Calling all employees and employers! If I had a dollar for every time I heard “to be honest though…” ¾ of the way into a placement…

It doesn’t do anyone (client or candidate) any good to ‘beat around the bush’ or ‘paint the ideal picture’. So, let’s be honest about your wants, needs, salary expectations, technical capabilities, and even those little value adds that are important to you but may seem petty overall, because that is what will make you 110% happy.

In a candidate short market, we recruiters need to know everything from the very start of the recruitment process. Whether you are a candidate who has just been made redundant or a client who has had significant change in the business creating a distinct and palatable energy in the office; we need to know in order to provide you the best service possible.

For example (I love analogies), you walk into a car dealership and explain to the sales person the ‘ideal’ car you want but purposefully leave out that you need a car that can go 0 to 60 in 3 seconds flat as you know it is going to be expensive. Sure, you pay less, but you’re not getting what you need , so what’s the point?

From the employee perspective:

Recruiters need to know that you want the Ferrari of jobs, that you have specific goals in order to fast track your career. It’s okay. As a matter of fact, it’s fantastic to find candidates with such ambition and drive. We love that and so will a prospective company; the right company that is. If we find your perfect job for now but there is no room to grow it will leave you with a resume that looks jumpy and as if you have no stability or loyalty with any one company. However, if you are honest from the start, yes it may take slightly longer, but in the end it will save you a load of heartache and trips to the mechanics.

From the employer perspective:

As mentioned previously, we are in a candidate short market which means the good ones don’t stick around for long, even the passive ones. I am sure you didn’t need to read this blog to know that. However, if we don’t know that you require a ‘high performance vehicle’ from the very start and you want to ‘test drive’ the market at a lower salary range to ‘see what you can get’ just know you might miss out on the perfect candidate. I understand we all have budgets to maintain, but consider what the cost of a poor performing employee might be. Perhaps your ISO accreditation? Losing a massive tender? You can’t expect to get the performance & elegance of a BMW when you purchase a Toyota – especially not in today’s market.

The responsibility should not lie solely on the employee or employer. Recruitment consultants are not only tasked with matching key competencies with position descriptions; we are there to consult. Consult with the employees and find out what makes them tick and investigate what gets them excited to wake up go to work every day. Consult with employers on where they have had issues in the past and what their money will get them in today’s market.

So, to be honest…

Your wants and needs are not a luxury car, to be honest, they are so much more. Each application, interview, recruitment consultant meeting should be valued, as it is your time and energy. Just like The Radicals once said, “We only get what we give”.