Graduate as more than just another Graduate

Now is the time of year when people start looking forward to the start of their university careers, while those who are nearing the end of their courses are looking forward to commencing their careers in earnest.

There was an interesting post on Su Butchers excellent justpractising blog from a student starting his degree who was worried that there would not be an opportunity at the end of it. I responded and it also sparked a conversation within the Calibre office; what makes the best Graduates we’ve spoken to over the years, the best?

We came to a number of conclusions and wonder if there is anything else that you would add to the list?

• Has not necessarily got a First class honours, but got a first class attitude
• A passion for the subject and knowledge of the wider issues around it
• Being comfortable talking about what they done and their reasons for taking that subject.
• Can demonstrate social skills; they make the interviewer think that they will be able to do the job well, but also interact with the team.
• Having a career plan beyond “get a job”, “work for the industry leader” or “do something in sustainability/cutting edge/world changing” but with no substance of what or how.

Looking at this list some aspects can be learnt, while others can be developed from your existing skill set. One thing is sure; while you are completing your course you can be effectively working to enhance your career prospects and more than likely benefiting your studies too.

As someone starting or part way through your degree you are in a great position to prepare yourself for getting in to a top graduate role; notice our first point was not necessarily having a First. While it is easy to think you have other things to do right now and time before you need to think about it, the steps to ensure you are ahead of your peers are simple, but will take time for you to benefit:

• Look for, and take, any opportunity to get industry related experience during your course, not just during your placement – doubly important if your course does not have one.
• Attend CPD (Continued Professional Development) seminars ran by your professional body outside of lectures, partly for the information, but also to get in contact with people who are in the trade and of influence.
• Emphasise your desire to learn the basics in a live environment when talking with people in industry. University will give you them in a teaching one, but the first thing that most Graduates find in their role is that there is a lot of difference between doing a project in class to one in practice!
• Get involved with LinkedIn groups; it will boost your knowledge and expand your contact base and therefore chances of getting opportunities that others won’t even know about.
• Learn about the wider world, read beyond the university texts (Twitter is fantastic for this) and maybe start a blog; you could post about your learning process, trends that you see within industry and ideas that you have.

If you want a good example of the above, visit this website and blog: http://www.concretegeek.co.uk/. I came across Charlotte on Twitter and we’ve had a few conversations around the blogs that she has posted on her area of expertise and also thoughts about issues around engineering. Her website is well thought out, brilliantly presented and has a feel of maturity about it; it obviously was not put together a couple of weeks ago as part of a frenzied “I’m graduating in a month and need to get something on the web now” process; I’d guess it has been given a couple of evolutions, a lot of consideration and thought over time.

Her blog posts are well written, thoughtful and show consistency. Similarly on Twitter, Charlotte comes over as professional, conversational and knowledgeable. She is also organising CPD events for the IStructE within her university while as you would expect she has an up to date LinkedIn profile.

If you are studying think about how easy Charlotte will find it to write her CV when looking for work because she has been doing all of the above. If you are an employer you may actually wonder if she’ll need one or just take the suggestion that people look up “Concrete Geek” on the web…

The thing with the ideas above is that they will build your knowledge and profile to the outside world and take you beyond being just another Graduate, which is just what Charlotte has achieved. While going through that process she has created and demonstrated a profile of someone who has really thought about what they are doing, where they are going and want to do. More importantly, it will have given her access to people who can, and will, help her down the line.

As a final thought, if you are entering year one or are near the start of your course and concerned about the future, don’t be. You have a few years to go and in that time the work situation will change while industry will have adjusted to the new economic climate. That means that the world will be a different place to what it is now (for better and hopefully not worse!) and you will have best prepared yourself for it.

Best of luck and enjoy! If you can would like to add any thoughts, comments or advice please feel free to add them below and broaden out the discussion.

(un)Healthy Career Ambition?

This post has been inspired by Mel Starrs (@melstarrs) during a conversation with her on Twitter when she responded to my blog about Youth Unemployment.

Mel is an Associate Director with PRP Architects and is also responsible for elemental, one of the UK’s longest established blogs on the built environment. Mel talked about receiving “frighteningly ambitious CV’s” for an entry level position she was advertising.

