These are strange and unusual times, particularly if you are looking for a new role.  Many companies have a hiring freeze in place whilst others are continuing to recruit but delaying start dates.  Finally, there are companies who are operating ‘business as usual’ with laptops being couriered to new staff and onboarding happening remotely.

Undoubtedly some sectors have been very badly hit by the crisis with travel, leisure, entertainment, and hospitality all impacted significantly.  However, other companies are finding that the product or service they provide is in great demand and so their business is growing including online entertainment, IT infrastructure and cloud computing, supermarkets, and healthcare.

If you are concerned about how your role and company will fare in the coming weeks – or you are considering a move; take time to consider how your expertise might transfer over to a role in an industry that has had a significant boost in the last few weeks.

Now is also the ideal time to consider how to best market yourself.  If you haven’t updated your LinkedIn profile recently spend some time reviewing it so that it really does you justice.  If you don’t know where to start, take a look at our post ‘Optimise your LinkedIn profile so that recruiters find you’ and make changes so that your profile stands out.

When it comes to CVs, one size does not fit all. Employers want to see how your skills and experience match the specific role they’ve advertised.  Most recruiters will easily spot a generic CV.  We recommend you customise your CV for each position you apply for; tailoring your CV will show employers you’re a serious candidate, and that you really want to work for them. If you need some inspiration for addressing you CV, we have some CV templates on our blog ‘15 CV Templates’.

Finally, keep an eye on our job listings page for the right role for you – as companies begin to plan for a post-pandemic future we expect to see the number of vacancies quickly grow.

#cvwriting #candidate #jobhunt

<p>The post Job-hunting during the pandemic first appeared on Talent Gateway.</p>

It’s estimated that, for a well-prepared candidate, the average time that it takes to find a new job is four months.  However, there are several factors that may increase the length of time the job hunt takes including your level of seniority and how buoyant the economy is.  Imagine then, if your next job came to you, without you even having to look?

The term “passive job search” refers to an individual that is currently employed but is willing to learn about new career opportunities.  An individual that is passively job searching does not actively seek out or apply to job openings.

At Talent Gateway we focus on searching for the right candidate for our clients’ roles (rather than placing candidates we already know), reaching out to individuals that might be suitable.  In this blog we explain how you can successfully be ‘found’ for your next role.

It’s all about networking…

We all know people who have found their next job via word of mouth.  Very often highly qualified and experienced people haven’t had to apply for a job for years as people from their network – people they’ve worked with or previous managers – have approached them about new roles. However, this becomes less common as they move into more specialised or senior roles. Perhaps this is because there are fewer of these roles, but from experience, companies are also becoming more focussed on finding candidates who precisely match their brief.

… but now it’s online

However, this ‘network’ based approach is still the one of the main ways that you’ll find (or more likely be found for) your next role.  It’s simply moved online…

Like 19.5m other professionals in Britain, you’ll likely have a LinkedIn ‘profile’ and may have been contacted by a recruiter through it. What you might not know is that this is now one of the main platforms used by ‘head-hunters’ to find new hires.

Head-hunters invest in a special subscription to LinkedIn enabling them to search for any candidate on the platform. It’s extremely powerful, enabling us to find candidates who meet over 40 separate criteria. But only if you’ve included these in your profile…

How you can be found

Following these tips to edit your profile will make it far more likely that you are identified during a search for a role in your field:

1. Headline: an engaging and attention-grabbing ‘headline’ summary that communicates your skills, strengths and personal qualities. It should be ‘keyword rich’ – meaning that you include relevant terms widely used in your industry, and by professionals in your field.  If in doubt, review three or four job postings you’d consider applying for and identify the keywords that are consistent through each job posting.  Sprinkle those keywords throughout your profile. Consider including them in your headline, summary, experience, education, and skills.

2. Achievements: include details of achievements and responsibilities in your current and previous roles in the ‘experience’ section of your profile. Focus on those which make you particularly suitable for the next role that you’re targeting. For example, if you’re looking to take your first step into people management, highlight any experience of leading project teams, or mentoring new team members – or any other transferable skills relevant to people management.

