<h4>As with many sales-focused industries, recruitment consultancies are often seen as an unnecessary cog in a fairly round and straightforward wheel.</h4> I know recruiters are often branded as being solely focused on money and not on providing quality service provision to people that need our support; you, the job-hunter. My own personal experience of our industry is mixed having worked for two very different organisations. Having started my career in a heavily-revenue/sales driven company, I recognised that whilst this type of business was highly successful in their approach, I personally wanted to work for a recruiter who spent more time focused on the candidate journey through the recruitment lifecycle. At Park Street People, I therefore drive home the importance to our staff of aiming to support every candidate once contact has been established with them.From a recruiter's perspective, we want to be able to assist every candidate who we come in contact with. We benefit through sourcing a suitable position for a candidate and therefore it's in our interest to go out-of-our way to help. However, when a candidate isn't receiving the feedback or support they are looking for, it's important to bear in mind some of the following points:The client's requirements and feedback is crucial; a successful recruiter will always listen to their client and look to meet the skills and character specifications which they are provided. Whilst there is usually some room to&nbsp;manoeuvre, considering candidates too wide of the mark can cause a&nbsp;deterioration&nbsp;of relationship with the client.Recruitment consultants (in most cases) have revenue targets to meet; time therefore has to be used efficiently to source candidates for the live vacancies they are currently working on. Many recruiters would love to speak to more candidates but this can be detrimental to their personal performance if too much time is used inefficiently.Many clients require small shortlists of candidates to be submitted for a vacancy from external recruiters; this means the recruitment consultant often has to be fairly brutal to narrow down a long-list of applicants to a short-list of highly skilled and suitable profiles.Sometimes a recruiter simply doesn't have an update to give; it's in the interest of the consultant to keep all suitable candidates engaged throughout the interview process and they should always keep you fully informed as and when an update is available.A recruiter can only supply the jobs they have live at that time; through networking and speaking to new potential clients, we can look to generate new vacancies for candidates but ultimately the immediate focus needs to be on supporting the clients who we have current vacancies with.Some of these areas can often be overlooked by candidates when they desperately are searching for a new job. I've come across so many frustrated applicants during&nbsp;my 12 years in recruitment who, once you talk through some of these points, better understand the pressures and difficulties a recruitment consultant can face on a daily basis.&nbsp;How then can a candidate improve their chances of building a successful rapport with a recruiter when it often seems so difficult?The job applicationAssess the roles you are applying for; are they realistic in-line with the skills you currently possess? A recruitment consultant has to make a judgement call about your application by reviewing your profile against their client's needs. A candidate who makes too many unrealistic applications is unlikely to improve their chances of securing a role.Consider the general employment market conditions; with a weak economy (as we currently have in the UK), straightforward economics is applicable - the supply of candidates far exceeds the demand from clients. Position your expectations accordingly, particularly if your skills lie within an area where applications are likely to be high. A candidate will naturally have to make more applications to find the right employer.Never rely on a spell-checker with your CV and application letter; proof-read it on numerous occasions to ensure these critical documents are free of errors. When assessing your suitability for a vacancy, a recruitment consultant will always factor straightforward CV errors into their thinking.Have patience; a recruiter will have different timeframes to work toward on each vacancy. For example, if a candidate makes an application for a role where the client is currently on holiday, it's very likely the consultant will prioritise other vacancies firstAgency interviews &amp;&nbsp;dialogue with recruitersBe honest during an agency interview; recruitment consultants are there to help you. If we have a full and clear understanding of your current situation, then we're able to work in a fully informed manner with our client(s).