She said she found them off putting for the following reasons:

• The advert is very clear about the duties of the job – almost all the applications expanded the job description to fit their skills – this is no good to me – if I needed someone to do those additional tasks, I would have asked for them – either they aren’t reading the job description and sending their standard CV or are hoping the role will expand to fit their skills. In this market, speculative job positions are few and far between and usually clearly marked.
• There seems to be a lack of understanding about what projects are actually being built in the UK right now – while high-profile ultra low energy projects are out there, they are few and far between. The keenness to work on this type of project is very strong in most of the CV’s. This is off-putting as I can’t promise them this kind of work – a hint that they’d be equally willing to work on ’bread and butter’ would be much more useful to me
• Lots of the people are unemployed, but they don’t seem to bother reading the job description.
• A number are applying for the position and then saying that they don’t want to do that job, but the next level, or five up – not a great sell…

Mel has made a number of great points, but here’s a thought – if you have put the above in your cover note (which is well worth using as an extension to your CV), your application could be half way to being rejected before your CV has been read!

Taking that your cover note and CV are basically the same in that an employer will judge you on both, not just either one, which is potentially a complete waste of your time as well as the employers.

So what is wrong with showing ambition? Having known Mel for a number of years, I think I’m on safe ground with the following assumptions about Mel and her situation:

• Mel is as committed to giving her new recruit outstanding training as she is sustainability (check out her blog to see what I mean.)
• As such, she will be looking to teach the basics, ensure that the new team member has a thorough grasp of them before moving on to more complex and challenging tasks as the recruits confidence, competence and knowledge develops.
• Her focus will be to give them every opportunity to gain as much experience and knowledge as quickly as they are able to take on and her project workload allows.

So the applicant is showing ambition and Mel is keen to develop that; what is the problem?

• For a start you won’t differentiate yourself by saying that you want to be the next MD or using your own or the job boards standard cover letter, as you are neither recognising the importance of having sound foundations or demonstrating that you are doing little more than hurling applications to anything that catches your interest.
• You will stand out by talking about having a genuine enthusiasm for learning the basics before moving on and ensuring your CV/cover note reflects the role.
• You will stand out even more (for the right reasons) by relating what you’ve done to what the employer does; mention some projects or a connection you have with them or the company.
• I guarantee that you will get a place on their shortlist for interview, as well as possibly freaking the reader out slightly, if you mention something you’ve found out about the background of the job advertiser, department head or practice head and relate it to your own background. This is not as hard as it sounds thanks to the internet and LinkedIn, it just takes a little thought.

So how does this compare with your experience? Have you found a particularly successful approach whether it is through a volume of applications or focusing on one or two specific roles?

Please share your thoughts and let’s enjoy the conversation.

Youth Unemployment – current action and a call to action!

As you may know this year Calibre Search has committed to being part of the solution to the growing youth unemployment issue. We’ve blogged about what we have been doing and you can find those posts here and here.

As a result of this and working with the Leeds Education Business Partnership (EBP) I’m proud to say that I was invited to join the Leeds Enterprise Action Group.

The aim of the group is to act as a sounding board for the EBP as well as act as advisor’s as to how the EBP can be marketed, development of events and bring in other ideas to keep things fresh and relevant.

The first meeting that I’ve attended was this week and after a re-cap of last year’s successes (6550 children reached, 259 volunteers giving over 1800 hours of their time) we moved on to plans for this year – starting with reaching 9000 children.

There is a good reason for this; statistics and research show that if a young person has 4 contacts with an employer, they are 5 times less likely to drop out of education or training.

One of the key reasons that Jacky and Christine are keen to up the ante so much is that the government has removed work experience as being a statutory requirement due to young people having to be in education, employment or training up to the age of 17 in 2013 and age 18 by 2015.

As a result the government funding for it has been removed. Some schools will continue to send all their students on work experience, while others will target specific groups. Others have decided not to offer work experience at all due to the costs (in Leeds this is £27 per head).

It could be said that £27 is not much to find, but with school budgets being under substantial pressure it is enough to force the school to choose between work experience or another valuable activity. Some would say that raising the participation age (RPA) is a good argument for two periods of work experience, one between ages 14 and 16 and the other between 16 and 18, but there is a funding issue for having just one, never mind two.

How that can be solved time will tell; there are numerous ideas to be explored ranging from parental contributions to employer sponsorship or even applying as a worthy cause for lottery funding.

There was one agenda point that we did not manage to reach so I’m going to ask for your help as it is a key one to help the EBP going forward. What would you suggest as a new activity for the EBP to deliver?

At present they have three events that they run:

• ‘Interactive Workplace’ –a  career exploration event where different employers run an interactive activity to show the skills they need to work in a particular industry which engages the students and then discuss the career with the students.
• “You’re Hired”, where students work with a HR volunteer going through an application process complete with mock interview and feedback.
• “Cashpoints the Money Management Game” which involves students in setting up businesses and learning about the different options that their career decisions leave open to them.

