individual page that more or less covers a stage of the Interview. You can use these pages these to update any of your basic information without re-entering the Interview, or to finish as-yet-incomplete Interview stages. Although each page contains similar information to its Interview equivalent, some are laid out slightly differently to make it easier for you to manage and update your information.

The last link in this section (Update via the interview) takes you back to the Interview, where you can update or edit any of your Interview entries.

Optional Extras

All the links in this section take you to optional pages in which you can provide further information. You should regard this as a normal part of the CV creation process rather than an added extra, as employers eventually want most of the information in these pages. An employer will usually be more interested in a candidate who provides thorough and complete CV.

Entering information in tables

When updating information in the Resume Essentials or Optional Extras pages, there are two types of tables in Lode into which you are asked to enter your profile information:

  • Row-entry tables: Type information directly into the cells of the row.
  • Form-entry tables: Enter your information through a form.

Row-entry tables

These are used for simpler information entry, and generally have just two data columns.

Technical skills sampel

To add an entry:

  1. Click ADD.
  2. Type into the first column - depending on the table, you may be able to start typing then select from a pulldown list.
  3. When you have finished, press the Tab key to move to the second column, and then type details.
  4. Repeat steps 1 - 3 for additional entries.
  5. Click SAVE.

To delete an entry:

  1. Click on the entry, then click the DELETE button.
  2. Repeat for each deletion required.
  3. Click SAVE.

Form-entry tables

These are used for more complex information entry and have several columns.

Referees Sample

To add an entry:

  1. Click ADD.
  2. In the resulting form, fill in all required fields.
  3. When you have finished, click SAVE AND CLOSE.
  4. Repeat steps 1 - 3 for additional entries.
  5. Click SAVE.

To modify an entry:

  1. Click on the entry, then click MODIFY.
  2. in the resulting form, modify the desired fields.
  3. Click SAVE AND CLOSE.

To delete an entry:

  1. Click on the entry, then click the DELETE button.
  2. Click YES on the confirmation message.
  3. Repeat for each deletion required.

Organising tabular information

To organise the display of any table, mouse over any column heading, then click on the pulldown to the right of the column label. From the resulting menu you can sort the table alphabetically by the chosen column.

Why should I let my university forward my information to employers?

If you allow your university to forward your information to employers, you may put your profile before additional employers, while still retaining control of who sees your actual contact details. This is how it works:

  1. You check the box that allows your profile to be forwarded by your university to industry contacts (employers).
  2. The university creates sortlists of selected students for distribution to various employers.
  3. From the shortlist they are sent, the employer can view your limited profile (which excludes your name and contact details).
  4. If the employer wishes, they can ask for more information, at which point you are sent an invitation.
  5. You can choose to respond to, or reject, the employer's request for more information, just as you can in a direct employer search.

View and download your CV

To view your CV, click the VIEW PROFILE tab (available anywhere outside the Interview). You will see a layout of your CV. You can download your CV in printable PDF format by clicking the DOWNLOAD PDF button in the upper right of the page. If you do not have a PDF reader (such as Adobe Acrobat™) you can download one from www.adobe.com.

To see presentations of other information in your CV, such as referees, supporting documents and so on, click on the other tabs supplied within this page.

Manage contacts from employers

As soon as you complete the basic interview, your CV (excluding your contact details and anything else you have restricted in your Profile Settings) can be searched for by employers. Of course, completing the Optional Extra pages of information gives you a better chance at a good first impression with your prospective employer!

Permission to see your details

If an employer performs a search, finds your profile and likes what they see, they must contact you to get permission to view your full CV. Your privacy is fully protected in this process. No-one can see your name and contact details unless you explicitly give permission, and that permission is required for each and every contact from an employer to go further. For various reasons you may not wish to pursue offers from certain employers. Once you give permission, however, the employer can contact you by your preferred contact method for further discussions.

Check your notifications, profile status, stats and news

Click on the MOTHERLODE tab (available anywhere outside the menu) to get the following information:

  • How many employers have been expressing interest in you.
  • Whether you have any notifications from employers.
  • Whether your profile is available for searches.
  • Any news about Lode including new features and optional pages.

Notifications

Any messages specifically for you will be displayed in the Your notifications window. These messages might include notifications from employers who have seen your profile and would like to see your full CV with contact details. From time to time, they may also include special messages for you from Lode.

