Tales from the recruitment industry. Preparing for interviews...

Tales from the recruitment industry. Preparing for Interviews...

My job in essence is a simple one; I make matches. I match a role with a candidate. That’s it. It’s the candidate part that makes it difficult!

 Every person is different and every person reacts differently in an interview situation.  Some thrive. Some panic. The end result is that on a regular basis the most talented person does not get the job. The key to a good interview is preparation. By this I don’t mean look at a LinkedIn profile and the company’s website. Real preparation needs to be much more in depth. ‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail’ is a well known quote and it is true. You may move jobs 3, 4, 5 plus times in your life, you will probably spend more time at work that you do at home, so how you perform in your job will impact every aspect of your life. If you are happy in your job, you have a much better chance of being happy in your private life not to mention your financial life. Basically getting a new job is one of the most important things you will ever do. So it should make sense that you prepare fully.

 I recently read a blog from Sam at Koozai (which is a perfect example to use http://www.koozai.com/blog/search-marketing/my-first-public-speaking-appearance/  Sam had not done any public speaking and was nervous, which is to be expected. But what she did was ensure she prepared, extensively, in order to ensure she would succeed. I urge you to read her blog. When I read it I thought, wow I wish every candidate went to that level of detail because if they did they would minimise the potential to fail.  Interviewing is not a natural situation, so here are a few examples of useful things to do prior to an interview.

The company you are interviewing with:- What do you know about them? You probably have a website address and a job spec. It’s not enough. What else can you find out about them? Speak with your recruiter get more info!

The person you are interviewing with:- You may have their LinkedIn profile – it’s not enough! I once interviewed someone for a job at Digital Minds who started by saying, “I hear you have a new baby daughter, I have one aged 2 – how you coping with the sleepless nights?” This person took the time to find out something about me that would build rapport and show they had done their homework. I instantly felt a bond with this person who had been in the same situation as me. Simple and effective. Get as much info as you can. Find out about their personality, what they like, what they don’t like.

The interview:- This is the big one. How do you prepare for an interview? The best way in my opinion is to role play. I did a drama degree so I’m always up for role playing interviews! I know many people find them uncomfortable but they are effective. We all know a lot of the questions that will be asked at interview so why not prepare for them, why not role play them to the point it’s like muscle memory. This also takes care of the nerves to a certain extent. You cannot prepare for all the questions but a good recruiter can help you prepare for most.  A good recruiter can and will tell you that you speak too fast, you over elaborate on your answers, you don’t make enough eye contact – the list goes on but better you make your mistakes whilst practicing and have the opportunity to implement improvements.

Make interviewing easier by preparing fully and by committing to the process. Some will be embarrassed to role play an interview; some people take it personally when someone highlights a weakness in there interviewing technique. But if going through this process allows you to go on and secure the job you want it is worth it! If you are going to lose out on a new job, let it be because the other person is better suited, not because you did not prepare fully. For advice on interviewing feel free to contact me. simon@digital-minds.co.uk

If you are looking for a new PPC job, SEO job, SEM job, Social job, Display job, Digital Planning & Buying job, Mobile job, Affiliates job, Web Development front end and back end we can certainly help. My LinkedIn profile gives a good overview of Digital Minds and me personally. It also has recommendations on the page which cover how I operate and work with people. http://www.linkedin.com/in/simonhalkyard

Tales from the recruitment industry...Cash incentives for candidate's a new twist on the reward scheme

Digital is probably the best example at the moment of a candidate driven industry. What I mean by that is there are far more jobs available than good candidates and consequently candidates often have plenty of choice and salaries that far exceed the norm. As a recruiter my key function is to source talent and that is getting harder and harder to do. Like a lot of recruiters we have a referral scheme which is successful and has been in place for a long time. Basically if you refer someone you know who is looking for a new role in digital and we place them in a new job we will give you a cash sum from £250 to £1500 and in some cases an iPad2. It works well and we are continuing with it. However we are always trying to think of innovative ways of promoting Digital Minds and we have come up with a new incentive, not especially innovative but hopefully welcomed– this time aimed directly at candidates.

