Tag: recruitment

Meet Emma

Posted on by Naomi Marshall

Hi There!

I am your new candidate care specialist, and the newest member to the #SprintFam.

Having studied media at uni and coming from a radio and PR background I am new to the recruitment game. While I did love the fast pace and the many fun and crazy times in my previous entertainment roles, I came to realise that it was not the industry that I loved so much, but the people! Wanting to steer myself in to a new direction, I came into Sprint People to interview for an external role – and I will admit, after having had a bad experience with a recruitment agency in the past I was somewhat tentative to do so – however my expectations were exceeded by not only the gorgeous office and the incredibly warm staff but with a job offer in the candidate care hot seat!

I have learnt in my short time here (as I am sure you have too in your experience with our agency) – that successful candidate care begins and ends with the small, simple efforts made by the consultants. Sprint People prides itself on the exceptional level of customer service provided to you from the beginning of your experience and beyond. I like to call it 720 recruitment – end to end, and back again!

No question is ever too small, no email ever too big! I look forward to working with you all and spending the time to hear about your career journey, your dream last night and maybe even what you have decided to name your cat 🙂

Chat soon,

Emma

How do you put your best foot forward?

Posted on by Naomi Marshall

Finding a new job takes time and you need to put your best foot forward. Not just when interviewing with your potential new boss but from the moment you hit “send” on your email with your CV.

Here are our Sprint Tips for “Putting your Best Foot Forward” & landing the job:

First Impressions
Your CV is your first chance to not only make a good impression, but to make an impression at all. Recruiters will look at hundreds of CVs every week. You need to make sure your CV stands out for the right reasons; no spelling or grammar mistakes (PLEASE!!) and if you are including a cover letter, take the time to address it to the right person.

To make a good impression and to secure an interview, your CV needs to match the requirements of the job. If the job ad is asking for experience supporting a large team, make sure your CV highlights your experience supporting a large team. If you have no relevant experience, you will need to make sure your cover letter addresses why you are applying for the job.

Preparation
You have to prepare for every interview, even the initial interview with the recruiter. The amount of times a candidate has said to me “I wouldn’t wear this to the job interview” or “I wouldn’t do this in front of the client”…GUESS WHAT…If you don’t impress us and demonstrate you’ve got what it takes, we won’t be recommending our client meets you. We will assume how you act in front of us, is how you will behave in front of the client. The recruiter is just as important as the hiring manager and preparing to meet the recruiter should not be underestimated.

Prepare for every interview (with the recruiter, the hiring manager, HR or anyone else). Take the time to research the company, know the job description and know your own CV. If you know whom you are meeting with, research them and their experience on LinkedIn. It doesn’t have to be hugely time consuming, but it is easy for an interviewer to recognise those candidates who have taken the time to prepare versus those who have not.

The more you prepare, the more you emphasise your commitment to the role, your willingness to learn and your enthusiasm to get the job. That is the person the hiring manager wants in their team.

Presentation
Do we sound like a broken record about this? Good. Presentation is so so so important. You cannot put your best foot forward if you turn up to an interview (at any stage of the recruitment process) and you are not immaculately presented.

Neat and tidy hair, appropriate clothing for the job and company you are interviewing with. Make sure your shirt is ironed, your stockings don’t have ladders and you have appropriate footwear on. Keep your perfume to a minimum; you don’t want to leave a lingering scent of you in the room.

Presentation is in the detail so take time out before you go in for your interview to make sure you’re looking at your best.

Positivity
Stay positive. We understand it can be draining but don’t give up hope and stay positive. The right job is out there for you.

As a recruiter, when someone becomes ‘Negative Nancy’ about the recruitment process, it is obvious and it doesn’t bode well. We want to see the best of you, and when we recommend our client to meet you, we want them to see a sparkle in your eyes. So even if you are feeling a little drained, keep it at bay and remember that a positive attitude is the type of person that a hiring manager wants to bring into the team.