3. Education: a targeted education section that brings out the key and relevant areas of your educational achievements. You don’t need to list your every GCSE, or even your final year university options, but consider which elements of your education are most relevant to your next role and include some detail about them. Don’t forget to add relevant courses that you’ve completed at work.  e.g. “Results-driven and MBA qualified marketing professional with on and off-line campaign and brand development experience. Managed website re-design, responsible for SEO and creation of POS materials. Significant experience in the retail sector and a passion for continuous learning”.

• Recommendations: LinkedIn allows you to request recommendations from others. These are a very effective way to increase confidence in your profile. You can request recommendations from others, and are able to review before uploading to your profile – so could exclude those which don’t position you well for your next role

5. Skills and Experience:  always add relevant skills to your profile – others can then ‘endorse’ these skills and it’s a great way for employers to see your skills at a glance.

Don’t waste time in the ‘wrong’ discussions

Chances are, once you’ve updated your profile with your main achievements and key skills, you’ll be found through a lot of searches. Most will be for roles which you could be successful in, but wouldn’t want, which can be frustrating.

The final, possibly most important, step is to add notes that only recruiters can see, telling them what you do – and don’t – want to hear about. You’re able to provide clear guidance about anything of importance to you – and should highlight the type of working environment (or even name specific firms you’d like to join).  You will find the LinkedIn “Note to Recruiters” feature under the Career Interests section of your LinkedIn profile.

#linkedin #candidate #jobhunt

<p>The post Optimise your LinkedIn profile so that recruiters find you first appeared on Talent Gateway.</p>

#Growthhacking – what is it and why do I need it in my business?

Test. Learn. Repeat. The life of a growth hacker.  But just what is growth hacking and should it form part of your marketing strategy?

The rise of the growth hacker

We recruit for a lot of marketing roles and have seen a real shift in the types of roles and skills that are now in demand.  For a long time, marketing was first and foremost about building a brand with big budgets to run offline and online campaigns.  Success was measured by the increase in sales but beyond that, marketers had little understanding of who their customer really was and what impact their marketing was really having.  Analytics and data were left to other departments and marketing focussed on creative ideas that they hoped would win customers over.

Jump to the present day and marketing has exploded into a diverse range of specialisms and niche roles – driven by increased competition, innovative and ambitious start-ups looking for cost-effective marketing solutions and the rise of technology and, more specifically, social media.

Growth hacking(sometimes called performance marketing) is one area that is shaking up the way marketing is done and, which as the name suggests, focuses on growth.  Borne out of the need for starts-ups with a high growth strategy to establish themselves in the market with minimal marketing budget, growth marketers are now in huge demand.

What do they do? 

Growth hacking takes advantage of the breadth of data all around us to analyse, experiment and optimise to build an in-depth understanding of who their customers are, what they want and increase engagement. Primarily associated with using social media and viral marketing, they are able to have an impact on a business quickly and efficiently.

The result is powerful insights that can help drive significant growth.  Growth hacking/Performance marketing has built a real momentum as it can be applied across any business size or sector.

Growth hackers/performance marketers don’t work in isolation – you need a solid product and some understanding of your target audience.  They work across marketing, sales and data insights to drive this growth.  Growth hacking compliments existing marketing and measures success at a much more granular level.  From click-through rates and average lead close rate to customer satisfaction and retention – growth hackers deliver specific measures of growth[1].

Does it replace more traditional marketing?

Growth hacking certainly sounds appealing delivering high growth with limited budgets and time.  But it doesn’t replace more traditional marketing all together.  Growth hacking focuses on the quick short term and experiments to test market response.  They key to successful growth/performance marketing is to focus on a breadth of marketing to deliver longer-term growth.

It is an exciting time to be in marketing – the diversification of this rapidly evolving field provides a whole range of different ways to engage with customers and help businesses to grow.  But they all work together and complement one another too.  There will always be a place for more traditional marketing together with exciting new areas as data becomes ever more available and valuable.

