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Employment Guidance
The internet provides an almost never ending supply of support and guidance for job seekers. A lot of this information is relevant & helpful, but we also struggle to find a lot of valuable advice that comes directly from the recruiters themselves, with the main resource being directly from government bodies.
Surely the best advice comes directly from the recruiters. The people who spend year after year, honing their skills to become efficient hiring partners for businesses. They have the real insight into what it takes to be successful or not when looking for a new role. With years of combined experience, we have therefore put together an honest and frank framework for what we feel are some crucial aspects of getting a job that are all too often overlooked.
Reactive vs Proactive recruiting
Generally speaking, recruitment consultancies working within a Mid-Senior level market, typically 10+ years experience will fill the vast majority of their positions themselves. That is, we will reactively headhunt the best people for a position and do not hire most of our candidates by working with a candidate and approaching businesses on their behalf, proactively. Generally speaking.
Most recruiters will only want to represent the very best, highest potential, most in-demand candidates for this very reason and it means for the 90% of guys who aren't at that level or using the O&G market as an example, people find themselves in a pool with many fish, relying on a consultancy is this way will more than likely leave you empty handed.
That isn't to say we wouldn't advise you to still use this route, but make sure that route includes two consultancies, certainly no more than three. And these businesses should be excellent. They are representing you after all. If they are not willing to spend 30+ minutes on the phone, asking insightful questions on your background, motivations, achievements etc. and showing examples of their own industry insight, you need to ask yourself if this is a business you will openly send your CV to. But having a couple of respected consultancies/recruiters working with you is not a bad thing and could lead to openings that you would never have considered yourself.
Reactively recruiting people will always be more successful that proactively. So if you are the guy being headhunted, you'll always be in better shape. The simple reasons for this is that being actively headhunted means that an active role has been between the recruiter and client, that a request has been made for candidates to be identified following a specific brief and that the headhunted candidate fits the bill. In a proactive process, you are working to a framework with a candidate of businesses he will fit into. This has often no guarantee of an active role and often means that a hire is not made.
Take matters into your own hands.
Knowing that it would be unwise to depend on a consultancy means thinking about how your own actions will land you the next job. This covers multiple aspects, some of which we will go into in more detail.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Today, social media plays a huge role in the recruitment industry. Good recruiters use LinkedIn to build relationships that they can rely on in future but they also use it daily, specifically looking for the right people for their jobs.
Your social page whether on LinkedIn, Oilpro, Opportunity should be absolutely up to date. Ask your old peers and managers for recommendations. Make sure you are adding all the keywords around your background, that qualification are clear and up to date. Don't just leave a job title without any content, this is your SEO to be found by every active recruiter, in-house or agency, make sure they can find you!
REACH OUT DIRECTLY
There on two schools of thought on reaching out directly to clients. At a senior to C-Level, it probably isn't the right approach, being represented is probably the right way to go, but only at this level. Even for those roles, being represented by an external recruiter means a cost to the employer of probably $50,000+, so overall, it certainly becomes a less attractive proposition.
The process is simple. Identify the companies you would like to work for and use the major social media sites to identify who you need to be speaking with. Make the connection with them directly and then introduce yourself on a professional email. This will never look bad and should open some new doors.
LOW HANGING FRUIT
Make the obvious calls. Simply put, few recruiters will have the same rapport with your old bosses/old colleagues so make these calls directly. Again, unless you are one that would prefer to be represented. These are the warmest and quickest ways to get a new role faster. Speaking with people who know you, who will vouch for you and where you can fit in and hit the ground running. Don't forget the most obvious options you have.
Getting your CV right!
The age old question of what should I CV look like. Well we have seen thousands of them and there are a few things that are essential. Here are the Dos & Don'ts
DO
- Use ONE professional font and Ideally ONE colour. If you wish to deal in another this is okay.
- Be succinct with your job duties. Your CV isn't about squeezing as much into two pages as possible, but nonetheless, stick to the details that employers want to read.
- Add achievements for your last 3 positions or back 6-10 years. You CV is your chance to sell yourself, so make sure these achievements stand out. Ideally in their own section under the job duties for that position.
