The Talent Division
Recruitment insights, career advice, and industry news from our team.
One conversation I've had countless times over the years starts with the same sentence. "I'd love that job... but I don't think I'm qualified enough." Sometimes the candidate doesn't have one of the qualifications listed. Sometimes they've never worked in that particular industry. Sometimes they're simply lacking confidence. My answer is often the same. Apply anyway.
Your CV doesn't need to tell your entire life story. Its job is much simpler than that. It needs to make someone want to have a conversation with you. After nearly 30 years in recruitment, here are five mistakes I still see time and time again.
Interviews can be nerve-racking. I've interviewed thousands of people over the years, and one thing I've learnt is this: The candidates who perform best aren't always the most experienced. They're usually the ones who arrive feeling prepared, confident and ready to have a genuine conversation.
Most hiring managers spend a lot of time preparing interview questions. Far fewer spend time thinking about the experience they're creating for the candidate. After nearly 30 years in recruitment, I've seen fantastic businesses miss out on exceptional people, not because the salary wasn't competitive or the role wasn't attractive, but because the interview process let them down.
If I had a pound for every job advert I've read over the years that starts with "We are seeking an enthusiastic, highly motivated individual...", I'd probably have retired by now. The truth is that most job adverts don't fail because they're badly written. They fail because they only describe the role. They forget to sell the opportunity. When someone is considering a career move, they're asking themselves one simple question: "Why should I choose this company over every other one?" If your advert doesn't answer that question, you're making it much harder to attract the right people.
If there's one thing I've learnt after nearly three decades in recruitment, it's this: The best candidates aren't always looking. It's probably one of the biggest misconceptions in recruitment. A business decides it's time to hire, invests time writing a job advert, posts it online and waits for applications to arrive. Sometimes that works brilliantly. But increasingly, it doesn't.