What skills do you think students will benefit from that could be delivered within a volunteer led setting to a group of up to 6 students? Alternatively, do you have an idea for a session lasting up to 3 hours? All ideas are welcome!

Similarly, if you have thoughts regarding work experience placements please share them here and if you are not happy about the changes, why not share your thoughts with your MP too?

Why I felt good about a pessimistic journey…

Last Wednesday, 17^th May, was when the last CIBSE Yorkshire meeting was held and presented by Chris Jones who is a Building Services Engineer and a Fellow of the Energy Institute, as well as a Chartered Environmentalist and Incorporated Engineer. He is also one of the most immediately credible speakers who can take his audience on a well reasoned journey at a vast rate of knots I’ve had the pleasure to listen to. If you were not impressed with his knowledge, you would be his passion and commitment to what he was saying.

The talk was titled “Energy – Joining the Dots” and the aim was to look at the global picture around energy use and then bring it back to what services engineers can influence and do on a practical level.

This post has been very difficult to write; before the session I promised to take notes for a friend, while afterwards the best I could manage was a tweet to say it was fantastic, but my notes failed me. After a couple of days sleeping on it, they seem to have found their own sense and so I’ve put fingers to keyboard.

Chris opened up the discussion with the statement that we are currently using up 150% of the earths resources and if things do not change this will increase to 500% by 2050. He then fielded the question; is Shale Gas the answer to solving the 2020 target or should we focus on developing solutions which will cost more, but deliver better payback?

Put it another way, could piling resources and money in to developing these longer term solutions be the best way to spark development and industry that would break the economic deadlock we appear to be in economically?

Moving quickly on, Chris raised the question of how important liquid fuels are, the immediate example being petrol and diesel. He did not dwell on this point, he just mentioned the fuel farce where the threat of fuel strikes was enough to cause panic buying, which in turn closed petrol stations as they had been sucked dry. Ironically, before the presentation, the DECC had announced that talks with Unite had broken down and I was wondering if it would be a case of “here we go again”…

As that thought crossed my mind, Chris was already on to his next one, Carbon trading, and how if it was working properly, with a realistic tariff in place most firms would fold. “Would taxation be a more realistic way forward?” he asked.

We then moved on to the fact that the power generation infrastructure is essentially passed its use by date. A number of nuclear power stations have already had their lives extended, as has gas and coal generators. Where do we go to fill the gap when these units either fail or have to come off line?

Given that the estimated cost of regaining energy security has been put at between £135 billion and £200 billion to get our infrastructure up to scratch it is clear there is no easy answer to find or put in to action.

After a brief discussion regarding the development of renewable sources in other countries, Chris made an eloquent and ironic point by asking a simple question; why do people hate wind so much because it is a blot on the landscape when you consider Fukishima, Chernobyl and that you can’t walk all the way down the beach at Windscale?

We literally whizzed through a number of other aspects which were broadly:

-        Were the Feed In Tariff’s effectively quashed by the big 6 energy companies because they did not want to administer dealing with 1000′s of small generators?

-        Should we just stick with fossil fuel for now in the expectation that more will be found?

-        Is there a connection between economic growth/falls and energy use and is it feasible to have a long term growth economy given the link?

-        We are less effective at extracting energy from a given input; Roman farming would get roughly 1.2 units from every 1 unit put in when we in our high tech age are putting 150 units in to get 6 out. We are getting a benefit though – a substantially smaller part of the population is working on the land for a start.

This took us to the most interesting, alarming and certainly controversial part of the discussion as a whole when talking about Energy Return On Energy Invested (EROEI).

Given the amount of energy taken to implement some renewable technologies, when the EROEI is considered, it is hard to justify going ahead with those schemes. Similarly, when you consider the difficulties that schemes such as wind farms can have getting through planning, the furore over the Green Deal and other schemes aimed at reducing energy use and carbon output, are we just going to carry on walking the same path until we reach the point of no return?

Which leads on to a significant issue; just when is the point of no return? That is a good question. It has been acknowledged that efficiency gains are incremental, while energy use increases are factorial and also that we are passed the point of peak oil and peak gas, without actually knowing it at the time.

Is it possible that when the politically and public will unites to take positive action no matter what it takes, that we don’t have the energy resources to invest in solving the problem? If so, who will bear the brunt of the short fall? Given that in 2010 1 in 5 families were in fuel poverty and this figure rose to 1 in 4 in 2011 it is possibly not going to take a lot of working out. In isolation those figures in themselves are remarkable – would you ever have thought that 25% of families would be considered in poverty of any description?

