How to apply for FIFO jobs properly (it is not uploading your CV to Seek and waiting)

Most FIFO applications fail before anyone reads them, and the reason is boring. The applicant uploaded a CV to a job board, applied to whatever appeared, and waited. That is not applying. That is hoping. After twenty years in HR across Australian mining and construction, here is what the people who got in actually did, and none of it is complicated.

Apply where the hiring happens

Job boards are where ads get mirrored, not where decisions get made. Apply through the company's own careers page when there is one, because that is the application the recruiter sees first and in the format they want. Register with labour hire agencies directly. Get on shutdown contractors' registers. Half the entry-level site jobs I have seen filled were never on a job board at all; they went to someone who was already on a register and answered their phone.

Tailor the top third, not the whole CV

You do not have time to rewrite your CV for every ad, and you do not need to. Rewrite the screen block: the role name to match the ad, the tickets in the ad's order and words, the two lines of site experience that fit this job. Ten minutes. The rest stays the same. I explain what the screen block is in what a recruiter sees in thirty seconds.

Volume, but tracked

Aim at twenty to thirty applications a week for the first month, across labour hire, contractors and operators, and keep a list: company, role, date, how you applied, what happened. The list is not admin. It is what tells you after three weeks whether the problem is the CV (applications, no screens), the interview (screens, no offers) or the target (nothing fits). Without it you are guessing, and guessing is expensive.

Follow up, once, by phone

A week after applying, ring. Not to ask whether they got your application. To ask whether the role is still open and whether there is anything they need from you. It takes thirty seconds, almost nobody does it, and it moves your name from a list to a voice. Do it once. Twice is keen. Three times is a problem.

Be ready to say yes today

This is the one that catches people out. When a labour hire agency or contractor rings, the question is often "can you do a medical Thursday and fly Sunday?" If the answer is "I need to give two weeks' notice and sort the dog", the job goes to the next person on the list. Before you start applying, know your answer. Have your police clearance done, your tickets current, your bag half packed, and the conversation at home already had. Speed is the thing green applicants can beat experienced ones on. Use it.

Keep your phone on and your voicemail sensible

Recruiters ring unknown numbers from site at odd hours. If you screen calls, you miss them. If your voicemail is a joke, you have made an impression before you have said hello. Answer, or ring back within the hour. It sounds small. It decides more first swings than people realise.

And fix the thing they will check

Before the first application goes out, go through your public social media as a recruiter would. I wrote about exactly what they look for in do FIFO recruiters check your Facebook. Yes. Clean it up first, because you will never find out it was the reason.

The full application plan, with the tracker, is in the guide. If your applications are going out and nothing is coming back, the review will tell you which of the three problems you have.

Read next: FIFO interview questions, and the answers I want to hear

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