Bench beckoning

[SueEllen]

Don't get all the complaints about LinkedIn. Anywhere you put yourself out there to find jobs, agents will be looking to find you, or more likely your past clients. Just ignore their requests, that's what I do... or sometimes reply a quick "sorry but I only link with people I've worked with" line.

If you sign up, ignore it for 6 months and then a mate asks you to link to them only to find 200 agents want to link to you then you would think it's a sh*t site.

[Old Greg]

If your ex-colleagues are indicating that you have skills that you can fit into more roles then you will either need to be able to tailor one of your CVs very quickly, or have more than 2 versions ready.

You are right, and I will put together 2 skills based rather than industry based CVs. But I want to think it over first and see how I feel about leaving my niche.

Thanks again.

OG

[Old Greg]

Last ditch attempts by permie colleagues to get me an extension failed so have been on the bench for 3 weeks.

Things have changed in many ways since I was last on the bench nearly 2 years ago. Then, I put my CV on Monster and got offers of interviews until I got one that I liked. Happy days.

Now, the Monster trick is presumably old hat and doesn't work. The job boards have very little NHS related and it seems that agencies are not bothering to advertise as they get 200+ CVs for each ad, most of them irrelevant.

So, I'm cultivating relationships with agents, and weeding out the useless (to me) and concentrating on those that are likely to get me a shiny contract. But it is possible that I am deluding myself and wasting my time. We'll see.

I've joined linkedin and it's not a bad tool, but I'm not convinced I will find a contract through it.

Other than that, I am doing plenty of cycling (or 'playing on my bike' as Mrs OG prefers to call it), keeping the house tidy, and having Mrs OG's dindins ready on the table when she gets home from earning money. Otherwise, I fear she will have me sold on the be boiled down into glue just like the pigs did to Boxer at then end of Animal Farm.

Any other ideas / views of the market welcome!

All the best

OG

[administrator]

Nice to see you back OG but would rather you were busy and in contract.

Is Monster the only Job Board you have uploaded your CV to? Also put it on Jobserve, CW, Technojobs, PlanetRecruit etc. Different recruitment agencies use different boards so don't limit yourself just to Monster which is more of a generic than IT specialist board.

Make sure you log in to your job board accounts and re-upload your CV every week or so, even if it is the same CV, as a lot of the CV searching systems on job boards allow recruiters to search for recently active candidates so doing this will keep your profile at the top of the pile.

As stated before have more than one CV but if you do this then I would go as far as signing up for multiple accounts with each job board and tailor that account to the market you are targetting as some boards list only one CV for recruiters to search against so to be as visible as possible this could be worth doing.

Good luck.

[Glazza]

Last ditch attempts by permie colleagues to get me an extension failed so have been on the bench for 3 weeks.

Things have changed in many ways since I was last on the bench nearly 2 years ago. Then, I put my CV on Monster and got offers of interviews until I got one that I liked. Happy days.

Now, the Monster trick is presumably old hat and doesn't work. The job boards have very little NHS related and it seems that agencies are not bothering to advertise as they get 200+ CVs for each ad, most of them irrelevant.

So, I'm cultivating relationships with agents, and weeding out the useless (to me) and concentrating on those that are likely to get me a shiny contract. But it is possible that I am deluding myself and wasting my time. We'll see.

I've joined linkedin and it's not a bad tool, but I'm not convinced I will find a contract through it.

Other than that, I am doing plenty of cycling (or 'playing on my bike' as Mrs OG prefers to call it), keeping the house tidy, and having Mrs OG's dindins ready on the table when she gets home from earning money. Otherwise, I fear she will have me sold on the be boiled down into glue just like the pigs did to Boxer at then end of Animal Farm.

Any other ideas / views of the market welcome!

All the best

OG

The market has definitely changed. I've been out for 3 weeks, had 4 interviews and got didley squat. Obviously the CV is okay, my interview routine is the same as previously (very high strike rate) but there seems to be a lot of good people out there at the moment.

The agencies are providing the normal unprofessional service - you have to chase them to find out the verdict and any feedback (which obviously I desperately need). Tired of waiting after the first interview, I phoned the interviewer to be told the agency had been informed on the same day that the contract had been offered elsewhere i.e. I had been left in limbo for 3 to 4 days anxiously waiting! It's been a week since the 3rd interview and still nothing from the agent - he's always on the other line or out of the office. I presume it is a no but hey I'm like the Godfather, I like to hear bad news straight away - in his case to find a horse's head, in mine to get on to the next opportunity.

[lukemg]

You will worry yourself sick with this, you need to cut it loose. Feedback is a waste of time, client is unlikely to give any (they just preferred someone else, I never gave anything useful when I was interviewing). Agency will just fob you off with they really liked you but they just had someone who has worked there before come in etc etc.
If they say they are putting you forward - forget until they call with interview.
If you go to interview - Forget until they call.
You already know it's a no after 24 hours why bother chasing some chump to hear it.

[Old Greg]

Nice to see you back OG but would rather you were busy and in contract.

Is Monster the only Job Board you have uploaded your CV to? Also put it on Jobserve, CW, Technojobs, PlanetRecruit etc. Different recruitment agencies use different boards so don't limit yourself just to Monster which is more of a generic than IT specialist board.

Make sure you log in to your job board accounts and re-upload your CV every week or so, even if it is the same CV, as a lot of the CV searching systems on job boards allow recruiters to search for recently active candidates so doing this will keep your profile at the top of the pile.

As stated before have more than one CV but if you do this then I would go as far as signing up for multiple accounts with each job board and tailor that account to the market you are targetting as some boards list only one CV for recruiters to search against so to be as visible as possible this could be worth doing.

Good luck.

Thanks Administrator (is that your real name? I'm wondering inf like Mulder, even your Mum calls you 'Administrator').

I have two CVs, one Business Change without IT and one IT, but I hadn't thought of setting up two accounts.

I will give the other job boards a go, but I am doing less and less IT work as time passes and my last contract was about 15% IT configuration and the rest business change. I expect that trend to contine as NHS projects requiring contractors are less and less about 'Come and help us spend a big pile of money' and more about 'Come and help us save a big pile of money'.

I will give the other sites a go for uploading my CV, although totaljobs and jobsite seem better line of work at the moment. We shall see.

[Old Greg]

You will worry yourself sick with this, you need to cut it loose. Feedback is a waste of time, client is unlikely to give any (they just preferred someone else, I never gave anything useful when I was interviewing). Agency will just fob you off with they really liked you but they just had someone who has worked there before come in etc etc.
If they say they are putting you forward - forget until they call with interview.
If you go to interview - Forget until they call.
You already know it's a no after 24 hours why bother chasing some chump to hear it.

Unfortunately I agree with this. We need to remember that the agency is providing a service to the client, not to us. Still a pain though.

Best of luck all.

[lje]

I block people from seeing my contacts in Linked In and then I accept agents. It means that they can't use their connection with me to find my contacts but they can find me if they want to offer me work. It does mean that no-one else can see my contacts either though.

I have had a couple of companies contact me directly just through searching on Linked In. It's another marketing tool, why not use it?

[Bunk]

I block people from seeing my contacts in Linked In and then I accept agents. It means that they can't use their connection with me to find my contacts but they can find me if they want to offer me work. It does mean that no-one else can see my contacts either though.

I have had a couple of companies contact me directly just through searching on Linked In. It's another marketing tool, why not use it?

I wish LinkedIn would let you assign various levels of privacy to certain contacts, ie. agents like Facebook does. I want my real contacts to be able to see each other and I'd still like to have some agents connected to me in case they have something useful for me but I don't want them harassing my current and ex-colleagues or friends.