Executive Job Seekers' Biggest Mistakes

With the UK economy showing little sign of emerging from recession in 2009 the job market is still tough going especially for high earning executives as companies are becoming increasingly selective when making executive level hires and the interview process becomes ever more intense and prolonged.
When we recently helped a senior IT professional back into the work place we found that an article posted on Forbes.com proved a real help

Executive Job Seekers’ Biggest Mistakes

The main points highlighted in this article are extremely helpful and should be adopted when conducting your job search whether you are embarking on your first role since leaving university or seasoned campaigner within your industry sector.

For reference keep these points in mind when conducting your job search:

1. Candidates are poorly prepared, ensure thorough interview preparation

2. Ensure your CV is well constructed, develop a strong brand identity and USP

3. Don’t not appear desperate

4. Keep answers to questions concise and to the point

5. Pay attention to information covered in the interview, try not to keep going over “old ground”

6. Don’t apply for roles you are over qualified for

7. Follow up interviews with a thank you email and letter

For more helpful information to help you succeed in your job search then visit

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to view our latest list of vacancies.

Talent Emporium provides transparent, low cost flat fee and fixed price recruitment solutions enabling companies to make multiple hires for the same role from a 4 week recruitment campaign. With our entry level recruitment solution starting at just £500+VAT we are guaranteed to slash you recruitment costs by thousands, the first time you use us.

Twitter-Enhance your career with TweetDeck

Since our last blog post “Twitter-Enhance your career” we have been contacted by numerous job seekers who decided to follow our advice on using Twitter as a powerful job search tool. However, many have come back to us highlighting the difficulty they are having keep abreast of tweets that contain job postings as well as following recruiters and companies hiring directly.

The solution is simple and should have been mentioned in our initial post, sign up for TweetDeck www.tweetdeck.com. TweetDeck is a simple and fast way to experience Twitter, it enables its user to efficiently organise twitter information by filtering people you are following into groups, and with a click on the mouse you can interact with other Twitter users by retweeting and DMing contacts.

TweetDeck also enables its user to run real-time searches using Boolean technology, a great way to ensure you do not miss any job opportunities that may be of interest.

Talent Emporium is a flat fee recruitment provider that employs the latest web 2.0, social media, online advertising and good old fashioned networking to provide a low fee, flat fee recruitment solution. We are so confident in our ability to deliver talented individuals to your company we offer a 100% refund if we can not fill you vacancy.

To see how our flat fee recruitment solution starting at £500 could save your company £1000s contact us info@talentemporium.com

Talent Management-steroid powered job search

Fed up with recruiters who try and pump you for information on where you are interviewing and who your line manager is? Like to know which companies local to you need your skills? Then our Talent Management offering may be what you are looking for!

Talent Emporium is looking to change the world of recruitment by offering a flat fee recruitment solution to clients and an individually tailored Talent Management offering to job seekers across the UK and Ireland.

Our Talent Management offering is a STEROID powered job search which will cut out the middleman (i.e. the recruiter) and decrease the time of hire ensuring you find your next role, quicker with the minimum of fuss. Our Talent Management offering provides:

CV clinic to ensure maximum impact when it lands in the clients inbox

Articles of improving your job search, networking and interview techniques

Individually tailored list of companies hiring in your area

Individually tailored shortlist of hiring managers within your specific industry

CV proactively marketed to an individually derived list of employers

Talent Emporium’s Talent Management offering is guaranteed to save weeks from you finding your next job and thousands of pounds if you are out of work.

For more information on our Talent Management offering contact us info@talentemporium.com

Illegal Interview Questions

As the recession bites and competition for jobs is on the increase you may find yourself having to answer more probing questions from your future employer which may not always be on the right side of the law. This was the experience of one of our candidates who had recently been on interview.

During interview it is important for both employer and candidate to gain as much information as possible of either party to ensure the correct decision is made and the right candidate is hired for the job. However, during the process it is important that the correct questions take place, questions that probe applicants qualifications, education, experience, past times and availability. But, all too often in an employers attempt to get to know the applicant they begin to probe areas which are off limits!

Questions relating to family, marital status and children seem relatively harmless on the surface but are definitely a non no! And this type of questioning seems to be more pertinent to female applicants.

How do you deal with questions outside the law?

More often than not candidates are unaware of employment law and even if there were they may put themselves at risk of loosing the job they are interviewing for they are not prepared to answer the questions at hand.

