Candidates

At Symbiotic Talent we provide advice in career planning and contract work which will start quickly.

  • Have a personal profile at the top written in the way you want to be perceived by the reader. Make sure you say what is important to you and what you are looking for. Employers will make assumptions on what you are looking for based on your career to date and this is your chance to steer them in the right direction of your story.

    Clear and concise in a bullet-pointed format without paragraphs.

    People tend to “absorb” a cv quickly rather than read it word for word especially f they have multiple applications. written in the third person.

    Have more detail for your most recent role and don’t clog up your cv with the detail of your everyday role you did 20 years ago.

    Focus on the value you added to your role/company rather than a shopping list of what you did. Think process improvements, leadership ability, problem-solving.

    Please get in touch if you would like Symbiotic Talent to review your cv and give some constructive feedback.

  • Understand the role profile thoroughly and pay attention to the competencies required.

    These may form the basis for the questions and will focus on specific skill, knowledge or behaviour. The interview may be a full Competancy Based Interview or may be more informal and unstructured. However if you do the preparation for a CBI, then you will be best placed to handle whatever way the interview goes. This preparation gives the interviewer EVIDENCE you can do the job and allows you to tell stories painting a picture of your potential future success should they employ you.

    Ensure you are aware of the gaps in your experience and have a plan of how you will bridge these gaps. Most companies want to hire the right person with the right behaviours. Unless its essential technical knowledge key to a niche role, most will expect gaps in knowledge and experience but they will want to know how you will own this and get yourself up to speed.

    Don’t:

    Ask salary, holidays or sick pay.

    Be overly familiar or relaxed even if the interviewer comes across that way

    Fail to know what gets you out of bed in the morning.

  • If you find yourself on the path to being immediately available, down to redundancy, relocation or a period of time out of the job market, Interim and FTC’s can be an excellent option. They allow you to start a role quickly and there is a lesser barrier into different sectors therefore a great opportunity to enhance your CV and gain new skills and experience. Many companies use this method to hire people quickly with a view to the person being converted to permanent on a “try before you buy” basis. This works both ways and can be especially useful if you have had a negative past experience in the workplace or you are moving to Scotland and want some breathing space whilst working to figure out the job market.

Clients

Many of our candidates are referred to us through our networks and are working with us on an exclusive basis or have a long standing relationship. We always meet our candidates face to face before representation.  

  • Contingent Recruitment is where we partner with employers to understand the requirements and a fee is payable on placement of a candidate on a success only basis. This way you would receive CV’s of current active candidate’s we are representing but not a full market search of passive talent.

  • Retained Recruitment is where a company engages a recruiting firm exclusively to fill a position. A retainer fee is paid upfront to cover the recruiters time and resources invested in the search process. By working exclusively with us , the company ensures a dedicated focus on an extensive market search. This involves a close partnership between the recruiter and the client with regular communication and collaboration to secure top talent. Works very well when discretion is important or you want your brand to be positioned in the right way. We would write the position profile, proactively find relevant candidates through search and advertising and offer expertise in managing feedback and counter offers.

  • An excellent way to approach maternity and sick leaves, systems implementations and other change projects and extra workloads such as Year End. These candidates can start quickly and Symbiotic Talent’s strong candidate relationships and aftercare services minimise risk of a non-completion of assignment.

    FTC’s have the candidate as an employee and the company pays a prorata permanent fee. A day/hourly rate timesheet situation allows you to pay for your non-permanent talent through a purchase order number which can sometimes allow greater ease in starting a new hire. Symbiotic Talent will always have obtained references for such placements.