Job search tips for recruiters with Russell from Both Sides of the Desk

Russell Ayles from Both Sides of the Desk joins us on the Coffee with a Recruiter podcast to discuss tips on how recruiters can better improve their job search

As recruiters, we’re skilled in looking at other CVs and advising candidates on interviews. But when it comes to our own job search, we’re pretty much lost at sea!

Russell is a job search coach,  HR professional and former recruiter (Asos, General Pants). He helps candidates improve their CV, LinkedIn, Telephone / Video / and In Person Interviews. Russ is an industry veteran with 15 years' experience in the creative, digital and retail space. Today he joins us one the #recruitercoffee podcast to discuss various ways in which recruiters (and candidates in general) can spice up their job search with new techniques and approaches.

Keep your CV Simple

Don’t forget, recruiters look at profiles for 6-8 seconds, so make sure the CV is easy to digest visually. When presenting your CV, it’s important to find the right balance between blank space, text and how much content you describe.

Ultimately, you want a clean, crisp document that looks easy on the eye and have the right things stand out. 

Don’t let your CV be more than 3 or 4 pages long. Stick to the last 3/4 years when describing your experience. Do you have experience going back 10/15 years? Recruiters tend to focus less on this, so keep this content to a minimum.

Avoid the third person perspective

We discussed a few hilarious topics, such as the #opentowork green ribbon and ATS system myths. The funniest topic had to be about candidates that refer to themselves in the third person in their CVs or Linkedin; so instead of “I’m Jose, an internal recruiter”, I’d say “Jose is an internal recruiter”. Russell’s thoughts?

“Russell is not very impressed when somebody uses the third person”.

We’ve seen this approach with very senior candidates and we agree that the more personalised your profile, the better. People want to get a feel for who YOU are, YOUR story and what makes you passionate.

Focus on achievements

What are the impacts that you made in your last business? How did you improve Time to Hire? Candidate Experience? How did you implement a new ATS system? Very importantly, how did you achieve these things?

I challenged Russ on this point - what if you've had a tough last two years with few achievements? There’s always an achievement somewhere according to Russ. Ask yourself, how did you perform compared to the rest of the company? Outside of your core responsibilities, what else did you do that led to awesome achievements?

Make sure you’re found on LinkedIn!

Due to the large amount of candidates, some companies are not advertising roles and are only reaching out to a handful of people. So it's important to make it as easy as possible for recruiters to find you.

Make sure you’re searchable on LinkedIn by putting the nearest city on your location and by putting a common job title that best describes your role. Additionally, list the core buzzwords that are best related to your job. Avoid zany job titles such as sourcing ninja or tech guru, unless you’re happily employed!

Don’t forget about culture fit

What does your ideal workplace look like? Look at a company’s career page - what do they talk about? Can you find anything about values and their culture? Do they portray their culture in their social channels? Here’s a question you should ask during an interview with a company:

Can you tell me what your company does to make sure these values are breathed and lived every day?

It was great fun catching up with Russ and discussing his experience and how he helps candidates land the perfect role. Be sure to connect with him if you have questions regarding his experience and services.

Russell's profile:https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/jobsearchcoaching/

Podcast Links for Anchor: https://bit.ly/3aHI47v   Spotify:  https://spoti.fi/3iOpFZu