How often as a candidate have you been asked to attend a lengthy interview process of several hours, do a telephone interview outside normal business hours, travel to the company’s head quarters miles away from where the job is based or be subjected to high numbers of interviews for the same role.

The problems these nightmare interview practises create amount to the fact that if you are unemployed and seeking a new job, you may not be able to afford things like long distance travel at short notice. Equally if you are employed and are seeking to change your job, you may not have the time – either holiday or personal, to get to interviews at short notice or take part in a longer process.

But should you have to do this? Should candidates expect to have to be more flexible in their approach to interviews and be prepared to exceed the normal level of commitment in order to land that job?

We asked Phil Roebuck, Chief Executive of Webrecruit, for some tips to help try and get around and avoid those nightmare interviews:

Be proactive

Ask questions such as “Why do I need to travel there?”, “Is it necessary to travel there?” but whilst retaining a degree of professionalism and seeming flexible. It may be there is a simple reason which makes you feel better about the need to travel so far. It could also give you an indication as to how you are faring in the interview process, i.e. are they asking you to travel to the head office to meet the rest of the team before making a job offer.

Negotiate

If companies are willing to negotiate on salary then it is possible that they will be willing to change interview locations if they are presented with a valid reason. However, don’t expect them to come to you, maintain a level of flexibility by making a compromise, suggestion a location half way between the two if feasible.

Claim

Ask the HR department – or the recruiters – if travel expenses can be claimed back when travelling excessively long distances. Again a level of flexibility must be maintained so don’t attempt to claim travel to another office twenty minutes down the road.

Be professional

Only agree to attend interviews and phone interviews during business hours, perhaps during lunch-breaks. If interview times outside of work are offered you can turn them down and suggest an alternative. Consider when providing contact details on your CV the possibility of highlighting the phone number given is for business hours to avoid the situation from the beginning.

Also, don’t forget, you’ve been asked to attend an interview which means the company is interested in you and you have something that they want – jobs work both ways. Plus it never hurts to ask for information, and if you don’t ask you may never know.

Above all, try to strike a balance, for the time being, it’s still an employer’s market and you don’t want to come across as uninterested. Good luck!

Phil Roebuck is Chief Executive of Webrecruit, the UK’s first fixed fee online recruitment service.

Many HR and recruitment professionals write regular blogs, and they often offer invaluable insight into the recruitment and hiring process, giving the job seeker a chance to see how their interviewers see things.

A lot of recruiters also offer their thoughts on how candidates can improve their chances of being considered for a role and of getting feedback from, and interaction with, the people involved in the hiring process. We read one such blog today from US recruiter Amy Ala in which she offers some advice for making sure that your application doesn’t get stuck in the process…and most of her points echo those made by other recruiters.

The four key actions to follow are:

Know What You Can Do

What are you good at? What training have you had and what skills have you developed? Where can you have a positive impact? Many of these questions are those that you should ask yourself when writing your CV and certainly when applying for roles. Your chances of making a shortlist will be enhanced if you are applying for roles that match your skills and capabilities.

Be Selective

A common complaint from recruiters is over the volume of applications for each role. They know that in the current jobs market there are many people looking for work and applying to vacant positions, but when they are trying to fill a specific role they want to be able to focus on those who have relevant skills.

It isn’t easy, but the process will be helped if you target the vacancies and companies that best suit the person you identified in point 1…you!

Contact the Recruiter

It may seem that we’re going out a bit on a limb with this one, but many recruiters do respond to contact…provided you are a good match for the role and can demonstrate it. If you are using social media in your search then LinkedIn could be a starting point as you can find the relevant person and see if you have any connections that may be able to introduce you. Don’t start sending invites through LinkedIn if you haven’t a connection though…use the contact information that the recruiter gives in their profile.

Sometimes an e-mail, even a phone call, can get through…provided you can show that you have the skills and abilities to do the job, and have done your homework on the company. After all, the recruiter wants to get the right person to fill the role as soon as possible. Try and make their life easier!

Patience

Maybe the hardest part of all is the waiting. You don’t know if you’re being considered or not and the temptation is to start following up. This is particularly tough at the moment, as the volume of applications is high, so even if you are dealing with a recruiter who does get back to all candidates, it may take time.

Any follow up should be professional and courteous, and should re-affirm your relevance for the role. The key words Amy used for the right follow up approach were steady, consistent and positive.

