Would you give me your 99p moneyback voucher if you saw me selling the big issue?

Would you give me your 99p moneyback voucher if you saw me selling the big issue?

 

Hello all, and welcome to blog 2 in the #daneyblogs series. Firstly, I just want to say how thrilled and touched I am by the overwhelming positive response I’ve had to the first blog! What’s your favourite sitcom? I picked that random title for the blog as I wanted to intrigue people, make their nose bother them so they’d read, and then once in they saw I was actually talking about a recent episode in my life, not about my favourite birds of a feather episode!

Although, speaking of feathers though, I’ve had my feathers ruffled today. I’ve been nervously awaiting my new job to start with a large banking organisation X  which I applied, was interviewed and *congrats, you’ve received the job* praised through a well-known recruitment agency, for me to be told coldly today that the job is no-longer going ahead Okay, I’m going to take a deep breath before I go any further…..  

**************breathes********************

Still with me yeah? Great!

Ok, so, you’re telling me that an organisation can just coldly say ‘nut, there’s no work for you guys’ to you, after you on their behalf having put me through every loop (and Christ I’m finding it hard to fit through them- I’m not as thin as I used to be!), from hours’ worth of forms to fill out (and you still get my name wrong!), to having to chase up my own references myself (which is costing me money on my phone contract as it’s out-with my tariff), to having to keep phoning to check progress, to the person who interviewed me, mysteriously leaving having all my sent documents to them, resulting in the documents processing being held up? and getting attitude on the phone when I asked about this. I’m sorry… WHAT? Am I understanding this correctly?

I’m all for any help available in order to find a job (it’s fiercely competitive and tough on that job market) and I genuinely respect that recruitment agencies have and do play a massive role in the job market, but, this kind of service, (from just one recruitment agency- I’m not demonising all! And I won’t be revealing who it is on here) which to me takes a sales target driven approach over a personal, client centred approach, just astounds me! Do you know why? This astounds me because as a person, I’m person centred. I’m about helping others when they’re in their time of need.

Personally I’m about:

·         Handing that Tesco difference voucher worth 99p to the homeless person selling the big issue instead of keeping it (trust me, in my current financial situation, that 99p goes a long way)

·         Running to get a struggling elderly lady a basket in the supermarket so she can carry her shopping (she was trying to balance things which were too heavy for her, and I couldn’t just walk past and let her struggle!)

·         Helping the person I saw struggling to find the street they were looking to find by looking it up on google maps for them!

 

Professionally I’m about:

·         Apologising when I’m at fault, and using phrases for clients such as “I’m going to make this really easy for you, don’t worry”

·         Treating people with respect and sticking to commitments- if I’ve said I’m calling you back, I’m calling you back, and if I’m late in doing so, I will apologise, and then make sure you get all the information you need when you’re off the phone to me

·         Putting myself in the customer, clients shoes, have they understood what I’ve just said to them? If they look/sound puzzled or bewildered, how can I help them? I don’t want to give them extra, unnecessary work!

What’s this specific agency about? What are they giving me? Apart from:

·         Emails misspelling my name

·         Failed call backs

·         Job non-starts

I’ll tell you what….they’re giving me, aggravation!

Now, I’m not dissing recruitment agencies overall, I think they’re fantastic when things go right! I would like to note, that they’re in a very, very difficult position when clients cancel on them, which is life, and it happens. However, how they deal with it, is ultimately telling on what their approach to their clients is.

I loathe being a ‘job seeker’ just now, it’s genuinely dragging me down. For someone to make me feel like a number, like they have no genuine interest in helping me get in and succeed in the job, when I’m doing everything I can and looking into more effective ways to do it, is actually more soul destroying than just getting the blank ‘dear candidate’ rejection emails. And also, as much as offering me to apply for something else I’ve done previously is all well and good, but that propped up with even more forms to fill in and having to re-take a test for the THIRD time for the role (when I've reported glitches with it), is just unacceptable.

I want a recruitment agency to work with me to help me find a job just now until I find or create my dream marketing job in the third sector. Is that so hard to find?  Is anybody out there? Or, are you that agency that can help me get my dream job?

How am I going to be pro-active and deal with this job cancellation?

·         I’m going to get more creative with my job search. Watch out on social media for #employdaney ‘comin atcha’ where I’m going to experiment with some eye catching ways to get noticed by employers

·         I’m going to re-visit my CV and make sure it’s saying exactly what I want it to say!

·         I’m going to sign up for more networking events and get myself out there!

For when the job search hasn’t worked out, or I’ve been knocked down, I keep in mind the following

3 #daneypositives  to take away!

·         Everything happens for a reason- I’m a firm believer in this, and it’s obvious that this job being called off is putting me in the direction for something better. Why not be my new direction?

·         I’m not always right, I do get things wrong, I do misunderstand things, but I do apologise and take ownership for what I’ve done right and wrong and put in the work to rectify it!

·         I will get back into work soon! I’m all about working hard and I want to prove this again! Why not give me the chance?

If you’re a person centred recruitment agency who is client as opposed to target centred and wants to help #employdaney, then get in touch. I’d love to hear from you!

I bake and everything, I can whip you up some freshly made chocolate brownies whilst you take a swatch of my CV!

On a closing note, make me feel like you want to help me, don’t make me feel like you just want to give me paperwork and hassle. I will go more than the extra mile for you, just take a wee extra step for me and call me by the correct name!

Daney, over and out for now!