RCEuro Member Blogs

Protests left right and centre could instantly suggest that the lack of jobs readily available in the UK is due to economic havoc. Undoubtedly, this is true to a certain extent. However, recent research may suggest that jobseekers are missing the mark because of fairly simple mistakes.  

A study, carried out by Nicoll Curtin Recruitment looked into the current problems surrounding recruitment from both the perspective of the job seeker and employer. Managing Director from Nicoll Curtin, Lawrence Hargreaves stated : “The research demonstrates that candidates are falling short of getting a job on simple things such as poor communication or failing to recognise the importance of technical skills and qualifications.”

Many frustrated UK job seekers may dismiss the belief that their situation in down to lack of recruitment understanding or simple mistakes. Either way the research does show some surprising faux pas, including:

-Many participating managers stated that ‘poor communication skills’ was the main reason for not hiring a candidate.

-Only 17% of job seekers appropriately tailored their CV to the role they were applying for.

-85% of employers expect interviewees to have good industry knowledge, rather than focusing on actual company performance. This could suggest that many job candidates are focussing of the wrong information when it comes to actual interview stage. Job boards like contractjobs.com  provide some guidance on how to cope during the initial one to one interview stages.

So as well as more jobs, does this research call for a fresh perspective from jobseekers? Like most debates, one party is never completely in the right. If jobseekers were provided with the right knowledge to strive during the application process and the economic climate loosened its reigns for just a moment, would the UK employment slump end? Something tells me that this all sounds a bit too simple…