Let us know how you’ve had success…

The shift from passive to active job seeking will usually require a change in mind-set and a different, more pro-active approach. It will also call for a mix of strategy, planning and relationships to help with your momentum. If you’re about to take the plunge, here are 5 things you should be doing:

Make Sure Your CV is Up to Date

This isn’t just about ensuring that your most recent job is included but taking a look at the whole CV and how it is presented. Follow the advice in our recent blog Four Questions to Think about When You Write Your CV and check that your skills, capabilities and achievements are clearly set out and demonstrate how you can add value and make a real difference. It needs to be your sales document so make sure that it plays to your strengths and that if you get in front of companies for interview you can make it come to life!

Check Your Social Media Profiles

Most potential employers will look at your LinkedIn profile…some recruiters spend half their time on the platform! Check that your skills and qualifications are up to date, and that you have some good recommendations…but not too many; it may give a signal that you’re thinking of moving on. Our recent post Are You Maximising Your LinkedIn Profile should help.

It’s not just LinkedIn though. Surveys show that some recruiters are checking candidates out on other social media platforms. Cast a look over your Facebook timeline or Twitter avatar…how do they look? You may need a more professional head and shoulders shot to give a stronger impression.

Know What You Want to Do Next

Do you have a plan? You may be looking for career development or just a more stable environment, either way it helps if you can define exactly what you want to do next. Companies like to receive applications that are both targeted and suitable for the role they are trying to fill so you should think about what you would really like to do next. If you don’t know then start looking at the ads on sites like ours and get a feel for the types of positions, sectors and skillsets that are in demand.

It may also help if you get a mentor. It can be someone who knows you (maybe a previous boss) or someone that you’ve met whilst networking. Either way, it should be someone that you can look up to for inspiration or guidance. Get them to look at your CV, profile and career achievements to date with a critical eye. They may have suggestions that you haven’t thought about.

Get Networking!

Our recent guest blog Rip up Your CV and Start Networking was unequivocal in its advice to get out there and start interacting with business contacts, alumni and industry professionals! The contacts you meet can open new doors, and can often let you know about new roles before they are advertised. They can be a source of information, recommendations and industry insights…and can continue to help once you’ve secured a new role. Make sure that you search out events that are relevant for your industry.

Brush Up Your Skills and Industry Knowledge

The new role you want to go for may either require some new skills, or some that you haven’t had to use for a while. Make sure that you are as up to date as you can be. If you’ve followed steps 3 and 4 above then your mentor and/or networking connections may be able to offer some useful advice or guidance as to where to go to bring your knowledge up to date. They may also recommend cheap refresher courses or free events.

The proliferation of content sharing through social media sites has helped to build a huge potential online library of information and help…you just need to find it! Make sure that you identify key blogs to read and conferences in your sector to attend – some of these may let you in for free (or with a heavily discounted ticket) if you aren’t working. LinkedIn can be a useful source for this as most events are published there.

In the current climate job hunting may be a slow process so planning, patience and persistence will be most important of all.

It can reflect on us as an individual, an employee, a jobseeker or a friend, and quite often is the cause of much unnecessary stress.

Sometime it can’t be helped, but if it’s happening to you more often than not then here are 4 tips to try and get you back on time:

Know your Time Bandits

Any time management training will start with you identifying your time bandits – those things you do which eat into your time, distract you or take your concentration away from the job in hand. For some it will be e-mails, for others web surfing or social media, possibly gossip or coffee breaks.

Sometimes it’s tough to admit what it is – it may be something you really enjoy and can’t imagine not doing. But you do need to be tough with yourself and understand how time bandits eat into your time and impact on getting other things done.

How Long Does your Routine Take?

Whether it’s getting ready to leave the house in the morning, or preparing yourself for an important meeting or interview, the chances are that many of us under-estimate how long it takes us to get ready.

You need to time yourself and see how long your routine takes. If it’s leaving the house in the morning, then you may need to prepare breakfast, or iron your clothes, the night before. If it’s before a meeting, then maybe you haven’t prepared yourself well enough. Scrambling around at the last minute to find an important document, or your CV, will take up valuable time!

Learn to Say No!

How often are you ready to start doing something, or to leave to go somewhere, and then get asked to lend a hand, or finish off a job? Too often! It could be family, friends, colleagues or a boss – you feel bad saying you can’t help even though it will make you late for something else.

Learn to say NO! As Julie Morgenstern, author of Time Management from the Inside Out said in an interview “Not having the skills to say no to other people can make you late by different amounts of time”.

Don’t Be Scared to Be Early

Sometimes we don’t like being early so we try to time things to arrive on the dot…but it never really works out that way. Maybe it’s an interview and arriving too early will leave you waiting and may make you feel nervous? Or you try to get to the station just in time for the train to save hanging around?

In the long run it pays to arrive early. As we often under-estimate our journey or preparation times then try and aim for 10 minutes early, but have something with you help pass the time – a book or magazine, or possibly even catching up on personal admin on your phone. As long as it’s something you enjoy doing then it should help eradicate any anxiety from waiting.

