At the end of last year I resigned from my job; I’d been a recruitment agent for close to 10 years and I felt it was time and appropriate to try my hand on the other side of the fence. I embarked on a social media campaign to make the transition into an in-house recruitment role. Having been an active blogger for a few years and coupled with my inability to be self-effacing, I set out to let the world know about my job search by writing a diary of a job seeker. I feel it is now pertinent to re-visit this diary and provide an update.
Day One
I have spent the last few days asking myself numerous questions to fully understand what I want to do next. I looked at why I was not fulfilled in my last role; what I had hoped it would be; what I enjoyed about all of my roles to date and many other questions.
I realised I don’t want to go back into agency recruitment. I enjoyed my time being a self-employed agency recruiter, however, one of the reasons I chose to move on in the first place is that I am a firm believer there is a smarter way of recruiting. It is this way of recruiting I want to explore with a move into in-house recruitment.
So my job search starts here; I started writing, re-writing and re-writing once again my CV. I feel my experience would be very relevant to an in-house function, the key for me is to be able to highlight this in my CV. I have also updated my LinkedIn profile to ensure there is a uniformed approach to clearly show what I am looking for. The key is to load your CV and profile with key words so that when someone is searching your profile is far more likely to be higher up in the search results.
I do not intend to go out to thousands of agents to find me a role, as quite frankly as an experienced agent I feel I can do a better job of it myself! I am in a fortunate position whereby my network is mainly within the sector that would employ me, namely HR. So my next step is to go to this network and ask for help, referrals and opportunities.
Day Two
My job hunting continues, but it is certainly gathering real pace. The support from my network has been overwhelming; I have been given numerous details of opportunities and phone numbers for hiring managers. Of course I am in the fortunate position as an ex-HR recruiter that I have a number of people to call upon. However, for all you know your best friend’s sister may be recruiting for a role of interest to you, so make sure you go out and ask. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the response.
The key I feel in these situations is to not just ask for whether they are recruiting for roles, but actively seek their advice. The more 3rd party opinions you can get on your job hunt the better. It will give you a far clearer idea of what you want and will help highlight how your experience can be viewed by different people. I had a really good conversation with a very experienced recruiter this week, which really helped focus my CV to highlight the key points.
The final point is that job hunting is truly a full time occupation (this was part of the reason I resigned prior to finding a role)! Of course many of you will not be able to be in such a position, so it is vital you allow time to reach out to people. The harsh reality is that this may have to be a weekend day, or take a day’s leave. If you are only job seeking at the end of each working day, the chances are you will be far too tired to do this properly or for long enough.
Day Three
I am delighted to say I have 2 interviews organised and I am rather hopeful of a few more to come.
Before I received these interview requests I did receive my first decline. I have to give full credit to the organisation that did so – despite the fact they have made a dreadful error of judgement! – as not only did I receive an email to notify me how long it would take to receive feedback, but I then actually did receive feedback!
I received this rejection email minutes after saying to someone that I was really quite confident about my search. Needless to say this was a bit of a kick in the teeth. In hindsight I knew that if I were recruiting for the role I would find it difficult to put me through due to a lack of experience in the field, so in some way this was no great surprise. The key for me here was to compose myself and not take the decision personally. I would sincerely doubt (and hope) that the decision wasn’t made after the hiring manager looked at my application and said “that Ed Scrivener is a right pain in the wotzits, I’m not taking him forward.” Far more likely they will have looked at my CV and application answers and seen that I did not match all the criteria. Whilst my initial reaction to the rejection was disappointment, I very much heeded my own words and didn’t take the decision personally. Within a short period of time I was back in a confident mood and looking forward to my search.
Despite all this, I have 2 interviews to look forward to…
Day Four
I have always been an advocate that it is better to regret something you have done rather than something you haven’t, but I am definitely not regretting resigning. I am pleased to say I have secured more interviews and presently have 5 to attend with more on the way. All of these have come via my own networking and this truly goes to show the power of your own network.
I have had a number of conversations with companies recently which are looking to release roles at some point in the future. They may come to nothing, but it’s the old adage you have to be in it to win it!
This week has seen the start of the aforementioned interviews and I was determined to ensure I practiced what I preach when it comes to preparing to interview. I have done all the hard work of getting in front of the hiring manager and I don’t want to blow it by not preparing!
