Job seeking 101
When job seeking, you always want to make sure you start off on the right foot – that includes with a recruiter, let alone an employer! There are, however, so many simple ways to ruin your chances.
Most of the same rules apply to a recruiter as to an employer, yet we thought we’d flag up some of the obvious ones (ones which people still don’t seem to be aware of!). We see so many avoidable bloops and blunders we thought it’d be good to highlight the 10 BIG errors which can mean you usually don’t get into the chosen pile…
I share this list with you to help ensure you get the job of your dreams. These are all drawn from real examples… but please don’t do any of these with us! As a recruitment agency, we like to help you make the best decisions for your career but also want the employers to get the best employees for their businesses.
If we can help educate you and the industry in general along the way, it makes it a much better industry to work in!
Know the limitations of your technology – If you are communicating by iPhone (or any smartphone for that matter), you know that typos and grammar are potentially going to be compromised. Unless you’ve got this down to a fine art and can attach your CV along with a cover note which is spelt and punctuated correctly – wait to make your applications where you can concentrate and make a presentable application that does you justice.
Show us your professionalism – When applying, don’t use text speak. Telling us it’s gr8 to speak or that you’re busy ATM… Better again to remember you’re applying for a job, trying to present yourself at your best… Used on its own as a once-off is fine, but it’s the culmination of no punctuation, a thumbs-up emoji, spelling errors and putting xxx’s at the end – the bad grammar, poor punctuation and inability to spell – it just makes us question how professional at the job you’d be and puts us off from pursuing an application further.
Showing you care about the application – By presenting a poor CV, you’re telling us you don’t care about your application. With inaccuracies in the detail, poor quality of presentation and general lacking of standard in the overall application – we will tend to put you into the “other” pile rather than give you a ring to talk about viable opportunities and explore more about yourself and your ambitions. If you don’t care – why should we? Saying this, sometimes it’s very evident that an individual just doesn’t know how to put a CV together, which is why we’ve written some blogs on how to do this:
Time Keeping – If we schedule a call, it’s professional to keep to the appointment, not put us on hold and make us / an employer wait or just not make yourself available for it. We took the time to book it, to make ourselves available, so should you. This is a particular bugbear as we try to accommodate the discretion we work under, enabling job seekers to call before/after work or over lunchtime, endeavouring to make it easy for them.
What it means is the caller is putting themselves out of their own natural working time to be flexible for you. It would be decent therefore to make sure you stick to what’s agreed. Of course, there are anomalies, where life takes over and these things happen; but if that’s the case, let the caller know!
Going AWOL – So you tell us you’re applying for a role – we help you sort your CV, prime you to be ready, help you with your industry knowledge, hold your hand by proactively marketing you into specific companies. We then find a company which want to meet you… and you go MIA.
How do you go from wanting a job to disappearing off the face of the earth for a week, to then pop up, say you were busy and act like nothing is wrong with this? Neither the employer nor I, are impressed with your inability to communicate, nor that you find this acceptable. Just keep everyone informed and up to date. Yes, it’s your job search, but if you bogged down at work, tell us!
After all, we’re here to help you… We can slow things down or speed them up, we help manage expectations so there are no surprises and the right outcome happens!
Image is everything – If you’re making your applications, try to present yourself at your best. We’ve seen CV’s come in from email addresses that must have been set up when you were 15 which reads “ChelseaSuperFan” or “BrightonBoy”. This is your career – why not set up a dedicated professional email address just for your job search?
Is it all clear – Make sure when you call the employer / the recruiter, you’ve allowed yourself the time to give it your best shot, but also that you can speak freely. Nothing is more mind-boggling than having the initial call and finding out the job seeker isn’t able to state figures i.e. salaries, because they might be overheard! So we either end up whispering or me having to play the higher / lower game to guess the right salary. Why not fix a time when you can speak freely? After all, we’re pretty flexible in accommodating calls early or late in the day, or take a walk at lunchtime!
Are you clean – Keeping your Social Media clean is highly recommended, as the majority of employers and recruiters will have a quick peek at your social media to make sure you’re the type of person who they’d like to consider for the opportunity.
Don’t be a Pinocchio – Don’t bother lying, you’ll always be found out. It’s not worth it! You’d lose the job offer if you’re lucky enough to get one!
Be yourself – Pretending you are something which you are not is never suggested. You’re being hired for what you are, not what you are pretending to be. What happens if you get the job? You’re going to keep up the persona you’ve invented forever???
Hopefully, these 10 points will head you off in the right direction when job seeking. Remember: be yourself at your best, nobody can ask for anything more.
If you’d like help with your job search and are prepared to abide by the above 10 points, then get in touch! We’ll support you in to your next digital marketing job. If you’re looking for options, visit our job board, or, if you’d like a more general discussion – get in touch by emailing your current CV to natasha@clockworkTalent.com.
