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Social media seems to be the buzzword of the season. But what does it really mean for jobseekers? Is it enough to connect with recruiters on social media sites? Or is there more to it?
Prosperity asked communications consultant Damien Mulley about his thoughts on whether building on a social media presence make a jobseeker a more attractive candidate.
Whether you are looking for a job or in a company, says Mulley, there will be people Googling you. Having a social media presence gives a potential employer or recruiter something to learn about a potential candidate.
“The more that somebody can learn about you and the more you can show off by your blog or your Facebook page or your Twitter page, the more you can almost prep people in advance of chatting to you or meeting you that you’re an expert or have more knowledge in certain areas than other people. It’s a good way of saying this is who I am, this is my area of expertise and this is me sharing information with a large network of people.”

Mulley’s personal opinion is that in the future companies will have more of an emphasis of hiring staff with the most connections to knowledgeable people, as opposed to just hiring knowledgeable people.
“So [hiring] employees with a large Twitter following and a large number of people on Facebook are probably the ones that will be able to get you the information you are looking for faster,” he comments.
LinkedIn is another social network of importance, but very underused in Ireland. Great for lead generation and meeting new people in your business area, to their detriment many people see it as a static CV, uploading information and updating it once a year. Mulley says people should be going out on the discussion forums or using LinkedIn Answers to contribute information and show off their expertise. “People will know of you and you’ll gain a reputation.”
Apart from just having social media accounts, Mulley reinforces the fact that people update them – and ideally with an opinion. “I think companies that are looking for employees want people who can think about things, who can analyse things.”
Now that the default for Twitter and Facebook accounts is public, jobseekers with private accounts have to realise they are competing with other people who want to share with the world.
Mulley believes private Twitter accounts are almost a contradiction on what Twitter is all about. “Twitter is all about sharing information with a large number of people and contributing to public conversations… At the end of the day it doesn’t hide anything if you’ve a private account and send a message out, somebody can copy and paste that message and send it out to their network… all it takes is for one person to retweet that and 1,000 people have seen it or 10,000. It’s grasping at privacy straws.”

An online video tool that has an application in recruitment was the winner of the Bank of Ireland Bright Ideas Challenge Grand Final last week.
Sonru.com allows recruiters to conduct an interview with candidates without both parties having to be online at the same time. It mimics a live interview, candidates don’t see the questions in advance – they are given 30 seconds to read each question and have a specified amount of time to provide their answer.
Candidates and jobseekers also have the option of trying out the Sonru VIP product, which is a video interview preparation tool that allows them to test themselves and hone their interview skills.

The brainchild of founder Edward Hendrick, the Sonru.com concept has been developed by CTO Chris Horan over the past two years. Fergal O’Byrne, CEO of Sonru and former CEO of the Irish Internet Association, says it is neither Skype nor YouTube. “We are educating the market. Companies think that anybody can see the video and that it’s like another YouTube. Unlike Skype the interviewer and interviewee don’t have to be online at the same time.”
According to O’Byrne, the main users of this innovative online video tool in recruitment are large companies and recruitment agencies wishing to recruit numbers of people remotely. Feedback has been very good from both recruiters and candidates. The real thing that candidates liked, he says, is that it gave them back some time; they didn’t have to take a day off work.
“From the candidates’ perspective it means they can be interviewed on their time and their location without having to incur the expense and the hassle of travelling to do an interview. That’s been the big plus from the candidates’ point of view.”
In addition, one of the reasons it appeals to both employers and candidates is that it’s secure. As it’s behind a password-protected area it’s not shared with the whole world and is not going to be a YouTube viral hit.
However, candidates must remember that as it mimics a face-to-face interview and is videoed, the recommendation is to dress appropriately, have proper lighting and not to have a messy room behind you.

This is why we love Media Recruitment

If we had to review financial or engineering CVs, we would probably die of boredom

Here is a list of 45 cleverly designed media CVs.

