Getting the best out of your Recruitment Agent - 10 top tips!

A recruitment agency can be a great facilitator between the client and the applicant. In the “boom” times candidates that were seeking jobs were more or less guaranteed a number of opportunities and perhaps it didn’t matter too much when it came to interview techniques. There was a certain confidence and well paid jobs were on offer. As we are all aware this has changed massively and as recruiters we continue to offer the advice regarding interview techniques and suitable jobs and this time we believe the candidate has a vested interested in absorbing the information and using it to help them succeed in getting that all important offer.

But first things first, how does one go about looking for that elusive position? You can apply directly to companies or putting your CV on the internet but you are opening your options by choosing to register with 1 or 2 relevant agencies. As mentioned the professional agencies can provide you with relevant information about companies, career advice. assist in preparing for the interview and negotiate the right package.

1. Research your agency, i.e. decide which one/ones will be able to help you. There is little point in sending your details to all and sundry.
2. Do not just send your CV to all the consultants in that agency. Apply for a job that is applicable and ring the consultant directly. Some agencies will not put you through to a consultant as they insist on seeing the CV first. You can of course just send in the CV but don’t hold your breath on that return call. Consultants will generally only ring you back if you have suitable experience for the role as per the criteria on the advert or if they know that they will have something suitable coming through.
3. Make sure your CV is comprehensive and easily readable. Some agencies have a template on their website that can help write the “perfect CV”. Again your consultant can assist with this.
4.Send a cover note/letter. Provide some sort of explanation with your CV as to what type of role you are seeking and if you are flexible in doing temporary or contract work.
5.Answer your phone.
6.Keeping in touch. For some strange reason candidates seem to think that consultants will keep them updated on a regular basis as to what is happening with their CV. Not so. Consultants simply do not have the time. Their main concern is to promote you the candidate to the relevant client and to keep on top of that. Emailing your consultant is a great way to find out what is going on and they will have no problem in sending an update if they have it.
7.Believe your consultant – most clients are generally slow to get back on CV’s, interview feedback and outcome. If the consultant had information he would provide it. The general rule is if they are not coming back then the chances are slim of getting any information.
8.Keep a spreadsheet as to where your CV has been sent as clients do not appreciate it if they receive your CV more than once.
9.Initial interview with your consultant. This is usually face to face, sometimes if you are located too far away to attend an interview you will have a telephone interview – all the same questions but just simply on the telephone. Remember to be on time and have whatever documentation to hand if asked e.g. ID, Visa, Green card, Academic transcript, registration number, driving licence, referee details etc. Also the consultant may want to test your abilities. If you are attending an interview in your lunch break find out in advance how long you will be at the agency office otherwise you might get frustrated if you are late returning to work.
10.Preparation for the Client Interview. This is where the consultant can add value. They can give you a good insight as to how the process will work and provide you with typical interview questions. They can work with you to help you “verbalise” your experiences and promote yourself in the best light. You can be really good at your job but it’s funny how we can all fall apart when it comes to being interviewed. A good consultant can help you overcome your fears and give you confidence and belief in your abilities.

Income levies, tax credits, and public holidays

Written By David Nixon – Accounts & Payroll Administrator, Priority Placements

I moved from England and started working in Ireland for the first time last year. I started by temping for Priority Placements and I had to deal with the issue of tax credits. Now I actually work for priority placements and I have helped people apply for tax credits and more recently I have had to try and explain the income levy. Hopefully the following will be beneficial to you:

Tax Credits and emergency tax.

A common problem people tend to have when starting a new job is that they are being emergency taxed. Most people bring there P45 from there old job and expect that to stop them from being emergency taxed. However this doesn’t always prove to be the case and you end up being emergency taxed; the best way to prevent this is to apply for your tax credits from the revenue office as soon as possible. Once you start working for a new company ask your employer for their tax registration number and call the revenue office with this number and your PPS number. They should then be able to help you and should be able to send you your new tax credit certificate. Once you receive it if you drop a copy off to your new employer you should be taken off of emergency tax.

Income Levy.

Also on the 1st January 2009 the government introduced a 1% income levy. The levy is payable on gross income before any relief for any capital allowances, losses or pension contribution. This levy is payable on salaries earning up to €100,000.00 p.a. if you earn over €100,101.00 p.a. then you will have to pay a 2% levy and if you earn over €250,120 p.a. you will have to pay a 3% income levy.