&nbsp;Misrepresenting your background or intentions will come back to haunt you eventually.Be upfront about where you're interviewing; you don't necessarily need to tell a recruiter the company names you're interviewing with but be honest if you've made an application to a company who that agency is representing. Sending your CV multiple times to the same company can only reflect badly on your application.Recognise we're the point of entry to a company and act professionally no matter how frustrated you are; too often candidates see a recruiter as an obstacle to their end goal - an interview with a company to get a job. Always appreciate that every single time we communicate with a candidate, we are assessing their suitability for our client. If someone doesn't act professionally with us, we'd assume there's a very high probability this would happen with our client as well.Take on board constructive feedback in a positive fashion; many experienced recruiters will be able to give incredibly useful advice to improve your chances of making successful job applications. Absorb this information even if it can appear critical of the work you've put in so far.If support and guidance is provided by the recruiter, work with them; a good recruitment consultant will know their client inside-out (as though they are an employee of that business). You will maximise your chances of success by working with the consultant to prepare for an interview in the way they require you to.Get timeframes and stick to them; most recruiters will have a clear timeline they are working toward with their client. Ask questions to understand how quickly feedback will come through on an application (and in-turn a job interview). Take onboard this information and then be persistent to follow-up with the recruitment consultant if this time has been reached. Waiting is never easy and it's in the recruiter's interest to push the process along as quickly as possible.Things to avoidDon't be overly persistent with&nbsp;a recruitment consultant; as mentioned previously, a good recruiter wants to help and support you throughout a recruitment process. Calling and emailing non-stop is off-putting and would create concern in the mind of the recruiter over your suitability for their client(s). Recognise there's a line between being proactive (positive) and pestering (negative) the consultant.Don't ever take anything personally; a recruitment consultant has to be accurate in their work to justify their fee. If you're not selected for an interview process or you don't receive a call following your application, recognise this means there were candidates who were&nbsp;better suited&nbsp;for the role. Follow-up with an email to explain what you're looking for and this will garner the best possible response from a recruiter.Don't disappear during a recruitment process; nothing is more frustrating for a recruiter than identifying a suitable candidate, getting their client excited and then......nothing! We all appreciate honesty and it's far better to send a quick email or make a short phone call to make your consultant aware of what your thinking. I personally will go out of my way to find the perfect job for someone if they are honest to tell me a job which I've sent them for isn't right for them.Don't try to circumnavigate the recruiter to get to the client direct; as no-no's go, this is a recruiter's pet hate. You don't know when you'll need support in the future and by making a direct application to a client when you've talked through the role with a recruiter, you've immediately created a rod for your own back. What happens if you're unsuccessful in your application and you then see another role from the same recruiter? It's highly unlikely they'll give you the same amount of support the second time around and you could miss out on the perfect role due to your initial decision.Don't contact every agency in your area; select a suitable number of recruiters who you feel confident will represent you in the best possible manner and then work with them to increase your chances of successfully identifying the right job. Knowing who you're working with in your job search allows you to invest time in building a rapport with each recruitment consultant.Don't apply for every vacancy which seems suitable to your skills; the automatic response to this point is 'why?' The majority of employers work with multiple agencies per hire. If you see two adverts which appear to mirror each other, there's a very strong chance they are the same role. Choose one of the agencies to apply through and speak to them about the role. It'll save your time, the recruiter's time and inevitably the client's time having to resolve a potentially complicated situation.&nbsp;Always remember that a recruiter benefits from helping you successfully obtain a job through them. By making sure you manage this relationship in the most effective manner, you'll dramatically improve your chances of getting more opportunities from the agencies you partner with.

