What we think

Last Thursday marked Seven’s first LinkedIn Live, hosted by Gabby Rosenberg as she answered questions from a candidate perspective about the recruitment process. There was some great insight for candidates in her answers, so we’ve summarised the main points here.

We spend more time at work than we do anywhere else.

While your ‘perfect job’ may not always be possible, it is important you are happy at work.  There are lots of reasons candidates make the move to a new business/profession and low job satisfaction is an acceptable cause for change. It can be difficult to begin the initial leap but is it possible to make this journey easier by considering some of these top tips.

Creating a CV that is just about you.

In such a crowded marketplace your CV is a chance to stand out, so how do you generate a punchy profile that grabs employers on the first page? Whilst we are here, let us end the myth that ‘your CV must be on two pages’. The responsibility of the CV is to sell you and as long as it fulfils this, the number of pages is irrelevant. Should you tailor your CV? Definitely. Your CV is not just about how it reads, but what an employer can infer. Everything communicated will be expected to be brought to the job, so making it bespoke to that role reveals effort and interest. Try talking about what you have achieved rather than describing what you have done; making an impact is far more impressive and suggests the potential to be successful in future roles.

Looking for a job is like looking for a house.

Planning for the future is important and we encourage candidates to have perspective when applying for roles. What happens in 6 months or 12 months? At Seven we pride ourselves on placing candidates that go on and progress within top businesses; it is not just about the job on day one. Many candidates begin with a perfect idea of what their job will look like, and as they go through the process they learn that perfect idea may not exist. As long as enough boxes are ticked for both sides, it grants an opportunity for both parties to compromise.

If you don’t ask you don’t get.

The biggest change to the recruitment process post-pandemic is the world of virtual interviewing. Gone are the journeys to the south east from the north as Google Hangout and Teams are here to stay, easing the recruitment process. As the walk in from reception has become a microphone and camera check, we are losing a sense of personal engagement. So how do candidates get feel for the organisation’s culture? Asking for an informal session with someone who works in the organisation is a good way to find out what it is like to work for that company.

An interview is a two-way process.

Have an opinion about the business to which you are applying. A common mistake made in an interview is lack of preparation. An employer will often ask, “Tell me what you know about this company.” If a candidate has not made the time or effort to do this, it shows they are not serious about the role. Yes, it is about the employer finding out about you as a candidate, but it is equally important for a candidate to understand the business.

Have a fantastic recruitment experience.

Clients can forget how important the recruitment experience is. At Seven, we are seeing the marketplace get tougher and tougher in terms of candidate availability, so educating and engaging with our candidates is vital. Candidates sometimes ask me whether it is better to go direct or through a recruiter. Even putting my obvious bias aside, my advice is when going direct to the business there is the concern of becoming a faceless applicant, or just another CV. Engaging with a recruiter means you have a representative that will chase and push for you in a different way to someone working in an organisation. You are their priority because it is their job! Even if a candidate is unsuccessful, a recruiter may find you another opportunity elsewhere as a good recruiter’s goal is to secure candidates with a great career move AND a great experience.

Gabby is back on LinkedIn Live on Thursday 14^th October, taking questions from the hiring manager’s perspective. See you there!