Tag Archives: job applications

guest blogger, Job Hunting, Recruitment Agencies

How to Make the Most of a Recruitment Agency

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When we enter the job-seeking market, our first port of call is usually a recruitment agency. It may be tempting to let the recruiters do the donkey work for us and sit back and wait. However, utilising a recruitment agency to our best potential will have more impact on what is offered by way of a job. Recruiters will always want to protect their business and offer what their clients want, but, they need us to fill the positions so they can get paid for their services.

Be Your Own Best Advocate

We are responsible for how we market ourselves, not the agency. The agency will promote what we promote to them. They will advise on CV writing techniques, give plenty of job leads, however, it is up to us how they will promote what we have to offer a potential employer. Using a recruitment agent is not the middleman, treat the agency as if they were employing directly. We want the agent to find us the best role, we want them to place us and we want them to use us.

Do the research

Widen the Net & Register with Various Agencies

We don’t have to place all our eggs in one basket. Registering with different agencies will spread our details far and wide. While there are many smaller agencies who offer a more bespoke and localised service, national agencies are suitable for a wider recruiting audience. Other benefits of this, are we can tailor-make our CVs and covering letter exactly the same which reduces the chance of cross-recruiting and companies seeing the same name with different details if registering with various agencies in our sector. Now, this doesn’t mean we are telling fibs on our details, but it is no secret that people have a tendency to embellish the truth on job application forms. There is little worse than a potential employer faced with the same name but two completely different CVs.

Agencies Which Offer Jobs in your Niche

If we are in a profession then registering with agencies which deal particularly with our sector will be a more suitable option. There is little point in a medical secretary registering with an accountancy specialised agency. Utilising an agency which specialises in the sector we are looking to work in is essential for securing the position we want. All sector agencies are all well and good, but the chances are we will be up against a much bigger crowd.

Keep It Simple

We want the agency to promote us well. Don’t make the mistake of over-loading them with information that is completely irrelevant. Utilise the agency for employment techniques, not golf skills or how we can run up a pair of curtains in an hour. In this age of ‘tell all’ with social media networks and varying advice on how to ‘get the perfect job’ recruiters will be interested in our work skills, not our recreational skills. We are not looking for new friends, we are hoping to seek a fabulous job. Always be professional and alert, we don’t have to be shy, but we don’t have to shoot ourselves in the foot either and end up in the bottom of an in-tray.

Work as a Team

When looking for a job, we need to be pro-active and help the agent to find us employment. Jobs are hard to find in this climate and we need to respond to calls, emails and letters in a professional manner. Remember, agents are busy people trying to run a business and we have to be pro-active in helping them and we are in essence, representing the agency to their clients. We never know when we might need the agency again, so we need to mind our Ps and Qs.

One Last Piece of Advice

Recruitment agencies are a fantastic way of finding new employment on both a temporary and also a permanent basis. It can be especially useful to use an agency that specialises in your niche area of recruitment.

When I was in further education I used to use recruitment agencies when looking for temporary childcare work during the summer break. I always preferred the temporary work offered through the childcare recruitment agency I used rather than the more general agencies I was also registered with.

Ros Davies writing for Lebreton Recruitment the leading staffing agency for childcare recruitment is the UK.

A bit of fun, CV Tips, CV Writing, Job Applications, Job Hunting, No, Recruitment

Be my Valentine

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Valentines is a long held tradition across many countries in the world as a day to express love for another – one legend is that of a priest in the third century in Rome, who took it upon himself to marry soldiers in secret, who were forbidden to marry under Emperor Claudius II as his belief was that single men made better warriors of war. On discovery, the priest was executed; the Catholic Church recognises three saints Valentines or Valentinus’ all of whom were martyred. Of course there are a fair few legends but this one I think is particularly romantic in that it talks of a religious party striking against what the establishment deem as right in matters of the heart.

Be my valentine

So naturally I wanted to tie the Valentines theme in with CV writing, sitting down to think about what Valentines actually means to others and how it affects our lives I put the question out to my friends – the response was good but one of my favourites was this response; “It’s a bit like Xmas. You can go the hype route, or if you take heed of the underlying message you can enrich your life.” How true, seeing through the commercial aspect it is a time set aside to reflect on what really matters in your life.

I began to write a list of what actually happens on Valentine’s day and the actions we take:

  • Putting yourself out there – taking a risk for something you really want. For single people valentines provides an opportunity to let that special someone know that you are thinking about them. As is the case with applying for a role, it doesn’t have to be an advertised job, you could make contact speculatively. You have nothing to lose as long as you keep your approach professional. You never know, as up until the point you make contact you are not even on their radar!
  • Making an effort – getting dressed up to create a good impression doesn’t always mean knocking on doors physically, dress up that LinkedIn profile and CV; make contact and let them do the talking.
  • Thrill of the chase – now we all love a chase to get something we want so why only extend the exhilaration to romance, use the adrenalin and endorphins to keep you motivated and enjoy the ride.
  • Rise above the fear of rejection – the time old saying, it’s better to have tried and failed than never tried at all. Performed in the right manner, surely it is worth a go.
  • Anonymity – traditionally sending a card or flowers to a valentine is supposed to be a secret, a bad CV can have the same effect – to recruiters, bad CVs get put in the recycle bin and it’s like you never existed so heed the warning.
  • Rock someone’s world – it’s not always the flamboyant and expensive gestures which make an impression, often it’s the well thought out but simple motion.
  • Dating agency – for those still looking for that special someone, an agency can be just the ticket. Recruitment agencies and job websites are also there to attend to your professional needs. Sign up, make contact, search through profiles, find something which makes you want to make contact and do just that.