Are you helping me? Building a relationship with a recruiter to maximise your job opportunities

More and more of us use the internet to job hunt. In this age of online job portals and social media, I want to show how you can create a strong online presence that effectively captures who you are and what you have to offer an employer. Job hunting used to be about calling agencies to register and having 1-2-1 interviews after which judgements and opinions would be formed on both sides. With the advent of the internet, it is all too easy for employers to form judgements before even calling candidates for interview. So how can you make sure that pass this new stage of the interview process? Step 1 – Google Yourself The very first step is to Google yourself and check what your online presence looks like right now. I bet like for most of us it is a mix of personal and work information. ‘To save the time of googling me’, mine is mainly focused around my Linkedin profile. But had you googled me a few years ago it would been a different story. You see, I like so many others had entered the world of online dating. Now, not to say that this is a dark secret, but do I really want my boss and any future bosses to know that my type is ‘tall, dark and handsome’? Possibly not. Of course, since then I have learnt the benefits of privacy settings! So what does your Google search reveal about you? Do you seem like a bit of a party-animal on your Facebook page? Or perhaps you seem like an adrenaline junkie, tweeting all about your latest sky diving adventure? This of course could work well if you want to work nights or in adventure sports, but what if you want to be something else? How is a potential employer going to view someone who is out all night partying if the role you are doing starts promptly at 8.30am? We all have information that won’t help us get the job of our dreams. I for one am not sure what my current boss would say if he had known when I was hired that I’d been captured on film dancing on a table. In my defence the dance floor was very crowded but still, it might have raised some questions. Step 2 – Brand You So once you have Googled yourself, what do you do now? This should be the time to familiarise yourself with your Facebook privacy settings. After all, your downtime with friends and family should remain private. So with Facebook and your personal life out of the picture of you, think about how you want you an employer to view you. Think about how you can create a homogeneous profile and your unique skills. When we think of leading brands, we can identify them by colours, ad styles and the culture they represent: do you have a specific skill that will get you recognised? Creating an online profile is about attracting employers and raising interest in your work using your profile on Linkedin, twitter and blogs. So whether you are established in a career or just starting out, speak to peers, family and friends and get them to describe you in 5 words. You can use these to write your profile for Linkedin and also your CV. I did this with a friend who described me as honest, professional, dedicated, conscientious and reliable. These all are helpful words which create a picture of me for the online world and if you go on to my Linkedin profile you will see that I have used these extensively. Too many employers make judgements from your online presence nowadays so it’s common sense to tailor this content for your benefit. Step 3 – What are the best online tools to use? Job Portals: Online job boards are a good tool for job hunting. It is a one stop shop where you can post your CV, sit back and wait for the interest to come flooding in. However, how many times have you been contacted about a role that to be plain just isn't right? Please don’t get me wrong, online job boards are an integral part of any job search but you can only present your skills and history in one way; the way that the job boards want you to. So by all means post your CV on one or as many as you like but this should only be one of the ways you reach out to potential employers. Linkedin: This is a great networking tool for candidates across a broad range of job disciplines but it requires a strong profile and consistent usage. As I mentioned in Step 2 by creating a brand around your skills and career history you know what your unique skills set is. Step 3 is about getting this online. If you have a Linkedin profile but don’t use it often apart from when job hunting, I would say get networking. Linkedin is a way to build relationships with peers in your field and also for people to get in touch with you. If you are a sales professional within a niche field why use Linkedin not only to generate sales for your current employer, but use it as a way to see where you want to go next. Key words are essential in your profile for Linkedin, if you look at mine you will see digital marketing, recruitment and brand as strong keywords to make sure that when candidates and potential employers (just to state for the record I am not looking) know what I do. Linkedin allows you to control what information goes out into the business world about you. It allows you to post recommendations on your work and can if used correct add depth and character to your offline CV sat in front of Recruitment and Hiring Managers. Blogs / Subject Expert: If you have a strong knowledge of your industry or job sector, why not start a blog giving advice and opinions on key topics? It is an excellent way of showcasing your knowledge and by tying this together with your Linkedin account, you can create a homogeneous profile allowing multiple potential employers to see what you have to offer (Www.Blogger.Com is a useful starting point for creating a blog template). Twitter / Facebook: Using these tools for job seeking depends on how much you want to share. If Twitter andFacebook is where you connect with friends and families, it may be best to leave this out of your online strategy for job hunting. Never however underestimate the negative stigma which can be created if a potential employer sees unprofessional content in these areas. If you're insistent on keeping those tweets and pictures showing, make sure you use the privacy settings to minimize who will actually see them. Step 4 – The Offline World Of course whilst employers and recruitment agencies are keen to prioritise social media and the online world, you still have to pay attention to and link your online profile to what happens in the offline world. There is little value in having a strong online profile, if you are not able to interview well and co-ordinate your online information with a strong CV Also use your everyday work to network with new people and by connecting with them in the online space you can build an online address book of people with interesting skills and valuable knowledge you can tap into. These are all areas that I will go into in further blogs to make sure that you have all the skills to present well and build a valuable web of relationships across the on and offline worlds. If you have any questions, please do get in touch jocelyn@parkstreetpeople.com).

