Am I Pecking Your Head Jobseekers?

A top-quality recruitment consultancy will do a good job for both the jobseeker and the employer – after all, a good fit, is a good fit for all parties concerned for a long and happy employment experience .  So, why all the difficult questions at the first interview stage? And why all the further follow up questions and sometimes a second interview  before your candidate details are even submitted to the client employer?  Read on and I will explain.

These days we all know that it is dead easy to apply for jobs – you just Google the job title you fancy doing and get your CV in there via Indeed, or LinkedIn or whichever third-party site that pops up from the original job posted by a company elsewhere.  It’s quantity not quality and as a consequence, at times looking for a job can be exhausting and disheartening unless you strike gold quickly. Alternatively you can invest time and energy in doing things properly with an agency like Maxim Recruitment.

Let’s consider for a moment the problems with ‘Quick Apply’ available on many websites:

1. Is it totally clear who/which company you are actually applying to?
2. Is the job “real” and “live”?
3. Have you applied there before, and might it count against you eventually if you apply there many times?
4. What is the data protection policy of the website you are using as intermediary? Are they going to spam you forever?
5. How in your application are you being given the opportunity to shine and to differentiate yourself from other applicants – or is it just a CV gathering exercise?
6. How are you able in your application to demonstrate you are serious about the job, the career move or career change (if you indeed are)?

If you are directly applying to an employer, the following problems can sometimes apply:

1. A massive percentage of employer jobs and career pages are not kept up to date, so you are often applying for unavailable jobs & can’t even access the live urgent ones
2. There is a current industry fashion for company job application systems (CRMs) to focus on making the HR/Talent Acquisition professional’s processes super-efficient over the needs of the applicant. It can be difficult to get questions answered and it is often a challenge to even find the jobs page! 
3. You often don’t hear whether your application has been received / has been unsuccessful / is still in progress
4. You don’t know whether to apply for multiple jobs as the sectors and locations/regions are often separate and one application often isn’t enough to be considered for all desired roles and locations

I recently undertook a review of the Maxim website to see how easy (or otherwise) it is to apply for a job, and I was pleased at the process.  We aim to strike the balance between ease of application and the opportunity to demonstrate you have read and understood the job description. We offer the opportunity to show you are serious about the role you have seen and are applying for the right reasons.  You can’t “Easy Apply” with us as you have to explain your experience and career ambitions, supply contact details, accept our Privacy Policy etc as well as supplying a CV.

The Interview & Evaluation of Your CV

For some candidates who successfully send in their CV and are selected for interview, the initial perception of “head pecking” starts when we ask them why they applied for the job and what was interesting or distinct about it.  It’s always good to remember this and show initiative or charisma when answering the question. We next discuss candidate preferences and what they would want to change about their current situation (push factors) and what they would like to be doing instead (pull factors).

Tacking the issue of current and desired salary for some can be a difficult conversation – but for us, unless a candidate is just at the early stages of a job search and they just want early-stage strategic advice, these are important matters to get straight to confirm whether there is a likely fit for the role or if we have something else live that could be even more suitable for them.

Knowing “who the employer is” is always a reasonable question – but why not let us evaluate your needs and we can profile the most suitable employer/s for your needs and ambitions? This just comes a little later in the process once we have listened, understood and evaluated your needs at a pace that suits both of us.

So Is all this “Head Pecking” Worthwhile in Terms of the Results Achieved?

Clearly we don’t think the dialogue and relationship building work is head pecking! The candidates that soon understand the processes and best practices that we follow are excited to proceed to the next stage clearly don’t either.   I have written about this before in my article about ‘slow food’ not ‘fast food’.

The proof of the pudding clearly is in the eating (excuse the pun) – and Maxim candidates on interview have a massive likelihood of progressing to second interview through to placement with the company they meet with.  This is because all the hard work regarding understanding their needs has been done at the front end and hopefully we have prevented any unexpected surprises from popping up – that is of course thanks to the hard work having already been done with the client employer and the vacancy we are providing the candidate for.  This is the topic of my blog next month.

Steve Thomas
Construction Recruitment Director, UK & Canada
Maxim Recruitment
LinkedIn

Steve is responsible for Maxim Recruitment in the UK and Canada. He is based in the Maxim head office in Leicester, UK and the Toronto office in Canada. He regularly travels to meet employers and job seekers and attend construction industry networking events in the UK, Canada and worldwide. Steve has over 25 years of experience in construction and property recruitment and enjoys working with many repeat clients. He manages dedicated search and headhunting assignments for a range of premium UK, Canadian and international clients.