Social media

Posted by On Filed under Digital, General

Media Contacts has been getting to grips with Twitter over the past few months under the insightful tutelage of our Business PR Consultant Steven Dwyer. Initially I couldn’t see how it would directly increase the quality of applicants I received through direct advertising but it soon occurred to me that this is not really the point of using Twitter in a  business capacity, as the above article illustrates. It is about brand management & publicity, increasing our knowledge of industry trends & news as well as who’s who in our sectors and most importantly getting one foot ahead of your competitors by making sure you have all corners of the online market covered. If only LinkedIn and twitter could collaborate so finding a new job could be done while you wait in line at starbucks via your iphone…. twinkedIn?

Sonia Hickey – consultant

When intelligent people make bad employees.

Posted by On Filed under General

I can’t honestly say I’m the biggest Kanye West fan, neither do I work with any particularly moronic people (I genuinely don’t). But I must say, that Mr. West offers some pretty original insight on annoying colleagues, and in turn, prompted me to write this article.

I completely (and I’m sure a large proportion of readers will agree), that somewhere in their professional careers, they have encountered that one colleague, who never fail to make your blood boil on sight. It’s found in every sector, in every industry in just about every corner of the earth – but is it actually a deeply rooted topic area that hasn’t been addressed?

Recruiting in the Digital and Tech world, you often tend to run into these rather “unique” individuals, and I can assure you – it’s no rewarding feat (at least not immediately). From a mile off can you sense an intelligent, yet completely maddening candidate – which soon enough will become some poor soul’s colleague. The variety of “know-it-alls” and “my-ideas-were-too-big-for-the-company” type characters we come across, add tremendous entertainment value to the job, so to an extent, I can’t say they’re all that bad. Nonetheless, I’d rather do without the headache.

While I read the following article, (http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2011/01/03/when-smart-people-are-bad-employees/) I must admit to quite enthusiastically nodding my head in agreement to most of the points made, and although amusing to some degree- there’s an understated truth and enlightening substantiation in the conclusions being drawn.

It begs the question that as a recruiter, when you come across these individuals, is it ill advised to still put these candidates forward to your clients? You’re fully aware said individual may be “a handful”, but at the same time, they’re spot on for the job. How many recruiters, or candidates alike, would inform their relevant party of their… “Development areas”.

This type of situation was definitely not covered in my recruitment handbook and I shall be consulting my Directors shortly…maybe with a few case studies to gain a second opinion. Furthermore, a company thought shower could be in order…

This doesn’t make me that annoying employee does it? Oh Dear.

Audley Swain – Consultant

Companies who complain about applicants failing to present a credible CV and supporting document often citing poor spelling and punctuation are themselves guilty of often failing to reply to rejected candidates.

Posted by On Filed under General, Graduate, Job hunting

They do so at their peril – these companies will be perceived to be negligent and insensitive in what we all know are tough economic times -they forget that today’s rejected graduates could well be tomorrow’s business leaders.  To state the obvious – in our competitive world, reputation counts.

Hugh Joslin – Managing Director

How do you the unemployed find work in a tough economic climate?

Posted by On Filed under General

Sadly it is a fact of life that many companies reject out of hand online applications from candidates who are out of work. So, while applying for jobs through job sites and traditional advertising is not to be discouraged, the most productive plan is to put together a list of all contacts made through business and personal life and make it your job to meet them to run through how then might advise/help. It’s a full time job finding a job – contacts made in your life will open more doors than answering job advertisements.

Hugh Joslin – Managing Director