Our Insurance Finance Recruitment Consultant, Tom, shares his Top Tips on working with a Recruiter – read below to find out how to secure your ideal role!
Tip 1. Thinking about leaving a role? Make a list
One of the key questions we as Recruiters ask potential candidates is: “What are your motivations to leave your current role and why are you looking?”
Often candidates will answer with a combination of the following…
❇️High turnover in the team
❇️Poor management/leadership
❇️Lack of progression
❇️Being promised something that doesn’t happen
❇️Feel undervalued
❇️Overworked/Poor work-life balance
❇️No flexibility of working available (Hybrid working, agile working etc.)
❇️And, of course, salary
So how do we combat this? 🤷
The grass isn’t always greener but often it can be. 🏞️
Tip 2. Be honest with interview feedback
How feedback is delivered is highly important to a Recruitment Consultant. But what do I mean by this?
👨💼 Candidates – we need your full, honest, unfiltered feedback as soon as possible, ideally straight after the interview. We can then use this information to inform the client of how you are feeling, what is important to you for the job to therefore increase your likelihood of taking the role, and ultimately to understand where your head is at.
👩💼 Clients – as the old saying goes “time kills deals” and this is very relevant in recruitment. Slow or sluggish feedback switches the candidate off. They have taken the time to prepare, to answer your questions and to have met with you to discuss the position, so it’s good practice to let this person know as soon as you can whether they’re progressing in the process.
And what’s more important is ensuring that your feedback is concise and relevant, because there’s nothing worse than…
🍦 Vanilla feedback – probably the biggest bugbear in recruitment is vanilla, non-descriptive feedback. A few examples from clients being “they are just not for us” or “we had a concern over team fit”. From candidates, we often get “the role just isn’t right for me”. Be honest. Just relay your true thoughts.
Ultimately, feedback is always best served honestly and as quickly as possible. Feedback is very important from both sides, especially in a candidate-short market, where clients are all vying for the most top-quality talent for their team.
Tip 3. Stop focusing on what you haven’t done & focus on what you’ve achieved and developed instead
Often when reviewing peoples CV’s and job experience candidates may say things like: “I haven’t worked on this” or “I am a bit light in this area” or “I’ve touched on this area but it only makes up a small part of my role currently”.
When we then start talking about potential roles and new opportunities that thought process carries through to… “I am nervous to interview as my role is not as broad as it should be” or “I’ve done 90% of the job spec but this area I need more development on”
My advice is always to flip that on its head and hone in on what you have achieved, developed, and are currently working on, and how you are passionate to take on more and develop.
It is easy to seek out weaknesses in ourselves… but how about looking at what you have done and what you can do?
Further technical ability and competency can be taught and developed. What really counts f is your initiative, drive, hunger to learn, and attitude!
None of us is the finished article – even someone with 30 years experience in a given field can learn more.
Tip 4. Don’t be afraid to follow up
Let’s set the scene…
You had a job interview, you thought it went well, but now it’s been days… weeks even…
You just want to know whether you’ve got the job!
Should you keep searching? Should you give it another week? Wondering whether to follow up with your recruiter, but worried about what the verdict is?
🔋 Focus your energy on applying to jobs you’re qualified for.
This one’s a bit of a ‘pre-application’ tip, but we do get A LOT of applications from people who don’t have any relevant experience. Read the job spec carefully, check what’s required for the role, and take the time to tailor your application to the role so that when you do follow up, it’s likely to be good news!
💬 End the interview with the right questions.
Use the end of the interview as an opportunity to ask for comments there and then. “Do you have any thoughts or initial observations on how I would fit in? Is there anything about my experience you’d like to run through now?”. Even simply asking “when can I expect to hear from you” is good – it shows you’re interested in the position and gives you a timescale to put your mind at rest.
⏲️ Call your recruiter as soon as you can!
It’s important to speak to you as soon as possible to get your unfiltered feedback so that we can let the client know your feedback as soon as possible.
📧 📱When you do follow up, email AND call.
Every recruiter should be keeping you in the loop, however, everyone communicates differently. Contacting your recruiter through both means will not only show that you are eager to take up the opportunity, but it will also mean you have a better chance of a response.
Tip 5. Talk about salary
Salary. It’s one of the main reasons we work, right?
To put food on the table, provide for our families, and do the things we enjoy. But what should you consider to ensure you’re getting a salary that matches your workload?
💷 Salary aside – is your day to day role what you want to do? 8 hrs+ a day doing something you don’t like is not fun… regardless of money.
🤔 Have you benchmarked your salary? Salaries can range wildly even in a niche like Insurance. Do you know what people are earning working in your role in a different company?
📅 Let’s say you’ve been with your current company for 6 years – when was the last salary appraisal? Is your salary out of date?
🙊 A big one for me, become COMFORTABLE talking about salary, it is NOT a dirty word. You need to be able to talk to your Management and HR openly on this subject.
💳 Another example: you get a job offer, but your company proposes a counter offer which is massively higher than your current salary. Ask yourself, why exactly did it take for you to nearly leave the company for them to value you?
🔢 Have you got a target figure you are comfortable with? Remember, arguably the more you are paid, the more responsibility and work you will take on.
Conclusion
These Top 5 Tips are extremely important when you’re looking for your next role – and if you have any questions on the market or some insight on Insurance Finance roles or Insurance vacancies, myself and the team at Pavilion Recruitment Solutions would be more than happy to help.