So what is the answer? There wasn’t one, but the point of resource use taxation was raised and against this background, looking at just this one area, it is hard to argue with.

The one answer which can not be argued with at the end of the day is that considering recycling, energy, carbon, water, pollution in isolation is a start, but the only long term way forward is to simply reduce the amount of resources that we use as a whole. Why? Even if you do not believe in global warming, peak oil and the other concerns regarding what is bundled as “green issues” or matters for the “hair shirt brigade”, being environmental gluttons is becoming socially unacceptable and expensive; the time when demonstrating your green credentials was having a recycle bin in the office and an ignored environmental policy on your website are long gone.

It could be considered to be a very pessimistic evening, full of doom and gloom. It almost felt that way, but I considered it more as listening to someone who knew considerably more than I did spelling it out in simple terms, you might say, sitting me down and telling me how it is.

There was an optimistic note when Chris rounded it off with a thought on a different subject which made us all smile; as a species, when faced with a problem, why do we only actually become focused on fixing it when it becomes a crisis? The bit that made us smile – thankfully, he said, we are quite good at it!

So where do you stand? Within the office, this piece sparked debate before it was written when I was outlining it to the team. There are lots of questions and it would be good to see your answers so the debate can continue.

As a question of my own, how do you see Building Services Engineers being able to contribute to solving the problem, or in fact, the building design industry as a whole?

I hope you’ll share your thoughts!

Does the wind of change truly blow cold?

Does the wind of change truly blow cold?

One thing that the recession has done (amongst many others), is force change upon us all; some of it welcome and some of it not so.

I recently wrote a blog about a looming skills gap (click here to read it) and identified 3 groups that appeared to be particularly hit by the first rounds of staff cutbacks, one of which was people in the twilight of their career, or who are sometimes referred to as “Lifer’s”. In that blog I did not take the opportunity to explore the assets that this group has which others just can not possess:

- Long service: Within construction as a whole, anyone who has been with an employer for more than 10 years would qualify as a Lifer.

- Experience: Generally a good thing, but also a double edge sword; have you been doing many things during your career or the same thing for many years?

- Stabilising influence: If you have been with one employer for a significant length of time, the chances are you will be one.

This is, and should be considered all good, but in this climate of change, we have noticed that some employers are specifically looking for people who have demonstrated dealing with it throughout their careers. While everyone has change in their roles over time, this may not necessarily be portrayed on a CV and can be difficult to do so within an interview situation if you don’t think about it before hand.

Before you can consider explaining change in your career and therefore your CV and as part of interview preparation, you need to think about what change you have dealt with previously, and how this is exceptional, or at least matches that, of others who have moved companies more often or dealt with a broader range of schemes.

Classic examples are promotion, changing project team or having a new manager, but these changes are typically incremental or predictable. To demonstrate an uprooting as you would have experienced when changing roles takes more thought.

TUPE transfers are often over looked, but typically there is great upheaval. The period of uncertainty during the process; colleagues leaving and the concern about your own position coupled with the integration with your own and the new companies policies, procedures and personnel. Relocating between offices presents a similar opportunity too, especially with a franchise organisation with an umbrella branding, but each individual unit operating with their own autonomy.

Believe it or not, the key one that most people who have been made redundant miss is being made redundant. There is the transition from stable employment to conducting a full job search when it may be a decade of more since you were last in that position, as well as the massive uncertainty that goes with it. If that does not qualify as change, what does?

Louise Ebrey, a Change Facilitator, comments:

“When you’re asked about how you cope with change, it can be difficult to think of examples. I often suggest people think about when they’ve had to adapt the ways they work or live to changing circumstances or to get something they wanted out of life. Adapt seems to be an easier thing for people to relate to than change. Other questions you could ask yourself include; “How have you helped move yourself, your team or your organisation from a stuck place?” or “What’s different in your role when you compare it to 5 or even 10 years ago – what changes happened along the way?”

Another way to think about this is to turn it on its head and think about the changes you’ve been dying to see, but which haven’t happened. What’s the opportunity in this new role for those? What can you bring to help make this happen? Giving examples of how you’ve been frustrated by the lack of change and are looking forward to a new environment will help demonstrate your openness to change in the new role”

What Louise has added is two crucial factors; that while the past can’t be altered, you can control how you present it and while it may appear that you have not courted change, you can demonstrate your desire for it.