From now on if you register with us by either 'Liking' our Facebook page, or by 'Following' Digital Minds on Linkedin & give us one week exclusivity to represent you and show you what we can do we will give you up to £1500  (depending on level of seniority) when we place you in a job. No catch – if we place you in a job we will happily give you the reward fee rather than to someone who recommends you. This can appear a brash way of attracting candidates and I guess it is. But ultimately we have a reward scheme for referrals so why not for direct applicants as well? The aim of this is to do our job the right way; one week’s exclusivity allows us to work closely with candidates and not rush or be compromised because we are one of several recruiters working with them. So that is the new incentive at Digital Minds. From now on give us a week to prove ourselves and if we do and we place you in a job, not only will you get a great new role but also a nice sum of cash from us as a thank you. Very interested to hear your thoughts on this approach.
If you are looking for a new job in PPC, SEO, SEM, Social, Display, Digital Planning & Buying, Mobile, Affiliates, Web Development front end and back end we can certainly help. My LinkedIn profile gives a good overview of Digital Minds and me personally. It also has recommendations on the page which cover how I operate and work with people. http://www.linkedin.com/in/simonhalkyard

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Tales from the recruitment industry. Should recruiters look at a candidate's Facebook page?

Should Recruiters look at a candidate’s Facebook page?

We live in a social media world and a simple Google search will bring up some information on everyone. But how far should recruiters go to find out what a candidate is like away from work? Is it relevant? In my opinion, yes, as it forms a more rounded picture of a candidate, but the key question is “is it ethical to look at a candidates Facebook page to glean this information?”

My view on this is no. I use a range of social media tools to meet/source/communicate and find out more about candidates. LinkedIn is the main one and I find it a very useful source of information. A lot of recruiters will tell you that a candidate’s LinkedIn page will show a candidate as they want to be perceived but their Facebook page will show you who they really are. I agree with this, but at what stage do we draw a line? Facebook for me is a social tool for friends & family only and just because a candidate has not ticked an obscure privacy button that does not mean it’s ok to go snooping.  My Facebook page contains numerous pictures and videos of me in various situations which taken out of context could lead someone to conclude I’m not suitable for a role. But whilst there may be a picture of me drunk in fancy dress as Mr T, I can confidently say I have never turned up to work either drunk or dressed as Mr T and certainly not both at the same time! So what is the relevance?

Look, I need to know that you have the skillset to do a job well and that you tick all the personality boxes; enthusiastic, good face to face skills, strong work ethic etc. But I can gain all of this via competency based interviewing and taking qualified references. So for now I will stick to LinkedIn. Let me know your thoughts on this one – or if you just would like to see a picture of me drunk dressed as Mr T, give me a shout!

Promiscuous Recruitment

Tales from the recruitment industry...

