(Un)employment advice, please.

[DCgull]

Hi
I don't post often on this board but I am after some advice. I am about to be liberated from the tyranny of work and was wondering if anyone has any advice on good recruitment consultants or other means of finding suitable employment. I have registered with Monster and Reed, so advice on any other decent online gizmos would be useful
I live in London so ideally would like to work somewhere easily accessible. I have a PhD in Ethics - specifically gender and environment (yes, it is a mystery as to why employers aren't beating a path to my door...) I have worked in an operations role in a small IT consultancy for 7 years which means I have worked most admin-type roles - HR, project management, sales process management, writing marketing collateral, amongst others.

Any thoughts will be gratefully received.

Many thanks.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

I have a list of loads of 'City' based agencies that I talked with over the last year, although they are all geared towards hiring software developers, contract or permanent. I can supply the list of companies, but I suspect the actual contact names won't be any use in this context.

 

[bhaexpress]

Hi
I don't post often on this board but I am after some advice. I am about to be liberated from the tyranny of work and was wondering if anyone has any advice on good recruitment consultants or other means of finding suitable employment. I have registered with Monster and Reed, so advice on any other decent online gizmos would be useful
I live in London so ideally would like to work somewhere easily accessible. I have a PhD in Ethics - specifically gender and environment (yes, it is a mystery as to why employers aren't beating a path to my door...) I have worked in an operations role in a small IT consultancy for 7 years which means I have worked most admin-type roles - HR, project management, sales process management, writing marketing collateral, amongst others.

Any thoughts will be gratefully received.

Many thanks.

Two sites, Jobserve and Job Site. They will put you onto a large number of agencies. There's not really good or bad agencies but rather good and bad 'consultants'. You might need to have several versions of your CV and be prepared to tailor it for specific roles, quite often and agent will ask you to (and on occasion they'll do it without telling you). Some say keep it short whilst others want as much detail as possible.

Oh, whilst the Job Centre will want you to look on their site to be honest you'll find that a waste of time as only cheap skate employers have IT jobs on there. Rather than keeping a log of applications I just used to take a copy on the list of email applications from Outlook which they were always happy about. PM if you need any other help.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

good recruitment consultants

Que a binfest !!!!

Seriously, don't expect much from the online places. You're one of thousands clicking that apply button. If you do apply for anything online, leave it a couple of hours and then ring the recruitment company - even if it's only to ask if they got your application. Talk to them about the role you've applied for, ask questions about timelines etc. Then say you'll ring back in a couple of days to check up on how your application is doing - you need to get them to remember you so keep bugging them.

One of the best ways is going to see high street recruitment agencies in person - print off loads of copies of your CV and go and visit them.

Do a brainstorm of companies that you think you could work for and go to their web sites. Applying directly is often the best way of getting an interview.

Finally, when you signed up to Reed you would have been given the chance of a free CV check by Fuller CV ( Free CV Reviews, CV Advice, Writing and Templates | The Fuller CV ) - take up this offer ( don't bother paying for the extended service though ).

 

[DCgull]

Thanks very much guys: it is much appreciated.
Tricky - thanks for the offer but I suspect you might be right.
Bhaexpress/ Westdene - thanks, this is very useful. I thought it was simply a numbers game but these are useful tools to maximise my chances of getting to the top of the pile.