Tag Archives: job seekers

The Honest Recruiter?

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The Honest Recruiter

The Honest Recruiter

The Honest Recruiter?

No matter how the market is performing in Recruitment, there is never any excuse for dishonesty.

Unfortunately, we have had alot of comments made to us from our job seekers about the level of dishonesty in the Recruitment market in recent times.

Most common complaints -

  • Advertising jobs that do not exist
  • Making promises to find a job seeker a job
  • Telling Client Companies you can fill their job in X amount of time
  • Telling job seekers you will send their CV to a Company and then not
  • Not informing job seekers you have sent their CV to a Company – this is illegal practice
  • Promising job seekers you will get back to them with feedback on their CV submission and then not
  • Promising job seekers you will keep in touch and then not

This is all misleading and unprofessional Recruitment Practice and does not abide with the NRF guidelines for Best Recruitment Practice.

This gives the Recruitment Industry in Ireland a bad name

Recruitment is a very responsible and worthwhile job.

As a Recruiter, you take job seekers future and career in your hand – this should be handled professionally and carefully.

In recent times, the decline in the Recruitment market has led to some dismal practice and short cuts and this needs to be stopped.

Our job seekers trust us that we will do our very best for them, this sort of practice leads to a lack of confidence and trust in us.

For further infomation on Best Practice in the Recruitment Industry in Ireland, go to -

www.nrf.ie

This is for Clients and Job Seekers and every Recruiter in the country should know it, practice it and live by it every day of their working life as a Recruiter.

Honest and Integrity as a Recruiter brings Awards

You cannot submit a CV without a Personal Profile

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Your CV Personal Profile is essential

Your CV Personal Profile is essential

Your Personal Profile on your CV is essential in today’s jobs market – you cannot submit your CV for a job without one.

When a potential employer receives an average of 50 CV’s today for 1 job, your Personal Profile can be the determining factor as to whether he/she will look at your CV in more detail, or not.

Employers use them as a guide to you!

Your Personal Profile is your one chance to highlight yourself and point out why you should be seriously considered for the job.

Your Personal Profile is your introduction to you – your chance to sell yourself, your chance to shine and stand out from the crowd.

Without one, the CV has no introduction and simply becomes a black and white list of your life.

Your Personal Profile should be one paragraph, approx 5 sentences outlining where you have come from and where you are going.

It can be used to sell yourself to a particular job and altered accordingly.

It can be used to rule out the competition.

It can be used to highlight your biggest achievements or used as a Sales ‘brag list’

These days, you cannot afford to have a CV without a Personal Profile at the top of it which takes minutes to draft but can alter your career path

A CV without a Personal Profile is like buying a new computer with no instructions!

So remember, you must have a Personal Profile on the top of your CV – do not send your CV anywhere without one.

A New Order

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Back to the Brain Drain of the Eighties

Back to the Brain Drain of the Eighties

A New Order seems to have decended on the Irish employment front with salaries being one of the most obvious signs that things have changed in Ireland and that the Celtic Tiger is becoming more and more of a distant memory.

The New Order today for job applicants requires greater flexibility in taking on job roles that require increased duties for in most cases salaries as much as 15 to 20% less than previously paid less than  two years ago and job descriptions that have expanded responsibilities which would have previously merited increased pay but now are considered mandatory and simply part of the job.

Additionally we see greater flexibility demanded of candidates required to take work further and further away from home requiring longer commutes and in some cases having to be transferred overseas to sister offices whilst the current economic conditions prevails.

Job seekers should consider this as temporary however as these were similar conditions some of our earlier readers may remember existed in the eighties when emigration was the order of the day. But that order changed too and then came the boom of the mid nineties bringing us to the recent present.

The key point to remember is things do change no matter how bleak or omnipresent that they can appear. Our current downturn will change but it requires willingness to accept change to current or previous existing terms and flexibility to continue working in order to survive the harsh conditions we must go through today to meet the eventual upturn of tomorrow.

Read the requirements for a job before applying

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Meet the criteria before applying for a job

Meet the criteria before applying for a job

It is always worth reading the essential requirements for a job before applying.

All too often, CV’s are being sent to us by people totally unsuitable for the jobs they are applying for.

There are a number of reasons for this -

  1. Careless
  2. Rushed
  3. Poor attention to detail
  4. Desperate

This creates a bad impression from the outset which is not what you want to give the Recruiter who will be helping you to find your next job.

It also wastes alot of valuable time when a Recruiter gets hit with 20 unsuitable and careless CV submissions before he/she can get to the ones that are suitable.

This may also be the reason why job seekers can feel they are being ignored or not responded to as even the most fantastic Recruiter in the world – all of whom work for JBM!, will eventually lose patience with what are commonly knows as the ‘time wasters’

Applying for a job is a process which requires care, attention and time – never fall in to the trap of just sending your CV out to a multitude of jobs and sites as this will be spotted very quickly as it starts turning up at the same place more than once and will instantly give a bad impression of you

Please always ensure you meet the criteria on the job advert before applying and if you dont – dont apply

The best way to get a job is…

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The best way to find a job is the way that works!

The best way to find a job is the way that works!

The best way to get a job is no longer definable.  I would even say that spending any time wondering about the best way to get a job is a waste of effort.

Let’s clear up some confusion.