However the following exemptions do apply:

· Where an individual's income for a year does not exceed €18,304 p.a.
· for over 65’s where their annual income does not exceed €20,000 p.a. for a single individual or €40,000 p.a. for a married couple
· If you hold a Full Medical card
· Social Welfare payments are also excluded from the income levy

And finally something everyone wants to know, how many public holidays are there and when are they. There are nine public holidays in Ireland and they are:

Thursday, 1st January
Tuesday, 17th March
Monday, 13th April
Monday, 4th May
Monday, 1st June
Monday, 3rd August
Monday, 26th October
Friday, 25th December
Saturday, 26th December

For more information regarding tax credits and the income levy is available at http://www.revenue.ie/en/index.html

Top Three Tips To Maximise a Temporary Worker in an Economic Recession
Written By Aaron Wills – Senior Recruiter at Parker Bridge Auckland, New Zealand (an affiliate of Priority Placements). Aaron has over five & half years’ recruitment experience. He joined Priority Placements (originally named Parker Bridge Ireland) in Dublin and experienced in the same year the Dot Com bubble bursting, September 11 and the impact of a foot & mouth scare on the Irish Economy. Aaron is currently working in Parker Bridge Auckland. Below are some key tips he has learnt and would like to share with Line Managers for your consideration when you are recruiting financial/administrative/IT staff for long and short term temporary assignments:


With the market as it is we are focused on getting back to basics to make the recruitment process easy for you. Here are a few tips to help you get what you need from a temporary worker.

Tip 1: Identify the problem you are trying to solve. Get specific and clarify what you want your temporary worker to do. One way we can achieve this is by having a discovery meeting where we discuss the role and gain as much information as possible. For example, assessing what the temp will be doing on a typical day.

This can benefit you as it enables us to get the correct match. Identifying whether parts of the role can be downgraded or if in fact the role actually requires a more senior person with the right experience may enable you to save time and money.

Tip 2: Identify the hardest part of the role. This helps us focus on finding a candidate who has the skills to deal with this issue, which saves you training time and therefore money. Candidates are able to use skills learnt in other temp roles to become effective in your role faster.

For example, often clients what candidates with the ability to talk to non-accounting managers (sales, warehouse or engineering managers) to get information to meet accounting deadlines in a friendly and proactive way.

Tip 3: Looking at projects & system improvements. Improving a workflow process for paying an invoice or improving your financial accounting system, can add real time savings and benefits to a finance function. Looking at duplication in your current process will give you an idea of where you can make these savings.

Three ways to get the most from a temporary worker are:
· to use them as the change agent, that being they can be the outside person who can ask the ‘why is it done this way’ type of questions
· to bring in specialist skills
· to back full a role and reward a staff member by having them do the project role

Bonus Idea: Try a working interview. These work by us arranging with you for the person to work for you for a day as a working interview. This saves you having to go through the interview process and enables you to see how they can do the role. Using our temporary employment arrangements eliminates most of the risk of taking on the wrong person.

Interview Testing - do you really have the skill set?

Probably one of the worst and best things I ever did was start a career in recruitment in the recession of the early 90’s when I went to London. The 80’s boom ended and consultants were leaving the industry in droves. They had made their money in the “easy” market and found it too hard so moved on. It was very tough then and it is tough now. What I learned from that experience has stood me in good stead over the years. As there were so few jobs you had to fight hard to get the offer. When you started your job you had to make it work and you worked hard to achieve the right results. Leaving was not an option. The great thing was you appreciated the outcomes and never took them for granted.

I would consider myself to be a loyal individual and indeed have been amazed at how candidates have been happy to move jobs at such a high frequency in the last number of years in a good market. There was more choice I guess and the idea of a higher salary is always an incentive. Candidates were confident and believed they were capable of doing the job. But in moving so quickly from 1 job to another they are diluting their skill set and employers have found that now when they are recruiting their preference is to take the time out and question and potentially test individuals applying for the job. Employers are now already asking why candidates have moved from one job to the next. They want stability and they want candidates who really do understand the basics of their skills. Clients are providing testing almost from the outset. If you know your line of expertise then this should not pose a problem because the testing tends to be quite general. If you are attending an interview through an agency your consultant can advise you on what preparation you need to do in advance. If you are attending an interview directly then it is recommended that you research for similar style testing. Check in advance what kind of test it will be. The internet or a library is a good place to start and then practice. Most of us are naturally nervous when it comes to any kind of testing regardless of how well we know our area of expertise so my advice is to research and practice. So when you go in to do the test at least you feel you have made some effort to prepare and hopefully that will calm the nerves.

Some clients not only test at the outset prior to interview or any offer but also 3 months in to the job itself. If this test/assessment is not passed then the position will be terminated. So when you decide to apply for a position make sure you are confident that you can demonstrate in an interview situation by providing examples or communicating clearly that you can do the job efficiently and effectively. Whilst we all desire a challenge lets make sure we are not taking on more than we bargained for.

It's Good to Talk

Verbal Communication, Written Communication or No Communication?

Talking on the telephone is not everyone’s cup of tea. Some people go out of their way to avoid being on the phone and I am not talking about mobiles. Most age groups are very comfortable with their mobile and we can all hear them talking cheerfully and loudly stately “I’m on the train” or just simply talking loudly into their mobile regardless of whether they need to or not. Yet when it comes to the work environment we all see to have lost our sense of natural communication via the phone. Is it because the phone is a lot larger than a mobile? Does it size make us feel we can not bear lifting the handle like we are suddenly suffering from some kind of phobia?

