Candidates

Job Seeker Marketing

Unlike many of the recruiters you will have dealt with, we are not driven purely by the vacancies employers present us with. We recognise that many of our clients are themselves job seekers, and many of the job seekers we deal with will become our clients. Because of this, much of our work focuses around proactive representation of job seekers. Understanding what makes you unique, identifying the sort of companies you could add value to, and going out of our way to promote your skills to these businesses is a core part of our approach. We recognise how important job seekers are to what we do and represent them in much the same way a sports, literary or music agent would do with their clients.

Thorough Registration

For jobseekers we spend longer in the process of registration thereby avoiding any confusion over the roles we secure you interviews for. Those extra few minutes at the start of the process can often be the key factor in avoiding unnecessary interviews for irrelevant jobs. If we advise you to go to an interview with one of our clients, ninety-nine times out of a hundred it's in your best interest to attend. The Consultant you speak to will have a strong understanding of your skills and the job market for these. They will take the time needed to find out exactly what you want from a job and won't speak to you about anything that doesn't match these wants. We will respect your time.

Interview Preparation

We give the best interview preparation advice in the business. If you go to an interview through us with an established client you will receive thorough information outlining the nature of the job, how you can best communicate your suitability for it, and general interview performance advice. Although most of the candidates we work with are extremely skilled, being able to describe verbally, skills that are very much unconscious competencies in a succinct and structured manner can often be something of a challenge. When something is subconscious, breaking it down into a verbal description is difficult - we give you the assistance you need to do that and we don't charge you for it.

Honest Approach

We're very honest. We will never knowingly put you forward to an unsuitable job or encourage you to attend an interview that is not in your best interest. If we call you about a position you can openly discuss any concerns with us at an early stage and we will give you honest answers as well as advice. We do not make calls to candidates unless we have jobs for them so you can be confident that investing time with us will produce results for you. We will in all cases tell you who are clients are and confirm submission of your CV.

Technical Understanding

First Point used to be staffed only by people who had previously worked in IT. Although this is no longer the case - many of us coming from a broader business background - we still pride ourselves on understanding exactly what our candidates do for a living. We understand the relationships between different technical skills and we can communicate with you accurately on a technical and business level as pertains to your job search. We also manage client expectations on a technical level, for example communicating which skills are transferable and which are not. This means we can greatly increase your chances of working outside your immediate experience and broadening your career horizons. The biggest advantage, though, is that you won't be speaking to someone who just operates on "buzzwords" and has no clue what you actually do for a living; which in IT Recruitment, is probably a rather refreshing change!

Flexibility for Contractors

We manage a number of IT Contractors for our clients who work through either their own limited companies or one of the many umbrella services available. As such we are able to advise on compliance and tax issues. We can also offer you appropriate recommendations for umbrella companies or accountants, most of whom we have existing relationships with. From our side we are happy to have timesheets and invoices submitted via fax or post and can receive weekly or monthly invoices which we will pay within ten working days at the latest - typically sooner. We are flexible on how contracts are arranged and how payment is made. Rather than applying a blanket set of procedures and refusing to change them, we judge each situation on its individual merits.