Our official position on the much publicised recession for 2009 is…we have decided not to take part! So we will continue to provide the same enthusiastic and professional recruitment service to all of our candidates and clients throughout the New Year. Let’s all have a good one!
According to Vincente Cuñat (Finance Lecturer, London School of Economics) firms will begin to offer more short fixed-term contracts rather than permanent jobs in the current economic climate. This will allow firms to save money in the short term as well as using them as a true flexible resource, thus making it easy to let these contractors go when needed, or as projects are completed.
Organisations may be forced to reduce numbers but as we have seen with BT recently, this can affect both permanent employees and contract staff. However, many companies will undoubtedly feel less convinced about investing in the positive attributes of permanent employees verses being able to fulfil their business needs through contract flexible resources. Utilising contractors efficiently can underpin effective delivery without the need to maintain the salaries of permanent individuals that may be ‘sat on the bench’ for periods of time and therefore raising the cost of delivering a project. Conversely, contractors or consultants can be ‘wheeled in’ at very short notice and equally, dispensed with, also at very short notice but without financial penalty and thus, maintaining the profit margin for a given project.
Mr Cuñat said “Financing constraints tilt the balance towards a higher use of fixed-term contracts” speaking ahead of the launch of his research paper, Financing constraints and fixed-term Employment Contracts.
Cuñat added, ”At the beginning of a downturn firms unable to access external finance reduce employment much faster than financially unconstrained firms, both because they are forced to cut wages to avoid insolvency, and because they employ a higher fraction of fixed term workers who can be dismissed without cost.”
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and McKinsey have both recently published key reports highlighting that recruitment and retention are acknowledged as critical issues by CEOs across the globe and are now being treated as a top priority. I thought I would share these with you, since they are from credible independent sources and make for very interesting reading.
PwC’s research reports that 89% of the 1,150 CEOs polled state ‘Talent Management’ as a top priority for their business, with another 67% agreeing that this is where their time is currently best spent.
The McKinsey report states that “By far the most significant trend - cited by 47 percent of the executives - is the intensifying battle for talented people. Shifting centres of economic activity and increasing technological connectivity were the next most important trends, each with 34 percent.”
It is encouraging to read that business leaders worldwide are recognising the huge difference that the right people make to an organisation and are prioritising their recruitment efforts accordingly. As Jim Collins writes: it is only with the right people in the right seat that you can begin to transform a company from good to great and we remain passionate about making these introductions.
Top Tips for Interview Success
Many of the candidates who we arrange interviews for have lost count of the previous interviews they have attended and therefore feel comfortable with the process, whilst others may have only interviewed a few times in their whole career. Whatever your experience though, it is always worth time reviewing your approach and interview technique to maximise your likelihood of success. Just because you’ve notched up a dozen interviews in the year doesn’t mean that you’ve performed well, or that you can’t dramatically improve.
There have been hundreds of books and papers written on interview technique, tips and psychology. A google search this morning returned over 12m pages! However, the following 15 points have been condensed down from the most important considerations offered up from all our Recruitment Consultants, with external input from several senior HR & Hiring Managers / Directors within our clients.
Some of these may seem obvious, but it is shocking how often they are ignored, the consequences of which are quickly apparent and completely irreversible. It’s certainly worth investing a few minutes reviewing our Top 15 Tips to maximise your chances.
1. Do your homework. Find out as much as you can about the company, the vacancy and the interviewer before the meeting. Look at their website, get an Annual Report, obtain product brochures etc and comprehensively understand the job description, researching any areas that you may be unsure of. Ask your Technology Resourcing Consultant what they know about the company, why the vacancy exists, who will interview you, what is their interview style, what is the format of the interview? You cannot be too well prepared!
By gathering this information you will show a genuine interest in the opportunity. It will make you stand out from other candidates who may not have done their research and it also helps you objectively assess the suitability of the role for you.
2. Prepare questions for the interview. Asking intelligent prepared questions again shows that you have given thought to this opportunity. Do not ask questions you could and should have found the answer to before the interview. Focus the questioning on this particular role, the company strategy and career / professional development. Always refrain from asking questions regarding holiday, benefits, money or what the company can do for you. These can be covered in the latter part of the process or with the recruitment company.
Ensure you have your questions written down in a clean notebook, reinforces the interviewer’s perception that you have prepared for the meeting. Even if your questions have been covered throughout the interview, still check your notes before leaving the interview.
3. Carry an extra copy of your CV with you - just in case. If your CV has been sent to the company by a recruitment company, ask for a copy of the CV from the Recruiter, as they sent it to the company. Always re-read your CV prior to interview and try to pre-empt likely questions. You can also review a list of typical interview questions that we have produced from our experience, to help you prepare your own answers accordingly.
