Thursday 30 June 2016

One week on. How the referendum affects your job search.


The vote to leave the EU last week has obviously caused a lot of uncertainty in the markets, with the pound suffering (although recovering a little), no clear leadership in sight and a lot of general anxiety and unrest across the nation.
It’s not for us to state what’s right or wrong or try to predict what might happen in the future, but if you’re a candidate looking (or thinking about looking) for new marketing and business development roles in the professional services sector, here are our thoughts on the last week and how you might be affected:
The general (early) consensus seems to be that actually a significant number of professional services firms could be in even higher demand by their clients, providing advice on how to negotiate the months (and perhaps years) ahead. This is particularly the case for law and accountancy firms, many who had pre-planned for Friday’s result by providing 24 hour advice straight away afterwards.
For property and management consultancies it is less clear and the real estate sector especially could be more seriously affected (as investments go on hold) but it is too early to tell. What we can say is that the first week post- Brexit has been very much business as usual.
In fact, over the past 6 or 7 days we’ve seen an above average number of new roles registered with us across all types of professional partnership and all levels from Assistant to Director. Encouragingly some of these have been new clients to us with brand new positions. There don’t appear to have been any knee jerk reactions and we haven’t had any reports of existing roles suddenly going on hold. If anything, there are mutterings that firms might need to increase their marketing, BD teams and other non-fee earning teams.
So our message to anyone either actively on the market or thinking about looking for a new role is that: we know it’s early days but as we stand, nothing has changed and it remains a good and strong market for Professional Services marketers. Long may it continue!

Giles Taylor
Director

Wednesday 22 June 2016

RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH


If clients contact us and they are struggling to fill their roles, one of their main reasons for rejecting people at first interview is that they didn’t do enough research on the firm and so couldn’t talk knowledgeably during the meeting. Some candidates think they can simply have a quick look at the job spec, then the company online and head off to the interview - job done.
That’s all that’s needed? Right? Wrong.
Candidates are losing out on roles that they’re more than qualified for because they are overlooking doing proper research on their potential employer. If candidates don’t know enough about the company during the interview, they can kiss the job goodbye – even if they are qualified to the hilt for it. An interviewer wants to know that you want to work for that firm and if you’re not sufficiently prepared, you won’t progress.

Doing your homework about the firm you’re interviewing at should be a lot more in depth than a quick online browse.
Where Should You Be Looking And What Should You Be Looking For?

First stop, obviously the company’s website. You need to know what the organisation does. What is the company’s mission statement? Where are they located? Are they International? Find out specific areas of business, services or products that the firm is involved with.
Find out who runs the firm. Who makes up the management team, the Board, who are the partners and what do they specialise in? Who will be interviewing you? Do you know their names? What do you know about the people of the firm? Also try and find out how they go to market and how the role fits in – is it sector or practice driven or a bit of both.

Look at LinkedIn for even more information about both the company and the people that work there. What is being said about them on social networks? Can you find any common ground or interests with those who will be interviewing you? Clearly, you shouldn’t claim to have won the 2010 European Waterskiing Championship when you’ve only waterskied a few times, so don’t exaggerate or invent things - but if you know the person interviewing you is into waterskiing, there you go – some common ground to make small talk and also show that you have a life outside of work!
At senior management level, your knowledge should always also extend to financial data, corporate culture, structure, company history, market knowledge and any recent news. And that’s not a bad recommendation either for anyone else not at that level. It’s always good to know too much than too little.

Have a look and see what general coverage or industry news your potential employer has had? Newspapers and trade journals are the best place research but, remember, for some of these such as: thelawyer.com or legalweek.com, you might have to have an online subscription. So if you’ve got any friends who subscribe to industry publications, then don’t be shy asking if you can borrow them. Again, if you’ve friends in the sector, ask them about the firm you’ll be interviewing at. What are their perceptions or the firm? Do they know anyone there?
Don't forget to prepare your own questions as well. Think about what you're likely to be asked and don't forget the old line, 'its a two-way street'. You will be expected to ask some questions about the firm, so make sure they are well thought out.

All of this information could be very useful in an interview as you can never be sure exactly what you’ll be asked.

As recruitment consultants, it’s our view that you can never be over-prepared for an interview. You may not always use all the research you’ve done at first stage but it’s better to have the knowledge than to not have done the research and be left struggling to answer questions from your interviewers.

Colette Norfolk, Leighton Taylor Consulting