There is increasing demand for staff within the agency sector due to a genuine shortage of experienced staff at all levels in an industry that is constantly growing and expanding.

While a strong and determined graduate, especially those with specific graduate and post graduate qualifications, will eventually find a position as a junior / trainee account executive with one of the agencies, it is at the level of senior account executive and account manager that the first major shortage peak occurs. This is due to a number of factors including employees taking the now almost obligatory world tour, as well as candidates having gained two to three years experience moving to another agency to gain broader experience, or even out of the industry entirely.

Additionally another peak in the shortage graph is with candidates with five or six years experience. These account managers are reaching a critical point in their career and are reassessing their options both within agency land and further afield. Those looking to stay in the industry are attracted by more senior roles in agencies and client side positions and have high salary expectations as this is the point in their lives where they are “settling down” having taken the world tour they are now looking at mortgages, pensions and perhaps even parenthood!

Continued shortages of good people will continue to drive salaries upwards, but candidates are showing a growing awareness of the realities of the market and are prepared to negotiate their salary, and are attracted by other benefits including flexible working hours, telecommuting / working from home, and the attraction of working with people with whom they get on, and being happy.

Tom Mc Walters - Prosperity.ie

Prosperity has just finished its annual Salary Survey, and I thought that the following information might be of interest to both my clients and sales candidates in terms of how the sales sector has evolved over the last year.

Salaries in the media / advertising sales sector have definitely risen over the past number of years; a graduate starting out in a telesales role can command basic salaries of up to €25k (5 years ago, raw graduates would have been looking at starting salaries of as low as €18/20k) with the potential to bring this up to €35/40k when commissions and bonuses are factored in.We have even seen roles offering €30k basic salaries for candidates with a strong academic background and only 6 months telesales experience, so the media / advertising sales sector can be said to offer lucrative opportunities for hungry graduates with a flair for sales.

The same can definitely be said for the mid, senior and executive level roles where there is a definite shortage of quality experienced candidates - these are candidates with media/advertising sales experience as opposed to sales experience in other sectors. Candidates are now in a far stronger position to obtain the best deal possible for themselves due to this supply and demand issue. A candidate with 2 years media/advertising sales experience looking for a business development/account management role can reasonably expect to achieve a basic salary of €35-40k with commissions and bonuses generally taking this to or above €50k.

A strong media/advertising sales person with 4 or more years experience moving into their first management role can realistically expect a basic salary of €45-55k whereas sales managers in the industry, with 5 or more years experience and who can bring revenue growth and contacts to a potential employer now command basic salaries north of €60 with on target earnings structures taking overall remuneration packages into the realm of 6 digit sums. At the very high end of the spectrum a proven sales manager with 2 to 3 years experience at this level looking to take on a sales directors role or a sales director looking for a fresh challenge can without doubt pitch themselves to employers at the €80k mark and above, with overall packages with some employers coming in around €120k or more.

The industry is very candidate friendly at this point in time in terms of the salaries on offer. This is mostly due to market place competitiveness and the lack of candidates with genuine relevant experience. Hungry sales executives with an eye for business development and growing revenue streams, and proven media and advertising sales professionals who have a strong account base, can genuinely earn very good salaries in the current industry climate as most companies operate uncapped commission structures allowing the sales person unlimited earnings potential. Where the industry does fall short in comparison to other sectors within the sales industry can be in the benefits packages offered to candidates with most media/advertising sales companies only now coming around to offering additional benefits like health insurance and pensions and above average holiday allowances as a means to attract and retain staff.

All in all, if a graduate wishes to maximise his or her earning potential through a sales role or an experienced media/advertising sales professional is looking for their next move, the industry has many exciting and highly rewarding career opportunities where success really does PAY.

To view current sales jobs: http://www.prosperity.ie/category_job_search_24/sales_jobs.html

Jess Delahunt - Prosperity.ie