Last month I secured a new job! But not without the challenge of dealing with those recruitment ‘specialists’. As I described in my first commentary job hunting is hard enough without the lack of any response whatsoever. And those impersonal automated declines are just annoying. You do start to feel a little down and it is difficult to keep going with a positive spin on the whole process.

However, I persevered and with a little tweeking of that cover letter I actually got in front of a recruitment specialist. Or thats what I thought did the trick! What followed was an interesting turn of events…let me tell you more.

Quite by accident I actually applied for the same job twice, and to seperate recruitment companies. Within 1/2 an hour of sending my re-worked masterpiece of a cover letter and CV, my mobile phone rang, and after chatting an appointment was made to meet the following day. 

I duly met a young man in the Auckland CBD, who was engaging and interested in what I had been doing and what I was looking for moving forward. He sent my CV to the hiring company and I interviewed the following week. During this time I received not one but two automated email responses from the other recruitment company. You know the ones: ‘your application has been received and sent to the appropriate consultant who will be in touch”. They arrived in my in-box at 4.18am? I thought it odd.

Anyway along to the interviews which progressed well – both of them! And I was offered a role. 

The day after accepting the role I received an email from the other recruitment company saying the job had been withdrawn! I was slightly amused, but upon reflection decided to call the company and speak to the ‘specialist’.

I learnt that the so-called recruitment specialist had not even read my well-crafted cover letter which had described how I could make a difference to this company with my skills and experience – she had skimmed my CV and made a decision based on the that alone that I was over-qualified? After talking together she admitted she had made an assumption and got it wrong. She thanked me for calling her – I felt better for doing it – a small victory for all those people out there that had been treated poorly – perhaps she would be more attentive moving forward?

Ironically, after starting in my new job, I discovered that my new boss was only appointed two or so months previously. And guess what, I had applied of that role too! And never heard from that same recruitment company. Another missed opportunity? 

So , what is the moral to the story you may be thinking?

1. Do, craft your cover letter, keep it simple, and to the point.
2. Do, talk about your skills that will add value to the company in your cover letter
   
3. Keep you CV comprehensive – they seemed to prefer this to my one-pager?
4. And after you apply online, call those recruitment specialists, leave messages, and when they don’t respond call them again. If you believe that job is right for you and you are right for that company, persevere!

Happy job hunting xx