Badmouthing a previous employer or the recruitment process is not professional or endearing to a potential new manager. No matter what your experience has been in recent times (even the world’s worst boss); keep your interview positive and focus on your skills and what you will bring to the job you are interviewing for.

Follow Up
You nailed the interview! Great. But even after the interview, you still need to put your best foot forward and stand out from your competition. Follow up! Send a note, drop a brief email or even send a LinkedIn connection with a thank you. Let the recruiter know how much you want the job and don’t be afraid to let the hiring manager know too. That said, keep it brief and professional (and only if they gave you a business card) and don’t bring up anything new. Short and simple = Leaving a lasting impression.

Landing the dream job starts long before you meet your potential new manager. You need to do your homework and be putting your best foot forward from the moment you decide you want a new role.

10 Steps to Finding your Dream Job!

Posted on by Naomi Marshall

Are you looking for your dream job? Are you waiting for it to land at your feet or are you out there, pounding the concrete on a quest to find it?

Did you know that more often than not, people are sitting back, passively, waiting for that opportunity? That means, your competition has already been halved, because they aren’t even trying.  So don’t be sitting in that group – follow our Sprint Steps below and be the one to stand out and secure your dream job!

  1. Have your CV & Cover letter ready to go:

Urgency is imperative in a job search. So often, by the time we’ve placed an ad on Seek, the client is already asking us for a shortlist of candidates from our database. The ad is often a recruiter throwing the net out to see who else is available but in actual fact, we could already have candidates interviewing! If you sit on a job you like the look of on Seek for a week before you actually apply, chances are, it will be too late. If you want the job, be quick and get in early, before the rest of the candidates trickle in over the coming days.

  1. Have a Seek Alert system

That way, you will be alerted to any new jobs and you can be one of the first to apply. With any job placed on Seek., we expect at least a hundred applications (sometimes it can be a lot more). Although at Sprint we go through each and every one of them, we start at the top and often as soon as the resumes come in we are calling those candidates and organising to meet them. Once we get a few good candidates, we often pause to interview them.  Be at the front of the line to be seen first! If you are one of the last, chances are, that ship will have sailed!

  1. Follow up with the Recruiter or Hiring Manager

There is nothing wrong with showing some enthusiasm! If your skills match the job requirements and it sounds like the role you want, make yourself standout! Call and introduce yourself to the recruiter. Let them know you are keen and let them know you believe you have the skills. HOWEVER, please send your CV in before you call! There is no point calling if the recruiter can’t visualise your experience and see first hand from your CV that you have what it takes.

  1. Tidy up your LinkedIn Profile

Does your LinkedIn profile represent the best of you? Is your photo up to date, professional and clear? Make sure your LinkedIn experience matches up to what you are saying in your CV because it is highly likely any recruiter or hiring manager will be checking you out online before they progress you forwards.  There is nothing more embarrassing than LinkedIn saying you’re one thing and your CV saying another.

  1. Check your Facebook Privacy & Profile Photos

Just like they are looking at you on LinkedIn, it is likely the hiring manager or even HR will be checking out what else they can find out about you online. Please remove all inappropriate photos from your Facebook and Instagram accounts and check your privacy settings. You don’t want to be looking like the perfect candidate on paper, proceed all the way to interview only to have it go down the toilet because of some inappropriate photos posted on social media 6 months ago!!

  1. Ask around friends and Family

Sometimes the role for you won’t even be advertised. It will be through a friend of a friend or an old colleague. Make sure you are letting your wider network of friends and family know that you are on a mission to find the job of your dreams.

  1. Do some research

Not 100% sure what the dream job entails? Ask around. Meet up with different friends, family and colleagues past and present. Find out what they do in their jobs, what they like, what they don’t like. What they do day to day! Identify what parts of their jobs you would be good at and start to see where your skills match up.  You never know where this exercise could lead by way of introductions and job offers!!

  1. Identify a Company Hit List

What type of company do you want to work for? Small, large? In the city or in the suburbs? Make a hit list of organisations you’d like to work for. Research them. Send your CV in to the HR team and let them know why you’d like to work for them and why you’d be a good fit!! It’s all about being proactive and getting your name out there.

