Kimonos, Sake & Job Search Advice! An Interview with Dominic Joyce

Hey everyone! This week we have a real treat for you.

Here at The Career Gym, our promise is to give our readers honest and relevant insights from actual recruitment and talent professionals who work in the industry. Not just Dave who interviewed once and now knows everything about recruitment or wannabe LinkedIn Influencers that care more about likes and views than actually sharing factual information.

This week, we caught up with Dominic Joyce. Dom has over 7 years of experience working in recruitment and talent acquisition across agency, RPO and in-house, specialising in Fintech, Start-Up, Financial Services and Banking.

Russ: Hey Dom, great to speak to you again - introduce yourself for our Career Gym readers

Dom: Good morning or good evening depending on when you are reading this. My name is Dominic Joyce. I'm a global talent acquisition manager at Klarna, I look after the hiring of everything entry-level across the globe, apart from APAC. We're a team of 16 people comprising of recruiters and coordinators to basically attract the best talent in the marketplace to come into Klarna.

Russ: Dom, may I ask why you are wearing a Kimono?.......

Dom: I'm currently in the lobby of a Japanese Spa Hotel in Stockholm, you have to wear a Kimono in all common areas. I'm at a work do with Klarna! To be honest I had a few too many Sake's last night and have felt better....

Russ: Ah ok. It looks great on you. Really brings out your eyes. They're twinkling.... anyway, sorry. Back to it. Tell us a bit more about the business, what they do, for those people that don't know Klarna.

Dom: Sure. They're basically a fintech company working in the buy now, pay later space. They were actually on my top 10 list of companies to work for. This year we're on course to probably add about 3500 people, which is pretty much double our workforce in one year, during a pandemic, which is phenomenal.

Russ: Actually, that leads into my next question. How many roles are you working on yourself at the moment, how many roles are your team working on? I think it is important job seekers understand the volume of roles that some recruiters work to.

Dom: At the moment we currently have around 250-270 live vacancies across UK, EU and US. At least 30 odd roles per recruiter, with a very high number of applications for each role.

Above: Actual footage of Dominic Joyce the evening before

Russ: I guess more so than ever with the volume of applications you must be getting, candidates need to make sure they're really standing out! What common mistakes do you see job seekers making when they're applying for roles?

Dom: I've seen headshots recently on CVs. They're accepted and expected in some countries, but at a time when we are trying all we can to remove unconscious bias, I wouldn't recommend a photo on your CV. I've also seen someone who had written out their CV on a bit of paper and took a photo and uploaded it.

Another common mistake is the whole principle of a one size CV will fit all jobs. It is so important to align your CV with the role and the skills and experiences it is asking for.

Russ: When you're looking at a CV, what do you want to see? What are you generally looking for?

Dom: I guess it's that whole cliché - In 10 seconds I have to know that you are suitable to be considered for the role, and that can be down to, for example, highlighting key skills. Ensuring they match the ones being asked for in the job advert. Another tip - be more creative with adjectives! Don't keep using 'driven, motivated, enthusiastic'. Be a bit more creative than that. CV templates don't really matter too much, I'll be honest, it's all about you, the person and the content on the CV.

Russ: Any other big no-no's that you often see on a CV that people should just keep well away from?

Dom: Don't put your date of birth on the CV! it's not important, not relevant. Don't put other things like 'good health' or 'non-smoker'. Also, just think about the format and how you have it. If you graduated 20 years ago, what's the point in having your degree on page one underneath your personal summary?

Below - an example of a CV Dom enjoys receiving.....

Russ: On to LinkedIn! As a recruiter, what do you look for on a profile? What's important to you?

Dom: Content! Always content (experience), the more you tell me about yourself, the better. As a recruiter, you're searching keywords. For example, there are probably three of four million project managers on LinkedIn. You need to refine that search using keywords. You may search 'user-proof testing' or 'finance'.

The headline can also be important. for example, don't just put 'Head of HR'. Tell us a bit more! You can try 'Head of HR, System Implementation and Process Improvement' - Or anything that makes you stand out a bit!

Russ: Top three interview tips. What would they be?

Dom: 1. Research 2. Research 3. Research........Not just how many followers they've got on Twitter, not just how many followers they've got on LinkedIn, but look at the company, maybe something stands out like their corporate social responsibility. Be creative, look at their YouTube, look at their CEO. Go onto Google, type in the company name, click on news, look at their articles, look at what they've done. Years ago I interviewed with a company and I found out the building they were at won an architectural award, which I mentioned to them in the interview. They had no idea, they were quite impressed by that.?

Russ: Great advice all round, Dom. So if people want to reach out to you, how can they find you?

Dom: I'd rather they didn't if I'm honest. I'm joking. On LinkedIn, pretty much. I'm always on there, always posting. If they need support at all with CV's and career advice, and coaching. Obviously, we're technically competitors! But we're good friends, so it's not a competition. You have www.cvupgrade.com or www.dhirubhai.net/in/dominic-joyce/ I can be reached at.

Russ: Thanks for your time mate, appreciate you taking the time to speak to me at 7:30 am, in Sweden, in a Japanese themed hotel, hungover..... what a man! Hopefully catch up for a beer when I am back in the UK next year.

My take-aways from this are - Align your CV meticulously when applying for jobs, take time when creating the content/experience section on your LinkedIn profile (making sure it is keyword optimised) and do thorough research on a company when you get an interview!

That was this weeks edition of The Career Gym newsletter.

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Any questions for us on CVs, LinkedIn, Interviewing or general job search advice? Feel free to reach out to me here for questions or to work with me.

Thanks for reading, and see you next week,

Russell // Founder @ The Career Gym