Archive for November, 2009

Agencies and Headhunters – some tips.

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

A large number of employers actually have strategies to minimise the amount of spend on using 3rd parties to find people.  As a result, most companies are usually very positive about direct, unsolicited approaches.  It shows enthusiasm and initiative, both of these are attributes seen as positive, and may even be spelt out on an advert or job spec!

If you are easily able to create a target list of organisations that you would most like to work for, it pays to search them out on the web for clues as to how they prefer to be contacted.

Headhunters and agencies can be useful but Reccruitment Insider thinks you shouldn’t start there.  3rd parties are paid to supply candidates so that an employer can fill a vacancy.  They are not being paid to find YOU a job.  And there is a difference.

You need to make it as easy as possible for a third party to help you.  Treat any meeting or conversation like you would that of an employer directly.   The analogy is with an estate agent.  Most people tidy their house, or even decorate the place, before inviting an estate agent to come and value it or instruct them to sell.  Take time to brief the “middle man”.

Hiring Managers and Recruitment professionals know that agencies frequently use a strong candidate’s CV as a calling card.  It a great way for them to break into an organisation that has never dealt with them before.  Don’t let an organisation use your CV as a marketing tool.   Take time preparing a CV.  Clarify what is of interest to you.  The most critical thing is to know exactly what the headhunter or agency is going to do on your behalf.  Leave no room for vagueness or ambiguity.  Agree in detail exactly what is going to happen at each step. Make sure you know to whom your details have been sent.

But do make direct approaches to companies.  Don’t believe an agency when they say they can open doors that you cannot.

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The Interview

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

An interview is like any other conversation, except that this is a conversation with a very specific objective.  Preparation and practice are vital.  Practice with a friend, or just in front of the mirror – but get used to talking about what you have achieved in the various jobs you have had, how you set about tackling some of the issues, and the real outcomes.  Do some research into the organisation – Google is a good place to start as is the “Press Releases” section of any website they may have.

Many large companies will have a structured framework within which they manage their talent development.  This normally impacts on the way skills and knowledge are described and categorised.  This in turn can filter down to the recruitment process, and how recruitment needs are assessed and recruited against.

The Competencies used vary from company to company, but there are some common themes and by thinking about these, and reflecting the language used to describe them, you can start to describe your own experience and skills in a way which is more relevant, more compelling, and better received by a potential employer.

Let’s look at some of the common groups of competencies and how you might identify that this is what is being explored in an interview.  If you can answer the questions below, and talk confidently and fluently about your own experiences, you are well on the way to a successful interview!  Different organisations use different language and titles, but here are some of the major groupings:

Communication Skills / Communicating with appropriate impact – oral and written / Communication & Influencing

Tell me about a time that you had to convey a complex message.  How did you choose to do this?  Who was the audience?  What were the results?

Give me an example when you had to persuade someone around to your way of thinking.

 

Teamwork / Working Together / Sharing and Collaborating

Is there an example where you had to resolve conflict within your team?

Talk about an example where you have had to work with a colleague who had a very different style to you?  How did you do this?

Customer or Client Service / Demonstrating a passion for Client Service / Delighting your customers

Where have you “gone the extra mile” for a client.  What was the outcome?

Talk about a client relationship that you had to turn around?

 

Stakeholder Management / Building and Sustaining Successful Business Relationships

Let’s talk about a project you have been involved with where you had to manage stakeholder groups.  How did you go about this?  How did you measure your success?

 

Demonstrating Integrity

Have you an example where you have had to challenge the actions of a colleague?

Have you ever been asked to do something you were uncomfortable with?  How did you deal with this?

The Development of Others / Leading or Coaching – formal and informal

Give me an example where you had to give some difficult feedback.

Give me an example where you have worked to improve an individual’s performance.  What was the outcome?

 

Your Own Self Development

Give me an example where you received some difficult feedback.  Talk about how you set personal objectives.

What are your objectives for your next role?

Being Results Driven / Delivering Results

How do you define success?  How do you achieve it?

Organisational Skills / Planning & Organising

Give me an example where you had to manage a specific project to deadlines.

Give me an example where you had to deal with two conflicting priorities.

An example where you were faced with unreasonable deadline?

More will follow about this is due course, but good luck in the meantime.