You may find within an interview that change is not mentioned and that there is an opportunity to bring it in to focus yourself. Seize that moment; it could be the elephant in the meeting room… If your comment is picked up by the interviewer, you have taken the initiative and addressed something that they wish to probe. If not, you have tried and it is either a non-issue for the employer, or it is something they will cover later in the interview.

Whether the wind of change truly blows cold or not, is a good question; but with thought, preparation and consideration it is certainly possible to warm it up and make the most of it.

The whole issue of addressing change within this situation is relatively new and unexplored. While the above is merely my own and Louise’s thoughts, it would be great to hear your own and about what you have experienced.

Are you a “Lifer” who has suddenly found yourself looking for work, or, an employer who has been looking at a “Lifer’s” CV; what were you thoughts and actions? What advice would you give to others?

Louise Ebrey is originally from an Engineering background and has become facilitator and coach to Internal Consultants, Specialists and Advisors to reach their potential and achieve better results for their organisations. Louise also advises in the field of Business Improvement solutions combining her extensive experience in Business Improvement and Lean, with
NLP, strategic change and people development.

She recently co-founded the Great Insiders tribe where Internal Consultants can meet, share experience, learn from each other and hear from expert speakers. Find out more at www.greatinsiders.com, on LinkedIn or Follow them on Twitter. Louise can also be contacted directly louise.ebrey@bridgewaterlattitude.com or or follow her on Twitter.

Back to school – again!

If you are a regular visitor to our blog you’ll know that I spent a day with St Mary’s Mount school in Leeds in January (see http://calibresearch.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/youre-hired-back-to-school-style/ for details) as part of Calibre’s commitment for one of us to spend a day a month working to either reduce youth unemployment now or prevent it in the future.

This month I went to Crawshaw School in Pudsey, (arranged through Becky at the Leeds EBP, tel: 0113 395 2646 or Rebecca.Cumberworth@leeds.gov.uk), to meet with two teachers, Richard and Janet as well as two students; Morgan and Kieran. The aim of the session was for me to build upon the work that Richard and Janet had already done with them and also so that they could hear the message from a different voice. My role was to talk with Morgan and Kieran about interviews, the questions that they will get asked and how they can prepare for them rounding off the session with a brief interview so they can experience having to talk to a stranger about themselves.

I was asked to meet with Morgan and Kieran specifically as they are completing work placements and non-academic studies, as well as core GCSE subjects. The main difference between this and the previous session that I took part in was that I had to plan what to do with the time to achieve the goals, while not knowing who my audience was or where their focus was going to be.

Thankfully, Richard had provided information before hand which helped me collate my thoughts and ensure that I could give as much as I could that Kieran and Morgan could use immediately as part of the study module, but also, hopefully in the longer term with securing a role.

We covered the purpose of interviews, where to find roles, how to read job adverts to understand what the position involves and likely interview questions, what the difference is between open and closed questions plus examples as well as how to answer them and why an interviewer will ask different types of questions.

Not only did I have an enjoyable, and highly focused 90 minutes keeping their attention and interest (which I’ve been told is an achievement in itself), I came away thoroughly impressed with the set up at the school and the opportunities that they can provide for the students. Kieran was already spending a day a week at college on a plumbing course, while he had previously been on a placement at a local stables providing riding for the disabled which he’d enjoyed so much that he was still working there at weekends. Morgan is in the year below him and was in the process of organising a 5 a side completion for a younger year group within the school. The passion that Richard and Janet have for their work was clear as was the level of support that Kieran and Morgan received and great to see. It was great to have the opportunity to contribute to that and I hope I have chance to do the same again in the future.

Playing with Fire – notes from last nights CIBSE CPD session

First things first – I’d just like to point out that I’m a Recruitment Consultant who has been recruiting within the building services field for nearly 14 years with a strong interest in the discipline, industry as a whole and engineering in general amongst many other things. I am not a professional note taker and the following may be lightweight for any industry professionals reading it, particularly if you are fire specialists, or even inaccurate for which I apologise! On the other hand, I hope that it gives you a flavour for the discussion that intertwined the presentation and I’ve also added some resources that you may find useful at the bottom. Disclaimer over…

The title was Playing with Fire – Best Practice for Fire and Smoke Installation and presented by David Fitzpatrick and Terry Sweet from Ruskin Air Management.

The format was essentially a presentation with discussion around the points; the fact that there was an audience of 10 made this work really well with David and Terry happily answering questions and discussing points throughout.