  1. Don’t Give Up

We know. Believe us. We live and breathe it every day. Finding a job that you love is really hard and it takes a lot of resilience and perseverance. Don’t let a false start or a missed opportunity be a deterrent. There is a job out there for everyone and there is a career out there, one that you will love and prosper in. It can just take time, so keep going!!

We believe if you follow our Sprint Steps to your dream job it is only a matter of time before that perfect role is offered to you. Just remember finding a job is hard work. It isn’t meant to be easy and it rarely falls at anyone’s feet! If you want to chat more about how we can help you to finding your next role, please get in touch with us at Sprint People!!

Using Recruiters: The Difference Between Success & Failure

Posted on by Naomi Marshall

We all know the challenges of recruiting new employees.  It’s distracting and done incorrectly fraught with a high risk of failure. Is there a better chance of success if you use a good recruiter?

In my experience, there appears to be an inverse relationship between the time you take to hire and the chances of landing a brilliant candidate.  The less time you take the greater the chance you will be unhappy with your selection in the long run.

Poor selection processes are amplified in small business environments where there is no room to hide and the propensity for damage is greater.

The Recruitment Consultant

Enter the recruitment consultant.  For a large part of my career, I thought recruiters were a waste of time and money (I might also add I felt the same way about personal trainers until I turned 40!).  Why would I engage a recruiter to do what my HR department should be doing? It was only through experience that I learnt that HR professionals don’t necessarily make the best recruiters.  It’s a bit like asking a nutritionist to cook your dinner.  Just because somebody understands the fundamentals of a healthy meal doesn’t mean they know how to combine the ingredients into something edible.

I discovered the benefits of using recruiters about 10 years into my career.  Time poor and focused on managing a business, I finally gave in to my inner voice and engaged a recruitment consultant to assist with backfilling some difficult roles.

I was initially surprised when the consultant insisted on coming out to visit our office.  “Surely you can take the brief over the phone?” “Absolutely not” – came the terse reply. “I need to get a feel for what I am getting my candidates into”.  Although I felt it unnecessary at the time, nowadays I wouldn’t engage an agency that didn’t have a deep understanding of my business, the staff and its culture.  If you want a recruiter to write the kind of killer ad that would lure the best staff from your strongest competitors then it had better stand out.  A recruiter needs to be able to walk the talk and you can only get this from on-site experience.

Make no mistake crafting a great advertisement to attract the best possible candidates is an art form.  Good recruiters know how to write great ads.  SEEK and others offer limited opportunity for your ads to visually stand out, so the choice of words matters.  If the ad isn’t SELLING the job and your business then you’ve probably engaged the wrong agency.

Once the ad is placed and the responses start rolling in then the real work begins.  Years ago it seemed a great covering letter could make a difference.  Nowadays they seem almost superfluous to needs.  Most recruiters worth their salt will jump straight to social media to ensure that a candidates backstory matches their CV and determine whether there is likely to be a cultural fit.

I’ve never been one to make a hiring decision solely based on skills and experience. If it’s a line ball call I’ll take attitude and energy over a lesser skill set every day of the week.
I insist that my recruiter meets the short listed candidates in person before sending them for interview.  If they live out of town, get them on SKYPE. I expect candidates to know as much about my business as we know about them.  It’s a recruiters job to ensure that candidates are fully briefed.  Most good candidates will do their own research, it’s a  recruiters job to fill in the gaps.  If a recruiter isn’t meeting the candidates in person they’re not doing the job your paying them for.

By the time I meet a prospective candidate I expect that they can do the job.  That should be without question.  I’m interested in ‘how’ they will do the job.  It then becomes an issue of cultural fit and individual personality.  Will they fit in with the team? Will they add a new dynamic? In a small business, look  for a broader skill set – beyond the job description, something that will enhance business performance and add that slight edge.  Candidate selection can be a very subjective affair.  I never interview with a list of pre-existing questions.  I prefer the process to be organic.  What makes the person tick? What drives them? What makes the job appealing? Candidates can become pretty adept at rote learning responses to typical Dorothy Dixers.  Encourage them to lower their guard and you might be surprised what you learn.