Let us know if you have any tips or ideas for never being late.

This month’s highlights also include:

• Brand campaign stats update -84,000 CVs added in just 2 weeks
• Quarterly Recruitment Review – latest issue free to download
• Supporting young talent in the south – Portsmouth F.C.’s Beyond Blue project

To read the newsletter online, click here.

Since 1995, we’ve worked hard to provide intelligent recruitment services that make finding jobs easier and less hassle. Along the way, we’ve looked for opportunities to grow the business. And now we support a network of over 30 niche job boards and more than 500 regional websites across the UK.

But we’re not finished yet. Which is why today is so exciting.

This morning our founder Keith Potts announced the launch of Evenbase, a digital recruitment group focused on improving how companies find candidates and how candidates find work in both domestic and international markets.

As an Evenbase company, we – and in turn our clients and partners – benefit from the innovation and expertise that spans 55 countries, includes a network of 60 sites, and employs more than 330 people. Not to mention flagship brands such as CityJobs, Oilcareers and Broadbean.

Which is all very impressive, but you’re probably wondering what this means for clients and jobseekers… Rest assured, day to day Jobsite services and solutions will remain unchanged. And we look forward to sharing the synergies and opportunities generated by Evenbase with you in the future.

To hear a quick word from our founder, and Evenbase CEO, Keith Potts about this milestone play the video below…

Yet the key to doing well at interview isn’t always just giving good answers…sometimes it’s about asking good questions too!

You won’t always get the opportunity to ask as many questions as you answer so it’s just as well to have some prepared. You may well be looking for some clarity around the company’s business or structure, and any logistical issues you see around the role, but to give yourself the best chance to success you’ll need to get answers to these questions:

Why is the role open?

Is this a newly created position or has someone left or been promoted? If it’s new you’ll probably want to find out more about why it’s been created and what expectations the company have for the role. If the previous incumbent has left you may want to find out why.

What challenges does the interviewer see in the role?

You should always try to get the person interviewing you to talk about challenges, not problems. It shows that you are looking positively at the role! Some challenges may be structural from within the business, some may be to do with skills or capabilities and others arising from expectations. You need to know which if you are to succeed.

What are the company’s expectations?

If these haven’t been covered in the previous answer then ask directly. You want to know where the company see the role going, and also how they see the successful candidate developing. Careful how you ask this as you don’t want it to look like you may well reject them…use it as an opportunity to find out more about how the company sees the role and what success looks like.

What will the priorities be?

If something’s going to go wrong in a new job it will invariably happen in the first three months. You need to really understand what your immediate priorities will be. You also need to try to get an understanding of the company’s on boarding process and, if it’s a new position, what kind of support you can expect.

Are you the right person?

If the interview’s going well then this is the one you’ll really want to know the answer to! Particularly if there are areas where you don’t match the spec and you can do something about it whilst you’re in the interview. Be careful how you ask it though. If you are too direct – as in ‘do you think I’m a good fit for the job?’ – then there is a chance that you may get a vague answer. You need to show your interest in the role and ask if there are any reasons stopping you from being considered. Hopefully there won’t be, but if there are then you want the opportunity show the interviewer that you are more than capable of meeting the criteria!

Good luck!

The Winter 2011 Recruitment Review has just been published and it has some interesting findings on the way that Jobseekers are approaching the market:

• Online job boards remain the most used method, though searching company websites is becoming increasingly popular.
• Newspaper ads are still a valuable source as are recruitment agencies
• Almost 50% are now using social & business networking sites
• Although many jobseekers still use 3 or more job boards, there is some inertia appearing with an increasing number now using just one board
• Browsing for jobs is still the most used job board service, but there has been an increase in the use of e-mailed job offers and specific searches

The return in popularity of e-mailed job offers reflects a desire for timely information about attainable positions, whilst the increase in numbers using only one job board could be triggered by a jump in the number of recruiters using multiple boards.

You can download the Winter 2011 Recruitment Review here and read more…and we’d like to hear your views. Let us know if your job hunt approach is changing, and if so what is prompting the shift?

This report, run by independent brand tracking agency HPI, shows two key changes from our last report:

• Jobseekers are becoming a little more passive and pessimistic
• Businesses are responding positively, embracing more online recruitment methods whilst remaining cost conscious

The mood of the candidate community is downbeat, with only 23% feeling that their job situation will improve in 2012, and there are signs that they are becoming less active.

For recruiters, the new financial reality seems to have led to more of them embracing job boards – for the first time since our research began in 2008 they have become the number one route to market, with CV search proving the most popular feature.