Each notification from an employer contains the date, a summary of the request, who it is from, and a Details link.

Click this link to see a window displaying details of the employer and the job in question. You can respond to this request by clicking on one of four button:

  • CLOSE: Closes the window.
  • SKIP: Come back to this notification later.
  • REJECT: The employer will be notified of your rejection. Your name, contact details and full CV will remain hidden from the employer.
  • ACCEPT: This allows the employer full access to your CV (depending on your Profile Settings) and contact details.

Profile Status

The Profile Status window gives you feedback about your current search status and CV completion.

To change your search status, click the Edit Profile Settings link, or click on the Profile Settings link under Resume Essentials on the EDIT PROFILE tab.

Your CV completion is indicated by a percentage at the top of the Profile Status window. You can see which elements of your CV are completed from the list of links with ticks or crosses next to them. To update an incomplete profile area (showing a cross) or indeed to update any page, just click on its link.

Your Statistics

This window displays statistics for the last 60 days in the following areas:

  • No. of requests: Requests by employers to see your full CV. Employers do not automatically get access to your full CV. They have to ask your permission. You will be notified of these requests in the Your Notifications window, and via email.
  • No. of CV views: The number of views of your CV by employers, including full views post-request. This number may represent several employers viewing your CV, or a single employer taking multiple views. Either way, it's a good thing!
  • No. of search result views: The number of times your profile appears in search results. Your searchable profile contains your Summary and some other parts of your CV, depending on the restrictions you have set. Employers can search on certain characteristics, look at your profile and then decide whether to go further.

News

The News window contains links headlining various news items of interest to users of the Lode site.

To see a summary of a news item, run your mouse over it. The summary will appear in a tooltip window.

To see the full content of a news item, click on its headline link.

Change your account settings

You can change your account settings from the ACCOUNT SETTINGS tab.

To change your password:

  1. In the Old password field, type your old password.
  2. In the New password field, type your new password. Remember, its always more secure to use a password with alpha, capital, numeric and non-alphanumeric characters. For example (please don't use this one!) "m1Pa5$w0rd". You might want to record your new password in a secure place.
  3. In the Re-type password field, carefully re-type your new password.
  4. Click Save.

Search for employers

You don't simply have to sit and wait until an employer comes to you. You can research potential employers in the Company Profiles area. Each company profile page contains an overview of the organisation which may include the following:

  • Size (number of personnel);
  • Head office location;
  • A brief overview of the company's focus and activities;
  • Benefits offered to employees (for example: share options or parking spaces);
  • An introductory video about the company;
  • Helpful links to company information and groups on YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter;
  • Notifications about upcoming events of interest to potential employees, such as job fair stalls or information days.

You can search for company profiles in various ways:

  • Search for a company by name;
  • Browse a list of featured companies;
  • Browse through companies listed by industry type (such as Accounting or Legal).

To search for a company by name:

  1. Click the COMPANY PROFILES tab.
  2. In the Search companies field, start typing the company name.
  3. From the resulting list, click on the desired company. The company profile page appears.

To view the profile of a featured company:

  1. Click the COMPANY PROFILES tab.
  2. In the Featured companies section click on the desired link or logo. The company profile page appears.

To browse companies by industry:

  1. Click the COMPANY PROFILES tab.
  2. In the Browse by industry section, click the link of the desired industry.
  3. In the resulting page, click the link of the desired company. The company profile page appears.

Using the company profile page

Different companies will provide differing amounts of information on their profile pages - some companies may give only brief details, whereas others may provide notices, video, links, Facebook groups and so on.

To select this company as a favorite:

  • If you like what you see, save the company as a favourite by clicking the Save as favourite link in the Is...a favourite employer? box on the right of the page. A link to the company will appear in the Favourite Employers box on your MOTHERLODE page.
  • To remove a favourite employer link from your Favourite Employers box, click the x button to its right.

Check the Noticeboard

Check to see if there is a notice in the Noticeboard box, informing you of upcoming events. There may also be a Find out more.... link to the employer's own site.

Find more useful information

If the Careers at ... box is displaying, you can click on company-supplied links to the corporate website. If any are present, you can also click the Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or MySpace logos to access corporate sites on each of those social networking media.

Examples to help with your CV

Here are a few examples that may help you provide the more complex and freeform parts of your profile.