4. Prepare your journey to arrive at least 10-15 minutes early. Everyone understands that traffic jams, public transport and parking can be a problem but interviewers rightly expect you to have checked your journey plans and allowed contingent time for possible problems. If you are going to be late it is imperative that you call ahead to advise that you’ve been delayed and give an ETA. Arriving early also gives you time to compose yourself, go the bathroom and ensure that you’re ready without arriving in a panic.
5. Dress appropriately and conservatively. Very bold and overstated colours may not be to everyone’s taste, wearing more neutral colours is unlikely to cause offense. Remember you never get a second chance to make a good first impression! Even if the company have a casual dress code (and do make sure you check!), take care with personal grooming, making sure clothes are clean and pressed and shoes clean.
6. Set your key objectives prior to the interview. The interview is a two way process and you should attend knowing exactly what you want to achieve from the meeting. Ask your key questions early in the interview, to learn which areas are most important to the hiring manager and allowing you to tailor your responses through the rest of the meeting.
7. Relax If you are well prepared you can relax and let your real personality shine through. Although your technical skills and experience will be key to their decision, managers undoubtedly hire staff they can enjoy working with, so a pleasant personality coupled with good attitude will take you a long way.
8. Be enthusiastic at interview, with the clear aim of securing the job. Approaching the interview with the right attitude is often the defining factor in whether an offer is made. This may seem blindingly obvious but all too often individuals approach an interview with the mindset of ‘seeing how it goes’ – needless to say this attitude is quite apparent and rarely achieves success. Open the meeting with a firm handshake, engage with good eye contact, a smile and a confident approach. Focus your thoughts on doing everything possible to get the offer, before deciding whether you wish to accept the role or not.
9. Focus attentively on the questions and answer them succinctly. Concentrate on the questions being asked rather than thinking about your answers, then take your time in considering your reply, before blurting out your first thoughts. Your answer should usually then be no longer than about 60 seconds – it’s better to keep your answers concise than waffling on whilst the interviewer’s eyes glaze over. The interviewer can always ask you expand if he wishes.
10. Give answers that substantiate your capability, drawing on your relevant experiences. Answer questions with ‘I’ not ‘we’ – your interviewer wants to know what you achieved rather than what your team did collectively. When highlighting your achievements, which you should have prepared prior to the interview, you should explain clearly how you accomplished them, including any obstacles overcome and what you learnt.
11. If you don’t understand a question, ask the interviewer for clarification. If after due consideration you really can’t answer a question, say so. The interviewer is more likely to respect your honest approach.
12. Never rant or complain about a previous employer. Give 10 words why you are leaving and 50 about what you learnt while you were there and how that may benefit your next company.
13. Sell your assets, capability and relevant experience at every available opportunity. Do not make the employer work to find a reason to hire you, GIVE THEM ONE!
14. Close the interview in a structured manner. This is often ignored but is one of the most critical parts of the interview process. At the end of the interview:
· Thank the Interviewer/s for their time.
· Summarise why you are keen on the position eg. company plans, opportunity, training, earning potential etc. Two or three reasons will reinforce their belief in your interest.
· Highlight / reiterate why they should select you for the position eg relevant experience, enthusiasm, achievements, education, track record etc. Again two or three reasons will suffice.
· Ask the Interviewer/s how they felt the interview went
· Ask whether they have any concerns or if think you can do the job and would fit to their team
· Ask whether they need any further information
· Clarify the decision making process from here on
15. Send an email to the interviewer within 24 hours to thank him / her for their time. It also gives you an opportunity to reiterate your interest and suitability and outline again your core skills and value you would bring to their organisation.
and finally, Good luck!
but remember, you make your own luck by not leaving anything to chance and taking the time to prepare thoroughly.
Technology Resourcing has extensive experience in coaching individuals through the interview process, from graduates to board executives and we are very happy to help or guide you accordingly. Please don’t hesitate to call us on 01483 302211.
Like so many within HR and recruitment, I wish I had a pound for every time I’ve been asked about the format or content of a CV.
To start with, I would suggest you bear in mind the role of your CV, which is most often to facilitate an introduction to a potential employer. Your CV is therefore essentially a sales document for ‘you’ with the primary purpose of highlighting your strengths and suitability for the role applied to, by summarising your core skills and experience.
One glance around the Internet will illustrate countless different CV formats and advice on how to write the perfect CV. My personal belief however is that there is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution, but rather that your CV should be tailored in order to be as compelling as possible to the reader. I will not therefore rant on prescriptively about how to write the perfect CV (I wish I had another pound for that question also!), but will instead highlight just ten of the more important tips that our Recruitment Consultants all agree upon.
