An attractive job advertisement is both informative and visual and it aims at grabbing one’s attention. In addition, it has to clearly show what is required, in other words, what kind of a person and talent the company is searching for. It is the job seekers’ responsibility to read the announcement carefully and, at the same time, estimate whether they might be suitable for the job. In this, self-knowledge is essential, such as knowing your strengths. Job seekers should remember that employers are simply trying to find the most qualified talents to join their team. My advice for other students who are looking for a job is: remember to stay realistic. I have seen many of my friends devastated after learning that they did not get the job they had applied for. Usually, they were reaching out for the most ambitious and desirable job available. Moreover, for many this has not occurred only once but instead many times in a row. It is crucial to have a realistic understanding of your skills even as a beginner. The higher your expectations are, the bigger the disappointment. In order to stay competitive among other employers, a company must take good care of its job seeker experience. Bad experience is not far from bad reputation. In the era of social media, negative experiences turn into rumours that spread quickly. Firstly, communication is the number one thing the company needs to succeed in. Secondly, recruiters must keep in mind that they can have a significant positive impact on the company’s image by being committed to their job, which covers far more than discovering skilled individuals. Every job interview is a sales situation where the recruiter can affect the job seeker’s understanding on the company as an employer. The interviewee has probably had the first impression in advance through social media, friends and family, but it is the face-to-face interactions that count. Lately, artificial intelligence has become one of the biggest trends in recruitment. AI is making recruitment more efficient by automating low level tasks, which enables recruiting professionals to focus on making decisions. In my opinion, AI is a great way of compensating some of the easier tasks in the process and making the recruitment process smoother by providing job applicants with information about the progress of the process. AI is definitely changing recruitment and it is at its best when it helps HR professionals find new ways to process data more effectively. According to the panellists in the April 2018 event organized by the SMErec project, AI is definitely a part of today’s recruitment. It is a working tool for recruiters with a help of which they are able to get 56
acquainted with their applicants well before the actual interview takes place. It is never easy to make the final decision of who gets the job. With more resources to do the research on their applicants, recruiters are more likely to make better decisions. Companies can make themselves more desirable as employers by comprehending job seeker experience is, in fact, a competitive factor. Nowadays, building networks has become more and more important in business. The power of networks can help in a situation where an applicant has failed to get the job despite being a suitable candidate. In such cases, recruiters can not only recommend the applicant to participate in the company’s next recruiting process but also mention that their partner organization may have interesting jobs available. In this way, the recruiters promote an optimistic atmosphere on both sides. All in all, recruiting cannot be professional unless it has enough resources to work with, because the nature of recruitment is so multi-dimensional. In addition to effective and transparent recruiting capabilities, recruiters need to constantly develop their selling and communication skills. And, as mentioned before, AI is only a part of the puzzle – it is the people who make the decisions. 5 tips for job seekers 1. Know your strengths. That guides you towards jobs that fit you. 2. Do your research properly. It makes you well prepared. 3. List your complete work history on your CV. It gives a better impression to employers. 4. Focus on expressing what kind of value you bring to the organization. 5. Remember that being late is not an option. 5 tips for recruiters 1. Make sure that potential applicants find your job advertisement. 2. Create a job advertisement that gets the attention. 3. Utilize data and social media effectively. 4. Treat your applicants as customers by keeping them updated and staying truthful to them during the complete process. 5. Explain as systematically as you can why someone is not suitable for the position. In this way you highlight the whole process as a learning experience and, at the same time, support your company’s image in a positive way.
Journal of Excellence in Sales
2/2018