This week our new recruitment consultants got to grips with some of the most important aspects of their roles; candidates and CVs. More than just a run through of the meaning of these terms, we go into detail on how to build valuable and trusting conversations with candidates, as well as how to represent CVs in the best possible way. This week we spoke to the second of our new recruitment consultants currently going through our Academy - Jeremy Taylor. Jeremy has previous experience in sales at a local engineering company, but wanted a bigger challenge, and so applied for the Recruitment Consultant role at Caspian One.

As you can imagine for a recruitment company, our candidates are hugely important. At Caspian One we pride ourselves on being consultative, we take the time to listen and to really get to know our candidate and clients. We make sure we understand our roles completely, and get to the bottom of the problem the position will be solving. This week taught our new consultants the skills needed to achieve this.

Calling candidates from our system introduces our consultants to many different things, such as identifying candidates who are actively looking to move jobs, compared to those candidates who are open to move but not looking currently. Although most of our new consultants are well versed in communicating over the phone, our candidates are specialists and we need to ensure that we talk to them as such, something we went over this week. Week two is also an introduction to Boolean searching, which will come in hugely useful when our consultants start to look for their own candidates on LinkedIn and various job boards, as well as training on our internal CRM - Bullhorn.

We also went through the CV, why it's important and how to highlight key skills. One of the reasons we encourage open dialogue throughout the whole hiring process is so we can find 'exact' matches of candidates and job roles. We make sure we understand exactly what it is that a client is looking for, and use this information to pinpoint the dream candidate from our networks. Asking those questions, to get to the bottom of a CV, starts here.

We spoke about the purpose of the CV and gave the answers to the important questions (such as 'How long should it be?') as well as how to prioritise the various sections of the CV. It is vital that our candidates are represented accurately to our clients as this prevents hiccups down the line, so we really push the importance of pulling apart the CV.

Joining us today to talk about Week Two is Jeremy Taylor, who joins us from a sales role at an Engineering company. This just proves you don't need any recruitment experience to work at Caspian One, just passion and drive!

Why did you apply for the job at Caspian One?

I applied for the role because I wanted a new challenge, and I also have two friends who already work for Caspian One. I kept hearing about the opportunity to be recognised for your hard work, which of course was a motivator! My previous role involved creating solid relationships with people, which I believe is well transferred to this role.

What did you go through in the Academy training during week two? What did you enjoy most?

Week Two saw us start making candidate phone calls, which was a chance to improve our phone skills. We were taught which questions to ask to get as much information as possible from the CV, as well as how to build rapport and trust with candidates. We also started to locate and work on our own jobs, which was very exciting! We went into detail on how to structure conversations, which helps us feel confident we're asking the right questions at the right times. Also interesting was the conversation regarding open and closed questions. It's important for us to get the specific information we require, whilst also having our candidates open up and help us get a better understanding of them and their personal situations.

What is the most challenging thing to pick up?

The most challenging thing from this week was trying to consistently ask the right questions of the candidates, to make sure we got as much information as possible. It was also difficult to make sure the candidates trusted us, as we are a new voice to them. We had to make sure we got the same bits of information from each candidate call, which will be great practice for the future but was difficult from our first calls.

What motivates you?

I want a career which I'm good at, and that I enjoy. Typically, if you're good at something, you do enjoy it. Of course there is also the opportunity to earn very good money, and go on various incentives which definitely help!

What do you like so far about Caspian One?

The thing I have enjoyed most so far is the people, and how friendly and helpful they all are, but of course the beer fridge on a Friday is also a nice touch!

Well, that's week two done! Next week we'll be chatting with Nathan Keighley about Week 3 of the Caspian One training Academy.