Blog

As a hiring manager you have found a candidate who impressed you, they have all the skills for the job and fit with your company values. However, before you can take them forward to the next steps, the candidate changes their mind about the position and withdraws their application. Sound familiar? It can be frustrating when this happens, and it can occur for many reasons, bu...

Continuing in the spirit of culture and values, I wanted to look further into how companies perceive themselves. Some say how amazing they are and what they do is ground breaking, that culture is king. However, when we look at current or ex-employees for a lot of businesses, they tend to say something completely different. For example, a business of over 300 people mentions ...

Sometimes, I think about death. Morbid, even for a recruitment blog! I was recently musing on the nature of eulogies. I imagined a scenario where I had been auditioning for an afterlife. In order to qualify for the afterlife, I had to have inspired a wonderful eulogy. The heavenly gatekeeper wouldn’t let me in unless this was the case (despite having met and personally scree...

When I tell people that I am one of 11 children, people typically have the same remarks. Chief among them is incredulous disbelief "nooo", comparisons to animals "are you a rabbit?"(no I am not), comments about entertainment options "did your parents not have a TV?", knowing remarks about religion "Catholic family huh", the old "in this day and age?" and in many cases commen...

My love affair with TT started years ago. Dad had an old table under the house and one day it meandered up to the back verandah. This table had several dead spots and a slight lean that only endeared it further to me. I have vivid memories of being an 11-13 year old, playing my oldest brother in law, Steve (who would have been 27 at the time) and being soundly, relentlessly ...

On the 13th of May this year, I became a statistic. My family and I packed up our apartment, picked a removalist I wouldn’t recommend to my worst enemy, put 85% of our belongings in a truck, and left Sydney for the country. When we got out of the car 2 hours later we were in a brave new world- Kangaroo Valley, the home of many a great golf weekend, and many a great romantic ...

Put your drink in your left hand. The first piece of advice I received about networking. Moving past what that says about broader alcohol culture or my own habits, let’s talk about…. Networking. A dirty word in the mouths and minds of many. It can conjure visions of conversations that make you feel like a leech- sucking something from someone who doesn’t want to talk with yo...

I sat down with a handsome, intelligent, articulate (and extremely youthful looking!) man yesterday for a coffee (work related I assure you). He has a fantastic CV- working with Aussie companies who have become globally known brands over the course of the last few years. His most recent role, however, left him wanting. Being a professional, he didn’t disparage his most recen...

In parts of Australia, shit is hitting the fan. In other parts of Australia, fans are hitting the footy. NSW is somewhere in between. Both geographically and metaphorically. I spoke with a friend of mine who runs a Melbourne based business on how he’s dealing with going into lockdown. Ben has been running his business for 15 years. He employs 150 staff across his group of co...

I went to uni as a mature aged student. I was 26 when I started and I did all the things mature aged students do- speak in class, answer questions and generally be an old know it all.   There was 1 other guy in my class who was a mature aged student- less mature than me but still answering questions in class. We became mature mates.   Yesterday he messaged me on linkedin:   ...

Got an offer from one company, but got an interview elsewhere you’re more excited about? Here’s how to handle it: I got a text yesterday from the guy I sat next to in year 7 homeroom. “Cans, got time to talk shop today?” Of course. My life is literally talking as much shop as possible. Here’s the scenario. Jimmy’s partner has got a job offer, today, from a company she’s been...

This is not a witty article. It doesn’t even include the “why” you should follow the advice listed below. If you can’t figure out the why yourself, you’ve got rocks in your head.   Me: “how do you prepare for an interview?” The person, probably you: “I usually just go to the website, learn a bit about their company and, yeah, maybe go and look at who I’m interviewing on link...

Wading into the world of relationship advice is something usually reserved for a single person. Yet here I am, compromising every day, pretending to enjoy Real Housewives, and still doubling down… If you think that someone is marriage material before the first date, you are cooked. How could you possibly know? Someone can certainly be attractive to you… they could have a bri...

Over the last 2 weeks we have spent almost 600 minutes on the phone, talking to 46 people solely about how their companies are going back to the office and how it had been working from home. A few gems came out! The best story must go to the team manager who personally hired a truck, picked up chairs and monitors from the office, and then drove to the home of each person on ...

Candy shopping, online shopping, panic buying or mystery shopping- what are you doing more of during Covid-19? With apologies to 50 cent, I make the case that if you’re looking for work or trying to sell to people right now, it’s got to be the humble mystery shop.  My first encounter with mystery shopping came after I turned some heads at my second job (Coles) with my much-p...

Following on from my last blog on what will become of company culture with more remote/off site workers, this week I sat down with CEO of one of the largest virtual contact centre businesses in the world, Daniel Turner of Unity4. With operations in Australia, UK, Canada and New Zealand, Unity4 employ a workforce of more than 1000 staff who work from home on various projects ...