Is it only for B2C companies?

No! Growth hacking can be applied to both B2C and B2B organisations – from online start-ups to large corporates.  The driver will be different i.e. it may be about initiating a phone call rather than getting a customer to purchase from a website but the principles behind getting your intended client to take that action is the same.  Just as B2B companies need to market themselves, growth hacking can be used to better understand the target audience journey and how to maximise impact.

I’m convinced, how do I start?

There is a plethora of tools available to instantly implement hacks, but growth hacking is a specialist field.  It is not just about the implementation, but being able to analyse and refine to achieve the required growth.  A good place to start is reading articles on growth hacking and consider signing up to a crash course to understand the basics.  Beyond that, if you are looking to make growth hacking a key part of your marketing strategy, recruiting a growth hacker is the best way to achieve results quickly.

Want to understand the benefits a growth hacker could bring to your business, or are you a growth hacker looking for your next meaty role?  Why not give us a call to see how we can help.

[1] https://www.coxblue.com/the-top-7-metrics-a-growth-hacker-watches-and-you-should-too/

<p>The post Are you still wasting money on marketing agencies (without anything to show for it)? first appeared on Talent Gateway.</p>

The classic interview question: What are your strengths and weaknesses?  Like most, I have always been able to provide an answer to this question, but did I really know what my strengths were?  Did I really know how I respond under pressure and when my strengths might in fact become my weaknesses?

When I joined Talent Gateway, I had the opportunity to undertake a Hogan Assessment.  All employees are encouraged to take the psychometric test to build our self-awareness and understand what the process is like for our candidates.

After answering a series of multiple-choice questions about a range of work-related and non-work-related scenarios, a report was generated that summarised me.  This has to be interpreted by a Hogan Assessor to fully understand what the results are telling you.

I sat down with my manager and awaited the results.  Interestingly the first thing I was told was that the report highlighted I was likely to focus on my weaknesses rather than celebrate my strengths so extra care should be taken when sharing the results. And true to form I did!  But having this raised to me at the beginning enabled me to review the reports again and actually pick out some of my strengths – eager to learn, hardworking, detail orientated and self-disciplined.

So what did I learn from the process? 

Hogan looks at what you value, what motivates you, but also crucially potential ‘derailers’ – characteristics that emerge only under stress.  The last was particularly useful for me.  My strengths in diligence and evaluating risk become weaknesses for me when I am stressed or fatigued.  Diligence changes to perfectionism and micro-managing and I become too conservative and risk-averse under pressure – significantly more so than the average person.

This was a genuine moment of self-awareness for me and it was only later when I contemplated this in more detail that I could see how it could have impacted former business decisions or the way I responded to a situation both at work and in my personal life.

Has it made me more self-aware?

Change doesn’t happen overnight, but I am finding even over a year after completing the Hogan assessments, I am still using it as an internal check.  If I am averse to something, I know to double-check it – is it because I genuinely think the risk is too high or is this exaggerated because I’m tired after my toddler kept me awake all night!  I recognise when my diligence becomes perfectionism – and work hard to prevent myself from spending an extra two hours formatting a document that is already good to go.

I do also try to recognise my strengths more and when I am given feedback, ensure I listen to all the positives which can really help build confidence.

Being open with colleagues continues that self-awareness

As a member of a small team, we openly discuss our own strengths and weaknesses and recognise when they are coming into play.  It is a really helpful way to keep that self-evaluation and awareness going and acknowledge when your interaction may be affected in the workplace.

Being self-aware in the workplace can make you a happier employee and a better leader.  Self-evaluating can boost confidence.  Not only can you better understand your strengths and weaknesses but how this may impact your colleagues.  If you are interested in having a Hogan Assessment completed, contact Talent Gateway on 0203 034 0420 or email rob@talentgateway.net.

