How sociable are you?

Pic: Lisa, Pexels

In today’s current market place everyone can be found online, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, no matter what age group you are from. If you want to find a job, you need to get social!

LinkedIn has over 200 million members with new members registering every two seconds. LinkedIn is an exceptional ‘live’ database with many members updating their LinkedIn profile before their CV. With LinkedIn now offering recruiter solutions it has become easier for recruiters to expand their reach and connect with passive candidates. As a result of this, many recruitment agencies have stopped using their own in-house candidate database in favour of LinkedIn. 

There has been a decline in adverts being published; mostly due to social media recruitment, online advertising and better networks, therefore jobs are not required to be published in magazines. Companies are hiring directly and in addition they are offering substantial referral fees to employees for recommending friends. As the market recovers, companies are likely to have budget for advertising and this will certainly pick up.

“What many candidates do not realise is that the volume of jobs is still out there; in fact the trend is that there is 12% more jobs now than this time last year, they are just not in the usual places. Now the landscape has changed. Yes, you will still speak to the market’s tax recruitment specialists but you also need be ‘social media’ aware.” Says Pat Keogh Managing Director at Pro Recruitment. Pro-Tax is one of the UK’s leading tax recruitment agents and are preferred suppliers to the Big 4, Top 100 accountancy practices, the FTSE 100 and 250 and leading Investment and Retail Banks.

The ‘old fashioned recruiter’ will always have significance in the hiring process who has strong client relationships and networks – social media will not be enough for a client to replace them. Recruiters need to adapt to a shifting market, engage in social media and recognise that clients will try and recruit directly. Candidates should still speak to their recruitment agent(s) but also to be available online, even if you are not actively looking. Pro-Tax found that over 30% of new hires simply were headhunted or were approached and decided to move. As the economy improves we will see more tax jobs advertised via agency or hard copy, but for now candidates need ensure they are maximising the use of all the various channels that they may be recruited by, and ensure they are visible and social.