As a slight change of pace from our usual industry analysis, I wanted to share some tips on how to make the most of the recruitment process \u2013 for both candidates and hiring managers. Sometimes small changes can make a big difference, and altering how you approach the recruitment process can benefit everyone.<\/p>\n
Being The Best Candidate You Can Be<\/strong><\/p>\n Recruitment should be a meritocracy \u2013 the job goes to the candidate who is best qualified for the position, has the most relevant experience, is the best fit with the team they\u2019ll be joining. So what do you do if you\u2019re up against 3 other people who have held the same titles as you, taken the same industry qualifications, present seemingly near-identical CVs? In the specialist markets we work in, it\u2019s not so unlikely.<\/p>\n First Impressions: CVs<\/strong><\/p>\n If you and the other candidates for the role are putting forward roughly the same information, exactly how you present that information can be a big differentiator. In terms of CVs, the biggest mistakes I see good candidates make are to do with consistency \u2013 make sure that you\u2019re formatting each of your roles in the same way (i.e.. the same order of Title – Company – Dates appears throughout your Career History) and highlighting the elements of those roles which are most relevant to the position you\u2019re applying for.<\/p>\n Customising your CV for the specific application might take a little more time but it makes a big difference \u2013 if you\u2019ve put the relevant element of a role right up top and someone else has buried it halfway down a long list of responsibilities, you have a better chance of getting noticed. This is also part of why it\u2019s not a good idea to just copy and paste what you did in a role from the official job specification \u2013 writing up the relevant parts of the job will make a clearer argument for why you\u2019re the best candidate.<\/p>\n Similarly, make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date and that you have a consistent level of detail about your skills and experience across all of the relevant positions. I can almost guarantee at this point that anyone considering your CV is also going to have a quick look at your LinkedIn profile and check for consistency between the two \u2013 it\u2019s one of the fastest ways an employer can check if someone is falsifying their job titles, for example. You should never put anything on your CV or LinkedIn that isn\u2019t true \u2013 but you can and should make sure that you\u2019re sharing the information that presents that you in the best light for the specific position you\u2019re pursuing.<\/p>\n Concision is your friend when it comes to CVs \u2013 if you have all the most relevant details up front and then pages and pages of minute detail on previous roles, those pages are quite likely not being read at all. Just as you should edit your descriptions of recent work to keep the key points clear, I also recommend tidying up roles further back in your career that will be less meaningful to your potential employer. Reducing any roles more than 10 years old to an Early Career Summary section with just dates, companies and titles can save a lot of time and space \u2013 and save you from a hiring manager opening your CV and balking at the page count before they\u2019ve even began reading.<\/p>\n Do Your Research<\/strong><\/p>\n Find out as much as you can about the company, and their specific recruitment process. From the specific format of the interview to their current marketing campaigns, the more you know about the company, the better prepared you are, and the more specific you can be. By this point I think \u201cIt\u2019s important to ask questions of the interviewer\u201d is the first piece of advice everyone gets and it\u2019s absolutely true but there\u2019s a big difference between an uniformed question and one that shows you\u2019ve already found out as much you can about your potential new employer on your own.<\/p>\n Know Your CV<\/strong><\/p>\n It may seem obvious but you would be surprised how often candidates will be unprepared to talk about something on their own CV. Once you\u2019ve customised the document itself for the role you\u2019re applying for, make sure you know everything you\u2019ve put down on the page. For each of your most recent roles, think about the activities that are most similar to what you\u2019d be doing in the position you\u2019re applying for, and prepare a few examples you can talk through in detail about what you achieved.<\/p>\n Honesty Really Is the Best Policy<\/strong><\/p>\n Be open and honest with your recruiter from the beginning. If you have, for example, a very strong preference for in-office over remote work and the client is advertising a role as hybrid, voice it early on rather than hoping it can be resolved later. You may think you\u2019re talking yourself out of a role by setting a very hard floor on the salary you need to move, but if the reality is that you cannot take on a new role for less than that number, there\u2019s no point in going through the process, and we can instead work on finding another role that will fit for you. Conversely, if we believe there is a good chance of getting a higher than advertised salary, we can advocate for that as soon as we put you forward. Telling a recruiter as much as you can about why you want to move, what you need to make it happen and what\u2019s important to you will be beneficial to everyone involved in the recruitment process, at every stage.<\/p>\n When Hiring:<\/strong><\/p>\n Getting the right candidate for your vacancy presents just as many challengers on the other side of the equation. How can you get the best out of the recruitment process?<\/p>\n Consider What You\u2019re Offering<\/strong><\/p>\n In an ever changing talent market and an uncertain economy, firms seeking to hire need to give serious thought to the proposition they\u2019re bringing to candidates. Salaries are important, of course, and carefully benchmarking yours against similar roles is crucial, it is key to offer what the market rate is for the role and the candidates worth, rather than basing it upon what the candidate is on and giving them an uplift. Clarity around the complete package early in the process means only candidates who are right for the role will pursue your opportunity.<\/p>\n Working models and flexibility have increasingly proven to be the crucial sticking points for more and more professionals. There is no uniform offering that will guarantee you buy-in from every candidate \u2013 some people prefer to work remote, others prefer to be in-office. When looking at multiple similar roles, many candidates are opting for the one that matches their working model preference even when it\u2019s at a lower salary. It may be that you\u2019re in a position to raise the salary but not to alter the working pattern or vice versa, but the key is to consider these factors and be direct and clear about what you can offer right from the beginning to get those candidates your job is the perfect for to engage and commit.<\/p>\n Control the Timescale \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n It is always worth repeating because it continues to be true \u2013 the number one reason good clients lose good candidates is timing and delays. Nothing will motivate a candidate to take another opportunity like having to wait endlessly for feedback or being put through never-ending extra rounds of interviews. Obviously there are factors here that may not be directly within your control, but wherever possible I would strongly encourage hiring managers to aim to share feedback within 3 days of receiving a CV or conducting an interview, and to hold interviews within 2 weeks of issuing the feedback. Of course with senior roles there is a very necessary multi-interview process, and it helps to tell candidates up front how many stages that will be and how they will be staggered, if the process can be reduced to two or even three stages for senior hires this will help to give the candidate a good experience rather than it being prolonged over four or five stages where you run the risk of losing candidates to competitors or the individual losing interest.<\/p>\n \u2026 And Keep Communication Flowing<\/strong><\/p>\n Hand-in-hand with the timing issue is the need for frequent, open communication. The best way to prevent a candidate falling out of the process if an interview is unavoidably pushed back is to keep in touch with them, letting them know what\u2019s happening and why. Sharing specific positive feedback along the way also makes a big difference \u2013 a candidate will feel very differently about a role where they\u2019ve been told \u201cThey want to interview you\u201d vs one where they\u2019ve been told \u201cThey really liked [X] and [Y] elements of your CV, so they want to interview you\u201d. Remember that you\u2019re also in the process of selling the role and the company to the candidate at the same time as you\u2019re working out if they\u2019re the right fit for you \u2013 every communication they receive along the way will form part of how they feel about your firm.<\/p>\n