Work enables people to discover the best in themselves. To explore and develop talents. To overcome uncertainties and to meet challenges. To grow and to flourish.

The Randstad Company is all about work. And the work we do contributes to the successes of people and companies. The company is one of the world’s largest and most successful recruitment services. My name is …… and I have worked for Randstad for more than six years.

Here in the Netherlands we have just opened a new branch called Randstad IT Services, which is dedicated exclusively to finding staff for the IT market. Our aim is to meet an increasing need for interim IT professionals – people who would work under temporary contracts in the IT industry. We work to attract new employees whom we match to companies who need an interim professional on a temporary or project basis.

At Randstad IT Services, the professionals that we work with can be divided into three main focus areas: system support (3rd line support, system engineers, project leaders), software development (e.g. PHP, .NET) and testing.

I am in charge of business development. Over the years I have learnt a lot about the process of finding and selecting good candidates. I would like to share with you some of the basics.

So how does it work?

Well, to start with, we test all of our potential candidates. The test covers different areas. One important area is ‘learning abilities’ - an indicator of intelligence and the ability to learn from experiences. This is a way of confirming the qualifications in the CV. It’s also an important way of assessing the potential of the candidate: ‘will he or she be able to grow rapidly?’

Other important areas include ‘the ability to work together’, ‘adaptivity’ and ‘working effort’. The ability to work in a team and adapt quickly to a new working environment are just as important for interim workers as they are for full-time employees. You can be well-qualified, have all your certificates and still be ineffective in working environments without these skills.

The candidates we test are chosen only after we have meticulously screened and selected the most appropriate CVs. We do this because we have found that it expedites the selection process and just gets better results.

As we screen CVs, we look out for different things. For example, changing employers (including staffing agencies) from time to time can be valuable in the development of a professional. Too many changes, however, are for us an indicator that something might be wrong - and sometimes this is the case. So checking references has become standard for us too.

Another issue is the CV itself. The emerging role of job boards has had a strange effect on the way people go about looking for work.  Today many candidates think that placing a draft, unpolished CV on a job board and sititng back, waiting for the phone to ring is the way to success.

Giving a lot of attention to your CV and acting professionally every time you get into contact with a company helps you to stand out from lots of others. So it’s important to stress that first impressions count – make sure your CV makes a good impact!

Furthermore, to avoid wasting time – yours as well as your potential employers - be as clear as possible in your CV about the way you want to go:

• What kind of role(s) are you looking for?
• What is your ambition for the next two years?
• What kind of company are you looking for?

The more precise you can be about how you see your career developing, the more likely it is that you will find the right contacts. Be as specific as you can about what you want and expect from a new job or career.

So we have covered some basics – a good CV is important as well as having some clear ideas about what you want and why.

Then there are some, perhaps, less obvious qualities I would mention.

Recently, I hired a new interim professional.

When this new colleague had left the interview, I looked back on the meeting and thought: ‘what was it that had convinced me to hire this guy?’

It was not the fact that he was dressed properly or had a good CV with different, nteresting experiences. Nor was it the fact that he arrived on time, or asked different relevant questions.

What is was was the fact that he showed genuinel interest in our company and the fact that he had really made an effort to find out about us. He had done his homework.

Nowadays, we experience more and more candidates who let you know that you are ‘one in a row’ – just one more interview. Candidates ofter come to meet you without taking the time or the trouble to find out anything about you and expect you to make the effort to find out about them.

Trust me, it is like falling in love: without showing sincere interest and giving the other the feeling that he or she is The One, there is little chance for success.

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