- Check thoroughly for spelling mistakes, it's an easy way to make yourself look unprofessional.
- Make sure your qualifications are clear either above or below your work experience.
- Make sure your format is clear and well spaced.
- Provide both a Word & PDF document to your recruiter. Most recruitment consultancies will format your CV so it looks as professional as possible and so that if 2/3 CVs are being sent together, that they follow a similar design and font. By providing a Word Doc it is much simpler for the consultancy.
DON'T
- Feel a desperate need to get everything on 2 pages. Any more than 4 would be excessive, but 2-4 pages is absolutely fine.
- Use different font, colours, letter sizes, background picture templates. It is a very poor way to layout a CV.
- Date your experience chronologically from your first role to your last. Your most recent position must always be the first one a prospective employer scrolls down to.
- Add an unprofessional picture. Most recruiters will not include a picture unless specified, but if you want to include one, again, make sure it sells you as a professional.
- Leave Sir/Madam on an introduction/supporting statement. It is very simple to address this to a specific person you are emailing.
- Put together a profile paragraph which is not to the point. This opening statement must again be succinct, it must cover your abilities and your ambitions with as much insight as possible.
Interview Prep
Needless to say, interview prep is important, but I do not think enough candidates are fully prepared before they meet/speak with a prospective employer. Main aspects to consider are as follows:
Prep means you are bought in. Clients want to know you have done some research, simply to know you are serious about the positions and committed to the interview process. Many have lost out on offers by not appearing to be committed enough, regardless of how strong they performed in the interview.
Make sure your recruitment consultants are doing their job! A consultancy should be always information gathering to ensure their candidate is fully prepared in terms of what to expect from an interview. They should know who you are meeting? what is that person/people like? what will they be specifically looking to ask/or hear during the interview? How long will it be? Will they ask you about your current package? Make sure to push your recruit on these details, it could make the difference and any advantage helps!
If you don't have enough chance to show that you've done your prep, make sure you show this off before you leave. You should prepare some questions for the end of the interview, ideally, these will prove you've done the work from your end and also allow you to understand further on aspects that haven't been covered off. Always have some strong interview questions prepared.
Job Boards
Job Boards
In every modern day company recruitment team, either in-house or external, there is a significant likelihood that an industry job board will have been invested in to find good candidates. As the world of technology has played an ever more present role in recruitment, any prospective job seekers should make sure they have their CV uploaded on at least one of these major sites.
I also though think this must be done with an err on the side of caution. For a start, you do not want every recruiter under the sun calling you to discuss your background and what you are looking for, especially if they have no jobs to discuss (note to my comments on reactive vs proactive recruitment). So you may not want to include your contact number on your CV, just your email address, so to take matters into your own hands. Then you can communicate over email and decide which recruiters you would like to speak with. Again, you do not want to be represented by any more than two good consultancies at one time.
There is also an arguement to say you should keep your name and employer confidential, should you be actively looking but still in a job. These sites are more than likely being reviewed by your own recruitment teams and there will be little you can do if they send a screenshot directly to your N+1.
Applying to online jobs
Again, modern day technology is an excellent tool in the form of providing an array of sites that not only provide recruiters with the opportunity to source CVs but also allow candidates to apply for jobs at their fingertips. But from a job hunting perspective, there are things to consider and actions you should take, to give yourself every chance of standing out.
How will you stand out? It is likely for any role you will be competing against online there will be 20 - 1000 applications made for the same role. These are then likely to be sent through to a recruitment/HR team who much sift through and try to identify the best guys. With many online jobs getting well over 100 applications, it's essential that you stand out or you'll easily be missed. The most effective ways to do this are:
- Put together a good, clearly outlined supporting statement, specifically worded around the position you are applying for. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to put together but its worth it.
- Try to find out who is hiring for the role or picking up the applications. Call the business in question and get their email address. Sending a personalised email with the job title in the subject and a quick sell in on your relevant experience, with CV attached, is far more likely to get you noticed.
For our choice of the best links for job pages in the market, click here.
Looking for further advice? If there is anything else we can help with or other aspects of the recruitment process you would like us to focus on then please get in touch.
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