An approach would be to determine if there is any bad intention on the part of the employer, if you believe there is none, and then provide a direct answer to the question at hand. However, if you believe there is bad intention then focus on the relevance of the question to the job qualifications and role on offer and look to switch attention to you qualifications, experience and your suitability for the role.

Talent Emporium provide SME’s and Blue Chip organisation with a flat fee online recruitment solution. We enable companies to make multiples hires from a 4-week recruitment campaign starting at just £500, helping companies save £1000’s on their recruitment spend.

For more information on our £500, £750 or £1250 flat fee recruitment solutions please email info@talentemporium.com for more information

Networking Tips for Job Seekers

1. Focus on networking with your warmest contacts and peers

2. Set clear objectives of what you are looking to gain from networking

3. Give More and take less! Generosity is Key share ideas, resources, and contacts

4. Be yourself

5. Ask lots of open questions - who? what? how? when?

6. Network with a wide range of contacts outside your immediate connections

7. Ensure you have a consistent online presence and are using social media platforms to establish an online brand (Eg LinkedIn.com, Twitter, Facebook)

8. Take a genuine interest in other people, their challenges and their goals (and not just your own needs)

9. You have two years and 1 mouth, listen twice as much as you talk

10. Focus on the quality of relationships rather than the number of contacts you've got

11. Keep asking "How can I help you?" rather than "How can you help me?

12. Share and help others without expecting anything back

13. Limit the time you spend on social media platforms. They can easily distract you from the main goal of finding a job.

14. Think long term relationships rather than short term gain

Dealing with redundancy

The old adage of a job is for life certainly looks as if it has gone out of the window as companies are now in a constant state of flux as they are shaped by a multitude of external factors and are continually having to evolve to maintain competitive edge and stay afloat which often results in down sizing, staff cuts and redundancies.

If you are one of many who find their job is now redundant, DO NOT take it personally and try to take keep the following in mind:

Grieve
Loosing your jobs is certainly a traumatic experience as most of us spend more time in work during the week than any other activity. So if you are in the unfortunate position of loosing your job this may impact on your mental and physical wellbeing in a similar way to the passing of a family member. Remember it is not your fault, give yourself time to put events into perspective and then begin to construct a work plan to get back into the work place as soon as possible.

Work Pan
Studies show that high proportions of us actually dislike our job so redundancy can provide the impetuous, to re-invent yourself and look to explore new industries and career paths. Redundancy may provide the ideal opportunity to re-skill or cross-train in order to follow that new career you have been thinking about for some time!Work on your USPTake time to work out your Unique Selling Point, what makes you stand out as an individual and more importantly why an employer will hire you over another candidate in the market. Once you have established your USP, your strengths, core values and what you can offer, look to consistently market your personal brand and USP both on and offline. There are a wealth of social media and networking tools for you to market your USP and personal brand to the widest possible audience, ensure you are conveying a consistent message and your profiles contain as much up to date information as possible.CV/Resume creationI have read numerous online articles about the death of the CV or Resume as people create online video content for employers to view, but do not under estimate the power of a well crafted CV or Resume. A well crafted CV is an opportunity to create a powerful marketing document that highlights professional expertise and experience through your success and achievements. Your CV or Resume is your opportunity to build on your USP and personal brand to make an overwhelming first impression, opening the door to an interview.

Market Knowledge
As they say “knowledge is key!” and that is so true when you are embarking on your job search. Treat your job search as a full time job, take time each day to research the specific industry you are targeting, keep abreast of major industry news and study key players within your chosen industry. In our previous article we discussed the importance of networking, both on and offline put these principles into practice to ensure you are a knock out candidate when you are called for an interview.

Company Research
When you get that call for an interview be prepared! Find out as much as possible about the company you are interviewing with firstly to establish if they are the correct fit for you and secondly so you can demonstrate your company knowledge as well as being able to construct a set of well crafted questions to ask the interviewing panel.

Interviewers like a candidate who has done their research and a set of well crafted relevant questions about the company, competitors, up coming projects etc is a sure way to demonstrate you are on the top of your game and an excellent way to demonstrate your ability to perform.


Talent Emporium is a leader in providing flat fee online recruitment solutions enabling companies to hire multiple candidates from a 4 week individually tailored recruitment campaign with offerings at £500, £750 and £1250.

Talent Emporium also has a unique candidate offering, our Talent Management service provides a CV clinic, targeted CV marketing campaign, industry and location specific employment news. To find out more about either our client our Talent Management offerings please contact us at info@talentemporium.com