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.

Advice for Job Seeking Science Graduates 

If you have recently graduated or are about to then here are a few tips that  should help you in your job search.

Apply for relevant roles

Don't apply for roles that require more experience than you have.

Applying for the wrong role does not inspire faith in your ability to read SOP's or other specifications.
Our clients are looking for people who have compliance at the heart of everything they do.  Applying for the wrong role does not give the right impression.  

So ....... ONLY apply for roles that match your qualifications and experience.

Apply for each job separately

So now you are applying only for relevant roles, don't spoil things by applying for a basket of jobs from a job board with "O.C.A" or "One Click Apply" to send the same CV for them all at once.

This is bad because though you may lack experience you could edit your CV and sending one CV for a basket of jobs is not putting you in the best light.  Our blog has an article about how to edit your CV to better suit a specification for a job vacancy.

How to work with agencies

As with all things in life, there are good agencies and not so good agencies.  Please don't tar us all with the same brush.  Nonetheless you should assume that all agencies are good then you will be putting your best foot forward.   Should you not like the agency then move on to another.

If you have a good one helping you then here's a few do's and don'ts to help you get the most form your agent:

Do's

• send CV's in MS Word Format and not as PDF's
• respect the time of the recruiters they have limited time to spare
• keep contact to the minimum, they will guide you as to how they prefer to make contact
• make your CV relevant
• register your CV by doing so on their website
• give details as to your preferences, relocation, salary, field of work, job type ie Permanent, Temporary or either.
• ask who the client is (make it clear your CV is for that role only!).

Don't 

• use a Generic CV for every job you apply for
• constantly ring up for feedback, a good agency will contact you
• interrupt the recruiter when asking screening questions
• lose focus, give the info he or she is asking for
• be afraid of asking questions at the end of the screening
• use links to docs such as on skydrive (it confuses data parsing engines and could send your application to a spam or junk folder).

Remember that an agent makes his or her living out of placing the right person in the right job.  They do this day in and day out and are the experts,if you are not a good match then a professional recruiter will not waste a clients time by putting your CV forward.

For you to get an interview you need to get past the resourcer and or recruiter. 

THE LAST BIG TIP

Most reputable agencies will provide advice pages and although they may look similar, each will have something special to offer, you should read as many as possible and take the best advice from each. 

Now go get that job!