The focus was on why DW/145 been published and who should use it which in short is a response to the ambiguity that has existed around responsibility for fire damping, to bring in a change to testing procedures to take in to account the installation circumstances, not just of the damper itself and to highlight the importance of communication throughout the build process. An interesting aspect is that it also places responsibility for maintenance on the building owner/occupier too.

Interesting points here are that there is going to be a requirement for all dampers to be CE marked in 2013, anticipated for July with there being an unanswered question about use of dampers which have been held in stock from before this date.

There is also expected to be a move for “installers” to become “placers” taking instructions from the client, clearly putting a line in the sand whose responsibility it is for the design and specification of the dampers and their locations.

From a point of view of testing, the manufacturers are having to test each damper that they see in each type of material that it will be mounted such as brickwork etc. as opposed to the usual metal frame. This test must be carried out with it in the vertical position and horizontal position at a cost of £10000 each. As you can imagine this is a significant investment for the manufacturers, but as David and Terry pointed out, as a company they have learnt a lot from it. They also flagged up that it is worth checking if the manufacturer you are looking to use has tested the dampers you are considering in each position as it is possible that not every manufacturer will carry out each of the tests.

Traditionally Ruskins have sold 50% of their dampers without frames, but this is likely to stop as the frame has obviously been tested and passed as opposed to just the damper itself.

A key point to note is that if someone wants to use a damper in a scenario different to that to which it has been tested, they should speak to the manufacturer prior to installation so the manufacturer can advise appropriately and do research. If they are approached after installation, the response is highly likely to be along the lines of “Sorry, but I can’t help”.

A quick point is that consultants are going to have to update their standard specifications to reflect the changes in the regulations; apparently some are still making reference to standards in the previous requirements, not even the current ones!

Looking at longer term aspects and maintenance, there was a lot of discussion about this with several examples cited of surveys being carried out on existing installations, but the FM having concerns about the cost implications or just how it can be carried out. The question of who is best placed to do the work was raised and the requirement for a competent person could lead to new certification/training courses being launched/needed to give end users confidence that they are in fact hiring just that, a competent person. Interestingly, insurers are were identified as being drivers for this initially.

As I said at the start, this is just a few points that I scribbled down during the talk; it is certainly not exhaustive by any means.

The presentation is going to be made available on the CIBSE Yorkshire website – http://www.cibseyorkshire.org

While there is further information on Ruskin’s website – http://www.ruskinuk.co.uk/

The Info4Fire newsletter was also mentioned as being of interest, you can subscribe/read more here – http://www.info4fire.com

If you want to know about future CIBSE CPD events, including those of the Young Engineers Network – http://www.cibseyorkshire.org/Technical-Events.aspx

While if you are on Twitter, it is worth following @cibseyorkshire where Derek post’s updates/reminders about events and other items of interest. I also tend to tweet about them a day or too before on @CalibreSimon

Overall, a good event, and even to me as a relative layman, the DW/145 is going to create a massive shake up within the sector with the possibility of fake CE marked goods, increased need for CDM Coordination while the maintenance/responsibility/knowledge aspects have the potential to repeat the outcomes of the Legionella outbreak in Barrow in Furness.

If you want to get involved with the CIBSE CPD events, the next one is going to be on the 21^st March at the Rose Bowl in Leeds looking at “Solar thermal integration with commercial buildings” with a presentation by Lochinvar; hope to see you there!

Do you still need your recruitment agency?

This may seem like a strange question coming from someone who has made his living from the recruitment industry for over a decade. Given the change in the economic landscape over the past three years, it is a valid one for the majority of sectors.

Thankfully for the most part my clients are keeping me busy, but there is a perception from some quarters that recruitment services must be in decline due to these challenging times. This got me thinking… Is it generally easier or harder to recruit the right technical staff these days?

The argument that recruiting services are less relevant today is normally focussed on the following points:

• There is simply more direct responses to advertising.
• Salary expectations are lower.
• Advertising is easier and cheaper through social media and traditional methods.
• There are less positions opportunities for the talent pool, therefore less competition between employers.
• The current employer is less likely to counter offer.
• Recruitment services are expensive compared to advertising.

So all this makes it a buyers market. Right?  

