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Careers & workplace advice from Hays

In today’s job market, it will take much more than the right qualifications, skills and experience to land a top job in 2016. Here are 10 ways to aid your job search:

 

 

 

1. Disrupt your CV: We’ve all heard of digital disruption, so think about how you could ‘disrupt’ your CV and add a digital element to it. While a traditional CV remains the accepted way to show you have the necessary skills and experience for the role, you could add a link to a website, video or blog post that profiles digital examples of your work or demonstrates your expertise in a particular area. Adding such links at the end of your CV will help you stand out – provided they are relevant to the role you have applied for.

2. Align your online and offline CVs: Hiring managers will research you online, so make sure the CV you submit matches your online profile. Any discrepancies throw up a red flag. At the very least you’ll be asked some hard questions in the interview, and at worst your CV will be removed from consideration. 

3. Be open to freelancing: With employers looking for flexible headcounts and jobseekers looking to expand their industry experience and networks, freelancing is an option worth considering.

4. Target realistic jobs: Employers are becoming more impatient with candidates who apply for a role that they are not suitable for. In 2016 it is therefore important to be realistic in the roles you consider, and clearly demonstrate your suitability for a role based upon your experience.

5. Promote yourself: You need to go outside your comfort zone and promote yourself on social media to get ahead in 2016. A LinkedIn profile will not be enough if you are not active online – so like, post, share and comment on relevant content, ask for endorsements, be active in relevant groups and showcase examples of your work and achievements.

6. Study relevant qualifications: Keep up-to-date with industry developments. If you need to undertake training make sure it’s the right training. In every industry there are certain qualifications that employers value above others. So make sure you do your research and work towards the qualifications that employers actually value.

7. Be a change agent: In our increasingly technologically sophisticated world of work it’s inevitable that significant changes lie ahead. Employers are starting to look for candidates with an appetite for change, so in 2016 make sure you are known for driving innovation, integrating technology and learning best practice from others in order to make informed changes to the way business is done.

8. Size doesn’t matter: If you choose not to hide your LinkedIn connections, be aware that employers can make assumptions about you based on the quality of your online connections. For many employers, the value you can bring to their business is an important consideration in their hiring decision. Your connections should show potential employers that you are associated with people relevant to your field, which can be a powerful endorsement of your reach.

9. Learn to cope with rejection: Highly-skilled professionals are in high demand, but that doesn’t mean employers will leap at the first candidate they find. As well as the required technical skills you need to have the right industry background and cultural fit, which means it could take a few applications before you find the right role for you. Don’t take the rejection personally.

10. Stay on top of a recruiter’s talent list: There are a few simple ways to stay at the top of your recruiter’s talent list. These include keeping your recruiter informed by updating them if your circumstances change, following their advice, and keeping your word. So if you say you’re only interested in permanent work then decline an interview for a more lucrative contract role your credibility with your recruiter will take a hit. Similarly, trust your recruiter and don’t go over their head to contact an employer direct.

About to start your job search? Reading our job searching tips will help ensure it’s a success

 

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In my humble opinion 2016 will the year of “The Digital Diviners”. Why Diviners?  Because they need to be visionary, to see the future and anticipate change – or even, according to Merriam-Webster be “a person who uses special powers to predict future events”.

So who are the ‘Digital Diviners’?

1. Influencers: Influencing is a crucial skill for anyone with aspirations to lead an organization or to be part of it through a digital transformation. Being able to understand and relate to a business and what the opportunities are, seek out the problems that need to be solved, build an effective relationship with the tech (DevOps) delivery team and having broad enough shoulders to withstand failure – all the while taking the senior management with you on the journey.

2. Customer experience: A CX guru has the capability to transform an organisation’s relationship with its customers. Understanding what they want, how they would best like to interact, what their optimum journey would be and putting it into practice are the “must have” talents for 2016. There is a whole industry built around helping companies understand their customers’ journey. Organisations that are lucky enough to have this talent inhouse are at an advantage – as long as the right influencers (see above) are listening to them.

3. Data translators: By that I mean people with the skill to find you the right data and make it meaningful. The big data hype of the last few years has seen many of us buried in fabulous trends and graphs beyond our wildest dreams. But what I’m referring to is beyond analysis and even insights, the skills I am talking about enable businesses to understand and practically USE the output from the story that their data reveals to produce measurable results that improve profitability.

If you don’t have any (or not all) of these skills, I’d plump for either 1. or 3. as my first picks, depending on the environment you’re in. If there is already an appetite for change or even perhaps a fear of not moving fast enough, then finding the right Influencer is probably the right place to start. They may be someone from within your organization – if they have the interest and passion to drive improvement, the confidence to be self-sufficient, a deep understanding of the business and credibility with the key stakeholders, you are onto a winner. If that appetite isn’t there, then a great data translator could be just the ticket to showing those stakeholders that they DO need to act, what the ‘use cases” might be in the new world and the impact it could have on the company.