Thanks to modern technology and a little help from a global pandemic, a lot of us have seen a huge and sudden shift to a remote working scenario. The days of the office ‘bullpen’ look to be gone, and in my opinion will probably never return to be the same again. Now, whilst more flexible work arrangements have a huge amount of advantages for employees, I’m sure a lot of busi...

We are now slowly, but surely emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic in Australia. Things for a lot us are becoming more “normal”. Sport is coming back, gyms reopening, socialising and for some, a return to the office. However, according to the Recruitmore Post Covid return to work survey this will be different for every business. (Ask me if you would like to see our findings)....

1.    Not Delivering on promises When good salespeople join an organisation they are often sold the dream to get them on board. This has to be done in some way of course to entice people to a business. However, if they get there and after 1-2 months realise that it’s nothing like what you said it would be, they will be long gone before even passing their probation. Don’t Lie...

Over the years I’ve managed to develop some fantastic relationships with my clients, which in turn have managed to help hundreds of permanent and contract staff secure great fitting roles. This has meant my clients have gone someway to experience the growth and success they were hoping for when engaging my services. What I’ve found during this time is that there are 5 key ar...

Sydney. The global city, home to over 5 million people, opportunities galore! All of these things are true, but what people might fail to recognise is that it’s actually a pretty small world, particularly when it comes to my experience in dealing with recruitment in the sales and contact centre space over the past 5 years. I find myself coming across the same people repeated...

The above may sound strange, but I really think this might be the case. As a recruiter that works on entry level roles all the way up to senior management, I’m constantly seeing hundreds of applications with zero follow up. For example, earlier this month I posted a senior role to LinkedIn and another job board where I have received 462 (and counting) applications for the on...

Last year I caught up with a candidate after an interview to get their thoughts on how they felt it went. They thought it couldn’t have gone much better. Later that day, I followed up with the client and I couldn’t have gotten more opposite feedback. It was a hard NOOO… Here's my list for people so they know what not to do in an interview.  1.Wear Sunglasses on your head. Mi...

A lot of people will be looking for work over the coming 12 months. Inevitably, this will force many people into a situation no one necessarily wakes up and wishes for- a conversation with a recruiter.  In this gripping 2-part series we will cover how to identify a good recruiter, and then, what to say to them to get the best out of the relationship. So! How to identify a go...

Every day for over 8 years of my life I have looked at CVs. Let’s lowball and say 20 a day, every day. 20x5x52x8 = enough to have an opinion. Most of them suck! Yours probably does too. Save yourself the $350-700 a professional CV writer will charge you by reading the below and taking my personal opinions as gospel. Have a simple structure. An easy way to do this is to break...

In the last 4 weeks I have personally spoken to over 40 people who have been made redundant.   I’m talking great people- intelligent, articulate, well presented. Some are even funny and charismatic too. People that typically have people like me all over them (as a recruiter, not just a general fanboy). As a group, these people are tackling this challenge with courage and gra...

  In a past professional life I got fired. Lee* my boss and very good friend called me and said “it’s best if you don’t come back in to work again.” Ouch. I didn’t have a leg to stand on so I took the medicine and moved on.    On a very positive note I have not been fired by an employer since.   A few weeks ago I was having coffee with a very professionally successful friend...

I remember my very first kiss like it was yesterday. I was on year 7 camp, it was a Thursday night about 7:30pm, I had a serious girlfriend who I’d been holding hands with for several weeks and we finally locked lips. I thought I felt the world shaking.   I also remember my first decent commission cheque like it was yesterday. I was 23 years old, I’d been flirting with decen...

What’s in a name?   It would seem that the evolution of various tech startup names ebs and flows.  Anyway to differentiate yourself and gain traction. A number here, a pun there, and capitalise a middle letter like you’re failing your pen license- it's all deemed attractive or catchy.   There are consultancies to assist with the naming process it’s that integral at certain p...

How one lad left London and ended up on the shores of St Kilda.   March 2006: With a fairly successful hospitality career across the UK, Europe & Sydney (briefly), I found myself in Melbourne continuing on my quest to ‘live the dream’. Three weeks later; after getting minimal shifts (and even worse tips) in a flashy CBD bar, I had to find something else. That something else ...

As a candidate that is!    Engaging with people on Linked these days is a common way to network and develop business. I personally do it daily, much like every other person in the sales and recruitment industry.   You can’t win them all, that’s a no-brainer in the industry. However, there is one element of Linked in that I’ve encountered a lot over the years and that’s varyi...

When I tell people that I did door to door, commission only sales for over 4 years, I usually receive similar reactions. “was it terrible” to “I can’t believe you did that” and “were people horrible to you?” Contrary to popular belief, I had an amazing time, made some decent money and learnt a lot about sales, people and sales management too. And of course all the suburbs in...