Candidates
We have been helping individuals achieve their career ambitions in the Technology sector for many years. We work in partnership with you as a trusted advisor and counsel throughout the recruitment process, ensuring that you achieve your aims when moving career.
Many of the individuals we work with are people we originally engaged with a long time before we work with them in securing a new position.
Confidentiality is at the forefront of what we do, as is listening and making sure we understand the sort of organisation and role which will fuel your imagination, deliver the scope and challenge you’re looking for, and help meet all of your expectations. We take time to understand your needs and that of our clients and will only put you forward if we feel it is a good match for both parties.
For full details of our Data Use and Privacy Policy, please click here PRIVACY POLICY
Preparing a CV
We always re-type candidate CV’s into a standard house format prior to sending to a client as we know the format and information clients like to see.
Following an interview with a Senior Consultant, you will be advised as to what we feel is missing and how best to represent yourself on paper.
Whilst information such as detailed education, hobbies and contact details are important, these can be summarised and are not often as important as your current successes, business value, P & L budgets, deal wins, achievements against target, specific projects involved in and key achievements.
We recommend that a CV should be clear, concise and informative and Kingston Consulting will give you advice and help on how to structure your CV. Briefly for each job you should have the following:-
Introduction
3-4 lines about the company you are working for, the division you are working in if it is a very large company and your remit on joining.
Responsibilities
– outline in BULLET POINTS your key responsibilities
Key Achievements
– outline your key achievements. Things which have made an impact on your time in the job, projects you have worked on and the size of the project / sale and names of clients worked on or won.
Industry Training
– Any CURRENT relevant training including sales, technical or personal development training
By keeping to the above – especially the bullet points, your CV should be easy to read and will show:
- Who you worked for
- What you did
Preparing For Interview
Most people appreciate how important it is to prepare for important client meetings or presentations, yet so many people fail to give the same attention to interviews.
Interviews are not something that we do every day and are meetings that need to be planned for. Even the best presenter or sales person could improve their meeting with a little additional thought and planning. Apart from ensuring that you have a smart dark suit, crisp shirt/blouse and polished shoes, some prior preparation at what ever level you are never goes amiss.
We are often asked for ideas on how to prepare which is sometimes difficult to answer as each individual has his or her own way of preparing, but here are a few tips that candidates have found useful:~
Take 4 sheets of paper or card and on each write the following:-
Background and Experience:
Bullet point your career history:
- Why did you move to each company?
- What did you learn?
- Any major highlights or promotions?
- List your key achievements
Key Strengths and Skills:
List these, at least 7 or 8 that relate to many areas including:
- Market knowledge
- Sales & presentation skills
- Relationship building skills
- Management skills
- How well you work in a team
- Personality
- Product/technical knowledge
- Why are you successful
What can you bring to the company?
Bullet point the key points:
- Why should they take you on?
- What added value do you bring?
- What difference will you make?
What can the company give you?
Bullet point the key points:
- Do they offer you a career path?
- Is the culture right?
- Is the overall package and remuneration in line with what you require?
Last but not least, arrive in plenty of time, and ensure you have worked out the best route to the company’s offices.
We wish you luck with your interview, and would ask you to ring your consultant following the interview, while it is fresh in your mind. We will always do our best to get you feedback as soon as possible following the interview.
Research Prior To Interview
We cannot stress how important it is to thoroughly research the company you have an interview with. With Internet access readily available, there is no excuse for not being informed prior to an interview.
At Kingston Consulting we provide a detailed Briefing Pack on all our clients, which usually contains 30 – 40 pages of useful information not only on the Company, Products and latest press releases, but often information about the company benefits and working environment. This together with the Job Specification should give you most of the information you need to know. However, always take a look at a company’s website to get a feel for the company, how it markets itself and it is always useful to make sure that you know the basics before an interview:-
- Background about the company / formation / management team
- Turnover and latest results
- Product information relative to your interview
- Latest Press Releases
- Case Studies
By researching the above, you will demonstrate at interview that you have taken the time to learn about the company.
It is important the day before an interview to check the company’s website news section, to ensure you are abreast of any news announcements. Nothing worse than going to an interview and being asked “what do you think of our announcement” and having to admit that you don’t know what they are referring to!
Finally make sure that you have spoken with your Consultant at Kingston Consulting before interview to clarify any points or to answer any questions you might have before you attend interview. Please ring your consultant after the interview whilst it is still fresh in your mind with feedback on the meeting.
Counter Offers
By taking the decision to go on interview at another organisation it usually indicates that the role you are currently in is not meeting all of your requirements and aspirations.
If you are in a stimulating role, being valued and earning a fair or good level of income then there would be very few things that would make you move.
To this end, having gone through an interview process with the result being the offer of a new role, then comes your decision. Should I stay or should I go now (a well known song comes to mind!).
You then are in the difficult position of having to choose the role you know or the new opportunity? Which do you choose?
Counter offers are inevitable from time to time, and there are some things you should consider before making your final decision – these valuable points come from many years working in the executive search field:-
- Firstly, if your current employer values you so much, why has it taken an offer from another company for them to “counter offer” you
- Secondly, once your current employer knows you have been looking at alternative jobs, this will always be on his/her mind
- Accepting a counter offer is offer career limiting, and in many cases it enables the current employer to find a replacement in their own time, rather than having their hand forced.
- They will always doubt your commitment
- They offer a promotion suddenly – Why? Surely if they felt you were right for the role they should have offered you the job without getting to this stage.
- They will always be thinking of succession planning, unsure of your loyalty from now on.
- Are the issues which made you consider a new opportunity first of all really going to change?
In our experience, in 8 out of 10 counter offer situations, the candidate who stays eventually (typically 6-9 months) leaves anyway, because the original reasons have not gone away, and the promotion or pay rise has only temporarily made you feel better about the role.
Therefore in conclusion, carefully consider counter offers, as you will no doubt regret your decision, as those original niggles that made you look in the first place rarely go away.