Day Five
I am interviewing with 8 companies over the next few weeks and so I am very confident that I will find an interesting role in the near future. I’ve had a number of people comment about the timing of my search, as they felt I couldn’t have chosen a worse time. The job market in December is never buoyant, however, one fact that is often overlooked is that organisations ramp up recruitment in the first two quarters of the year; many organisations look to appoint to their resourcing teams in December/January in order to be organised in time for the surge in activity. Whilst my number of interviews is extremely encouraging, it is also a trend of the market and not just a reflection on how great I am!
Day Six
So this likely to be my penultimate entry; the reason being is that I have accepted and start a new role tomorrow! I shall be working as a Resourcing Project Manager and I am delighted by the mix of transactional recruitment and project work.
The role is initially a short term contract and I see a number of benefits to accepting the role. The contract will allow me to build experience within an in-house function and importantly it will allow me to continue to look at longer term opportunities. This is a perfect solution for me as it doesn’t impact upon the roles I am already looking at, but provides me with additional security.
Translating this to broader job seekers it is important not to overlook short term opportunities (clearly if you’re in a permanent position it is unlikely you will consider one) as there can be a number of benefits. As in my case it provides experience within a new sector, which will reflect well on your CV. It may lead to other opportunities within the organisation once you’ve shown your ability.
Day Seven
My short term contract proved to be an excellent experience and was longer than expected as I received a significant contract extension. The role gave me wonderful exposure to leading an in-house function within a competitive market. I thoroughly enjoyed the role, but I am pleased to say I have now secured a long term contract as the Recruitment Manager for a well-known law firm and I am hugely excited by the remit as it plays to my strengths, but will also help me develop a number of new skills.
Once again my network came up trumps with this role to make me aware of the opportunity. However, I do need to eat some humble pie as I secured the role via an agency, so it does go to show you need a balanced approach to job hunting. I also spent hours preparing for the interviews. I was very interested prior to the 1st interview and I knew I really wanted the role come the 2ndand I wanted to make sure I did everything I could to get the job.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me through my search, you’ve helped me reach a very fruitful conclusion. Good luck to any of you that are embarking on a search of your own, I do hope this will have been of help to you.
Tips for a job seeker:
- Question yourself, write down your thoughts, and ask friends/colleagues about your strengths and what you enjoy to ensure you are targeting the right role.
- Get your CV in order. A CV is simply a sales tool to get you an interview. Make sure the content is relevant to the job in question and preferably submit a bespoke CV for every application.
- If you haven’t already got a LinkedIn profile then get one as it is vital to helping find employment.
- Fill your CV and social media profiles with key words to ensure you can be found by recruiters conducting searches.
- Carefully decide which recruitment agencies you want to use. If you’re not sure ask for recommendations.
- Ask your network for help. My experience has been people are always keen to help.
- Be happy to help your network too!
- Give yourself time to reach out to people.
- Whether you’re searching for roles whilst employed or unemployed try and time your search with a busy period in the job market. You may be up against more competition, but there will be more roles to choose from.
- Ask advice from experts within your field as to when the busy periods are; it may not be that obvious; if you plan to look in these busy periods it is likely you will be better prepared than your competition!
- Unless you are very lucky you will definitely receive a rejection at some point, so be prepared for it, the decision to reject you was not a personal decision. Review the job description/advert again, were you truly a good fit for the role?
- Be positive! Onwards and upwards is the way to be and those interviews could be round the corner too!
- Don’t forget to prepare for interview! You only get one chance, so don’t intentionally jeopardise your chances!
- Read your CV and the job description; read them again; and again; and again...
- Research the company. Look at the news section to gauge performance; read the careers page for any insight into the culture; review the company page on LinkedIn to find if you know anyone that works there and ask them questions to help you prepare.
- Research the interviewer to see if you have anything in common; a decision to hire you is more likely to be made on a gut instinct, so building rapport is essential.
- Prepare questions ahead of the interview; don’t be afraid to write these down and bring them to the interview.
- If you prepare properly you are far less likely to be nervous; the old adage fail to prepare, prepare to fail is very true!
- In the words of the late, great Clive Dunn... “Don’t panic!”
- Consider all roles on an individual basis, there may be unique benefits with some roles.
- Don’t rule out short term contracts if you’re immediately available. You may want more security and not want to go through another job search in a few months, but it could yield hidden dividends.
Has this inspired you to discuss HR? Leave your comments here.
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