Lisa Heppel works as an International Recruitment Specialist for Chevron. She looks for resumes that highlight key achievements and career highlights in 3 pages or less. Cover letters are also critical. The most common resume mistakes are treating it like a novel instead of highlighting key points. In interviews, candidates should practice their answers and show their authentic selves. Positive attitudes are most important for hiring. LinkedIn is useful for recruiting, so candidates should keep their profiles updated. In-demand skills in Australia include contracts advisors, planners, and cost controllers, but these roles are hardest to fill since few opportunities exist for junior or intermediate levels. Creating training programs for these roles would help address the skills shortage.

1. INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
WITH
LISA HEPPEL
Charlotte Flatley
International Recruitment Specialist

2. The Industry Insider
• Name: Lisa Heppel
• Position: Business Assurance – Contracting,
Procurement & Supply Chain Management
• Company: Chevron
• Website: www.chevron.com
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3. Tell us briefly about Chevron and your position as
Business Assurance – Contracting, Procurement &
Supply Chain Management.
Chevron is a global organisation, that commits to genuinely
messaging, that valuing and supporting each other is the
key to the long term success of the organisation, and its
people.
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4. What are the three most important things you look for
on a resume & how long do you feel a good resume
should be?
A resume should:
• Include your career highlights and key achievements only
(not every last thing you have ever done)
• Be SMART (amend to be: Specific, Measurable, detail the
Achievements that are Relevant and include Timelines)
• Easy to read - set out well, lots of white space, clear
simple language and no buzz words or jargon
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5. No more than 5 pages, including:
• Cover page,
• Summary page including position, projects/company/
education etc.
• Maximum of 3 pages of your relevant history (see above
criteria)
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6. How important do you feel cover letters are?
Critical.
• It tells me that you know your strong points
• Can confidently express who you are
• What you have to offer
• And why I should read more.
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7. In your experience what do you see as the most
common mistake people make on a resume?
• Treat your resume as your marketing tool, not a cliff-
hanger novel.
• Be up front with your key points, and grab my attention.
Don’t approach it as a long drawn out essay, with the *ta-
dah* moment at the end.
• Remember: I may have 200 resumes on my desk – yours
needs to stand out.
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8. In interviews, what is the most common mistake you
see candidates make & how would you advise them
with regards to preparation?
• Practice, practice and practice. Okay, you may feel stupid,
but sit in front of a mirror and practice responding to
possible questions, it actually works.
• Remember that generally you have reached the interview
stage because your skills already match the job. You are
being interviewed to see if YOU match, so show them
who you are.
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9. What would be your advice to prospective candidates
on the best way to promote & differentiate themselves
in your current market?
• Skills can be taught, so basically I hire attitudes and
behaviours.
• Come to an interview with a sense of entitlement, grumpy
negative attitude, complaining about everything and
nothing – especially your last workplace, you’re probably
not someone I want to spend 40+ hours a week with.
• If someone has a positive, confident, capable and
enthusiastic attitude, and can demonstrate/ communicate
a genuine care and concern for other people, then they
are the type of person I want to work with.
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10. How effective do you think LinkedIn is in recruiting and
searching for candidates in your market?
• I use LinkedIn to approach people that I think may be a
good fit for the advertised role, often before the job even
hits the open market.
• Always keep your profile up to date, you never know when
someone is looking at offering you an opportunity.
• The difference between someone content in their job, and
someone who is open to offers, is one too many bad
days.
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11. What type of skill sets within the Perth & Australian
market do you think are most likely to be needed in the
next 1 - 3 years? Of these skill sets which do you think
is seen as being the hardest to source and what would
you recommend organisations do to proactively
address this?
• If major capital projects get the green light, then contracts
advisors, planners, estimators and cost controllers will be
in great demand.
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12. • Most of these roles are filled with people who have learnt
on the job, and yet so many major projects expect people
to arrive fully skilled, and offer no junior and intermediate
opportunities.
• I would highly recommend the above roles are segmented
into junior, intermediate and advanced skill level positions,
and then proactively employ people who can be trained or
up-skilled.
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13. This insider insight is brought to you
by
Looking for help with your resume and cover letter?
Don't hesitate to get in touch
info@proresumewrite.com
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