Example: Summary for your CV

Below is a short sample Summary, as required for the Profile Settings section of your profile. Use this for inspiration about what to write in your CV:

I'm keen to take up a demanding role in IT project management. My IT masters degree in Project Management from the University of Melbourne, due for completion this November, reflects my commitment to this goal. My professional experience in constructing the Whizzer website (www.whizzer.com.au), where I liaised between the business owner, graphic designer and two web coders to achieve a successful site on time and within budget, stands me in good stead for a junior project management position. However, I would be willing to take a coding position initially, using my undergraduate degree in Computer Science and extensive contract coding experience working in agile development teams.

I bring to any role my excellent communication skills, both written and oral, my ability to get on well with people and foster teamwork and personal development in my team, and my clear understanding of the intersection between business needs and IT possibilities and constraints. I am fluent in both Microsoft Project and Visio, as well as having extensive experience in various flavours of Java, C# and Python in a wide variety of development environments.

Example: Company overview

Below is a short sample of a company overview, as required for the Professional Experience page of your profile:

Northwest Mining prospects for, develops and exploits rare-earth and related mineral deposits throughout Australasia.

Example: Duties and responsibilities

Below is a sample of duties, responsibilities and achievements, as required for the Professional Experience page of your profile:

Duties and Responsibilities sample

How do I disconnect my Facebook and Lode accounts?

If you have linked your Facebook and Lode accounts, but would now like to disconnect them:

  1. Login to your Lode account.
  2. Click your Facebook picture next to your name at the top of the page.
  3. This will then take you in to your Facebook account.
  4. Hold your cursor over the 'Settings' link at the top of the page.
  5. Select 'Application Settings'.
  6. Find 'Lode' and then click the 'X' on the far right of it.
    If you can't find Lode in the list of applications, select 'Authorized' in the drop down box labelled "Show" at the top right of the screen. This will list ALL authorized applications, not just the ones with recent activity).
  7. Click the 'Remove' button.

When you go back to the Lode site, your will notice that your Facebook picture is no longer there, and has been replaced with a link that says "Where's my picture"; just click this link if you want to re-connect your Facebook and Lode accounts.

Employer help

Creating a search

To create a search:

  1. Click the Dashboard tab.
  2. In the Dashboard Searches window, enter a title for your new search.
  3. Click the GO TO SEARCH CRITERIA button. You will see the Search window, where you can manage all aspects of searches and results.
  4. Enter your criteria. For further help with this process, click the HELP tab within the Search window.
  5. To update your search results, click the SEARCH button.

To access a saved search, click on its named link in the Dashboard Searches window.

You can also create a search from the Search tab.

Creating a company profile

Your company profile page gives prospective employees some idea of your company, including:

  • an overview of the company's size and location;
  • any employee benefits your organisation may offer;
  • optional links to further information including videos and social networking pages.

Company profiles

To create or revise a company profile:

  1. Click the Company profile tab.
  2. On the resulting EDIT COMPANY PROFILE page, fill in the fields (listed below).
  3. To preview your company profile at any time, click the PREVIEW button at the bottom of the page. You will see the layout as other will view it.
  4. When you have reviewed the page, click the Edit Profile button at the top left of the page. Make any required changes.
  5. When you have finished editing your company profile, check the Yes, my company profile is complete... checkbox, then click the UPDATE button.

Note: If you don't want to publish your changes to the site, you can save without checking the Yes, my company profile is complete... checkbox, but until you check this box your profile will not visible to candidates.

Standard company profile fields

Company Your company name. You can create more than one company profile for subsidiaries and divisions if required.
Company size Select an appropriate range from the pulldown list.
Head office location Start typing a suburb name to select from the pulldown list. For subsidiaries, supply the appropriate branch office location.
Industry Type in or select from the pulldown list the industry in which your company is engaged.
Company snapshot Provide here a brief overview of your company activities. It must be less than 1200 characters (around 200 words).
Employee benefits Highlight your organisation's benefits to give prospective employees a greater insight into your organisation. Check all that apply. If your company offers benefits that are not listed, you can add them by clicking the plus button then typing a brief description of the benefit in the resulting blank field.

