Getting the ‘FIT’ right

You’ve heard it before – companies looking for new hires with the ‘right fit’. The whole recruitment process designed to find the ‘right’ sort of person who will align themselves to what the organisation is all about. Or at the very least the interviewer’s idea of someone who will not cause too much trouble or rock the boat once ‘on board’.

[Although I would argue that the employee who is going to rock the boat a bit is sometimes exactly the kind of person the organisation needs. But more of that in another post…]

Recognising that companies will more often than not want to play it safe when it comes to recruiting new staff (especially in times of scarce resources), where does this leave a job hunter? Particularly if you’re changing careers or moving to a different industry, where do you draw the line between emphasising your ‘fit’ with the organisation, but also the skills and experience you can bring which mark you out as different from the rest?

1. Read what the organisation says about itself (website, social media etc), and above all look at the language used – challenge is better received when it’s spoken in the language of the organisation, so you need to be able to sound like one of them and using their words will be more persuasive. Looking at what they say about themselves as an organisation will also inform you if it matches with your own thinking and way of working.
2. Emphasise your achievements more than your personal credentials. They can’t argue with facts if you have evidence to back up what you’re saying. Do your homework on yourself and always provide evidence of skills and achievements you’re claiming to possess. Do not simply rely on where you went to university, or previous career experience to open doors.
3. You need to come across as a ‘team player’ as good working relationships are important. At the end of the day, surely the hiring manager is going to pick the candidate they would prefer working with the most? Collect examples of good feedback you’ve been given: from formal perfomance reviews, or informally from colleagues. Quote those examples! Don’t be shy about letting the recruiter know what others say about you if they’re singing your praises.
4. Ask insightful questions. Let them know that you know about the challenges they face and how you are willing and able to work to meet those. Of course, to do this you need to do a fair bit of research on the company, their market situation, what else is going on in their industry.

In the end, it’s still so important to come across during a recruitment process, whether via an application form or CV, or in person in an interview, as one of ‘them’. Organisations are usually looking for the ‘known quantity’ as bringing someone new in can  be a risky enterprise. Doing your homework on them can put you in a strong position to come across as one of them during the recruitment. And while your doing your homework, if you get the feeling that they’re not the right fit for you, then keep going in your job search until you find the right fit for you.

Job hunters! Do yourself a favour

I’ve been moved to write on this subject after a particularly disastrous phone call I received recently from a prospective employee. In summary, the caller was a student reading Business, he had sent an email to our corporate recruitment page and was attempting to ‘take the initiative’ and call the London HR Department directly to find out why he hadn’t received a reply.

Fair enough, you might say, and good on him for being proactive. But the actual conversation descended into a car crash. He had no idea about the company I work for, did not identify who he was or why he was calling until I repeatedly asked him, asked no questions, but instead kept repeating the same line about showing initiative in contacting us directly. In short, he just picked up the phone and was asking for a job. I did respond by giving him some advice on his job hunting approach, but I suspect that’s more than most HR departments would do.

Taking the proactive approach and contacting employers directly needs to be tackled carefully if it’s not going to turn out to be a waste of your time. Just being proactive in itself is NOT enough: consider how you’re coming across, do your research, and plan what you want to gain from the conversation. When you do make contact make sure you do it in a polite, professional manner, as you would if you were approaching someone at a networking event.

Calling a prospective employer:

1. Before you even pick up the phone, think about this question: what do you want to get out of this phone call? More information on recruitment opportunities and methods? More information on the company and their hiring criteria? A meeting with someone to find out more about the company?
2. When you do get through, be polite and professional.
3. Identify who you are and why you are calling. Don’t just pick up the phone and ask for a job. If you are going to ring up and demand to speak to the HR Department, make sure to be clear about what you can offer the company, what you are looking for and why you are talking to them.
4. Ask questions about the company. If the person on the other end is prepared to give you a minute or 2 of their time rather than hanging up immediately, use this as an information-gathering exercise. Bear in mind that the person you are talking to may not be able to give you the exact information you are looking for, but they could offer some more insight or other information that could be useful to you.
5. Whatever you do, don’t ring up and complain about not getting replies to your persistent emails. Levelling criticism at them is not going to endear you to them. And chances are the person you are speaking to on the phone has no idea about your email in any case (or your CV that comes through on the fax machine once a month… but that’s a topic for another post!).

Above all, remember that it takes time to find any job, but it especially takes time to find the one that’s right for you – be patient with yourself, find strategies to keep your spirits up, and always have more than one channel open at once. Calling an employer may not land you with a job offer, but it could put you in the right direction towards one if you handle it in the right way. At the very least, you don’t want one phone call made in haste to consign your carefully-constructed CV to the ‘NO’ pile!

In this age of email communication and online job applications perhaps a phone call could make you stand out from the crowd, particularly with smaller employers. But I’d be interested to hear if anyone has ever tried this approach and found it was successful for them?