<p>The post I am a perfectionist! My experience of Hogan Assessments first appeared on Talent Gateway.</p>

Are you looking for the perfect part-time role which makes great use of your broad marketing skills? Perhaps you want to balance a rewarding job with parental commitments?

This small professional services firm has grown through referral to date, and are now ready to accelerate their growth through targeted campaigns which introduce them to new clients.

It’s a hands-on position which combines:

• Marketing strategy, defining the most effective approach to achieve organisational goals
• Content creation and copywriting
• Campaign design, implementation and management

In return, you’ll have considerable autonomy to put your ideas into action, and flexibility to balance home commitments with your role.

To be successful you’ll have significant experience in B2B marketing including;

• Running successful lead generation campaigns
• Creating informative content to underpin contentled campaigns
• Use of Linkedin Campaign manager, and analysing associated performance data

As you’ll be joining a small team, it’s essential that you are prepared to be hands-on, although you may more recently have been managing others to deliver some of these elements.

For the right candidate we could offer a September start date to coincide with the end of school summer holidays.

We are an equal opportunities employment business and agency working on behalf of our clients and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age.

Location: Oxted, Surrey

Salary: competitive

For further information please contact rob@talentgateway.net or call 0203 034 0420

<p>The post Marketing Manager – Part time – Oxted, Surrey first appeared on Talent Gateway.</p>

Looking to develop your career further in a B2B agency?

Have you spent the last 2 years working agency side and now want to spread your wings and gain broader experience in everything from project delivery, client management, campaign development and delivery but when you ask for development opportunities there just aren’t any?  If you want to be supported to develop and grow further in your career, then this could be the perfect opportunity.  You will work with many market leading technology brands and play an important role within the team, having a number of your own accounts and working as part of the team supporting the largest clients.  This is a great opportunity to work across a variety of projects where you can get involved in everything from developing go to market plans, through to delivering integrated B2B marketing campaigns and copy writing.

Don’t worry if you haven’t got all the experience necessary to hit the ground running.  We are looking for someone with an appetite to grow and develop. We just ask that you have worked within a B2B agency for approx. 2 years. We are motivated to provide you with all the support you need in order to develop and grow your skills within our great team.

Salary:Competitive

Location:Hammersmith

If you want to know more about this opportunity, please call Nici on 0203 034 0420 or email me directly on nici@talentgateway.net

<p>The post Client Account/Project Manager – Agency side (B2B) first appeared on Talent Gateway.</p>

Are you looking to build a career in a fast-growing technology company?

Do you have great communication skills, and experience of dealing with business customers? Are you passionate about technology and love solving technical challenges?

This Junior Sales Engineer role could provide a great step up for your career.

You’ll be supporting our client’s business customers – which include global firms, and well known brands – as they consider switching to your service. You’ll answer technical questions, set-up and run demonstrations (in person, and via webinars) and will create technical solutions to address your clients needs.

This company really believe in promoting from within, and the role could take you to Sydney or the USA (previous team members are currently working there!)

A degree isn’t essential – your attitude and approach are more important – but you’ll need to have achieved good results for the qualifications you’ve taken. You’ll also be keen to continue learning.

As well as an interest in technology, ideally you will have worked in a technology based role before. You need experience of dealing with customers (some sales experience, perhaps in telesales would be an advantage).

You will also have strong attention to detail and a professional telephone manner.

Our client are led by a passionate and accomplished management team with many years of experience in the tech market and running ambitious rapidly growing businesses. They have a clear vision for the future and are looking for talented, high energy, like-minded individuals who share their passion to change the world.

Apply asap if you want to be considered!

We are an equal opportunities employment business and agency working on behalf of our clients and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age.

<p>The post Junior Customer Support Engineer first appeared on Talent Gateway.</p>

You will get to experience working in a fast paced entrepreneurial environment and gain real experience of working within a successful business. Work in a lively office based in Vauxhall with a diverse team, all pulling in the same direction to deliver great service to their customers. You will support some of the largest supermarket and media brands and be responsible for client reporting, system and database management.