Premium company profile fields

Corporate website Use a leading "www" or "http". For example www.lode.com.au or http://lode.com.au is correct, but lode.com.au will not be accepted.
Corporate video You can link to a GoogleVideo or YouTube video via this field. The video will appear embedded in the Video box on your company profile page.
Facebook group If your company has a Facebook group, insert the address here. A Facebook logo with link will appear on your company profile page.
YouTube channel If your company has a YouTube channel, insert the address here. A YouTube logo with link will appear on your company profile page. If your company simply has a single introductory video on YouTube, insert the address in the Corporate video field.
MySpace link If you company has a MySpace page, insert the address here. A MySpace logo with link will appear on your company profile page.
Twitter link If your company has a Twitter account, insert the address here. A Twitter logo with link will appear on your company profile page.
Custom links If you wish to provide a link to a specific page (for example, the Graduate Recruitment page on your corporate website), simply press the plus button beside the Add a custom link label, then provide a description (link text) in the left field and the URL in the right field. A link consisting of your descriptive text will appear in the Careers at ... box on your company profile page.
Company logo To add a company logo, browse for an image file in JPG, GIF or PNG format. Maximum file size is 20 Mb. You logo will be displayed below the browse box, and also full-sized on your company profile page. To change your logo, first delete your existing logo by checking the Delete box beside the Existing logo then browse for the new logo.
Notice Board message Use Notice Board messages to provide your company profile page with news and notice of upcoming events. To add a notice, click the plus button. On the resulting screen, fill in your notice (up to 200 characters, or about 40 words). You can also provide a link to a website page containing further information if required. Click the Notice expiry calendar icon, then select an expiry date. Finally, click SAVE. The notice will appear in the Noticeboard section of your company profile page.

Checking notifications and news

Notifications

Any messages specifically for you will be displayed in the Notifications window. These messages might include notifications from candidates who have agreed to allow you access to their full CV. From time to time, they may also include messages for you from Lode.

For each notification from a candidate, you can click either of the following buttons:

  • OK.
    This allows you full access to the candidate's CV and contact details. In the resulting view, you will see a layout of the candidate's CV. You can download this CV in printable PDF format by clicking the DOWNLOAD PDF button in the upper right of the page. To see layouts of other information, such as referees, supporting documents and so on, click on the other supplied tabs within this page.
  • Skip.
    Come back to this notification later.

To see if any new notifications have come in while you have been looking at this page, click the Refresh button at any time.

News

Within the News window you will see a set of links headlining various news items of interest to users of the Lode site.

To see a summary of a news item, run your mouse over it. The summary will appear in a tooltip window.

To see the full content of a news item, click on its headline link.

Changing your account settings

If any of your company details or contact information changes, you can revise your Lode account settings accordingly in the Account Settings tab.

Name, work phone, email, postal address... Please supply and keep current the name and contact details for the account holder. Please include area codes in the work phone number.
Role Type in or select from the pulldown list the role of the account holder above.
Company overview Please supply a brief summary of the company activities.
Industry Type in or select from the pulldown list the industry in which your company is engaged.
ACN/ABN Please make sure these are correct and current.
Study stream Type in or select from the pulldown list the study stream you most commonly recruit from.
Types you are looking for Provide a brief description of key characteristics common to the candidates you are looking for.

Examples

Following are examples to help with search management and company profile management.

Example: Job description summary

Below is a short sample job description summary (in this case, for a senior software developer) as required for the Job Details page of your search:

Software development in J2E. Team leadership role. Expect to consult with clients. Opportunities for architecture design and project management.

Example: Company snapshot entry

Below is a sample company snapshot entry as required for the EDIT COMPANY PROFILE page:

If passion is your thing, then tuscon could be the place to launch your career. Based in Brisbane, this niche consulting business is focused on connecting people with university qualifications to employers. Importantly though, they don't do recruitment - or human resources. They are a bunch of entrepreneurs with a savvy head for lucrative business and right now, tuscon is launching Lode throughout Australia. The pace is fast and the work is exciting.

You'll be pleased to know, though, that tuscon is grounded in sound ethical principles. When it launched Lode in 2009, the tight team at tuscon chose a business model that benefited everyone at a fair price. That's why Lode is free for students and the lowest possible price for employers. It's "dinner and a show". What more could you ask for?

Example: Notice Board entry

Below is a sample company notice for the Notice Board (an option for the Premium company profile section of the EDIT COMPANY PROFILE page):

Apply now for our Internship Graduate Program - closes June 2009.