Striking a balance of a happy personal life and happy work life is the key to contentment – if you invest as much time and effort into finding a new job as you do to matters of the heart and take the thrill of it rather than see it as a chore you will find yourself on a new exciting journey.

Job Hunting, Motivation, Planning, project management recruitment, Redundancy

Employees facing redundancy – 7 things to think about

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It is never a good time to hear that your job has been put under threat of redundancy, most of us have been there at some point in our career and just when you think you are doing a great job the news hits. One thing to remember is that this could be the change you need to make a positive move forward – how long have you been thinking that you would like a change / more money / progression / a boss who really appreciates all the hard work? By being forced out into the cold you have to take action and this is a perfect time to really take stock of your career to move into a new challenge.

Some things to assist you in your transition are listed below:

  1. It is not your fault – it is easy to take things personally when you are faced with redundancy. However, no matter how good you are in your job there are always other factors that management need to take into consideration for the good of the business and as such departments are removed. Especially when it comes to project management, how many projects are still realising their benefits? Are the right people running them? How can we improve outcomes and cut costs?
  2. Take stock of your skill-set – performing a skills audit and writing a list of your accomplishments to date will help you re-evaluate your position, feeling kicked to the curb means you lose sight of you as a professional and running through your achievements and abilities will help you get back on track mentally.
  3. Make a plan – take a good look at how you can tackle your circumstances, research the market for roles which meet your abilities and create a spreadsheet to list job boards and start noting down roles to apply for. Remember now is time to look for something which will meet your expectations in terms of progressing, whether it be in seniority, money, potential for progression and/or training.
  4. Work on your CV – make sure you use your list from your skills audit and also look at the job descriptions, what are they asking for? If you have done these things have you articulated them in your CV?
  5. Keep motivated – remember it is not you; the business has to make changes for whatever reason. Now it is time for you to demonstrate to others how good you are, harsh but recruiters and employers do not like to hear and see candidates down in the dumps.
  6. Keep up momentum – your plan should have clearly marked out sections to tackle such as xx hours on job adverts, xx hours searching company websites for direct applications to employers and also other routes such as looking for opportunities which aren’t advertised. Keep to it – make sure you set aside a good few hours a day and really work on each application; applying for everything rarely works but a good tailored application to fewer roles really does harvest results.
  7. Seek help – if you are finding you are yielding little results from your approach it may be time to seek help, your CV is a first port of call. Get a free CV review, talk to others about their approach to finding a role and see if you are missing anything.

Once you have been notified of your redundancy payout you should look to structure how to use it effectively, after covering your mortgage and bills for a number of months you should look to see if you need any additional training, a professionally written CV and careers advice on applying for positions and interviewing can be a very effective investment too.

Job Applications, Job Hunting, Project Management, Project Management Job Boards, project management jobs, project management recruitment, project management resume, Q&A

Which Project Management Agencies should my friend be using – Q&A

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Hi Nicola, a friend of mine who has been living and working outside the UK for some time has decided to move back to the UK with his new wife and has asked me which project management recruitment agencies are best for him to sign up to. He has a background in delivering software implementations on a contract basis and is keen to pick up where he left off. – Chris, Manchester.

Hi Chris, many thanks for your question. A starting point for your friend would be my blog on project management job boards as this lists some of the forerunners in the field both recruitment agency wise and good PM related job boards. However I also would like to point out that your friend will need to make sure he has his CV up to date and is in-line with current requirements of the employer as he has been away for a while. Being a contractor one of the first things I would suggest is to make sure the CV talks through his assignments and pays particular attention to why he was brought in and the state of the project on arrival (including how he picked it up and led it to success). Contractors are generally paid a premium day rate to “hit the ground running” and as such demonstrable experience of this is what hiring managers are looking for in a CV.

Coming home

Next I would suggest your friend creates a LinkedIn account (if he hasn’t already got one) and brings it up to date, ensuring it is searchable by everyone – this will open up opportunities for employers proactively searching for fresh talent. He should also make sure he has some recommendations from previous clients and managers so he has some good references to back up his work.

Job hunting also requires some further input from your friend such as posting his CV on the job boards – personally I would recommend some of the larger general job websites and also the specialist job websites such as the ones mentioned in my article. It is important to keep refreshing the CV on these websites as the longer they are in the databases the further down the searches they go. From a recruiter perspective I have found that when searching for CVs through such databases that I am offered a date selection – I would automatically assume that those over a month old have now secured a new position so they would be discounted from the search.

It is also good practice to keep abreast of organisations local to you to understand any changes and jobs which may pop up on their websites – your friend can set up google alerts on companies so he is emailed when something new is published online about them. Any changes such as new service offerings / mergers / product launches etc are a fantastic opportunity for your friend to make a speculative approach to the business and really sell himself to how he could add value. The speculative letter needs to be really tailored to the organisation and its changes and highlight examples of when he delivered similar changes.