You’re more than your resume: How students are landing roles at AU’s best brands

Have you ever felt held back from applying for that dream internship because you don’t have enough professional experience? Do you feel restricted by what you can showcase to potential employers on an A4 piece of paper? Do you think you’re more than your resume?

Well, the good news is that Australia’s leading employers also want to see more than a resume when they’re hiring for early career talent. Leading brands like Westpac, Qantas and Amazon are more interested in your transferable skills, cultural fit and other skills that you may have already gained, without even realising it.

In this blog post, we’ll dive into the problems associated with traditional application processes, how jobs marketplace Hatch is changing the game, and how you can shine in front of your dream employers using more than just your resume.

Why traditional hiring processes are outdated

Picture this: you’re a student who’s in their second year at University and you really want to kickstart your career in the professional world. However, when you look at your resume, you feel pretty unmotivated. On paper, it looks like you’re just a few hospitality jobs and extracurricular activities. In reality, you’re so much more than this.

Despite having strong communication, project management, and problem-solving skills because of your diverse experiences and human qualities – you find it difficult to articulate these on a piece of paper. Selling yourself on a resume isn’t easy.

We’ve all been there, and we get it. Thankfully, there are ways to overcome this challenge.

Hatch and why they’re taking on traditional job boards

Hatch is a jobs marketplace that helps you find teams and opportunities that genuinely fit you. On Hatch, you get the opportunity to show off more than just your resume to Australia’s top companies like Qantas, Westpac, Atlassian, Amazon and more.

Hatch was founded by Adam Jacobs and Chaz Heitner – two successful Australian entrepreneurs and great friends long before Hatch was born. Adam co-founded THE ICONIC (Australia’s largest online retailer with 1,000+ staff), and Chaz co-founded Zip Co (global, publicly listed Fintech).

Photo of Adam Jacobs on left and Chaz Heitner on right

Recently, Hatch’s co-founder Adam Jacobs and lead scientist Professor Sandra Matz of Columbia Business shared their opinions on the state of traditional jobs boards at SXSW Sydney. Here’s what they had to say:

• How people look on paper isn’t always how they show up in reality. You wouldn’t hand a resume in on your first date. There’s a need for a more holistic understanding of people beyond resumes and job titles, emphasising the importance of understanding skills, preferences, and cultural fit.
• Approximately 55% of our lives are spent at work, so it is important we find work that’s a good fit for us.
• The world of job searching could be improved with a more data-driven approach, like how dating apps use AI and machine learning to optimise compatibility.
• Many job boards primarily focus on search optimisation, assuming users know what they want, but there’s room for improvement by considering skills, work styles, and motivations.
• Traditional job boards also enable ‘the paradox of choice.’ If you have a lot of options, choice can become debilitating, rather than liberating.
• The user experience of job searching needs to be simple, preserve user agency, and give both hirers and job-seekers the right match for them.

Hatch hopes to address these problems by connecting young people to meaningful work, matching them to roles based on a more holistic matching model, and helping them stand out to employers through more than just their resume.

Matching you to roles that are a good fit

Hatch is breaking down the world of work into 3 components that really matter to employers and candidates.

Hatch’s match model is built upon the foundations of a holistic fit-matching philosophy, where job seekers and jobs can be matched along dimensions that fit into three categories:

1. Why is this opportunity meaningful? What mission motivates the team, company and candidate to do their best?
2. What transferable skills and responsibilities does the role require, and what are the capabilities of the candidate?
3. How does the team and candidate like to work day to day and what is the work style necessary to thrive in this role?

The idea behind matching across these three categories is that it enables candidates to find meaning in work, while companies get to grow their teams with talent that’s aligned with their goals and empowers their teams to achieve their mission.

Hatch’s holistic matching model

Helping you stand out to employers

Hatch believes that you’re more than just your resume. Their application experience goes beyond a one-dimensional piece of paper and helps you demonstrate your skills and personality alongside your experience.

Instead of just a resume, your Hatch profile becomes the core part of applying for a role. This flips the traditional process of submitting your resume and cover letter to every position on its head, allowing you to connect more meaningfully with employers.

Hatch profiles are your secret weapon to level up your job search, and are a valuable tool to carry with you throughout your career. When you create a Hatch profile, you’ll unlock new ways to showcase what makes you unique, allowing employers to search and discover you, and quickly apply to multiple roles with your profile and introduction video!

Community success stories

Hundreds of early career folk land roles on Hatch every year at Australia’s leading brands like Qantas, Westpac and more. Young people love Hatch because it allows them to showcase more than their resume to employers, and it opens doors to top companies.

Here’s what the community’s saying:  

“I choose Hatch because the process is so human-centric.”

– Katarina Trgovcevic, who landed a role at Domain through Hatch

“The candidate process for Hatch is really simple and intuitive. The video interview aspect lets you showcase your personality more rather than just a resume. The experience is very unique for a candidate”.

– Natasha Jenny, who landed a role at Ikaros through Hatch

“I think companies and recruiters just want to see who you are at the end of the day and how you are individual and unique, they don’t want you to just look like every other applicant and they don’t want a perfect resume just like everyone else.”

 – Sahana Murali, who landed a role at J.P morgan at Hatch.

“I will stand by Hatch probably for the rest of my life. It’s such a good company and it really helped my career, it was incredible. I’m not certain that I would still be in Australia if I didn’t have the working opportunities through Hatch.”

– Lara Collins, who landed a role at Qantas through Hatch

Conclusion

When you’re early in your career and don’t have a lot of experience, it can be easy to feel demoralised by traditional job processes. A heavy focus on resumes, cover letters, and industry experience can mean a huge barrier to entry to the workforce, even for entry-level roles. However, the important thing to remember is that you are more than your resume.

By branching out, trying different job-search approaches such as Hatch, and showcasing a holistic version of yourself, you’ll be able to connect more meaningfully with employers, and land roles that are the right fit for you.