With the exception of hiring from internal referrals (which should be at the heart of any company’s recruitment strategy) the feedback I have been given by many hiring managers is quite different, for the following reasons:

• More is less: Applications are increasing but the quality is reducing as more people are applying for positions to which they are not suited. Reasons for this are plenty full but common reasons can be  due to either a lack of opportunity in their own geographical region or area of expertise.
• Skill shortage for experienced graduates/trainees: There is not always an abundance of applicants. For example there have been fewer and fewer trainees and graduates taken on in the last few years, resulting in a skill shortage at the experienced graduate/trainee level.
• Less Liquidity in the marketplace: Generally during harsher economic conditions people are less willing to risk moving jobs without good reason thus reducing the number of ideal applicants in the active job market, making it harder for employers to reach them. This can be exacerbated for those forced to make redundancies in recent years.
• Valued employee’s  are still in demand:  If employers have held onto their most valued staff this far in rocky times, they will try everything to hold onto them for the future, increasing the possibility of a counter offer.
• Unrealistic Expectations:  Employers may unwittingly overlook a good hire by having unrealistic expectations of the applicants. Due to the perception that there are plenty of people on the job market, there is the temptation to set the bar so high it rules out 99.9% of the talent pool, whereas 5 years ago they would have been happy with the skill sets available. This can lead to positions not being filled for unnecessarily long periods of time.

This list is not exhaustive but just an example as to how things are not always what they seem; having recruited in both buoyant and challenging climates it is my experience that in many ways that it is just as difficult today as it was 5 years ago, although the reasons may have changed.

Certainly, given all of the above, most of the pitfalls can be managed by the recruiter reducing the amount of money and time wasted during the recruitment process, by only short listing well qualified, motivated applicants who will not only accept a position, but stay long term.

I would be very interested to hear from other people’s experiences of hiring in the current climate, either using a recruiter to help them or recruiting directly. It would be of particular interest as to whether they have found it any easier, more difficult or the same as it has always been in technical/professional markets.

Calibre Search is a specialist recruitment consultancy operating in the Built Environment, FM / Building Maintenance, HVAC / Refrigeration and Marketing sectors throughout the UK.

“You’re hired!” – back to school style…

Youth unemployment; a big concern now and a time-bomb for the future. This we know; there are enough people writing about it without saying the important thing: what action they have taken beyond commentating.

At Calibre Search we have decided to give a day a month to different groups to contribute to the solution. This is first in a series of blog postings that we’ll be making telling you what we have done, how we found out about it and contact details for how you can get involved should you feel that you would like to do something similar.

This Tuesday I spent most of the day at St Mary’s Mount School in Leeds as a mentor working with a group of 6 pupils at an event developed by the local Education Business Partnership (EBP) called “You’re Hired!”. The “You’re Hired!” exercise was run twice before lunch and after the break I had the opportunity to talk with pupils in the classroom as an open forum.

Before going to the school I was given a thorough briefing by Becky from the Leeds EBP as to what was involved, what to expect and what my role would be.

As I would be just visiting the school I would not need to have a CRB check carried out and my role was purely as a facilitator and to advise; I would not have to supervise the pupils at all, just introduce myself, tell them about my experience of interviewing and guide them through the event.

After introducing myself and finding out a bit about the pupils I was working with we started on the formal aspects of the exercise analysing what constitutes a good and bad first impression before moving on to looking at attitudes and skills. The students had completed a questionnaire before hand looking at their attitudes and their own unique selling points.

We then went on to looking at a job advert, identifying the key aspects of it and how to use that information to anticipate, and prepare for, questions at a mock interview.

Holding the interview was good fun and I was amazed by how well my interviewees performed with very little preparation time; it was obvious that the children had bought in to what we were showing them and the materials were supporting the learning very effectively.

What was particularly interesting was providing feedback directly to them and how the group were keen to contribute to that process as well as take on board the additional thoughts I gave as to how a good answer could be extended to be a great one.

After a brief look at using the STAR (Situation Task Action Result) competency based interview format including a role play and feedback session we had a brief open forum where the children asked me questions about everything from the session itself, to what I do as a recruiter and what general advice I could give them.

The event was rounded off with presenting attendance certificates before enjoying a much needed coffee ready to do the same again with the second group.

Running through the event the next time was interesting; while I had a better idea of what would happen, the second group who had a slightly different take on the material. As a result, it got me thinking and I had to present the thoughts and concepts in a different way to before.

Both groups said that it was a useful exercise and you could see how with very little input, their thinking had radically changed about how they would approach applying for a role, preparing for an interview and the interview itself.