Successfully hiring the right candidate is a challenge at the best of times, but using a recruiter should take a lot of the guess work and time out of the process. A good recruiter should not only be submitting candidates to you, but consulting with you, your team and the candidate throughout the process to ensure that everyone is on the same page and no nasty surprises pop up last minute (or worse, once the candidate has started and you’ve invested your money into them).

 

The Must Have Interview Preparation Checklist

Posted on by Naomi Marshall

Do you have an interview checklist? You can only be so prepared for an interview, especially when you are still working in your current job and you are interviewing for multiple roles. However, every candidate needs to do a little bit of preparation before every interview. It’s not only common sense, it will end up being what sets you apart from the competition!!

So with that in mind, and to keep it simple and easy, I wanted to share with you my Interview Preparation Checklist. These are the absolute MUST DO’s before you go into each and every interview (yes…even with us recruiters)!! You can of course do more than this but these are the basic ones that too often, I see candidates skipping some or all of and then losing out on a great opportunity.

Bookmark this page and come back to it before you go to your next interview!

Interview Preparation Checklist:

  1. Research the company
    Hello Google!! But also, ask around, get some insight from any contacts or friends who work there or have worked there. Ask your recruiter for their insight!
    HINT – Did you know that if you type in the name of a company and then under the Google search bar, click on “news”, the results will bring up all the latest news articles about said company. This is a great way to know what is currently going on in this organisation!
  1. Research your Interviewer
    LinkedIn makes this easy – but also take the same approach as above. Ask around, do some Googling. Know whom you are meeting with and what their background is. (It is even better if you can find some common ground or people you both know).
  1. Review your resume!
    I know, this sounds simple but look it over and make sure you know what you have included and left out!! The better you know your resume, the more confident you will be when talking about your experience and your career to date.
  1. Plan your Answers
    Crazy right, how can you predict what you will be asked? Most interviews include some behavioural based questions (click here to find out more). It is really important you have a list of examples you can give to these questions and don’t try to think them up on the spot.
    Have a handful of really good examples you can call on. Usually one example would suit a variety of questions, you just need to be prepared!
  1. Rehearse your examples out loud!
    Don;t worry about sounding silly! You need to practice articulating your answers and examples of your experience out loud. You don’t want to stumble on your responses (and it is an easy thing to do during an interview). Check out what Nyome had to say about this recently here.
  1. Plan YOUR questions.
    Make sure you are prepared to ask the interviewer questions (more often than not, candidates forget this step). Asking questions is so important in an interview and it is an opportunity to demonstrate your enthusiasm for the role as well as the fact that you have researched the company.
  1. Have your outfit planned
    Make sure your shirts are ironed and clean. Suit up and dress to impress. It is always better to be overdressed for an interview than underdressed.
  1. Triple check the interview details
    You are human, mistakes can happen – trust me I’ve made many. Triple check you know what time your interview is, where you are going and how you are going to get there (on time)! Nothing worse than rocking up to your interview flustered because you got the time wrong or couldn’t find the address, etc.
  1. Tell yourself You ROCK!
    Be confident and believe in yourself. As recruiters, we believe in you, that is why we’ve sent you to our client or called you in to meet with us. Remind yourself of your skills and that you are a valuable team member.

Of course, there are other things you can do for an interview and there are sometimes homework “tasks” you are asked to do before specific interviews. But as a rule of thumb, the above checklist works! Being prepared and demonstrating this during your interview (and believe me, clients and recruiters know if you have prepared) really sets you a part from what most of your competition is doing. So take a little time, the day or night before an interview and go over this checklist.

If you are still not feeling confident or have other questions you want clarity around, contact us at Sprint. We are here to help and will always go over any interview preparation you think you may need.