Or is it is simply because it is so much handier to let the phone slide towards voicemail and hide behind email responses if of course we do get around to responding. It is understandable not to want or to have to respond to an unwarranted email or call but if you have engaged a professional (a recruitment consultant for example or an expert to provide advice) then you should not spend the next while avoiding them. Take a deep breath and respond. It’s not that hard just answer the phone and simply give an honest and candid response. It takes seconds and the person at the other end will be satisfied to a certain degree. If you seriously believe that ignoring calls and emails from people who genuinely take their jobs seriously but unfortunately depend on communication as a big part of their job then you have most probably should not be in the job you are in or maybe that particular part of the job should be someone else’s. The penalty is they will keep ringing or emailing and no one wants that.

The biggest stress factor for recruiters is getting hold of candidates that have registered looking for work or some clients who have requested us to locate candidates on their behalf. An enormous amount of time is wasted just because some one can’t be “bothered” (I use this term loosely but to some consultants it exactly how it is) to respond. Is it a power trip, are they simply too busy or maybe they seriously believe the consultant doesn’t warrant a response even though that consultant may have spent hours working on a position for them and is simply looking for feedback on their work or in some cases to give feedback. I am just referring to a good consultant here. The one that if the contact took the time to get to know they might actually save themselves a lot of time and heartache.

No communication is usually the cause of most problems and it’s no different when it comes to recruitment no matter which side of the table you are sitting at. It’s amazing how relieved/motivated some one can be once a verbal conversation has occurred. So come on let’s start communicating with each other. As BT say “It’s good to talk”.

Reasons for Leaving your Job

Some times as a recruiter when asking a potential candidate what is their reason for leaving their current job they cry back to you and say “but I haven’t left yet”. This naturally is a concern for the recruiter as they want the potential candidate to be clear about why they are thinking of leaving and this reason or reasons should be well thought out. No one wants a candidate who is unsure. Indeed if you are not sure why you are leaving then why are you leaving? Worse case scenario is you could find yourself in a similar position and unhappier.

There are many different reasons why people choose to leave their current employer and even though you might think that the obvious reason is money this is actually far down the list of reasons. Location is by far the biggest reason as most of us want to avoid the congestion of traffic and the long travel home. Other reasons will involve the “glass ceiling” situation where there is no more room to develop further; recently qualified and want to make that career advancement at that point in time; starting to take further studies and want the experience to complement them. When studying for professional accountancy examinations again be clear about which course and why you are taking it. A client recently commented that he wanted a candidate who studied CIMA because he believed that the CIMA candidate knew exactly why he was studying CIMA and what career path he intended to follow.

If the reason for leaving is genuinely negative the candidate should rethink the situation here and how he should explain it without making it a big issue. Make sure good references are available to the next employer as no one wants to take on “baggage”. It's important to leave on a good note regardless.

If the reason for leaving is the next step then make sure you as the candidate have thought through all the reasons why you have the capability and skill set to this promotion. You may also need to explain why your current company is not in a position to offer this promotion to you.

Finally never walk out on a job just because you have had enough. It doesn’t bode well for your next opportunity.

Prepared to be interviewed in a downturn market

July 2008

Prepare to be interviewed in a downturn market

There’s a lot of doom and gloom in the media. Politicians are sending out conflicting messages as to weather Ireland is in a recession or not. Bottom line is though employers are reviewing costs, salaries are frozen or cut (Lisney’s cut their salaries by 10%), if an employee leaves they are not necessarily being replaced. In some sectors like legal, conveyance lawyers are being let go but it’s not all bad news there are employers looking to recruit new staff due to expansion (yes some companies are expanding) and/or replacing staff that have moved on.

What potential candidates need to think about is exactly what is it they really want when they are looking for a new position. They should also prepare themselves well for the actual interview. The market has turned and it is now the employers market in a lot of cases. Candidates want a good environment, challenging role, great benefits, training, good salary with regular reviews, communication, recognition & progression. The Employer wants an experienced and responsible candidate, someone who adds value, excellent attitude, enthusiastic, and committed, stable, reliable and uses initiative.

Candidates will find there is a lot more competition for roles and employers will be a lot more choosey as to who they will take on. For the candidate preparation is the key. Here is a short list of the basics you should have thought about in advance of the interview:

- Research the company. The internet is the obvious starting point but if you are going through an agency your consultant will have a lot more “inside” and relevant information so listen closely. Be warned knowledge about the company is important and it often a question that is asked by the potential employer.
- Dress well. Wear a suit. Employers have rejected candidates who do not make the appropriate effort here.
- Be on time. Work out your journey. If you are very early go somewhere and have a coffee and only arrive no later than 10 minutes before hand.
- Have a list of questions that you want to ask. Do not say “I think you have covered everything”.
- Think about what questions you might be asked.
- Know your strengths, weaknesses and achievements.

Remember the employer wants someone he can rely on and if you really want the job you have got to demonstrate and convince home that he can.

See www.priorityplacements.ie for more information on interview preparation.