The joys of being promoted! What does this mean? For those of you who don't know: I've been promoted to Team Leader for the Rail Department. For some promotion is pure joy, for others it is approached with trepidation and there is no doubt a small group that feels blind panic. Personally, I think I feel a mixture of all three! What does the new role mean? More responsibility, but probably nothing I can't handle. It'll be good for me to develop this capability... character building. It may also explain why this blog is going to be only a few short sentences in length as time seems to be running away with me. One good element is that I get to spend Thursday and Friday of this week on a training course learning how to be an effective leader. Hopefully I'll live up to the expectations and make it to at least next month which will see my fourth anniversary with Advanced Resource Managers!

This last week has been frantic - I've been sorting out tonnes of interviews and have set a new office record in terms of phone calls. But it comes at a cost - I spent the weekend being absolutely knackered and not feeling too good!

I've come to realise that a work / life balance is important in any job - the key is to give full effort but hold a little back to ensure that you don't run yourself into the ground! We're no use to anyone if we can barely lift a phone I find! Thankfully the long bank holiday weekend helped me recover and I'm now back to normal!

Part of the reason it's been really busy recently is because we're preparing for the arrival of the new age discrimination act on the 1st October. This new act is being brought in to prevent people being discriminated against on the basis of their age. We see this as a positive step, but it'll be a whole new way of working for us as we won't be able to put: "must have x years of experience" in job descriptions. (And when you think about this, hasn't it always been a pretty arbitrary requirement? Why 10 years, for instance? Why not 5 years of being really good at your job?).

Anyway, this will present a new challenge to finding the right candidates and potentially make it more difficult to find the right jobs from a candidate's perspective as the criteria which define whether you have more or less appropriate levels of experience will be removed. Luckily ARM is taking this very seriously and we have been given extra training to ensure that we are fully compliant with this legislation.

Out of hours, however, I am into music of all varieties, and as a music fan I've been glad to see the charts occasionally troubled by a bit of retro stuff - the Zutons, for example. But with Top of the Pops (or TOTP if you prefer) increasingly becoming a window onto a market of manufactured dross, I've also been wondering how I should feel about its imminent demise. My feelings about this are strange and hard to justify. TOTP probably hasn't been consistently good for donkey's years: a sad reflection of the power of marketing in pop music, which has resulted in the domination of tweenie rubbish. When I try and think of the show's heyday, I'm not really sure that I was ever around to see it. In the eighties I watched it for the occasional good band; I did the same in the nineties, and haven't watched it for a long time now. So why am I sad to see it go? I guess it comes down to the fact that, like many people, I don't want to see the end of an institution that is in some way synonymous with my own youth - boo hoo. Is the end of TOTP a good thing or a bad thing? Let me know!

Speaking of youth and ageing and all that, you may know that in October new legislation will come into effect that makes it illegal to discriminate by age in the workplace. This applies whether you're 18 or 60. Should somebody not be considered for a senior role just because they're under 30? And should somebody with a wealth of ability and experience not be offered a job just because they may want to retire in ten years' time?

On my company's website is a poll asking people whether they've experienced or witnessed age discrimination at work - why not submit your response (it takes, ooo, about 1 second). We'll do an analysis of the full response and put it on the site before the legislation comes into effect in October.

Cheers all, remember that your ability to do a job is the most important thing, and that you're rarely "too young" or "too old". And here's to Top of the Pops, which, it seems, has officially had its day.

Some of my colleagues at ARM interview regularly, but for me it's a little different. I tend to work by locating candidates, liaising with them, and passing their CVs around accordingly, but do I actually interview?

My first reaction is to say no, I arrange interviews between clients and candidates. But the more I think about it the more I realise I do. I might not sit down face to face with them, but I do have an interview process with my candidates.

What do I look for? I've become a pro, it appears, at picking up nuances in voices. I can usually tell whether a candidate is seriously looking for a job or not (and later, whether they are going to accept a job offered by one of my clients).

I start by asking candidates about their current situation: the company they work for, whether it's a contract or perm job; notice period, and most importantly, their reasons for looking. What's going on in their job life that precipitates this move? In addition, I like to gain a full breakdown of salary and benefits (including bonus and the value of cars). On top of this we go into detail about what kind of requirements the candidate has for their next role: will it be contract or perm? What is the minimum day rate or annual salary that they require? I must say here that we're talking about genuine minimum requirements - in my experience some people (a minority, thankfully) really do make up requirements on the spot, or aim for a fanciful figure, and the only reason that I point this out is that it does you no good at all in the long run. What about location? Will you relocate, or B&B, or commute, or are you looking for a job close to home?

And finally - what other opportunities are you investigating? Yes, I'm nosey, but I'm also a control freak - I need to know what other opportunities you have for a number of reasons. Firstly, it's good to know what type of roles you've been applying for - they may be very different to what I have in mind and I'd like to know why. Secondly - do you really want to waste your time talking to me if you've just received a written offer?