I strongly believe that doing nothing is not an option. “Why should we change, it’s always worked this way” was the attitude that many companies held to their detriment, I’m sure I don’t need to name them! Disrupt your own business before someone else does. As I said in a previous post, thinking about how you would do things if you were a start-up, without the constraints of politics and existing methods can be really useful to free the creative minds to think about how to deliver better results. Fundamentally, that’s what we are all striving for!

So there you have it – my top 3 hotspots for digital careers in 2016! What’s your pick?

If you enjoyed the above blog then you might also find some of my other blogs interesting:

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When I first started working at Hays, I refused to admit that I was working in sales. I remember telling a lot of my friends that I got a job at a “consulting firm”. Like many graduates I meet, “sales” isn’t a glamorous word I wanted to be associated with, and I thought the idea of being called a “salesperson” was enough to put my entire education to shame.

However, over the years, I have come to embrace the idea of working in sales. I’ve come to learn that sales is an essential skill to own and certainly a lucrative one if you master it. I’ve also come to realise that many professions are in fact sales-related-investment banking, law, accounting, education, and even CEOs. Having recruited for different sectors in banking, finance, property and FMCG, I have to say that if you want to get ahead in your career, you need know how to sell. So if having strong sales skills is such an integral part of building a successful career, why is it that so many graduates are reluctant to start their career in sales?

In this post, I’d like to share with you why I am an advocate of working in sales, particularly for fresh graduates. I’ll share with you what I’ve learnt over the years, and why I’ve come to LOVE being a salesperson.

1. You learn to have thick skin: One of the first lessons you’ll learn in sales is that rejections and objections are simply part of the job. Getting from a “no” to a “yes” is no easy feat – it takes skills,guts, patience, but more importantly, resilience. Similar to sales, most jobs require resilience. It’s not uncommon in the business world to have to fight for your case and persuade stakeholders to agree with you. I am thankful for learning this early on in my career as a result of being a recruiter. Nowadays, I don’t take criticisms as personally, and I see every “no” as a step closer to a “yes”.

2. You see the fruits of your labour: When I ask some of my friends why they despise their jobs, one of the most common responses I get is that they don’t feel like they’re seeing their hard work paying off. In sales, this is definitely not the case. As a recruiter, I was constantly surprised by how closely related handwork and result is. It’s really true that the more you put in, the more you get out of it. Being a salesperson typically gives you exposure to the end-to-end process – you begin with an initial interaction with a client, and you finish with closing a deal – all handled by yourself. It is a lot of hard work, but the great thing is you really get to see and feel your hard work paying off.

3. You really get to deal with different people: Whilst a lot of professions claim that you will meet different people on a daily basis, the end result is that you end up meeting the same types of clients with the same needs. In recruitment, I was exposed to two types of people: those looking for a job, and those looking to hire people. Within those two groups of people, I can’t begin to describe how many different personalities, backgrounds, professions I encountered. You simply never know who you’ll meet or talk to on any given day. What this has taught me is that to build relationships and rapport with people, you need to start with being flexible yourself, never assume and always listen.

4. You learn how to communicate effectively: Effective communication isn’t just how well you speak to people; it’s more around how you build relationships and trust with those who are different to you. I learnt early on in my career that communication is key to success. Communication to me in 20% WHAT you say and 80% HOW you say things. Communication is also about your ability to ask questions and listen, rather than just talking about what you can do.

5. You see the bigger picture: To be successful in sales, one must learn to thinkboth small andbig-picture. In this competitive world, successful salespeople can no longer just rely on the gift of the gab. They need to be well versed in micro and macro-economics, understanding how the larger world words and what really sets yourself apart from others. In recruitment, you learn to run your business through strategic business planning – focusing on achieving short-term and long-term results. You learn to assess risk and identify potential threats to your business, and most importantly, you learn to be accountable for your work. There’s really no one or no “market condition” to blame when it comes to results – it’s all up to you.

Four years ago I made the decision to move from front-office recruitment to training. Though on the surface it may seem like I’ve given up on my career in sales, the reality is very different. I’ve been so blessed to have learnt the science and art of sales that I feel the need to inspire and educate others to also flourish in this area. As I’ve stated before, sales is everywhere, and training is of no exception. My role now requires me to “sell” more than ever, selling ideas and techniques to new joiners, strategies and beliefs to managers, and skills to my team. The salesperson in me is still very much alive – and that is why I still do what I do.

So for those of you interested in working in a sales-driven environment, my final word of advice for you is this: You will work harder than you’ve ever worked, but you’ll also achieve great things if you put your heart to it.

Hays is currently recruiting for multiple levels of recruitment consultants from graduates to experienced recruiters,  visit http://www.haysplc.com/join-hays for more information.

In my previous blog ‘A simple guide to writing the perfect resume/CV’ I detailed exactly how you should be structuring and ordering your CV. In this blog, the second of a three-part series, I’ll be providing advice on how you can take your CV to the next level; making it stand out from the crowd and, in turn, securing you that sought after job interview. 

Continue reading How to impress a recruiter with your resume/CV →