Other key findings in the report include:

• Jobseekers’ interest in company websites continues to grow
• Both Jobseekers and Recruiters continue to use multiple job boards; whilst there is a slight drop in the number of Jobseekers using more than 1, there has been a big jump in Recruiters using more than 3
• For Jobseekers online job browsing is decreasing in popularity whilst there is increased appetite for defined search with e-mailed job alerts
• Pricing has returned to the top as the most important factor for Recruiters in choosing a job board
• Knowledge based factors (well-informed staff and sector insights) are still important to Recruiters when choosing a job board

Download and read our Winter 2011 Quarterly Recruitment Review for further insight and commentary on the changes in business and jobseeker behaviour…and let us know about your experiences.

“CVs are so yesterday! For as long as we can remember, the CV has been the ‘passport’ to jobs and to work. But it is such a one-dimensional document in so many ways. It usually starts at the moment where we’ve finished full-time education and ends up being a list of jobs that we’ve done for different organisations. It has its use as far as it goes; which frankly isn’t very far.

Those reading it (in the recruitment sector particularly) probably spend less than 1 minute reading the cover letter and the CV (typically 2-pages). These days it’s probably nearer 30 to 40 seconds, including the click-through from one document to the other. How does your CV ever get through to who you are trying to reach?

The CV is part of a transactional process, over which we have little or no control. We are dealt with by organisations without any courtesy and the whole process, which is driven by the CV, is full of uncertainty and anxiety, leaving us feeling frustrated and sometimes utterly depressed. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a recruitment agency or an internal HR department. The CV gets processed pretty much the same way. In summary, the CV makes it easy, makes the users lazy, it’s a boring document and it is anything but comprehensive. It suits the intermediaries, but not us – the talented job hunter!

On the other hand, there’s networking. Networking is based on a combination of face-to-face relationships that you can build and have built, together with online social media, which is changing with amazing acceleration in front of our eyes. And before we go further, let’s just note that the best networking is based on quality, not on quantity.

So why do we/should we start networking? Networking encourages us to be specific; specific about who we are, what we have to offer and what our value and our contribution is. We have control over what information we release about ourselves and through which channels we release it. Networking, critically, allows us to control what suits our style, whether we’re perhaps an introvert or an extrovert. It allows us, in other words, to put our best foot forward in a way that suits us best.

What are these networks and what can they do for us? We definitely need to be clear about our intentions. What is it that we are trying to do? Who is it that we want to work for? What job is it that we know will suit us best at this stage of our career? Being clear about our intentions allows us to set out our territory–to be specific about our targeting and to be smart about how we use these networks, so that we don’t waste our time or the time of other people. This type of networking allows us to get to know the communities of interest to us. Our networking communities are based on what we know and so who it is that we know is important as well as those that we need to get to know.

What we’re doing in developing these networks is creating warmer relationships. These warm relationships, whether we utilise them for information, for leverage or for a job, mean that we have contact with real human beings. We will not be homogenized. These relationships also allow us to have a higher feeling of value and self-esteem. That sounds like a great position to be in – but how do we get to it?

Well, the first thing is we need to start attending to it now. All of us have relationships. All of us have networks, however immature or small they may be. Every one of us can start to build our networks from this moment forward. Start with asking who is that you know and then who it is that you sense that your network may know. How do you find out who they know? You need to find out by being curious; about the people that you know who you could know better and by exploring just what life and work they have done.

Think about who else you need to know and build a network towards them because over time you can nurture these relationships. As you become more experienced at networking, you begin to see which relationships have two-way streets–in other words, reciprocity—and which ones are one-way streets, or cul-de-sacs. Where you have people taking from you and not giving, you can then decide if you want them to be a part of your network anymore.

There’s something more about networking. Smart networking enables you to take control of your learning and your growth. Using your network can help you to understand the specialist area that you want to get better known in. This is about using your network to link yourself to knowledge. People whom you know, you hear about through the Internet as writers of articles and books, or perhaps speakers at conferences and TED talks. This implies a continuous developmental process that should last for the whole of your career. It is not, as CVs are, about fits and starts that are predicated on your job search in that particular moment. Networking is a building process completely in sync with your developing career.

Networking is part of what makes you and it allows others in your world to understand you–how you’re growing, how valuable you are and your availability to do something for them. There is no doubt that if somebody wants to know you, know about your life, know about your interests, know about your professionalism and know the total value of what you offer, CVs will never do it. Networks always will.”

 Simon North is co-founder of Position Ignition, a  leading Career Consulting Company, and has co-authored many career eBooks. He  provides career consulting to people looking for guidance and support through their career change, new career direction, job search and career development, and offers a free initial no obligation phone consultation. Details through their website.