It used to be simple.  You read the small ads in the papers and you joined a recruitment agency or two.  If you saw a job you liked in the paper you posted off your CV.  If a recruitment agency told you about a job that seemed suitable you asked them to put you forward for it.

Now the job market has gone haywire.  The internet has become one large glut of advertised jobs, but finding one that you could actually apply for is harder than ever.

How many job boards are there now?  How do you find a job on Twitter?  What is Twitter all about anyway? Why are you being asked to become a fan on a Facebook page?  How will any of that Social Media guff help you get a job?  How do you keep your personal life and your work life separate on Facebook?  Is anybody using Linkedin in Ireland? If they are then what are they using it for? ……….

And the most important question:

Do I have to be on all those sites now just to get a job?

No, you don’t. You particularly don’t if you work in the medical field.

I am a huge fan of social media.  I like the concept of networked information, of being able to connect with hundreds or thousands of people, who in turn have more connections.  Why do I like it?  It is a fantastic marketing tool.  It is possible to reach more people with less expense than ever before.

There is another reason I like it.  Through social media I have regained long lost contacts, I have been pointed towards information that has been useful to me in my job and I have realised that some people are more comfortable with typing than talking on the phone.

Through social media (including this blog) we have been able to make Jackie Brown Medical exceedingly accessible and interactive.  You can leave a comment on this blog at 2 am but you will not find us answering the phone at that time!

The best way to get a job is the way that you are most comfortable with.  If you are a social media whiz then use it.  If you like job boards, use them, if you like to use recruitment agencies then do.

If you are looking for a job use all the means available to you or just use a few.  The only really good advice to give you is to be careful with where you put your CV.

Good luck with hunting.  By the way, if anybody wants to know more about how to use social media for job hunting then leave a comment on this post.  Or do it the old way and pick up the phone.  I may well write some more in depth posts on social media in the future, so subscribe to the feed to ensure you don’t miss it.

Recruitment Advice

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Those of you that have dealt with us here at Jackie Brown Medical will know that we feel very strongly about ethics in recruitment. Indeed, our own recruitment advice section makes it very clear where we stand on recruitment practices.

Education of job seekers has become a hot topic in recruitment.  The onset of the recession caused an increase in incidences of bad practice. Job seekers found that their CV was arriving on the desks of HR departments from several different sources (five times in one case we know of).  It became apparent that in order to protect job seekers they had to be educated in the art of using recruitment agencies.

The National Recruitment Federation, the only body which provides a code of ethics for recruiters, is piloting a certification process for recruiters.

A new recruitment directory also highlights advice/education.  We highly recommend you take a look at their Recruitment Advice section.  That applies to employers too.

Back to basics….

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reference-checkI thought it would be worth mentioning to all our job seekers the importance of the Reference Check. You might think this is a well worn out topic, but believe me, it is one that is severely underestimated.

A good reference is the difference between you getting a job offer or not. Your relationship with your boss is of paramount importance here. Always remember that your boss has the power to ensure that you get your next job or not.

Very often, employees forget the bigger picture. They get very settled in their current jobs and are not thinking about their next job. They might have a good or not so good relationship with their boss. The ‘not so good’ relationship is something that the employee needs to avoid as they want their boss on their side when going for their next job.

As the days of  job security are a thing of the past, references are becoming more and more important as job changes are happening on a daily basis.

Always make sure that when you are leaving a place of employment, that you ask your boss’s permission to use he/she  as a referee and that you are on good terms with this person.

No-one can work on your relationship with your boss for you, but always be aware that he/she has the power to make your next job offer happen or not.

Always treat your boss with respect and dignity and your next job offer will be a much easier task.

Most of all Good Luck….!!

Job seekers are suffering

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Take the time

Take the time

Good evening

I have recently undertaken a survey on over 1000 job seekers recently in the jobs market here in Ireland to find out how they are feeling and how they are being treated by their Recruitment Agencies.

The results have been disappointing from a Recruitment Agency point of view and have shown strong signs of frustration and a lack of communication between the Recruiter and the job seeker.

The following are the main points of note made by a clear majority of today’s job seekers -

  1. They do not feel they can fully trust their Recruiter as their CV has been sent out to Companies without their knowledge or consent
  2. They are not getting full and comprehensive feedback following an unsuccessful interview
  3. They are feeling the recruiter is treating them as a number to make money out of rather then a person in a vulnerable position who needs a level of care and attention
  4. Recruiters are generally not thorough enough in their searches of suitable jobs and will e mail the odd Job Description of non relevant jobs
  5. Recruiters are not following through on the whole interview process
  6. One of the requests for change was for the Recruiter to act like they care
  7. Not unlike the sale of a car, the recruiter can be attentive in the initial stages, but once a job is offered, they do not follow up with a good luck call or a call after the first week to see how the new job is going

I have been working in the Medical Recrutiment field for over 9 years now and my background is in Nursing, I do care very much for this very vulnerable and currently even more sensitive group of people and if we cannot show this in what we do every day by trying to take that extra step, then we need to be doing a different job.

Recruiters remember, we are changing lives for people and we need to take the time and interest to do that effectively.

For further information on recruitment best practice go to -

www.nrf.ie

The National Recruitment Federation is here to help the Recruitment Industry and it’s job seekers.