Posted in interview preparation, interview questions, interviews, role competencies, tactics for job seekers | 1 Comment »

Unemployment figures – what they mean for you

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Yesterday’s official unemployment figures, up 30,000 to 2.46 million were greeted with some relief in many quarters as they were not as bad as had been expected.

The Guardian were relatively positive, but pointed out that many people without full time roles had turned to temporary work or education to avoid the dole queue and emphasized that one in five under 24’s were not working. The economics editor of the Telegraph used his blog to point out that the total number not working was more like 5.7 million (if you include all people that would like to work full-time, but for some reason can’t). The Daily Mail went even further, saying that 8 million have no job (and don’t even want one) and that those people in employment were more likely to have taken part-time roles on lower salaries with little job security than in previous markets. The REC (the trade body that represents recruitment consultants) was relatively dry on the matter, saying that practical support for job seekers remained crucial and (unsurprisingly) encouraged public sector employers to work with its members to help stem unemployment.

Whichever you look at it (and the Guardian provides a useful summary of what economists think) times are still tough for job seekers and employers are able to recruit more easily and at less cost than in recent years. Given this, it’s probably right for job seekers to be flexible, take that job at a slightly lower salary than you would have hoped for a couple of years ago, get your foot in the door of the organisation and aim to progress once inside – tough medicine, but worth considering.

Posted in tactics for job seekers, the economy, unemployment figures | No Comments »

The big CV Scam!

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

There are a large number of providers of CV services who will offer to write your CV for you, at a price, of course.  The many recruiters I have spoken to believe this is a complete waste of money and a mistake for most job seekers.  The person interviewing you is certainly going to have a copy in front of them, and think it is your own work.  As we have discussed in our previous post about creating a great CV, a great way to prepare for an interview is to write a CV and develop a complelling story.  As you go, you’ll find great ways of telling your tale.  And best way to speak fluently and convincingly about your experience, in a way that complements the written CV, is to have written that CV yourself.

I’ve been contacted a lot by companies selling CV writing services.  The latest story I was told was about a lady that asked them to tart up her CV and then, no doubt as a direct consequence, she has landed a great job – in PR.

What a story!  Surely if a PR person can do one thing, they can write their own CV!  PR people can sell you anything – that’s their job isn’t it?

I asked myself if the company hiring her would have taken her on if they had known that they were not reading her work.  I bet she didn’t tell them!!

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Creating a great CV

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

There are two main benefits of creating a CV – the first and most obvious is that it is a selling tool, the marketing tool which will often be the first way that a Hiring Manager or HR person will become aware of you.  A well sculptured CV will not get you a job, but it might get you to the next stage of the process – often an interview.  And that is its sole purpose.

The other great reason for investing time on a CV is that by its very creation, you are forced into starting to think about your career, about your achievements, any career moves you have made and the way you can express the progression you have made, in logical steps.  It’s great preparation for any interview!

Start by brain dumping and then editing down to a short, compelling story.  If you are familiar and comfortable with tools such as mindmapping, use these.  Don’t however use them in the final CV.

If you’re responding to a specific job advert, take a lead from the language in the job description or the advert and focus on the most important areas mentioned.  If you have great experience that does not seem relevant to a particular role, don’t be afraid to omit it.  You can create a “library” of stories you can use on another occasion.  Don’t be afraid to have a number of versions of your CV – in fact you really should tailor it each time for the specific role.

It needs to be compelling – short, pithy, realistic (oh, and true!) and help you stand out from the crowd.  Anyone reviewing your CV will very likely have many others to review and yours needs to catch the eye.

The style, layout and content are all important.  They all give immediate evidence of your written communication skills, which will likely be a required and important competence in the role you are competing for.  Any errors – typos, spelling or bad grammar, give an immediate impression of a lack of an eye for detail.

It must be easy for a reader to identify your current role, responsibilities, the previous experience you have had, and how to easily get hold of you.  It must only carry acronyms and jargon, if you explain their meaning.  Keep them to a minimum.

It is not necessary include the contact details of your referees.  These can be supplied later, once interest has been established and your permission to contact them has been sought.  Only supply the information required at this stage.

In the majority of cases, two pages of A4 would be sufficient to cover the key points you need to in a CV.  But it is a matter of judgement and if you have relevant and interesting facts which take you over that, it needn’t matter.  Use a plain simple font – Arial 10 for example.

So go for it, and don’t be afraid to change it as your job search develops – you might find better and better ways to express what you’ve done and what you offer.

Good luck!

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