Key objectives:

• Ensure weekly and monthly reported is completed accurately and to tight deadlines
• Produce market data and client presentations accurately
• Database input and maintenance
• Timely execution of data requests and admin support to the ops team

Main activity of the role:

• Client reporting
• System support – ad-hoc
• Team support

Person spec:

• You will love excel and Powerpoint
• Multi tasker
• Excellent communication skills
• Must have an eye for detail

Salary: £23,000 – £25,000
Location: South West London
Permanent Full-time position

<p>The post Sales Analyst & Systems Administrator – Now filled first appeared on Talent Gateway.</p>

Are you looking for a new challenge in financial services marketing – where you’re ‘in at the start’ and will be valued for your experience? In this role you’ll work as part of a small team of expert and supportive colleagues to bring new retail banking products to market.

With a focus on creating and managing successful campaigns, it’s also a broad role which involves both digital and off-line marketing, with lots of variety – from events, collateral production and agency briefings to SEO, social media and even website updates.

Our client are the UK arm of a well established international financial services group, providing the best of both worlds – a local start-up culture with the backing and stability that comes from a large organisation.

You’ll have experience within the financial services sector and will also

• Have a learning mentality
• Be experienced in creating, developing and leading multi channel campaigns that engage, educate and motivate consumers
• Possess a solid knowledge of website analytics tools
• A good sense of Aesthetics and a love for great copy and witty communication
• Hold a degree in Marketing or a related field

Our client are focussed on finding the right candidate, and are open to applications from those looking for part-time or reduced hours as well as a full-time position.

Salary: £40,000-£45,000 
Location: Waterloo, London
Permanent, full-time or part time position

We are an equal opportunities employment business and agency working on behalf of our clients and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age.

<p>The post Digital Marketing Manager – Financial Services first appeared on Talent Gateway.</p>

Love it or hate it, in the past year microlearning has shaken up how professionals are learning and developing.  With our busy lifestyles, microlearning enables us to take on new information whether you’re travelling home from work or on your lunch break.  With this emerging trend, we thought we would share some of the benefits of microlearning and want to hear from you about your approach to learning.

So just what is Microlearning?

Microlearning provides a way to digest intensive learning into manageable bite-size chunks.  Microlearning is tailored and responsive to the learner’s needs fulfilling the desire of many for ‘personalised, timely, quality content’[1].   It breaks down ‘lengthy learning content to smaller learning units with individual and definite learning objectives’.  Examples of microlearning include listening to podcast, playing e-learning games and using interactive pdfs[2].

The way people learn is changing, they are ‘keen to develop skills and want to be empowered to take learning into their own hands’.

The top 3 benefits of microlearning:

Benefit 1 – Microlearning empowers you to resolve issues yourself

If you need to learn something in order to finish a task or solve an issue, microlearning provides that short, specific training to empower you to be able to do so.  It provides instant learning at ‘the point of need.’

Benefit 2 – Microlearning anytime, anywhere

Microlearning provides an accessible way to learn at any time and anywhere to suit your needs.  And with it available on smartphones, tablets and laptops, you don’t have to be in the office to access learning.  This accessibility also promotes flexibility enabling you to learn as much or as little as you choose, whenever you want.

Benefit 3 – Provides the latest learning[3]

By providing the information in small modules, it can easily be updated to reflect the latest innovations, changes and legislation so you always are provided with up to date content.

Create your own user feedback survey

[1] Profile of a modern learner, Kirstie Greany, Elucidat, 15^th August 2018 https://www.elucidat.com/blog/modern-learner-profile-infographic/

[2] Top 5 Microlearning  https://playxlpro.com/top-microlearning-trends-for-2019/

[3] The Benefits Of Microlearning: Win-Win For Employees And Organizations, Ayesha Habeeb Omer, July 12^th 2017, https://elearningindustry.com/benefits-of-microlearning-win-win-employees-organizations

<p>The post Are you ahead of the game? 20 minutes a week microlearning can boost your professional development first appeared on Talent Gateway.</p>