How to create a strong online profile when job hunting

A snapshot of the trials and tribulations of working as a holiday temp and some top tips to ensuring you benefit from the experience in the best possible way. Katie, former Park Street People temp Aged 16, the ultimate school holiday job was working in the McDonalds in Windsor. No idea why, but it was true. Come post-GCSE holidays, there was a whole line of my friends donning caps and check shirts and lining up behind the counter. It was great for the freebies but, to be frank, for an entire summer they all stank of grease. Thankfully, my mum suggested I might make more money, and smell more fragrant, temping in an office. So, off I went to Park Street People which was my local recruitment agency. It was the start of a relationship that financed me, and subsequently lots of my friends, through sixth form, gap years, university and beyond. My first temp job was stuffing envelopes and doing odd administrative tasks for a large company in Dedworth during the summer holidays. Okay, it wasn’t thrilling but it was 9-5 which meant my evenings and weekends were free, and the hourly pay was much more than in a pub or restaurant. It also gave a naive 16-year-old, such as I was, a really good grounding in general office and customer service skills. I learnt how to answer a phone professionally, how to deal with a wide range of people in a business environment and how to juggle office politics. Plus, it gave me experience and references I could put on my CV which, in a competitive job market like we have now, was invaluable. Luckily for me, I got good feedback from that first work experience stint. After that, before every long holiday during school, college and university, I would give PSP a call to see if there were any bits of temping I could pick up. Often over summer or easter holidays, companies look for short-term staff cover. 2 weeks’ solid temping meant I could earn enough to go on a proper holiday, or save up for something special. However, sometimes just the odd-day temping could be fun; helping out at special events like the Royal Windsor Horse Show was a highlight! As I got older, the temporary positions got more interesting. One friend, to whom I’d recommended PSP, was studying languages at university. She was able to use those in her temporary job. It was a handy, and profitable, way of revising! Working in lots of different environments was a challenge. You have to quickly adapt and hit the ground running. After all, you are paid as soon as you walk in the door so you need to prove you are worth it! Of course, there were times when I didn’t get on with the some of the people I worked with, or, being the holiday temp, you were given the rubbish jobs to do (licking stamps!) but in every job, in every company, at some point you are going to have to work with people or do things you don’t like. It’s life. So I saw it as a very formative experience that has actually set me in great stead for my career. In the end, in my career, I’ve not ended up working in an office. But I still think it was a brilliant experience. Decently paid, office-based temping funded me through the things I wanted to do in the holidays (i.e. unpaid work experience at a newspaper) and, once I had built up a good relationship with my PSP consultant, I could tailor it to fit in with my other holiday plans. Not something you could say for McDonalds! My Tips for Holiday Temping Register BEFORE the holidays start: After my initial PSP registration, I would give my recruitment consultant a call a month before my holidays to let her know the dates I would be available. That way, I would be first in line for any jobs that came up. A little reminder email or quick phone-call every so often, just to see, never went amiss!Be on time: As you are only there for a short period a temp has to hit the ground running from day oneIf in doubt, wear a suit / go smart: My recruiter would always give me an idea of the environment I was temping in, but I always made a point of looking neat and tidy. Lots of holiday temps will be on reception or front of house this is crucialAvoid Facebook: I saw what a bad impression it gave an employer if they saw temps always on Facebook or checking personal email. Again, as holiday temps are there for only a short space of time, you only have a small window to impressGet your timesheet in promptly: I always loved filling in my timesheet and working how much I’d earned for the weekStick with it: Sometimes you might not like the job you are doing. But remember, it is temporary. Grit your teeth and think of the money! If it’s really awful (and I never had an ‘awful’ one – just boring!), let your PSP consultant know your concerns. They are always so helpful and could be able to helpYou never know where a holiday temp job may lead: One temporary employer asked if I would be interested in coming back after University in a permanent role. Although it wasn't right role for me personally, it showed how opportunities can open up if you are flexible and make a good impression from Day 1

Temporary employment: The joys of holiday temping

Life after education can be a difficult time but if you are willing to temp and work hard in jobs that aren't necessarily what you see yourself doing for the rest of your life you will be surprised the routes those roles may take you with the right support. After accumulating a massive amount of debt through going to university I found I was being offered interesting but unpaid work, or paid work that was of no interest! I finally made the decision to take a year out and see the world and found myself embarking on a journey even less relative to my degree, I boarded a cruise ship. This took me from Miami via the Caribbean to Mediterranean Europe working in retail over a period of 6 months. But as you can imagine once that minor distraction was out of the way it was time to face the daunting task of adulthood. Upon my return to dry land, during another round of CV distributing, I discovered Park Street People, quietly tucked away at the end of Wokingham High Street. I was pleasantly surprised having been immediately greeted by one of their Temp Controllers, registered and finding myself starting a temporary role the very next day. Well, the position wasn't quite what I went to university for, and there's only so much one can learn from shredding paper, but it was still a job! It wasn't long however, before Park Street People offered me a permanent role with them which I knew would open up some fantastic opportunities in learning about all different types of industries and so I went for it. I finally felt like I had settled with a fantastic team of individuals and was developing new and transferable skills. I was also eventually able to implement parts of my degree when asked to create and develop the company's first ever presence on social media platforms. As a direct result of this I am now a London-based Digital Community Executive in an exciting global company with lots to look forward to! Life after education can be a difficult time but if you are willing to temp and work hard in jobs that aren't necessarily what you see yourself doing for the rest of your life you will be surprised the routes those roles may take you with the right support.

News & Insights.

Are you helping me? Building a relationship with a recruiter to maximise your job opportunities

How to create a strong online profile when job hunting

Temporary employment: The joys of holiday temping

Recruitment stories: how recruitment can lead to a career in a different industry