When you’re looking for a job, it might seem to make sense to register with every recruitment agency you can think of. But when it comes to finding the right job that can be the worst strategy of all.

Not all recruitment agencies are the same. Some will meet you virtually via Teams or Zoom, find out all about you, and actively put you forward for positions and companies that will suit you. Others will neglect to meet with you virtually, and put you forward for lots of positions based on your CV.

The problem is that there’s only so much information a recruitment consultant can glean from your CV. A list of qualifications and jobs you’ve held doesn’t tell me anything about your personality, about what you’ve experienced during those jobs, about the transferable skills you’ve acquired. It doesn’t tell me how far you’re prepared to commute. It doesn’t tell me what your dream job is: what that would involve doing, and the kind of company it would be in. It doesn’t tell me what kind of company culture you thrive in, and what kind of culture would kill your soul. In short, your CV doesn’t tell me how to find a job that will make you happy, grow your career, and enhance your life. Only meeting you face to face does that.

You see, when I place you for interview, I don’t take that lightly. I feel responsible for helping you to get a job that makes your life better. So I have to meet you. I have to find out what you like, and what you don’t like. I have to discover what’s gone well in your previous jobs, and what’s made you miserable. I have to understand how you’ve got to the point you’re at now, and where you want to go next. I have to understand your ambitions.

Meeting you even when virtually during these times also helps me get an idea of your personality, which helps me place you somewhere you’ll be happy. You see, I also meet virtually with all of my clients: the companies who are looking for candidates like you, and I get to know what kind of people you’d be working with. I learn about the company culture, and only if I think you’ll be happy working with those people and in that culture will I put you forward for interview.

Now you may be thinking that you just want any job, so please can’t I just put you forward for any job that might be a fit? Well, no. For two reasons. Firstly, many recruitment agencies take just that scatter-gun approach: they send every CV to every client in the hope that one of them will stick. Which is great for the ones that do, and terrible for the ones that don’t. Because most companies who’ve received your CV for one job, won’t be interested in seeing it for another. So if I send your CV to a client for a position that you’re not suited for, and then another vacancy opens up that you would be perfect for, the client won’t even entertain looking at your CV, meaning you’ve missed out on a great opportunity.

The second reason I don’t employ a scatter-gun approach is because I understand how demoralising it can be to go from one job you don’t like to another. It can have a profoundly negative impact on your life, and frankly, I don’t want to be responsible for that. I know how being happy in your work makes it easy to be happy in the rest of your life. And I want that for you. Rather than the misery of constant job searching and a succession of unsuitable jobs.

Signing up with a recruitment agent can make finding a great job a lot easier, but it’s important to be picky about who you trust with your career. If you’d like to find out more about how I can help you with that, please call me on 07510 051781, or drop me an email at enquiries@valeco.co.uk, and let’s find you a job you’ll love.