4 years ago, at the end of January
Job hunting in london
Posted by pbirnie under technology
Here is the summary of job hunting tips that I typed up in 1999 when I first arrived in london.
---- start of email --
firstly recommend you buy a copy of "what color is you parachute" book and read though the interview chapter - you could actually read it in the book store:)
So far I have learnt:
- - If the company skips a phone interview, this is a good sign.
- - If the interview lasts more than an hour, this is a good sign.
- - If the interviewer asks what you availability is, this is a good sign.
- - Try and find out what they want you to do before you start going through
- your CV, this way you know what to highlight.
- - Get an understanding of why they picked you out of the millions of applicants, highlight these skills and perhaps readup/refresh them.
I had one or more phone conversations with over 80 agents working for
around 40 agencies. Getting your first contract is the hardest. Finding
work in London is not easy. I found that with my CV having mainly
telecomms and engineering type of work on it was a hindrance. Most/all of
the engineering companies are outside of London, which is not where you
want to be during summer since there is so much going on ( all of the
outside music concerts are compressed into about 4 months of summer). One
of the interviews I had and pulled out of was with Raycal recorders who
are the equivalent of Datafusion in Stellenbosh (A very good engineering
company). Apparently its quite a big deal to get an interview with them.
There were 2 problems - first Southampton is two hours from London, and
second the pay is much lower that what I am getting working as a test
scripter in London.
As Miguel, my friend, pointed out you need to keep your pipeline full of
possible jobs. A large number of jobs get filled internally by contractors
or permanent staff - I think this based on the principle that “the devil
you know is better that the devil you dont”. There are so many CVs for a
particular job that the agencies and companies filter CVs based on number
of months experience in a field. Obviously what happens is that the
contractors learn to lie (or perhaps you should just call it bend the
truth). Blatant lying could get you into trouble. So you have to compete
with 23 year olds with 15 years of experience in C++, Java and SQL Server
- the months of experience on their CV is customised for the job they are
applying for.
There are a couple tricks I have picked up:
1) In the morning email your CV to the agencies with jobs that match you
skills. Use a standard email letter but customise the letter so that it
has the agents first name at the top. Give an overview of your skills in
the email (e.g. 4 years C++, OOA/OOD/OOP), enough to make them interested
and to double click on your CV. The first thing an agent want to see in
you CV is a table with a list of your skills and how many months you have
used it for. I purposely do not have the months experience listed because
it may be to my advantage to vary duration’s that I worked with a
particular product. (This forces them to phone you since they cant be
bothered to calculate the months themselves plus they need you permission
to forward you CV to the company). BT have a system whereby you can have a
answering service connected to you home phone - this is essential when you
are looking for work. [now days mobile phones are easy to get - so this does not apply anymore]
[Also after the dot com crash - emailing agents did not work at all - too many CVs and not enough jobs. I relied on the network of people I had worked with previously to find a job. Nowdays, I would start with my network of friends and then look at jobserve. Sites like linkedin.com change the dynamics of job hunt by referral significantly]
With permanent positions companies are prepared to train you up on a
product, but with contracting they want you to be productive instantly -
In reality if you have enough brains and have worked with something
similar you can pick it up in a couple of days (work some extra hours
after hours and dont bill the client). But you cant do that if you dont
have a job so you may have to lie get a job.
2) When the agent phones you and reads the job spec, sum up as much
enthusiasm as you can and say “Wow thats amazing that really matches my
skill set!”. Bear in mind that most agents are out of work estate agents
and should be regarded with the same level of scepticism.
They actually hinder you in getting a job. You end up with a broken telephone effect,
where the client is technical and knows what he wants - You are technical
and know what skill you have and in the middle you have this .. person who
has no technical knowledge and simply working on a bit of pattern
recognition. I cant tell you how many times I have been asked how much
experience do I have in Corba and then how much in Orbix. Or How much
experience I have in JBuilder or Symantec Visual Cafe and then how much in
Java. Do you have ess-double you, eye, en, geee experience (SWING is
pronounced “swing”). Is that Java 1.1 or Java 1.2 ? What version or
Oracle was that? Aaah!!!!
3) Avoid saying that you have no experience in a skill - For example
have you worked with an Object Orientated Database like Object store - Say
you worked with a proprietary version - Which in my case is sort of true.
Otherwise say “No not commercially” or “I evaluated that product for a
project but we decided not to use it”.
4) Be aware of the tactics that agencies use. Bulling tactics include: if
you go to the interview, you must accept the clients offer (if there is
one), if the contract is 6 months you may not pull out/give notice but the client may give you 1 months notice
(contract will not hold up in court).
Agent asks : Have you got anything else on the go ?
Means: Should I bother spending any effort on you since you may have a job
offer that you are waiting for. Also this leads to the next question if
you say yes.
Agent asks: Have you been to any interviews ?
Means: Please can you give me a list of other companies that I can email
CVs to.
Agent asks: Oh yes, I have worked with them before, was that interview
with <insert fake name here>?
Means: I need the name of the project manager too.
Agent asks: Where else has your CV been sent to ?
Means: 2 things :
- I need to avoid sending your CV to this company - Most clients get
very pissed off with duplicate CVs from different agencies. ( Also agents
spend time pushing your CV only to find out when you get the job that
another agency put you CV forward first and they get the commission) - Please can you give me a list of companies I can start to pressure for
work
Agents ask: So where will you be working (After telling them you have a
job)
Means: Please can you give me a company I can start to pressure for work
Agents ask: Oh, what company was that at?
Means: Please can you give me a company I can start to pressure for work
I had one agent screaming at me over the phone because my CV had already
been submitted to the company from another agency. Many of the agencies
will not tell you the name of the company that they are sending your CV to
since they are worried that you will leak it to other agencies. (NOTE: It does
not pay you to do this if you have supplied your CV as it puts you up
against more competition).
If you get rejected on an interview, phone the interviewer up and find out
what was wrong - you can work on your interview technique / CV etc if you
have more information. The first job I went for (a dream Java project) ,
I found that one of the main reasons I didn’t get the job was that my
agent put me in at too high a rate - something she did not tell me when
she told me the bad news. She still phones me and is very friendly.
Agencies should get between 15 and 20% commission on your rate. If you are
getting? 30 pounds per hour that are charging the client 30 pounds * 1.15%.
[some people would say this is 14-19% too much]
Hope you found this interesting - mainly wanted to document it for when I
need to start searching for work in a couple of months time - I am also
considering putting it on a web page.
[now I have]
The Twenty Most Common Reasons Why Candidates Fail At
Interviews
- Poor personal appearance
- Overbearing, over-aggressive, too confident
- Inability to express themselves clearly
- Lack of career planning - no purpose and goals
- Unenthusiastic
- Lack of confidence and poor poise i.e. slouching in your chair
- Too much emphasis on money - do not discuss salary
- Evasive and excuse-making
- Interrupting the interviewer and not listening
- Criticises former employers
- Fails to look interviewer in the eye
- Poor first impression - limp hand - shake
- Appearing indecisive
- No sport, hobbies, or activity holidays
- No interest in the company or marketplace
- Intolerant - strong prejudices or dogmatic
- Late to interview
- Ask no questions about the job
- Very long, torturous answers
- Failure to be polite and thank the interviewer for their time
-- end of email --