After lunch I spent 40 minutes in the classroom with about 30 students and their teacher answering questions about looking for work, applying for roles, writing a CV and different careers. It also gave me the opportunity to find out what they think their situation will be when they leave school. I was pleasantly surprised by some who had thought about their careers, picked their options accordingly and working hard to achieve the grades that will keep them on the path. There were others who created the impression of being completely disinterested, but as the end of the session approached were busy quizzing me about all manner of subjects. Just maybe everything that they had experienced that morning and spoken about previously had got their eyes open and minds buzzing; I sincerely hope so.

Given the response that I get when I inform people that they will be having a competency based interview when they meet my clients I think it shows foresight introducing the concept at this stage and will certainly help any of the students that use in a real situation stand head and shoulders above what will no doubt be stiff and plentiful competition.

The EBP runs this and other similar sessions throughout the year and there are a number of EBP’s throughout the country. They are really keen to speak to people who feel they can help deliver sessions such as “You’re Hired!” or talk to students about employment related issues or give information about career choices.

The two local ones for us are Leeds and North Yorkshire and while Leeds’ is titled “You’re Hired!”, NYBEP does something very similar. Geographically,  Leeds tends to operate within the City boundaries and North Yorkshire works on a much wider scale (including Leeds’ region in some respects) with both being able to put you in contact with counterparts in your area if you want to take part.

If you want to know more it is well worth contacting:

Leeds: Becky Cumberworth on 0113 395 2646 or Rebecca.Cumberworth@leeds.gov.uk. (No website at present due to Leeds City Council IT changes)

North Yorkshire: James Curran on 01904 693 632, james@nybep.org.uk or www.nybep.org.uk

New Year, New Focus – 5 tips for job search success

If you have been seeking a new role for sometime, it is likely you will have felt frustrated with the lack of positive response, or indeed any response in some instances and possibly that recruiters have no interest in your goals. With the New Year, it is the ideal time to try some tips for a new focus and approach to your job search which may well change that.

Tip 1: Value your own application.

It may be tempting to apply for a number of roles that you are not suited to, or would like to do on the basis that “you have to be in it to win it”. This is not a prize draw though, but a considered decision making process. By using a scattergun approach you will get demoralisingly more rejections or hear nothing more often than you should. To send your information to the same recruiter, either in one flurry or over a period of time for different roles, locations or wide range of salaries or industries can also result in that person paying less attention to each successive application.

Tip 2: Think about the reader.

On the first read, recruiters will rarely look at your CV in detail; some have neither time nor the technical knowledge while others will be keen to complete one task and move to the next. Being aware of this means you can take advantage of it, or at least prevent falling victim to it.

Make sure your key skills and background is easy to read and likely to be noticed by someone scanning your details.

Keep your CV current; if you apply for a contract job described as an “immediate start” and your CV looks like you are in a permanent role you are highly likely to be rejected unless the recruiter takes the time to contact you and ask the question, which they may or may not do once they have reviewed other candidates.

Relate your application to the role; there is nothing wrong with (I highly recommend) having two or three versions of your CV appropriate to different roles, if you legitimately are confident and competent in those positions.

Tip 3: You are in the wrong place, so say why you can/will be in the right one.

Remote working is possible, but most employers (and to be fair most employees) prefer to have a more conventional arrangement rather than working from their back bedroom.

If you live more than 45 miles or 90 minutes commute from a post, make it clear how you plan to get there. Will you lodge or re-locate? From a recruiters perspective, particularly when looking at a permanent role relocation is the only way. Give a timescale and state your links to the area or reason for wanting to move there. This will get the recruiters attention positively. Saying that you will take a role if the employer will pay lodge/re-location fees or “if the money is right” is unlikely to improve your chances of success as you are not showing commitment or “give”.

Tip 4: Read the advert – carefully!

Sounds obvious, but you would be amazed how many people don’t… Recruiters don’t want to read 50 CV’s and whittle out those who are unsuitable for the position. They want you to rule yourself in or out and use words such as: “essential”, “advantageous”, “desirable” etc to help you do that.

As a rule of thumb, if an advert has 10 criteria and you genuinely meet 7 of them, apply and highlight why you satisfy those points.

I’ve used the word “genuinely”; consider if you were recruiting for the role, how would you grade your application against each point?

Tip 5: Speak to the recruiter.

If you see a recruiter advertising that you think you can help and that they can help you, introduce yourself with an email or ‘phone call. Jobs boards make it very easy to make an initial introduction but by actively building a rapport with someone you may well get the call from them before they place the advert or at least you will have put yourself in a far better position when they see your details in future.

Tell us about your experiences and successes! Have you tried any of the above previously, or is there anything you would like to add?

As always, we’d love to hear from you.