I have been in the career media business at News Ltd for six years as editor of
careerone.com.au. I also have a syndicated newspaper career advice column — Ask Kate
— that is published on our website, and I contribute to magazines, newspapers,websites
and radio on career and job-hunting issues. My criteria for selecting story subjects never
wavers. I want to demystify the job-hunting process to help people achieve their career
goals.The one area I have not tackled has been addressing selection criteria. Because this
area is such a specialty, I have relied on experts to answer questions from readers.

For this reason I was very glad to hear Dawn Richards was going to lay the process bare
with her new book Get That Government Job. I was even happier to read the book and
see how it used plain English to explain how to successfully apply for local, state and
federal government jobs. Dawn looks at every step of the job-hunting process from
research, preparing and submitting documentation (résumés, selection criteria) to
interviews and referees. She also uses handy checklists throughout the book to ensure
candidates cover all their bases.

Dawn provides marketing tips (you are the product),writing tips (including words that get
a job applicant noticed) as well as her insider’s view of the little slip-ups that could see
your application ‘binned’.

There are also some great tips on tackling the real-life problems no one likes to talk about.
For example, tips for how a 40-plus candidate can get by a young recruiter as well as how
candidates of all ages can conquer pre-interview butterflies.

I know from my conversations with Dawn how genuine she is about helping people.This
book is a real tribute to her years of doing just that!