Career Advice

Your brand is what sets you apart from other professionals. It should reflect your values, skills and experience across a number of mediums. Your CV, personal appearance and personal network are all part of your brand, but your presence and actions on social media are how most recruiters and employers will come to know you.

Does your social network reflect your professional skills?
It's vital to ensure your social networks reflect the best of both your personal and professional brands. To that end, we've compiled this guide to using social media (LinkedIn in particular) to help improve your standing in the job market.

Important considerations
• Any social media profiles you have should be considered a part of your personal or professional brand.
• Be aware that potential employers are likely to look at these to get a reflection of you.
• Always be careful about what you post or share, and make sure you're always presenting your best side.
• Your professional brand is how employers and peers see you, and is no longer solely about your CV. 

Your LinkedIn profile
Just having a LinkedIn profile isn't enough, you need to be engaged with your sector or industry area. Luckily, LinkedIn makes it very easy to connect with other professionals and find industry related groups and content. Here are a few ways to make yourself more visible to potential employers and to find out more about the latest developments in your area.

1. Post ideas
LinkedIn provides the opportunity to showcase your skills and interests. Make sure you post and share articles that are of interest to you and relevant to your industry.

2. Make connections
One of the most important aspects of LinkedIn is the ability to connect with people. Be careful of overextending however as the quality of your connections on LinkedIn is more important than the quantity, so only link with people you feel are relevant to you.

3. Get involved with Groups
Groups provide the opportunity for you to learn more about your industry by asking questions and networking with others. Most are tailored to interests and industries, so search for the ones most relevant to your industry and location.

4. Follow companies
LinkedIn is built to help people find jobs. By finding the organisation and looking for people working for the company with a similar job title to yours, you can review their profile along with their key responsibilities. This gives you an idea of what you should be aspiring to, should you wish to work for this company in the future.

5. Skills and endorsements
List your skills and let other professionals you network with endorse them. This gives each of your skills a rating based on feedback from other users, it's a great way to demonstrate to potential employers not only your library of skills, but the benefits they have added to the organisations you've worked for.

LinkedIn is invaluable to any job seeker, but it's not the only thing you can use to enhance your brand. To see what else you can do, as well as how best to use your social media accounts, download our guide above.

As a professional, you should only be looking for recruitment advice from an expert consultant who understands your profession and the sector you are interested in. By partnering with a specialist recruiter you will have an advocate who will promote your strengths and expertise to potential employers.

Benefits of using an expert recruiter:
We know your industry
Hays' recruiters will understand the special terminology of your industry, how your particular job works and where your skills are most suited for your next career move. We will also be able to advise you on your salary level against the market value.

We can improve your CV
Our expert consultants view hundreds, sometimes thousands of applications in a week, so they will instantly be able to identify if your CV will stand out from other candidates. They will be able to help you improve your structure so that you successfully match the role you are applying for.

By enhancing your online branding
We understand the importance of social media in your job search and can advise you on your personal brand and online profile so that you can make a good impression on a prospective employer.

We act as your agent
One of the most valuable aspects of working with a recruiter is that they can represent you with the companies you are interested in working with.
It's difficult to get across your professional appearance and personality in a CV. That's where a recruitment consultant comes in:
• Our relationship with the hiring company will make a stronger case for you and get the feedback you might not be able to receive when applying independently.
• We have the skills and experience to be able to sell you above the other candidates and upon offer, negotiate the best package on your behalf.
Define your strengths and weaknesses during your job hunt

We prepare you for interviews
We aim for a "win - win" situation between candidate and company. Our consultants prepare candidates for interviews on a regular basis and we provide an impressive shortlist of candidates who meet the criteria the vacancy requires. Consider that: 
• We already know the hiring company and the hiring manager, so we'll be able to brief you well.
• We'll coach you on what to say and give you feedback on your interview technique.
• We provide you with advice on how to remedy any gaps in your industry knowledge. 
• Also, you should want to meet the person who is representing you to your potential future employer!

We provide multiple opportunities
It is most likely that you will be meeting your recruitment consultant about a specific role. However, there are occasions when we have other jobs on our database that match your skillset. So we will make sure you aware of those jobs and allow you to decide if you should apply for them.

Knowing what you're key strengths are sounds easier than it is, you may have complementary skills but you may not even aware of. We can help you discover what your key strengths are, and how best you can use them. If you're having trouble pinning down your skills and thinking of applicable situations, you can try performing a personal SWOT analysis on yourself.

SWOT stands for:
• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities, and
• Threats.
Using this model you can look at how your aptitudes create new opportunities and overcome challenges. It's a great way to find out how you can use skills you have to overcome any shortcomings. This is also a great tool for interviews, as it can give you a new insight into your abilities, and more talking points with your potential employer.

Strengths:
Think about positives which are your key selling points 
Talk about your personal characteristics; for example good analytical skills, determination, experience with specific software or products and problem solving.

Weaknesses: 
Negative areas you need to improve on 
Be realistic and show that you realise and are aware of your weaknesses along with what you are doing to turn the weakness into a strength. Define your strengths and weaknesses during your job hunt

Opportunities: 
Positive external conditions to take advantage of 
Start off with opportunities you see in the job you are interviewing for. This will show your interest and positive attitude.

Threats: 
Negative external conditions you can't control but can minimise 
There are always threats you will face at your workplace; for example; overworking yourself by taking on so many responsibilities or your job responsibilities changing.