Top 10 tips for an effective CV:
1. Include a profile. This is your opportunity to match your skills against the specific role for which you are applying and should be customised for each application. Avoid general profiles that will rarely be as compelling to the reader.
2. List your key skills and competencies at the start of your CV.
3. Outline your main achievements. These can be picked from throughout your career to date and can either be listed together on page one, or shown within each entry of your Employment History.
4. Do not include a picture on your CV. Reader’s will focus more on your appearance and can subconsciously make YES / NO decisions before you have an opportunity to meet to explain your true strengths and capabilities.
5. Ensure there are no gaps on your CV that are unaccounted for, since this leaves the reader wondering and they will often assume the worst.
6. Your Employment History should be listed in reverse chronological order and should show the start and finish dates (in month and year format). If your previous employers are unlikely to be known by the reader, include a brief company description and/or URL link. Earlier employment, that is less relevant to your current application, can be summarised, briefly at the end of this section.
7. Include all relevant qualifications, professional memberships and other industry certifications / accreditations. If space allows, include the educational establishment or awarding body.
8. List additional relevant training & development
9. Include a skills matrix, if appropriate, at the end of your CV. This is to ensure key words aren’t missed when searched, as well as giving the reader a good understanding of the spread and level of your skills.
10. Include your interests and pastimes but be careful not to include something that could potentially leave the reader with a negative impression, or that you would struggle to substantiate at interview.
Please remember that the reader of your CV is likely to be extremely busy, so it is critical that they are able to identify your key skills and experience from an initial skim read. We would therefore recommend using bullets, with short, easy to read sentences and avoid large blocks of heavy going text.
Your CV is your personal marketing tool and it is well worth investing time and energy into making it as compelling a proposition as possible.
Before I close I would also like to dispel one of the most common myths that we hear which is that a CV should always be on 2 pages. Whilst it remains true that your CV should remain as concise as possible it has become more important recently that your CV comprehensively displays all of your core skills and experience. The reason for this is that most Recruiter’s and Employer’s now use text searching to initially identify potentially suitable candidates, even before starting the shortlisting process and if your CV doesn’t include their key words, you won’t even be in the running!
To help we have put together a blank template CV, which can be downloaded here, appended with an example CV.
Since we do a great deal of work with our key clients, who we’ve worked with for many years, we’re often asked to support or advise their HR or Hiring Managers on employment related matters, that are outside the traditional remit of a recruitment company.
Having recently completed one such piece of work, we are happy to share the results with other clients or viewers of this blog.
Click here to download ‘An Employers Guide to Recruitment Best Practise’
This guide is the result of consultation with many recruitment / HR specialists and was produced to help an HR Manager who was becoming increasingly frustrated by the number of strong candidates they were interviewing who subsequently accepted appointments with their competitors.
Produced by our MD, Derek Brown, this guide identifies 43 critical steps to maximise your likelihood of attracting, securing and retaining the very best talent for your organisation. The sections covered include:
· Protecting and enhancing your employer-brand
· Using your internal network
· Your recruitment process
· Ensuring you invest your time with the right candidates
· Training your interviewers
· Asking the right questions
· Selling the opportunity
· Getting the offer right, first time
· Looking after your existing employees
We hope you find this useful and as always would welcome any feedback.
Technology Resourcing are pleased to announce the appointment of Ian Le Grand to our board of directors, to further strengthen our senior management team. Ian’s primary remit is to work with our MD and the existing team to make the operation more scalable, whilst still retaining the high level of professionalism that our customers have come to expect from all parts of our business
Ian has spent the last 11 years in senior management roles in the technical / engineering recruitment industry, facilitating growth across Executive Search & Selection, Managed Service and Contingency Recruitment functions. Ian has a particularly strong background in managing recruitment campaigns for professional grade personnel into the construction, IT and telecoms industries, including acting as Account Director for Nortel.
We are delighted that Ian has joined our team and are confident that he will play a key role in continuing to drive the business forward.
Technology Resourcing are delighted to welcome our newest member of the team: Freddie Brown who joined us on the 23rd of August 2008. We would like to send our warmest congratulations to our MD, Derek Brown, and his wife on the birth of their second child!
Hello and welcome to the new Technology Resourcing Blog!
This is our way of being able to keep Clients, Candidates and those just passing through, in the loop with the latest news. The world is changing fast, yet it remains critical for us to stay in contact with our various stakeholders, plus it allows you to see the human side of some of our staff.
We will be updating the blog often with posts that we hope you find informative and helpful. In the meantime thanks for stopping by.
