Top-Consultant Director and Co-Founder, Tony Restell talks -- Is Linked In the answer?

This is an interesting article posted in defence of recruitment consultancies on TOP CONSULTANT.COM
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It would require a fool to say that little has changed technologically in the last years to impact those looking for a new career. Yet whilst social media can certainly play a part in a jobseeker’s strategy in 2010, it’s equally true that its role is overstated. So to kick off 2010 I’m sharing my five wake-up calls for those about to embark on the search for a new career.


Five wake-up calls for your 2010 job hunt


1) You will NOT be headhunted on LinkedIn by direct employers

Remember ten years ago when it was foreseen that internet job boards spelt the end of the recruitment agency? The sheer reach and cost-effectiveness of the medium meant that recruitment agencies stood no chance of surviving in the new digital world. Well that proved to be a highly simplistic and ultimately inaccurate representation of what has since come to pass.

The 2010 equivalent of this concerns the likely role of LinkedIn. Media hype in the last 12-18 months would have you believe that employers will soon not need to engage recruitment agencies or advertise on job boards – because everyone they could possibly want to employ can be freely researched and contacted via the LinkedIn platform. I could write a lengthy and passionate piece about why this is never likely to be the case, just as ten years’ ago I could have written one about why recruitment agencies would survive and thrive. But let me just present the facts rather than the justifications.

In a major piece of client research in the last months of 2009, Top-Consultant polled consulting employers to see whether they intended to make more or less use of LinkedIn as a means of approaching potential hires. Almost without exception, consulting firms responded that they would be reducing the resources they devoted to approaching candidates on LinkedIn. The bottom line is that it’s hugely resource-intensive to cold-call potential candidates from any database – and all LinkedIn has done is make that database free rather than actually reduce the resource cost of mining the database itself.

So please do not kick-off your job search assuming that employers will be beating a path to your door if you just get your LinkedIn profile right, populate it with decent testimonials and connect with enough people to get yourself seen. Asides from a tiny minority of employers who have built up their own in-house headhunting teams, the majority of employers will be turning their backs on the LinkedIn network as a means of proactively approaching candidates.

N.B. incidentally the same research showed that employers would increase a little their advertising on LinkedIn, but that the main sea-change event was that recruitment agencies would increasingly substitute the free LinkedIn database for the paid Monster-type databases they have relied on in the past. So a LinkedIn listing should primarily be seen as i) a means of increasing your visibility with headhunters and ii) something that employers may turn to as a research tool when considering applications you have formally submitted to them via other channels.


2) The fundamentals of securing a job remain the same in spite of technological advances

Regardless of technological advances and new emerging recruitment platforms, the fundamentals of getting hired remain unchanged. Firstly you should use whichever channels and platforms you find allow you to best research and uncover the most relevant job openings in your area of expertise. You are never starting from a position of strength in your job hunt if you are not applying for the most highly suited roles.

Second you must focus on overcoming the huge hurdle that is making your application one of the most compelling that the recruiter receives. This may be achieved by securing introductions from well-placed contacts in the sector; it may be by providing compelling client endorsements that enhance your credibility as a must-interview candidate; and almost certainly it will involve tailoring your CV for each and every application you submit. Social media can facilitate you doing some of these things and so certainly has a part to play in your applications in 2010.


3) You probably already know people able to assist you in making your dream career move happen

From the conversations I’ve had with candidates who’ve successfully changed roles in the last months, there’s been one common thread to their success. All have drawn on and explored their networks to give their applications a head-start wherever possible. Job applications and discussions have referenced people within the employer organisation who can provide favourable endorsements of the candidate. Or key decision makers have been approached as well as just the recruiter contacts referenced on the adverts. Favourable references from client contacts have been used to strengthen a candidate’s case for interview.

My impression is that it is this element of social media – its ability to illuminate and open up your network for career progression purposes – that is the most likely to impact jobseekers over the coming years. The role social media can play in helping recruiters to make more informed decisions is a truly powerful force for improvement in the recruitment process.


4) Changing jobs is probably your best chance of a decent pay hike in 2010

Although there is an upturn in consulting activity now well underway, margins on consulting assignments continue to be under extreme pressure. Work is being sold at day rates that have been negotiated down considerably – and that for now show no signs of being reasserted. The upshot of this is that firms do not have the financial strength to be offering significant across-the-board rises in remuneration. Significant pay hikes will therefore be the reserve of the lucky few in 2010.

In practice that means you will need to fall into one of two camps if 2010 is to offer significantly better remuneration than 2009. Firstly you may be able to make yourself so indispensable to your current employer or current assignment that you have the clout to push through an abnormal and exceptional pay rise. Or secondly you may be able to achieve – through a changing of jobs – a promotion that otherwise might not have been on the cards this year. Of the two, the latter is far easier to achieve as the former requires that a firm actually make an exception to its remuneration policies and that will only be considered in really exceptional circumstances. So a job change is in all likelihood your best chance of a decent pay hike in 2010.


5) Billability is king!

If cash is king in the wider business context, billability is king in the sphere of consulting hires. A collapse in utilisation rates – far more than the reduction in daily fee rates – has been the real undoing of consulting firms during this downturn. All consultancies will therefore have a keen focus during recruitment drives on ensuring that new joiners are immediately billable and likely to be sustainably billable.

It should follow therefore as a natural corollary that anything you can do to enhance your credibility as a candidate whose skills are in demand, who is highly regarded by clients and who has been able to maintain a decent utilisation rate… well that will strengthen your candidacy considerably and enhance your prospects for a successful career move in 2010.