SEARCHING AND NETWORKING: ACADEMY UPDATE
Having a solid network of colleagues, candidates and clients is vital to success as a recruitment consultant.
Our interview process for the Academy training program aimed to find individuals who are naturally sociable, those who place high priority on maintaining relationships and talking to new people. This week, our new recruitment consultants learnt how to search for candidates, match them to roles, and the value of building strong professional relationships.
Keep reading to hear from Nathan Keighley, one of our newest recruits, about how he (and the rest of the Academy team) got on this week.
The first thing we went through this week was finding candidates. We have a number of various tools to do this, and most are web based. We discussed using Boolean searches to get specific and relevant search results. As our industries are technical, key words play a massive role here. Using Boolean searching helps our consultants find skilled candidates easily, and also allows us to utilise the various job boards, social media and our internal CRM to their full potential.
So, we’ve now found our candidates. The next step is seeing if we have any live roles they would be perfect for. Because we’re not interested in making bad placements, this is where we teach our consultants how to get underneath the CV. There is always a golden nugget of information not visible from a CV that can make a candidate stand out from the competition. Strengthening our candidate’s application is key here, and knowing how to find that information (and use it) really makes a difference when we put them forward for positions. The take away from this, is that the CV is a starting point for a conversation, rather than the be all and end all of a candidate’s application.
Once we’ve got the bottom of a CV, we need to understand what our candidates are actually looking for. Beyond a job description, there are loads of other factors that can influence our candidates. More than the dress code and holiday allowance, respectful treatment of employees at all levels, communication with senior management and effective communication of the businesses goals are all in the top ten most important factors when deciding where to work*.
To get a more in depth idea of what the team learnt this week, keep reading!
Why did you apply for the job at Caspian One?
I was actually approached by Caspian Ones’ internal trainer (Peter Kiddle), who really sold the company and the role to me. He told me that Caspian One has a focus on building and maintaining relationships, and taking the time to get to know what candidates and clients are really looking for. This makes the company a consultancy, which is what sealed the deal for me.
What did you go through in the Academy training during week three? What did you enjoy most?
We did quite a lot in week three, focussing mainly on networking and resourcing. My favourite thing to learn about was referrals however. Making a conversation so useful for a candidate that they feel comfortable recommending colleagues is a great feeling. It’s all part of actually conversing with the candidate, showing them that you are listening to what they want. You have to set yourself apart from other recruiters.
What is the most challenging thing to pick up?
The one thing that is pretty daunting is the industry knowledge. FinTech is such a broad industry with a multitude of positions. There’s a lot of research that goes into this (sometimes from home!) but it’s important to let candidates teach us as well. After all, who knows the industry best? In such a growing and advanced industry, we are all still learning. All the hard work is already paying off however, we’re now getting into more meaningful conversations with candidates.
What do you like so far about Caspian One?
The atmosphere. Everyone here wants to be the best they can, and will help you to become the best you can be. Everyone is extremely friendly and they never push you away for asking for help. The beer fridge on a Friday is pretty nice as well.
What are your aims for your Caspian One career?
I want to go into management ideally. I love developing myself into the best possible version, so being able to help other people do the same for themselves is my dream.
We want to hear from you. If you are a recruitment consultant, let us know what your training experience was like!
Next week we will be talking about professional networking and how to build a personal reputation with another of our Academy recruitment consultants.