After this initial conversation, I maintain contact, communicating regularly where appropriate. I talk to too many candidates and clients to be able to call people for a quick social call - you can be safe in the knowledge that I won't waste your time. If I'm calling it is for an important reason: I've got a job/interview/offer etc. If I don't call it's because I don't have a job/interview/feedback yet. My candidates like this straightforward approach because they know where they stand. BUT they also know that I'm always contactable and that they can catch up with me whenever they want to, or if they want to query the recruitment process etc.

By the time I've finished with my candidate during that initial first conversation they may very well feel pillaged of information. But they trust that I am going to do my best. If I don't think I have anything suitable then you'll know straight away - I won't keep you hanging on.

At the same time - a few candidates don't play it straight with us (perhaps they've had the same treatment from recruitment companies in the past, in fairness to them). But it's very difficult to hide anything from a good recruitment consultant - we're pros at ferreting out information and pick up very quickly on whether candidates are interested and suitable. A good telephone manner is important not only for us but for our candidates too. So that's my way of interviewing in a nutshell!

Hey, while I'm here, my new company website is being launched this week. It's bigger, better and prettier than our old one. Click here to check it out, hope you like it!

"I was standing on a noisy corner/I was waiting for the walking green/across the street he stood/and he played real good/on his clarinet, for free" - Joni Mitchell

"We used to say/there'll come the day/we'll all be making songs/oh finding better words/these ideas never lasted long" - Richard Thompson (Fairport Convention)

"I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand/walking through the streets of Soho in the rain" - Warren Zevon

"Make sure that he's hungry/make sure he's alone/get me a cheeseburger/and the New Rolling Stone" - Neil Young

"I never made the first team/I just made the first team laugh" - Billy Bragg

"There's something in the way she moves, or looks my way or calls my name/that seems to leave this troubled world behind" - James Taylor

"Once upon a time you dressed so fine/threw the bums a dime/in your prime/didn't you?" - Bob Dylan

"Half a mile from the county fair and the rain came pouring down/me and Billy standing there with a silver half a crown/had to get our fishing rods/and our tackle on our backs/we just stood there getting wet/with our backs against the fence" - Van Morrison

Those lyrics might not all be spot on but that's how I hear them! I'd like to hear what your favourite lyrics are, just let me know!

Anyway, a lot of those songs are getting on a bit, but that doesn't diminish their value, does it? In fact, they seem to have picked up more depth the longer they stick around. Speaking of which (and here comes the worst segue I have ever made), in October this year, the UK will finally catch up with so many other European countries and have proper age discrimination legislation in place, something I'm sure my previous correspondent George will be happy to hear about! The legislation will have a number of implications for recruitment companies, all of them positive, and as usual it will help to separate the good eggs from the bad.

Incidentally, ARM's new website is coming soon (the same place as the other one, but with a new look and feel), and will give you the opportunity to register your experiences and feelings about hot topics such as this, with a regular voting section. Until next time, good luck in your job searches and keep humming a happy tune!

I've been trying to work out what the differences were, as they were two very similar situations; good quality candidates and some companies who are interested in employing them. I've worked out that it all comes down to decisiveness. Both on the behalf of the candidate in knowing exactly what they wanted from a job (career progression, variety, benefits, money) and on the client's part...don't hang around; if you want a candidate/company - make the most of a good opportunity straight away otherwise someone else will.

Hope you are all well!

I'm currently involved in discussions with a client over our fees, which reminds me about a point I've wanted to raise for quite a while.

When considering which recruitment consultancies to use, it's interesting that clients place quite so much emphasis on rates. Clients often hope for (perhaps even expect) the cheapest ever fee to work with an agency, and on that basis end up working with a recruitment agency whose service leaves something to be desired.

You have to wonder about this expectation that in the recruitment industry you must look for the cheapest fee. Personally, I would urge people to more often consider what they will sacrifice as a result.

Candidates, I'm sure, know about this sort of thing, in a different but related way. If you've got three job offers and the salaries come back as high, mid range and low, do you automatically take the best paid job? Does the extra money make up for a not-so-good job match? Whilst the ideal will be to have the perfect match with the perfect salary, this isn't always achievable. It's definitely worth drawing up a pros and cons list to any job you're considering - and putting the salary at the lower end of the importance spectrum. I learned that the hard way years ago. All the extra money doesn't make up for a bad match on the job side - and you'll soon find yourself looking for another job.

Fake Adverts: These were used at one time as a useful tool to bring in good candidates for our clients. However, there were changes in our industry regulations more recently which now prevent us from putting out these "pullers" (industry terminology for fake job advert). The REC (the industry watchdog) stipulates that members must treat candidates with respect, and the Conduct of Employment Agencies Act (the EAA regulations) lays down guidelines which make it difficult for people to do this (for instance, advertised jobs must carry a location and salary). While this probably won't stop the real sharks, it is now agreed within the industry that it's much harder for the dodgy operators to work (and rightly so!) and a much more even playing field for the honest, transparent recruitment companies with nothing to hide (and again, rightly so).

Regarding consultants ignoring you once their use for you has been exhausted: There are several reasons why this is a bad idea and why you'll find that that the opposite attitude is encouraged where I work (I promise).

1. It would be a pretty short-sighted consultant who treated any candidate badly (and yes, that includes ignoring them) when that candidate will most likely be someone they can place in the future.

