State of the Market

[Robinho]

I'm rubbish at doing this, and is something I'm going to work on

I absolutely despised networking and it completely tripped me up after coming out of a 2 year contract at the start of COVID. Everything had moved to LinkedIn, a site which i had about 5 connections on.

[GJABS]

I might try this, next week. Nothing to lose. Never done it this way before tbh, just applied for roles and if they like me, they will call. It's worked so far, bar the last 2years

Definitely do it.

Just this morning I called the switchboard of the agency for a role I had applied for last week, and asked to be put through to the agent named on the ad. He took the call and we had a good chat where I just expressed an interest in more details about the role. He said 150 people had applied for the role, but I didn't get the impression he was being hounded with calls. It makes sense that this call was likely to have put me ahead of other applicants (although I ultimately rejected the role because it turned out to be a mainly python coding gig, and my python is too light). And I'm no high-flyer.

[willendure]

It's still worth trying a call though. I got my last gig by phoning the switchboard of an agency after seeing a Jobserve ad which had no contact details and actually got put through to the agent to my surprise.

That is what I always do - phone the switchboard and politely ask for the person. Unfortunately more and more it is common to be told they are working from home, and they won't give out a personal number. But a lot of the time, this still works just fine.

[dsc]

[...]It makes sense that this call was likely to have put me ahead of other applicants [...]

Or it would've made absolutely no difference and you've had a chat. Depends on the agent, on your skills etc.

[SussexSeagull]

Or it would've made absolutely no difference and you've had a chat. Depends on the agent, on your skills etc.

At worst it wouldn't have done them any harm.

[ascender]

Definitely do it.

Just this morning I called the switchboard of the agency for a role I had applied for last week, and asked to be put through to the agent named on the ad. He took the call and we had a good chat where I just expressed an interest in more details about the role. He said 150 people had applied for the role, but I didn't get the impression he was being hounded with calls. It makes sense that this call was likely to have put me ahead of other applicants (although I ultimately rejected the role because it turned out to be a mainly python coding gig, and my python is too light). And I'm no high-flyer.

I always do this if I notice a listing for a position where I know I'm a great fit based on the role spec. I'll submit the CV but follow it up with a call to the agent. I think it helps you and them - they don't like sifting through hundreds of CVs - and if you are genuinely a good fit they're usually grateful for the heads-up.

[TheDude]

I accepted a rate that is my lowest ever and £75 a day lower than my first ever contract in 2013.

It's outside, I'll still be able to shop at Waitrose and I might as well be earning whilst waiting for things to improve.

[dsc]

At worst it wouldn't have done them any harm.

For sure, but I'd argue (like ascender has already above) that you need to somehow stand out from all the others, either be a superb match, or perhaps worked with the client before etc.

[willendure]

For sure, but I'd argue (like ascender has already above) that you need to somehow stand out from all the others, either be a superb match, or perhaps worked with the client before etc.

Yes - being pushy on its own is just going to annoy people. But having great skills and not promoting yourself is also not going to help you. So I would say that I also am only tracking agents down and getting them on the phone in cases where I can see that I am an obvious match to the job.

I also agree it can be helpful for them too. Cold calling like this often starts out with them being a little cautious or skeptical. 90% of the time when I call they have not even seen my CV yet, even if its 1 or 2 days after sending it. Since I know this is frequently the case, I usually start with that as the reason for calling. Things tend start with them mumbling as they hunt around in their inbox to find my CV. Then once they open it and I point to some of my experience which happens to be highly relevant to the current JD, they mostly warm up pretty quickly.

Occasionally I get knocked back immediately - often because there is some important piece of experience that the client wants that I do not have. But that is ok and still helpful to call and find that out, because a typical JD may not make clear what the red line is. Sometimes "essential experience" turns out to only be "desirable", there is some degree of flexibility in most JDs and it takes the human element in the form of a good recruiter to know. If I get knocked back, I will politely accept that, and ask the agent to file my CV in case something that better matches me should come up.

Often agents have a short list of 3 or 5 CVs that they are allowed to submit to the client. Seems like today they are getting 300 or 500 CVs for each position, so you need the right skills and a bit of gentle pursuasion to get onto the short list.

Also a reason why I despise LinkedIn - no-one gives out a phone number on LI. Too much reliance on algorithms to find and filter candidates. That might be different if the social/chat features of that site were better, there might be some chance of developing a more genuine sense of community there. On the whole I don't see how LI fosters social connections the whole thing just feels a bit off to me.

[SchumiStars]

Market is dead. It's been 2yrs.

I think it's going to require some sort of magical IT product to get it all going again and get the tech companies to wake up.

Maybe the next WhatsApp, Mobile Phone Advancement or tech boom.

The way it's going at the moment, it looks another 12mths of this tulip at least.

I do wonder sometimes if the entire universe has conspired to work against me. And yes, I do take it personally