Whenever I speak with a new candidate I will always find that they have spoken to other recruiters. Candidates have numerous recruitment partners. Finding someone who has not already spoken with a recruiter is like finding an articulate footballer.  I actually think candidates should speak/work with more than one recruiter; nobody has comprehensive coverage of the UK market. However a growing number of candidates are working with 5, 6, 7 or more recruiters. Each recruiter will be giving a different level of service, i.e. a candidate maybe working very closely with one recruiter and another may have been a chance encounter, but ultimately even the “chance encounter” recruiter, if they have the candidate’s cv, can ‘work’ that candidate by sending their cv to clients without the candidate’s knowledge. This is one of the most difficult parts of my job. I will spend a lot of time identifying and approaching clients for a candidate only to find someone they had a 2-minute chat with a recruiter 6 months earlier has already sent their CV.
My view is that every candidate needs to take the relationship they have with recruiters very seriously – after all, it’s your career in the balance! The relationship between candidate and recruiter can be mutually rewarding and develop into a career long partnership. I have some candidates who have become friends because we have worked with each other over a long period of time and, because they are not using 5 other recruiters, we can take our time in finding a new role without having to worry that some other recruiter has sent the candidate’s CV to 50 companies without permission. The best candidate/recruiter partnerships are the ones that go beyond just finding them a job.
So in my opinion, if you want to maximise your chances of getting a great new job either now or in the future, you should initially speak with 6 or 7 recruiters and then narrow them down to 2 and use those companies to help you find a new role.
And one of the best ways to find out if you are speaking with a good recruiter is to tell them you are absolutely not looking for a new job but just wanted a chat about the digital market. The reaction you get will be a great way of determining which recruiters are genuinely in it for the long game and which ones are just interested in a earning a quick fee. It’s your career at stake, make sure you are 100% sure who you want to help you develop it.
At Digital Minds we only work in Digital. I work in the London Digital market and specifically within PPC, SEO, Digital Planning & Buying  & Social Media. If you are interested in a PPC job in London, SEO job in London, Digital Planner Buyer job in London or a Social Media job in London please give me a shout anytime.Simon@digital-minds.co.uk
Simon Halkyard

How social media has changed the recruitment industry

The most valuable asset within a recruitment company is their database. Or at least it used to be. When I started working in recruitment, having an accurate and large database was critical. Candidates would often choose a recruiter based on their size, deducing that the big corporate recruiters would have all the relationships with the companies they were interested in. On the other side of the coin, clients would gravitate to well established recruiters because they knew they had the details of all the relevant candidates. It was a tried and tested method, information was king and the recruiters were the gate keepers.

Today we live in a different world – a social media world. Now everyone has access to the information that recruiters used to guard so carefully. A candidate can simply go on LinkedIn and find profiles of the businesses they want to work for and details of the decision makers within those businesses. Clients can now easily search for candidates that would be relevant for jobs within their business. So what does this mean for recruiters? Well it means that recruiters can no longer rely on candidates and clients coming to them; it means that if they want to survive, recruiters need to upgrade the value they offer. This is something we have spent a lot of time discussing at Digital Minds. Questions such as: Why should a candidate or client come to us? What are their reasons? This made us evaluate what services we should actually be offering and how we can make ourselves valuable and relevant. So below are a few things we decided to put into practice when we set up Digital Minds.

1. It’s still about information. Preparation for interviews is essential if you want to secure a new digital job. You will be up against other candidates and you need to differentiate yourself. Therefore at Digital Minds we ensure we provide candidates with some really useful supporting information. We can tell candidates a lot about the people who will interview them; what is their interview style; what type of questions to expect; what the personality of the person running the interview is like. Only a couple of days ago I told a candidate that the person they were due to meet was just back off paternity leave and that his wife had given birth to twins and that they have another child who is 3 years old. The candidate also had a child aged 3 and his wife was heavily pregnant with their second baby. That simple piece of information formed a perfect ‘ice breaker’ and instantly provided common ground and common empathy. The list goes on – but you get the idea.

2. Role play. Interviewing is not a natural situation to be in and we often find the most talented candidate does not get the job because they did not articulate themselves well enough during the interview. This is very common at all levels of seniority. Therefore we will often role play interviews with candidates, it can seem an unnatural thing to do but it is actually really helpful. It allows the candidate to get familiar with the interview process and to practice their answers. It allows the recruiter to highlight potential weaknesses and to address them. This process is designed for one purpose; to help candidates do the very best they can at interview and to ensure if they do miss out it is because another candidate was better suited to the role, not because they fluffed their answers. You only get one chance.

