CV Dropoff

Job Basket 0

Your basket is empty.

Search Site

Filters

Select a Salary

Per Day
Per Hour

Recruiter tips: Improving your personal brand to maximise your employability

In recent years, personal branding has become just as important as business branding.

We’d all agree that when we hear the names Adidas and Nike, 3 words come to mind. Sporty, current and up-beat. Simply put, that is branding. Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos once said, "Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room." And it works just the same for an individual.

To help you improve your personal brand online and become more employable, we've asked our recruitment team for their best tips.

Here's what they had to say:

Define yourself

As with anything, planning is a must.

Mark Wallace, Business Manager for our Oil & Gas team suggests that all candidates should map out their personal branding goals.

"Ask yourself 'Who would I like to be?', 'How would I like to be portrayed?' and 'What would I like to be remembered for?'

"By asking yourself these questions, you can start creating the ideal version of you. Identify what key traits you would like to have, then you can start to remodel yourself and set yourself goals to work towards."

Put yourself in an employer’s shoes

When it comes to job applications, you're not the only person researching. As much as you research companies to see if you'd like to work with them, employers who receive your applications will do the same research about you.

Our team's advice is to Google yourself. This will give you an idea of what an employer finds when they search for you too. In the majority of cases, your social media pages will appear, which leads us to our next point.

Be careful what you post online

Your social media profiles summarise you as a person online and the ‘you of today’ isn’t the same as the person you were 10 years ago.

Hannah Richardson, Head of Marketing at First recommends tidying up your digital presence: 'I advise everyone to have a clear out of your social media, just like you’d have a clear out of your wardrobe. Be sure to remove any ancient posts or pictures that may come back to haunt you in the future.'

Use LinkedIn to your advantage

If you don’t already have a LinkedIn account, we highly suggest creating one.

Ryan Kirkpatrick, First Recruitment Group Delivery coordinator says: "Not only is it a fantastic platform to connect and interact with the right people within your industry, it’s also a great way to learn new things and keep up to date on the latest industry news. Candidates should aim to stay active on LinkedIn, posting relevant articles to their sector and interacting with connections."

If you’re struggling to find content, you can try using the website BuzzSumo.

If you’ve got it, flaunt it

Depending on the type of work you do, you could create a website to display your talents.

According to Kevin Riley, Business Manager for IT recruitment, this could generate more interest in you from employers:

"Creating a website nowadays couldn’t be easier. There are many sites that have templates for various purposes, industries etc. A great example would be Wix. They have designs for a wide range of industries where you can showcase your work at no cost.

"Say for example you’re a Graphic Designer, you have the ability to upload your designs quickly and easily into 1 of many templates that look slick and professional, with the freedom to make tweaks where necessary. This will maximise how much of your work you’re able to showcase including only a short link to your website on your CV."

Get involved in events

Whichever industry you work in, there’s a very high chance there’s an event being held this year within travelling distance.

First Recruitment Consultant Katie Marnell recommends attending as many as you can:

"It is not only an interesting learning experience, but it’s the perfect opportunity to network with other people within your industry. Sometimes it’s not necessarily what you know but who you know that will get your foot in the door."

Share your knowledge

Don't sit on your knowledge.! Whether it's sharing the latest articles about your industry or thoughts on how to improve business processes, your insights set you apart.

Andrew Curran, Senior Recruitment Consultant for our Permanent Recruitment team says: "Sharing knowledge is a great way to build trust and real, lasting relationships with your connections. It proves you know what you’re talking about and people are more likely to come to you if they need advice or information.

"You become a reliable and approachable source leading to recommendations and valuable connections from others in your field."

Building a personal brand isn’t easy but if you work hard at it, the hard work will pay off. We hope you found these tips useful and if you have any additional advice, we’d love to hear it! Join in the conversation on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Testimonials

"Their knowledge of the industry, our organisation and candidates is one of the leaders in the market. They have always been able to supply us with the right calibre of engineering candidate no matter what the discipline or regional location is.

"First Recruitment Group’s service delivery has always been to a high standard and the customer service provided by the team has ensured that First Recruitment Group will remain a preferred supplier of engineering personnel to WorleyParsons on our future engineering projects."

WorleyParsons

"In my dealings with First I have found them to be responsive, knowledgeable, quality-focused and engaging in their approach. I would have no hesitation in recommending the services of First Recruitment Group to any prospective customers."

Global Engineering Consultancy

"We have a good working relationship with First Recruitment and they always put every effort in to filling our positions whether it's on a permanent or contract basis. First have an honest and open approach to recruitment and their clients which is refreshing. First offer an excellent payroll service which compliments their overall delivery service to MWH Treatment."

MWH Treatment

“As the biggest services supplier to the nuclear industry our demand for personnel is significant, when I have an urgent requirement I know I can rely on First Recruitment to rise to the challenge.

“As a preferred supplier for temporary labour and a fundamental part of our permanent recruitment process we get the right people at the right time. Whether its highly technical/specialist resources or back office support personnel the approach is to the same high standard.”

Veolia Nuclear Solutions

"It’s great to work with a recruitment agency we trust. The team at First Recruitment Group are friendly and straight talking and they continue to provide an excellent service. We’re proud to still be working with them after 20 years."

Simon Carves Engineering Ltd

"First Recruitment are on the 1st Tier of Sweett Europe’s preferred supplier list. We have found First recruitment to be hugely supportive and value adding partners to Sweett, helping us source a wide range of roles. The consultants at First are hugely knowledgeable and have a real desire to listen to, and understand, our needs. They have shown an unrivalled desire to work on hard to fill roles using innovative methods to ensure they always supply us with CVs.

"I have been hugely impressed by their willingness to support us, even when we have simply been after guidance which would not attract them a fee. I would be more than happy to recommend First Recruitment Group to any prospective organisation, and to discuss in more detail their capabilities."

Sweett Group

“We’ve worked with First Recruitment for over 12 years and have built up a great relationship with their team. They’ve helped us in sourcing contractors for our chemical division, maintaining consistently high standards in delivery, and we hope to continue building on this relationship in the future. I have no hesitation in recommending First to others.”

Haden Freeman Limited

"We have used First Recruitment to support the recruitment of several key roles within our business. The quality of the candidates put forward were extremely high which helped enormously in our ability to fill all roles, also the candidates have all been a success since joining our business. They were prompt, knowledgeable and very professional and made the recruitment process for us extremely simple. The service we have received has been first class and I would highly recommend the services of First Recruitment to any Company looking to fill a vacancy."

Meadow Vale Food Group

“I have worked with First Recruitment frequently over the last couple of years. Their ability to understand our business and support me in terms of recruitment has been excellent. Candidates are screened initially to meet our requirements and taken through the process in a professional way. I would have no hesitation in recommending First Recruitment to any employer who needs that little extra support in their recruitment process."

Bokomo Foods (UK) Limited

“I have found First Recruitment to be very efficient and professional in their approach to recruitment. They were able to gain an in depth understanding of the needs of our business and source high quality candidates. I would highly recommend their services to anyone with a recruitment need.”

AAK

"First Group are one of the key suppliers to Cobham. The team are quick to respond, friendly and professional, and as such have made a massive difference to the account. The team have supported and filled a variety of roles. Without hestitation I would recommend First."

Cobham

Read all Testimonials

Help us with our survey
Do you feel the jobs market has picked up?

Our Specialist Sectors