Archive for the ‘Job Hunting’ Category

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Don’t ever underestimate the value of good recruitment companies

Saturday, February 11th, 2012

Don’t ever underestimate the value of good recruitment companies, when looking to find a new job.

As many companies are trying to use the internet to source their own people, research shows that many people like to make decisions on their career by word of mouth and use recruiter companies that they have had recommended to them. This not only gives them access to a broad range of jobs, but also saves time in job hunting.
The London jobs market is extremely fierce and certainly when looking at jobs in broadcast, market research and multilingual sales, not all candidates are easily found.
A good recruiter is able to not only offer you good career advice, an informed selection of jobs, a knowledge of the market; trends, business plans, advice on a cv, inside information on interviews and assessments including what the company is looking for in terms of skills beyond a cv;, it is also able to offer an unbiased selection of roles to suit.
A recruitment company is often trusted with confidential roles, when the company hiring doesn’t want its’ clients or competitors knowing what they are doing, or where their gaps are. These roles are generally not advertised on websites or job boards.
Although there is a rise in the number of in-house recruitment roles in London, many firms who try and hire directly, don’t always succeed as they are can’t always go beyond the initial perception that a person has about their business. They are still having to resort to using external recruiters who are experts in the field. A recruiter’s job is to know exactly where to find the ideal applicant, address any concerns or questions an applicant may have, and also to save time (and money for it’s clients).
Don’t always think the recruiter has only the company’s interest at heart. There is no joy in in sending someone to the wrong job and there’s no better recommendation than to have someone thank you for finding them the right opportunity , or even an opportunity that they may never have considered if they had decided to trawl through job boards themselves.

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Why Linked In is good and why we still need recruiters

Saturday, January 21st, 2012

I am fascinated by the way that the London network  market has been revolutionised by LinkedIn and how it has also had a huge impact on recruitment for jobs , not only at senior level . It is a really good way to authenticate what people do and, how you do it. Perfect for self promotion , but has also  caused concern to many firms who can see it as a way for recruiters to approach key staff and also competitors to find out about who their clients are and get information on who makes the decisions.

Having said that the job market is always evolving and on the plus side Linkedin also helps businesses find new projects to work on and also raise their brand identity.  It also helps people research their suppliers and look at what they are doing as part of their process.

Nevertheless we still think it isn’t the only way to do business and certainly from a  recruitment perspective we still think that recommendations are key to attracting senior candidates offering a good service and believe that the majority of roles are filled via recommendations and referrals.

Many companies have to still use the recruitment skills of a consultant because they need to tap into a much broader network and attract  those people who they can’t find on LInked in. For example if a company has had  a tough year it is often difficult to break the mould and highlight the really exciting things that are happening in their business, without breaching client confidentiality or risking the possibility of giving important information to their competitors.  

Many new start ups have to be sure that they are getting their USP across to the right people if they are looking to attract people to their new business without alerting their competitors to what they are doing that is unique.  Recruiters are useful in these instances as they would and should be able to talk about the exciting and relevant elements of a role, company and division to candidates with people who are serious about looking for work and without jeopardizing the companies strategy.

 

 

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We have a way to go on the part-time front

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

This morning one of our national TV stations posted a brief  discussion re the trends of part time workers and asked what people thought
about the government’s proposal on enforcement of 20 hour week employment.

One of the commentators was a recruitment company specialising in part time employment. The other an “entrepreneur” and they were both at
opposite ends of the spectrum when pointing out their views on whether they felt part-time working was viable for business.  Both were female, by the way so the bias was
definitely not a feminist one.

London jobs on offer in our office are predominantly  fulltime. We do get asked to fill part-time roles for  job share roles (in this instance hours are  not flexible) or where

a professional service is offered and does not need the  employee to be sitting at the desk 5 days per week. For example an Accountant .

I think most employers are still scared of offering part  time work as their feeling is that the client/ customer will suffer  as we are living in a deadline driven work
culture whereby if a last minute request is made , it needs to be  completed  in order to offer excellent  customer service and also be competitive in a tight economy. It’s a shame
really but I think we have a long way to go before London jobs embraces the part- time culture fully.

 

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December job hunters

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Now is a very pertinent time to look for a job as companies are keen to recruit before year end when they have budgets to spend and  already planning for 2012.

It is often a time when people are working harder than ever to stay in their job, as company year end deadlines reach a climax, but many employers who are looking for skilled peoople are willing to out mroe time in and be more flexible whenr ecruiting new people, offering  more workable interview times. The priority is to start 2012 without the added burden of having to look for new people.

Be wary of putting your job  search on hold. There could be less competition for roles at this time and January will surely bring in neww projects and activity which will prevent people from taking time off work.

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Jobs update from the REC

Friday, September 23rd, 2011

The August Rec “Report on jobs”  highlighted an increase in the numbers of candidates available for work. This might be down to more confidence in looking for new opportunities from people in employment, but could also be a result in the increase of unemployed numbers.

The good news shows that the industry has seen a further increase in the number of permanent placements and temporary jobs which may have resulted out of new assignments as well as replacement of former staff who have moved on.

 Unfortunately, despite the rise in living costs, salary structures have not changes except where business have sought to attract external specialist skills.

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