3. Added value. We spend most of our time speaking with candidates who are not looking for a new job. We decided when we set up Digital Minds that we would not work to targets and we would not work on commission. We basically set up an environment that allows our consultants to take a long term approach and to focus on helping candidates regardless of if there is going to be a fee or not. Therefore we are more than happy to help and support candidates who are not looking so that one day in the future, when they are, they will come to us. A lot of recruiters do not want to know candidates unless they are looking for a new job and unless they can place them in a job here and now, ensuring they hit their targets and earn commission on the placement. So we give candidates long term advice. An example would be that lots of our candidates come to us when they are about to have a review. They want to know what type of questions they will be asked; they want to know what salary increase they should be receiving etc. We can benchmark their salary against their counterparts in other companies; we can tell them what is the average salary increase for that year and that sector.

4. Consultancy. Moving jobs is one of the biggest decisions you will ever make and having a good recruiter by your side can be very helpful. If you can find a recruiter that you trust and who provides transparent advice throughout the recruitment process, you will be in a better position. A recruiter can be a good sounding board. Also they manage the process for you and this means they can take the hassle out of doing it yourself. A good example is negotiating salary. I always think it is better for the recruiter to negotiate on behalf of a candidate as it can be a difficult process and it can get personal if you are doing it yourself. A recruiter is a buffer between the candidate and client and is well placed to take the emotion out of the negotiation process and, if they are good at their job, secure the right salary without jeopardising the candidate’s relationship with the company before they even start the job!

There are many other things I could mention but hopefully this at least shows there is a place for recruiters in this new social media world. The good thing is that recruiters who don’t go the extra mile, recruiters who do not constantly evaluate and improve their service, will struggle. Merely having candidates on a database is not good enough anymore. At Digital Minds we have embraced social media and it is at the heart of what we do and how we do it. If you would like to discuss this blog or just have a chat about the digital industry please get in touch. If you are looking for a new job in PPC, SEO, SEM, Social, Display, Digital Planning & Buying, Mobile, Affiliates, Web Development front end and back end we can certainly help. My LinkedIn profile gives a good overview of Digital Minds and me personally. It also has recommendations on the page which cover how I operate and work with people. http://www.linkedin.com/in/simonhalkyard

Simon Halkyard

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SEO SALARY SURVEY 2011 (So far...)

SEO SALARY SURVEY 2011 (So far…)

Yesterday I blogged about how PPC salaries have increased so far this year. Today I have detailed SEO salaries, SEO salaries tell a different story, and we have still seen an increase across the board but nothing near the levels of PPC. I suppose any increase coming out of a recession is a big positive. Is SEO the under appreciated sibling to PPC? Either way here are the results…

Exec level SEO up 8%

Account Mgr SEO up 4%

AD SEO up 3%

Other SEO up 3%

I will be blogging regards Display / Social etc. salaries later this week. Mean time if you would like to discuss our salary surveys, what you are paid how it compares give me a shout anytime.

Digital Minds have numerous Digital Jobs available. If you are interested in a PPC job in London, SEO job in London, Digital Planner Job in London, Social Media job in London. Or a job in another Digital discipline contact me. Simon@digital-minds.co.uk

PPC Salary survey 2011 (update)

I have worked in recruitment for over 10 years and I have never seen anything like the recent recession. Everyone knows someone who has been touch by it, but based on our salary figures for the past 6 months someone must have bubble-wrapped the PPC market because it is not only still intact, it’s an area that has continued to grow and more importantly salaries are still on the rise. Most people working in PPC know more jobs exist than candidate’s, which certainly allowed many talented search marketers to negotiate a good salary during 2011. Remember these figures are for for 6 months not 12 months!

Exec level PPC salary up 11%

Account Mgr PPC salary up 5%

AD PPC salary up 4%

PPC Other up 5%

I will be blogging regards SEO / Display / Social etc. salaries later this week. Meantime if you would like to discuss our PPC salary survey, what you are paid and how it compares give me a shout anytime. Or if you would like to know more about the PPC jobs, SEO jobs, Digital Planner Buyer jobs, Social Media Jobs, Affiliate Jobs, Mobile Jobs etc we are recruiting for, contact me on simon@digital-minds.co.uk

Simon Halkyard

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