Ally is defined as a person, group, or nation that is associated with another or others for some common cause or purpose. In recruitment, job seekers and recruiters must realise they share the same goal, finding a dream job or filling a vacancy, like an ally should be.

On a daily basis, recruiters like myself ask job seekers questions like:

• What is your expected salary?
• Where have you been interviewing for the past 12 months?
• What kind of roles are you ideally looking for?
• What is your short and long term career development plan?

And the list goes on and on. But does anyone know the true reason why we ask questions like the above?

The ultimate goal for job seekers is to find a position where there is higher pay, wider job exposure/scope, promotion, better team dynamics, management responsibility, etc. However, professionals that come to us tend to be quite reluctant to tell us the full picture and all of their desires and expectations.

To be frank, it is impossible for recruiters to make assumptions for all professionals that come forth to look for a job. They should come to understand that recruiters do not know everything about you and in order for us to assist in looking for what you want, it is important to have an open and transparent dialogue.

Once the mutual ground is set, it is our task as recruiters to introduce you the right opportunity where your expectations and wants are met and for us, work accomplished!

Career advice, career plan, job seeker, recruiter, recruitment consultant

Chinese whispers: “When information is verbally passed from person to person, it inevitably gets distorted and exaggerated and the new form moves towards becoming the norm”

Multiple studies show that an average person speaks between 2000 to 7000 words per day. As information is relayed from one person to the next, it is regularly distorted and exaggerated from its origin, oral ‘mis-transmission’ occurs.

As a recruitment consultant, I come across this on a regular basis…

Recruitment consultant: “…so, having discussed about your experience and what sort of roles you are looking for, I believe that you will be a strong fit for this role at company X.”
IT professional: “I don’t think I’ll consider this…I “heard” that Company X is terrible.”
Recruitment consultant: “Can you tell me more about “what you have heard”?”
IT professional: “Well, I heard from an ex-colleague that has a friend who knows someone that works at Company X and they said that the manager there is really straight talking and the company is a bit so so…”

When considering a career move, your first step may be to sound out the market from people you know, i.e. alumni, ex-colleagues etc. this is when the opinions of others form your first impression on industries, companies or roles. Are the opinions of others enough to decide on whether you are interested in a role?

When people look for a new job opportunity, the reasons behind it may be very different; it may be for a better career path, new exposure; a change of environment, the list goes on. So when one says a job is “not right” for them, this may not necessarily mean that it’s not right for you.

So when an opportunity arises, never refuse it because of “what you have heard”. Listening to rumours about working for a company is not ideal, depending on the source they may be inaccurate comments. Find out more details, ask questions and decide for yourself otherwise you never know if you have just missed out on your dream job!

Recruitment is not only about what a company is looking for in an employee but also about what you are looking for in an employer.

Career advice, career move, chinese whispers, IT jobs in Hong Kong, recruitment, recruitment consultant

I chuckled as I heard the following phrase the other day as I was sitting having a beer in a bar in Hong Kong: ”Those recruiters talk such rubbish. I don’t know where they get this stuff from.”

Like the rest of the population, recruiters are certainly not infallible. But I do want to say that the advice we give, the information we obtain, comes from the people we speak to every day – our clients, our candidates and other industry sources. We use these market insights in our salary guides, bonus surveys, hiring activity reports and day-to-day conversations.

So ironically, the answer to the above question is probably, ”the guy sitting next you on the trading floor today.”

Our business relies on experienced consultants knowing their market and building excellent networks within their field. Several of our team members have even come across from working in the sectors that they now recruit into. We know who’s hiring, who’s firing, who’s building a new commodities platform etc. Having our finger on the pulse is very important.

It is likely that at some point in everyone’s career they will wish to come and talk to us for advice or counseling, or more importantly for a new position. We encourage you to ‘tap’ into our market knowledge. “It’s good to talk” as Bob Hoskins from the British Telcom advert of the 1990s would say…

bonus survey, hiring activity, hiring market, market insights, recruiters, recruitment, recruitment consultant, salary guide