Ruadhri meets Olive from City Channel to discuss CVs and Social Media

Ruadhri meets Olive from City Channel to discuss CVs and Social Media.

Ardiff's Law: What's my daily rate - IT Contractors

I realised recently when asked this question by a friend that there’s no obvious formula out there, so I found one.

It’s called Ardiff’s Law and it breaks down like this.

Basic Salary, add 43.5% divide that by 230 and you get your daily rate.

Here’s the logic behind it.

If a basic salary was 60000 I'd divide that by 230 working days in the year that's 260 of a daily rate, then I'd add on 25% to cover the contractor for PRSI, holiday pay etc (that's 10.75% and 12% for PRSI and Working Time Regulations, or holiday pay respectively) which brings us to 325 per day, then add on an extra 15% for the sheer inconvenience of it all:) bringing the daily rate to:
€374 per day.

When that's reversed engineered you could be told that that's equivalent to a salary of €86,020 per annum!
Therefore, the shortcut is to add 43% to your current salary or required.

Therefore, if you're on
100,000
+43.5% =
143,500
/230 =
€624 per day

In light of the Bruton Putsch, it put me in mind of this scene, where the PFJ and the JPF (splitters) fight it out, leaving poor old Enda Kenny Facing Brian and Brian the Centurions. Divide and conquer? Or the value of staying on message?

The best websites to help with your jobsearch!

How can you maximise your time online when looking for a new job?

The biggest and best online CV database apart from Google is definitely www.monster.com, especially from the hiring manager or recruiters’ database.

All of them, certainly of a specific size will have access to this database. Even if you’re in a job, you can make the CV anonymous and if it’s written correctly it will be found, as Monster power users will have set up predefined parameters for their searches.

LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are all obvious places that you should make sure to be, but have you considered thinking a little bit outside of the normal boxes? Perhaps then you should use a site like Visual CV.

This is a fantastic resource as you can create, upload, share and make sure that you can be found. There are others in this area but it’s a really cool way of making your CV stand out. You can also export it as a pdf and send on directly for jobs!

Flavors.me is another way of creating an online identity. It’s free for access to their basic offering and it allows you to amalgamate all of your skills and experiences that would be on a standard CV or resume, but with something different. At mynewcv we also offer another way to stand out which is to have your CV formatted for mobile devices, such as the iPhone. This is a great way to get the edge on the competition for a given role. Check it out here on an iPhone or mobile device to view it. In standard desktop mode it is optimised for printing!
GatorApp is an Irish based site that will effectively do the same job as a predefined Google Alert, but can be much broader than that and also links well with the Twitter api. Each territory has it’s own one, but if you don’t have a Google Alert set up for your perfect role, how will you know?

Search Engine Optimizing your CV or Resume

As an ex recruiter my clients often ask me what steps they can take to make sure that their CVs are found on Recruiter and Company CV Databases.

It’s relatively simple once you understand the nature of these Databases. Essentially they act like little search engines, mini Googles if you will.

A query run by a recruiter is based on keywords which in turn should be based on the main skills required for their client. You as the jobseeker have a number of ways to manipulate the odds in your favour by using two simple tricks.

Keyword Density

To determine what the best keywords are for your desired role, have a think about what a recruiter would use to find you! If you are a Java programmer, make sure that the word Java is included more times than you currently have, of course without being too obvious. If you have a degree, mention it in your Career Summary as well as your Education section.

The same applies to job titles, industries and so on.

Updating the Recruiter

The second part to keeping your CV high on the list is to make sure that you contact your recruiters via email regularly. Their databases work on a combination of keyword density and recent updating of your file. For example, if the recruiter has two identical CVs in terms of keywords on their database, the one that was updated most recently will rank higher.

Assuming the recruiter or their administrator is diligent in updating contact on their database, (also bearing in mind the larger recruiters have smart software that automatically import emails to a given candidate’s file) sending an email that does not require a response, i.e. “just letting you know that I am still on the lookout for specific roles, feel free to contact me should a suitable role come your way”, on a regular basis will keep you at the top of searches, remind the recruiter that you’re still on the market and will ultimately ensure that you get called before the competition for the right role.

So remember, Search Engine Optimize your CV and keep in regular contact with your Recruiters.

To learn more about CV and Jobsearching advice visit www.mynewcv.ie or contact sales@mynewcv.ie
www.mynewcv.ie is a company dedicated to maximising candidate's chances of securing and steering interviews to a successful conclusion. 

How to get the most from Recruiters

Firstly, I do have to declare my own bias, for good or ill. I’ve had a number of years as a recruiter and have also been a candidate with good, bad and indifferent experiences with recruiters, so please indulge me if you think I’m a bit skewed!

There are certain truths about the recruitment profession and to benefit most as a jobseeker you need to understand these truths.

