I was speaking to a candidate yesterday from the continent who made a fair point; In contras...
I was speaking to a candidate yesterday from the continent who made a fair point; In contrast to their native country where they had to reach out, recruiters regularly approached them instead on LinkedIn. The maturity of the recruitment industry in the UK combined with a high demand for CRM marketers in London means it’s easy not to lift a finger without being approached about opportunities. However, the vast majority of these approaches are not what they are necessarily looking for. Here are my 4 top tips to have more of the opportunities you actually want, find you.
The best way to state your intent to recruiters is by setting your profile to ‘Open to Opportunities’. Many people use this tool, but do not state their preferences. If you want a CRM role within financial services, for example, then say so, and you’ll minimise the number of irrelevant opportunities that come your way. By doing this, you will alert recruiters who may not have thought you are an obvious fit. For instance, if you’re in retail, many might assume you would not want a role in other sectors such as FinTech or gaming. On the flip side, I will warn you; you will get more approaches once you switch this on, but it will be worth the admin if someone strikes gold.
Recruiters will search for profiles within a sophisticated sourcing platform built into LinkedIn, aptly called LinkedIn Recruiter. We search profiles with keyword searches, which helps us to filter through profiles with ease and precision. Most of my clients are looking for specific requirements, be that tools like Braze of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, or other requirements such as app experience or working with specific parts of the customer lifecycle.
Get this information on your profile and treat your profile as a CV. You do not want to miss out on the chance to work at your dream employer by neglecting to put key information in your profile. I would clearly state all of the tools that you have worked with, and also fill out the skills section on LinkedIn while including as many key achievements as possible!
Connect with people, share content and get posting. LinkedIn is treated by many as a passive tool until the time they look for their next move. Any career-minded individual should be shouting to the world about the relevant work that they are doing. The first thing I do every morning is scroll through my LinkedIn feed whilst I wake up a little and bring myself up to speed.
When I see somebody post something interesting, they catch my eye and I make a note to message them or at least bear them in mind for relevant opportunities in the future. It’s all about being active on the platform.
I also appreciate somebody reaching out to me and looking at what I am posting. You can only know about these opportunities though by growing your network. The ‘old school’ way of sending your CV to a recruiter via a message is still the most direct way of getting on the agenda and that’s what I’d recommend you be should be doing.
If the get an InMail and it’s not quite right, rather than ignore it, I’d really recommend using the ‘Decline’ button and taking 20 seconds to compose a message stating why that opportunity might not be quite right. If you say you’re only looking for opportunities within travel, you’re less likely to receive more messages from the recruiter in question with alternative opportunities.
Ultimately, we are looking to understand your job search as well as possible so the more info I get, the better! Even rejecting an approach is a step in the right direction to building a relationship with a recruiter.
To find out more, don’t hesitate to contact Andy Larkin at andylarkin@3search.co.uk. Andy Larkin heads up our CRM and Retention marketing recruitment function, establishing himself over the past two and a half years as an authority in matching talent and great roles in this space. He has worked with large institutional brands like The Financial Times and Thomson Reuters, and an array of thriving VC backed businesses such as Mindful Chef, Trussle, and Photobox.
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3Search is an award-winning UK recruitment consultancy, specialising in marketing, strategy & transformation, and tech positions. Whether you’re seeking new talent or looking for your next career move, we can help.
