Articles From the Team

Social job hunting

This year, I have been in recruitment for just shy of 8 years and whilst that’s not massive innings in comparison to many, I have seen a big change in recruitment and the role of a recruiter over my time.

I have laughed at many of my colleagues over the years, who have been in recruitment 15 years+. They talk about the good old days when they had rolodexes and would be greeted on a Monday morning by a queue of people wanting to sign up to their agency. In fact, one of my previous directors fondly spoke about the office boy who would cycle off round central London delivering CVs to firms and businesses by hand!

This (of course) had me in fits of giggles …. the idea that an office boy even existed is hard to imagine never mind an office boy going off delivering CVs! It’s hard to imagine delivering anything by hand or even by post now…. after all that’s what my emails are for!

However, when I started in recruitment, I was told by a previous manager not to bother setting up LinkedIn; “it’ll be a flash in the pan, no one will really take it seriously”……! How wrong they were!

Today, LinkedIn seems to be the main focus of many agencies and businesses…. With various upgrades available, firms are able to see you, your background and your “recommendations” before they have even officially had your CV. Indeed, we have had a number of instances where we have mentioned firms to candidates or candidates to firms to receive a response of “oh I know him, we are connected on LinkedIn”… it’s the age old, Facebook esque connection – is it a real connection if you wouldn’t say hello to the person on the street?

I recently read an article that Facebook is launching a new jobs tab to the website. The new site is set to rival LinkedIn and will allow people to apply to jobs directly through their Facebook profile. Whilst I can see how this is appealing, do you really want your future employer to see your drunken photos from the weekend, or status update about how you are ruined from your week in Ibiza?

With many stating that technology is changing the face of recruitment, I can’t help but wonder whether that is actually a good thing. Direct applications and headhunting definitely have their place, but many of our candidates and clients benefit from the degree of separation when using us to assist in their process. If you are working for a big firm and you specifically want to hire an individual in the market, approaching them directly could have detrimental effects on your relationships in the market. Moreover, if you have friends, previous colleagues even family working for a firm, you might not want everyone knowing that you want “in”.

In my opinion and as much as it pains me to say it, I think change is good and modernising a sector is important however I think with the rise of social media, the lines between your professional life and personal life can be quite blurred, hence why using a recruitment agency is always best!

For more information contact Azara Roger.