bspittles wrote:In my experience, the application forms for most roles will have space to enter the contact details for referees. I guess they want to check for themselves
Well, normally your previous employer is still operating.
If you're on linkedin and so are your current bosses you could ask them if instead of being badgered for references in their new roles (wherever they end up) if they would mind writing a reference on there?
I haven't logged into linkedin for years now but I seem to remember there was a facility for that? Also if you're out there looking for work it's not the worst place in the world to get active on if you're not already...
That's a good shout. Pop your details on. I'm always being contacted by recruitment consultants/agencies via LinkedIn and if your profile is good, who knows what could happen.
Best of luck Taca. Sounds like you deserve a change of fortune
Zimmerman wrote:Isn't that something you assess at the interview?
Not asking directly if they're into x, y or z... But whether you think they'll suit you/the team?
Whenever I read 'I like football, reading, and socialising' it's just the most bland, throwaway statement there is. It's like miss world hoping for world peace.
* pretty certain I have it on my cv though
How many people are you going to interview? Prior to interviewing I want to know why I'm going to the effort. LinkedIn, Facebook and the CV are pretty much all I have to go on. Unless I have a shared connection.
If you interviewed every qualified person you'd never have time for anything else. Experience and qualifications only tell you so much.
Recruitment people won't give a shit about it... which is why they'll tell you it's unimportant. So for them, you sell your experience and skills - that just gets you to starting line. From that point on it's all about you.
My advice is to dodge recruitment people altogether if you can. In the age of LinkedIn you don't really need them. If there's a job you fancy then figure out how to get a personal recommendation to the hiring manager.
Ideally you dodge competition completely. If you don't differentiate yourself you compete on price.
Personally I don't see myself ever just replying to a job ad.
I'm getting the message loud and clear re. LinkedIn, I'll read up and get that going by end of the weekend. Lots of my colleagues still seem in shock / reflection mode. Honestly, all I'm thinking about is the next thing, the way I see it, that life died about 5mins after we were told.
There's a woman called Liz Ryan on LinkedIn who has published a series of articles about innovative ways to find your ideal job. You don't have to connect to her to read the articles.
Just seen the news Taca, really sorry to hear that.
Totally endorse the LinkedIn comments - first thing I do these days prior to meeting anyone re work is check their LinkedIn profile to get some background. So get yourself on there, connect with anyone and everyone you know (currently and from the dim and distant past), read lots of other people's profiles and articles on LinkedIn re what a good profile looks like, and get yours in line with the recommended approach. Spend some time fine-tuning it, make sure it describes the sort of role you want.
Then build up your contacts - every time anyone links with you, go through their connections and fire off connection requests to anyone you also know.... the numbers will grow very quickly.
Ask everyone (relevant) to endorse you (this is simply ticking boxes saying what you are good at) and/or write a reference for you. A good way of encouraging people to endorse you is to endorse them of course - the old "you scratch my back..." routine.
Ask all your contacts which recruiters/headhunters/recruitment agencies they would recommend and fire connection requests and/or emails to them too.
Join some LinkedIn groups as well - don't know what line of work you are in, but there are specialist groups for everything - project management, sales, marketing etc, hundreds of them. Headhunters will often use those to identify potential candidates.
And once you've done all that, try to post something on LinkedIn as often as you can that is relevant to work - a link to an interesting article, presentation, whatever, with a sentence or two with your opinion on it (only takes a few minutes each time to do this). That sort of regular activity will help recruiters see what sort of work interests (and opinions) you have and (more importantly) will attract people's attention to your profile.
LinkedIn isn't the only route to a new job of course, but it's a no-brainer these days, as it is used by just about everyone.
LinkedIn is free, but you can also pay for the LinkedIn premium service if you want, but it's not cheap and I'm not personally convinced of the value. Main thing (IMO) this will do for you is tell you who is looking at your profile, so you can then (for example) fire off a message to any recruiter who happens to have had a quick look, to see if you can encourage them to talk to you.
unc.si. wrote:LinkedIn's rammed full of bloody recruitment consultants and headhunters so if you need a new job get yourself on there.
Every now and then one slips through the net and ends up in my contacts. They're harder to get rid of than herpes.
Bloody recruitment consultants!
Just noticed this Rich. Sorry - didn't mean to offend.
I'm sure recruitment consultants are great when you want a new job, but gets a bit wearing when they keep trying to get onto your contact lists by pretending to be your mate: 'Hi, we met at the [xxx] dinner, lets get together for coffee sometime'
I've only ever got new jobs by word of mouth, so don't know how good they are (although the standard of cv's they send through whenever I get involved in recruiting anyone does suggest that the big agencies go for quantity over quality).
'I'm sure if you're looking for a new job then LinkedIn is a great place to drop a few hints as recruiters seem to use it fairly heavily' is of course what I meant to say
Absolutely no offence taken Si, none at all. Purely as I can understand your frustration.
Talking from a personal point with regards to this "bloody recruitment consultant" , I only use Linkedin to fish around for new business and contacts within local (and sometimes national) companies.
I tend to pick up the candidate's CVs I am looking for by searching websites that are specifically aimed at candidates, CV Library being one of them. There are others but I will not name them due to the fact that forums have ears and I don't want to give away all of my trade secrets.
That said, I will often get linkedin connect requests from job seekers.
Thanks, yes absolutely. I'm over the moon because it would have been the kind of role I was looking for when I started this thread, so to land it when I'm being made redundant is fantastic. It seems that the best way of securing a better job is to be made redundant from your current one
In the middle of writing a cv myself now. First time in 20 odd years I’ve needed one.
You know the advice about keeping your cv up to date even if you’re not looking. I now know that’s good advice trying to write one from scratch is a nightmare
I saw you’d moved Rich but hadn’t clocked it was your own business. Great stuff and wishing you every success.
Might drop you mine for an expert opinion if that’s ok. It’s quite a niche area really but would be good if you notice any rookie mistakes or obvious no-no’s
Ps think you’ve missed a ‘t’ off recruitment in the email addy
Started work again today so thanks again to Richt for looking over my cv. This opportunity started as someone asking me to help run one specific project and then after circulating my cv turned into a 6 month retainer contract for the parent company working with around 6 of their subsidiaries, with a full time role later if it works out.
just shows the value of having a good, professional and recent cv in place.
nice to be back working after garden leave
, I only use Linkedin to fish around for new business and contacts within local (and sometimes national) companies. 
trying to write one from scratch is a nightmare 
