The landscape of recruitment, like most industries is constantly evolving and digital is transforming traditional recruitment processes. The technology we use, the platforms and the processes are changing, the question is are you as a candidate changing with them? It wasn’t long ago that we would be faxing CV’s and advertising jobs in the newspapers. The systems we used looked like they were DOS based. Some you more “experienced” candidates and recruiters may remember those “good ol’ days”. Now everything from candidates using websites as their CV/Portfolio or video cover letters and submissions are on the rise and almost every company has access to centralised databases like LinkedIn. Advertising is now not just on Seek, but on Social Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, to name a few and countless new job boards that are more industry or role focused. Recruitment teams use more and more advanced ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) Software with AI and Machine Learning capabilities. With all these changes what does that mean for candidates?
First off let me say this before we get into some of the things you can be doing to improve your candidate profile and chances of being “seen” and standing out against your competition. We as Recruitment Consultants will often try to advise candidates on changes they could be making to their CVs or telling them to work on their LinkedIn profiles and get the response “no thank you, I’ve never used LinkedIn and I’ve never had a problem finding a job”, or something of that nature. Now this will most likely be true, but it’s like going through life blissfully unaware of the opportunities you may have missed out on. You have no idea if a recruiter with a role at “insert dream company here” or paying $15,000 more per year was searching for people just like you, but you weren’t on LinkedIn (or other platforms) or didn’t have specific information on your profile/CV etc. which meant you will never hear from them. You are there just blissfully unaware of what could have been… so there is an opportunity cost to not keeping up with the changing times, even if you’ve been getting by so far. So, first off I think you need to have an open mind to the changes and being open to changing with the environment, because there are no shortage of businesses that have failed to change along with the changing digital environment to their detriment.
The Times They Are A Changin
One of the biggest changes we see is that less and less jobs are being advertised due to advances in centralised databases (ie Seek Profile, LinkedIn etc.), AI and speedy CV data searching which is making it easier for Recruiters to find candidates that match their criteria rather than put an advert up and hope the perfect candidate applies. Even jobs that are being advertised are using tagging and key word matching to deliver those jobs to your inbox and highlight candidates that match pre-set criteria.
If you put yourself in the Recruiters shoes you can understand how much time it takes to go through 150 CV’s (yes, it is not uncommon for recruiters like us to get upwards of 300+ applicants) vs 15 or 20 candidates that you know are perfect for the role and reaching out to them directly. It saves time, improves quality and improves our ability to provide stronger candidate experience. So then, the question is are you making yourself visible?
Here are some tools you can use as a candidate to help you be “found” rather than reading through pages and pages of adverts, applying and never hearing anything back: The two platforms we will focus on are LinkedIn and Seek Profile.
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn can be the online version of CVs now, but so much more, it all depends on how you use it. Now many of you are thinking ok, nothing new there, LinkedIn is 8 years old and I have a profile with my name and titles on there. What you may not be aware of is that depending on the key words you have in your profile, your key skills may mean you are not showing up in searches we do on the back end. For example if we as recruiters are searching LinkedIn for a Title “previous or current” Project Manager AND key skills “CRM” that even if you are a Project Manager with CRM experience, but don’t have it on your LinkedIn profile, sitting there looking for a job, you will not be showing up in those specific searches. It is up to you as to how much data you share, but if you are wanting to come up in more searches and find out about more opportunities in the market this is a very important first step.
- Do you really have a fully filled out profile? If you put yourself in our shoes and we are searching for Project Managers on LinkedIn or other platforms and looking at hundreds of profiles, will yours stand out? If you were the recruiter or TA scrolling through hundreds of profiles are you going pursue the profile with limited information, no profile photo (or unprofessional photo), no activity in the activity section showing a passion for your area, or no previous employer recommendations OR the profile that has all of the above. The check list we would recommend in order to get the most out of LinkedIn is:
- Professional Profile Photo
- Provide lots of information and think of “keywords” while doing so
- Get recommendations – same as us buying goods based on reviews many employers focus on candidates with strong recommendations.
- If you are actively looking, turn on “open to opportunities” – its like sending out a beacon call to Recruiters and companies hiring
- Fill out your skills section of your profile – be honest with yourself, but the more skills the more searches you will show up in.
- If you are looking only for contract or permanent roles you can now update that in your LinkedIn profile.
- If you are wanting to or open to relocating, you can update this in your LinkedIn profile as well.
- Get active – share some articles that you are passionate about (but best to keep them aligned to your area of work or passion – hopefully the two align).
- Utilise your network – sometimes asking for recommendations from previous employers can generate new job opportunities or make you stand out because the potential employer know people you have worked with previously.
- If you are actively looking don’t forget you can attach your CV to your profile, which makes it faster and easier for potential employers and recruiters to get in touch with you directly.
- Seek Profile – This is more Australia and NZ specific, but another important tool if you want to be found rather than having to constantly be applying for advertised roles. Seek Profile allows you to update your CV, store it in Seek allowing you to more easily apply for roles, but also recruiters can use it to find you and match them to your role. One of the great features above and beyond LinkedIn is that you can set salary expectations, so recruiters aren’t bothering you with opportunities below your current salary. Another great thing is that it searches your CV, so no need to transfer information to LinkedIn and you will definitely come up in more searches. Just like LinkedIn you can also let recruiters know that you are approachable or more actively looking.
In the next blog we touch on how to improve your CV so you are showing up on recruiter searches in their ATS’s and standing out against your competition.
