| How to secure job interviews in today’s tough economic climate |
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| | By Tony Restell,
Founding Director of
Top-Consultant.com
Without question,
it’s far harder to
secure a new job in
consulting today than it
was 24 months ago.
However two factors
continue to combine in a
manner that ensures
plenty of hiring is
still taking place.
The first factor is
staff churn – that’s to
say the need to replace
staff who’ve handed in
their notice. It may
surprise you to know
that – even in these
dark times – the major
consultancies will have
to replace 8-10% of
their total consulting
headcount this year just
to replace those who
have decided to move on.
That’s down from the
15-25% annual staff loss
suffered in the boom
years (when consultants
would typically move on
after 3-4 years with a
firm)… but it still
signifies that a decent
volume of hiring needs
to take place just for
firms to stand still.
The second factor
stimulating the need for
new hires is the
evolving pattern of
client demand. Whilst
you will undoubtedly
have read of many firms
making redundancies or
cutting back staff hours
and salaries, these same | |
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| | firms are also active in
the hiring market. The
reason is very simple.
They have too much
capacity in certain
areas of their business
– and those consulting
staff can’t always be
easily redeployed to the
practice areas that are
experiencing a surge in
demand. Hence
recruitment campaigns
are often underway at
the same time as people
in other parts of the
business are fretting
about their jobs.
Business Process
Improvement, Change
Management, Business
Turnaround /
Restructuring – these
are just some of the
areas where we are
seeing an appetite from
firms to make hires in
2009.
How to secure job
interviews in today’s
tough economic climate
At this point, let me
share with you one of
the secrets to securing
a new role in this
market. It sounds like
common sense, but when
you dig deep you’ll find
in truth it’s practised
by very few consulting
candidates. I’m
referring to the need to
track down and apply for
a selection of
consulting roles for
which you are genuinely
a highly-qualified | |
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| | candidate.
Let’s dig deep and
understand why these are
not the actions of the
vast majority of
consulting candidates we
talk to. Fundamentally
the issue is that in
this type of market,
firms are looking for an
exact match between
their role requirements
and the candidates they
select for interview.
Ask yourself the
following questions:
1. Are you
restricting your
applications on job
boards to just those
couple of roles where
there is genuinely a
strong fit between your
experience profile and
that being sought by the
employer? (Cautionary
Note: the majority of
candidates fall into the
trap of firing their CV
off to a wider array of
roles in the belief that
a larger number of
applications equals a
greater chance of
success. They invest
their efforts in
quantity and not quality
of applications. It
would be dangerous to
assume your actions are
any different).
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