idealpeople blog

A while back, as part of our CV tips, we suggested that a good strategy towards getting your CV “out there” was to publish it on-line so that it could be found by savvy Recruiters who use Google, but couldn’t be found by the plethora of recruiters who rely solely on the on-line CV databases.

Now, we’re not the kind of people who think you should just take our word for it, so we exclusively interviewed a candidate who has done exactly that. Jonathan May has an outstanding academic and professional history - which encompasses a PhD from Cambridge University on top of a 1st Class BA in Computer Science, also from Cambridge - and has professional experience working with large financial institutions and smaller, internet-focussed start-ups. Here’s what he had to say on Googling your CV - and on the more general aspects of the IT Recruitment experience.

How long have you had your CV on-line?
I’d say around two years. I update it around once every three months, whether I’m looking for a new position or not.

How many calls do you get off the back of it, and how many of those are worth taking?
I get more e-mails than I do phone calls. I get an e-mail a week on average, and one or two calls a month. Overall, most of the calls I get are relevant to me - probably because in order to find my CV on-line, a Recruiter has to be very specific with the search terms they’re using - so there’s less chance of me appearing in a search conducted using generic or inappropriate keywords than there would be if it was on one of the jobsites. I’m a bit surprised that the volumes are so low - I’ve often wondered why more recruiters don’t use Google, or why someone hasn’t come up with some technology to automate searching on there through a script or two.

Why don’t you put the CV up on one of the on-line Jobsites?
Primarily because I can’t be bothered. I know that if I’m looking for a job that there are far better ways of doing it. Having the CV on-line is good because it means I get to know about interesting jobs that are relevant.

Overall, how would you rate the service provided by the Recruiters who get in touch having found your CV?
Generally, the quality is pretty awful. Very, very few recruiters give me enough information to be able to properly assess the vacancy. I think it was only yourselves and one other Recruitment company who were even willing to give me the name of the company who they were contacting me about. Generally speaking, I’m not going to be interested in a job unless I know who the company is and I can do some sort of research on them. I can maybe understand the cloak-and-dagger approach in some circumstances - if for instance there’s some sort of classified information involved, but if not it doesn’t really make much sense.

To be honest, we’ve never had a situation where such information has meant we can’t give out the name of the hiring company. We suspect it’s more to do with fear that you might go and apply directly or tell other Recruiters if they disclose company names [in fact, although this wasn’t part of the question, we know this to be true - just ask every single one of the five Recruiters we’ve interviewed for jobs here recently]. Would you ever consider applying directly in these circumstances?
No. Why would I? Knowing the company name and relevant details just mean I can go and look up the details. It makes me take it more seriously.

Has any Recruiter ever tried to Technically interview you?
I’ve never let anyone get that far to be honest - but I disapprove of technical interviewing over the telephone - it’s impossible to do a proper technical test without a pen and paper. The vast majority of Recruiters don’t know what they’re talking about technology-wise, although it doesn’t really matter as it’s not their job.

There’s some interesting stuff in here, and we’ll pick up on some of these points over the coming weeks. Thanks to Jonathan for letting us interview him, and keep your eyes peeled for more…