3 tips that will help you to get a role via an agency?

At some stage in your career you are likely to apply for a role via an agency.
It might be your first job, it could be changing to a new area of the country or perhaps looking for that next step up the ladder.

Here are three things that will make your application flow more easily:

Apply for the relevant roles only

Read the job spec thoroughly; by applying for every job without reading the spec you could alienate Resourcers and Consultants.  

It's not simply a question of applying for as many jobs as you can without being remotely suitable.  Consultants will not have enough faith to submit you for the right role if you have not been reading the job specifications.

Apply only for the relevant roles and your stock will increase in value.

Make your CV relevant

I'm always impressed when I see that an applicant has worked on the CV to maximise the relevance of his or her skills and or experience.   Sending a generic CV for all jobs is not putting one's best foot forward.

For instance, you might be an Analytical Chemist with a few years of experience.  If you apply for a Raw Materials testing role the job specification might call for experience with Pharmacopoeia (BP, EP USP) but your generic CV might not mention this.   Similarly you might next apply for a Method Development role but your generic CV has not included all of your experience in this respect.

Relevant people are what we are paid to look for, so it's worth the extra effort to do your bit to help us to help you.

Clearly State your eligibility

First of all a willingness to work in the UK is not eligibility.   Agencies are tasked with checking that an applicant has the right to work in the UK ie is an EU or UK national or else has a valid visa to work in the UK (not tier 2 requiring sponsorship).
There will often be screening questions on job boards to screen out people who do not have a UK or EU nationality or Apply for roles that you are eligible for and not for the ones.

Assuming that you are eligible to work in the UK, always declare your nationality and if you have a visa always put that down too and clearly state the Visa type and the expiry date.

Consultants are pressed for time and don't appreciate getting to read CV's in depth, shortlist a person, call, leave messages, txt and or email only to find out later that the person concerned is not eligible to work in the UK.

A good agency should clearly state the eligibility requirements in the Vacancy description if it does not state that sponsorship is available then it won't be.

It is a legal requirement for agencies to check eligibility of applicants.   Hiding the fact you have a tier 2 visa , for instance,  will not change the requirement.   It will seriously annoy the Consultant if they have spent time working on your application when you have ignored the requirements.

Summary

So now you apply only for relevant roles you will save yourself enough time to place greater emphasis upon your relevance to each role.   The Consultants will love you for it and you should be applying for more relevant roles with greater focus and sense of purpose.  

Good luck with your job hunting.

If you would like advice on more topics please email info@macscientific.co.uk

By putting in the extra effort you should turn the Conultant and REsourcer for the role onto your side.