Candidates do not pay recruiters, hiring companies do, and then generally only when the candidate has been placed, has started and indeed stays with the company for an amount of time. Also bearing in mind that most recruiters are in competition with other recruiters on the same job, and mostly in competition with the hiring company themselves. You, as a jobseeker, are a commodity, a means to an end, and although many many recruiters get great pleasure from getting jobs for people, they don’t get any money!

So, how it generally works from the recruiter’s point of view is as follows.

Their client supplies a requirement, the two companies should agree a fee, based on a percentage of the successful candidate’s first years salary, a jobspec and interview process and ideally a timeframe for filling the role.

Now it’s a race against time for most recruiters, to get the best candidate in front of the hiring manager as fast as they can, before the competition can. This is why you might find some recruiters being abrupt and you may feel pressured into going for a role that may not suit you upon first glance. A point to make here which is vitally important for you as a jobseeker is to get confirmation of your application from the recruiter in writing.

A couple of years ago, when I was still in recruitment, I was looking for a new role and I found that a recruiter with whom I had been in touch had sent my CV to a couple of companies without my express permission and in one case against my specific wishes. Suffice to say I refused point blank to deal with the company again! So, if your recruiter gives any resistance at all to you sending written confirmation that your CV has been sent, walk away.

Back to the process, the recruiter now has to supply feedback to the candidate, but in fairness to them, the majority of times when there is no feedback is due to the fact that there is no feedback from the hiring company. Either that or it’s bad news and the recruiter is spending their time either speaking to more successful candidates or finding new ones. Courtesy would suggest that you should be told as soon as there is feedback, but courtesy is unfortunately often nothing to do with it! Suffice to say if indeed you are being called for an interview, you’ll know all about it.

So, you need to remember that it’s a process, you’re a commodity to the recruiter, if it works well, from your perspective you have one or more people working for you, to achieve your ends, for FREE.

Think about that. Think about when you got interviews through a recruiter, what did you get out of it, and what did you give them? Conversely of course, if it does not go well, they were using you for free to make money! So, it’s all in the mind, how it’s taken, so the important thing here is to be very clear that it’s business, not personal. If you feel a recruiter hates your guts, it doesn’t matter one jot as they will place you if they can make money from it. Now that’s not a reflection on their personality or yours, it’s just business.

Recruiters often talk about being in a sales industry where the product is unpredictable, talks back, changes its mind and generally messes them around. But of course, it’s all in their minds too.

There are genuinely lots and lots of honest, ethical recruiters out there, but their function, their loyalty, their paymasters are the companies that use their services. I would put it to you as a jobseeker, that when you start paying recruiters to get you a job, then you can expect top class service from them all, but until that happens, same old same old I’m afraid.

So, what you need to do is to establish who are the best recruiters in your industry. Both companies and individuals. Get your details in front of them using the following steps.

CV - Use MS Word as most of the recruiters use search technologies requiring MS word for their databases. Make sure that the version of the CV you submit is keyword rich, in the same way that google uses keyword density to decide page rank, the same applies.

Therefore some good advice for agency recruiter management is to create an extra page to your CV, a skills matrix if you will, listing in bullet form your skills, experiences and qualifications. This will get you found.

Your cover email must tell the agent what they want to know.

Required salary or rate

Availability to start and or interview

Notice period in current role if applicable

Ability to work in the country, visa issues if any

Desire for contract and or permanent work

Desired physical location of your next role

Industry and anything related they may need to know such as, if you’re getting married towards the end of the year, the prospective employer will need to know that you’ll be on honeymoon not long after starting, for instance.

Don’t send a CV to a lot of agencies and expect them all to be banging your door down. Trust me, recruitment technology is such nowadays that when a role comes up that could make them money they will be onto you very quickly.

However, I recommend that you come back to your list of contacts within the industry and email them on the same day each month. Be it the first or last day, just to make sure that they are aware of you. They may not get back to you immediately or at all, but all that means is that they can’t make money from you.

What to watch out for, how to spot unethical recruiters

Like any industry there are cowboys, so let’s find out how to spot them. Ask for written confirmation as discussed, if it’s not forthcoming, run away, demand that your details be taken from their system and quote Data Protection at them, that’ll do the trick.

Watch out for recruiters trying to get you to take a pay cut! Enough said. Also, request that the CV that was sent to a client be also sent to you, including cover email, to make sure at interview that there have been no lies told on your behalf. It’s important to ask for this, because you could lose control of an interview if this happens.

In conclusion, recruiters are perceived as a necessary evil, but a lot of them do a great job for their clients, but you have to remember that you are not their clients! You are the commodity and as you don’t pay them, they don’t owe you anything.

You in fact use their resources to get a role, their wages, their fixtures and fittings. On the other hand, you have to watch out for the unethical ones.

As mentioned, establish who are the best ones for you, put them on a list and contact them. Then contact them regularly until such time as you have finished your jobsearch.

Ruadhri McGarry of mynewcv.ie on City Channel's Evening Show discussing CVs with David Harvey. Broadcast 23rd March 2010.