2. Word of mouth is the single-most important form of marketing promotion for recruitment companies, as trust is such a major selling factor, for reasons I'm sure we all understand.

Trust and transparency is one of the key ways my company distinguishes itself, and we have the testimonials to prove that candidates find our approach refreshing. I'm sure that, historically, we haven't delighted absolutely everyone - you can't keep everyone happy - but we certainly aim to please.

As you probably know, it's particularly true of the industries that we both work in (Engineering, technical, I.T, high technology and so on) that professionals network strongly and a good reputation is priceless.

It is still a challenge for good recruitment companies to ensure that all their staff are as scrupulous as they would like, because at the end of the day, you can't sit with all your staff all the time. But you can encourage a culture of honesty, train people into your way of doing business, provide customer charters, be customer-oriented, and so on.

There was a point where the recruitment profession gave itself a bad name and it's only right that the good recruiters out there are trying to do something about this. Hey - there are around 10,000 recruitment companies in the UK - that's a lot of competition, so we need to impress our candidates and clients.

Thanks again for your comments.

Just so you know: my working day starts at 07:30 when I start reviewing my emails (responding / actioning), I then spend the rest of the day on the phones trying to find jobs for my candidates.

This goes right on up to about 17:00 when I switch back to the admin side and start checking out emails and responding. The official working day finishes at 17:30 but we're regularly here for up to another hour or more. My conclusion from this? There are never enough hours in the day to make all the phone calls and respond to all the emails!

P.S. My friends don't email me at work as they rarely get a response.

P.P.S. Wish me luck, I'm about to start an OU course in Exploring Psychology tomorrow (Saturday) and I've now got to find another 15 hours per week for study for the next 10 months... what have I let myself in for! AARRGH!

You're right every recruitment consultant should respond to each application they receive.

I make a point of trying to respond to everyone who sends me an application but I don't tend to do an awful lot of advertising. Most of my recruitment is done by word of mouth recommendations and when I hunt the special people down.

I do recall that when I was first starting out, I did an awful lot of advertising and had a humungous response to the adverts I placed. I appreciated that the candidates were all interested in the roles BUT they didn't always appear to read the requirements of the job description.

It would be well worth making sure that, when you do respond to an agency advert, you read very carefully the requirements of the role. Usually recruitment consultants get given only the most difficult jobs to fill (if it was that easy the client would fill it themselves) so as a result the requirements tend to be very complicated i.e. 5 years' experience on this skill, a degree in that, 6 years' experience in this industry etc. The clients very often will not accept compromises, so do make sure you read fully the job descriptions before you click that button and submit the CV. If you're sure that it's right for you, why not follow up with a phone call as well to add a personal touch?

I hope you all had fun anyway (Last time - I promise)!

I wonder how many of you are doing a detox? Nearly everywhere I've gone people have been talking about detoxing - it's frightening. I prefer the healthy option of all year round good eating (I'm such a saint!) - lots of fruit etc... are you having your five a day fruit and veg? Some of my colleagues are very into juicing and smoothies - worth looking at to kick start those vitamins to help combat the colds that are going around at the moment - and yes, before you start enquiring, I always eat at least 5 bits of fruit and veg a day (though some people might argue that fruit flavoured sweeties don't count!)

Talking of being healthy, how many of you drink at least 1.5 litres of water a day? (And that's not in the form of tea, coffee, soup, coke etc). The reason I ask is that dehydration can have multiple impacts on you doing your job. If you're feeling tired or hungry or headachy at work, these could all be symptoms of you not taking enough of the right kinds of fluids on board. This in turn can have an impact on your job performance and therefore your enjoyment of your role. Worth thinking about!

Oh I did have a personal shopping experience at House of Fraser though (courtesy of ARM for the work I did last year) I got to buy some lovely clothes and a pair of brown boots! Hmmmhhhhh shopping! I also managed to get through the whole Band of Brothers series - for a person who hates war films, I was absolutely hooked - a must see for everyone!

I must say a big thank you for all the comments I have had in response to my first two blogs. As soon as I know how to respond I'll be in touch to say thank you. To be honest I didn't think anyone would read my blog - I just thought that the brownie points would be good when I next asked the Ops Director for some more advertising! (Mike - you know I'll be knocking on your door in January so don't forget!)

Fully refreshed I've returned to the office to find a huge pile of passports and qualifications. What's going on you may ask? Well due to some changes in recruitment regulations within the last year or so we're now legally obliged to check a candidates ID and their right to work within the UK. For the sake of equality we have to ask everyone! We also have to check that our candidates have the qualifications they say they do.

So in short, next time you're thinking about contacting a new recruitment agency please make sure you have a clear copy of your passport (soft copy is preferred) and a copy of your qualifications. This will definitely speed up the whole process and will prevent your caring consultant from getting in trouble with the Contracts and Quality Department (if they're lucky enough to have one) if the details don't come through!

I'm off on holiday again next week (I'm typing this just before I'm about to finish for my Christmas holidays). The next blog will no doubt be about the sins of Christmas eating and a general lack of exercise!

Enjoy Christmas and don't be too naughty!

So time to dip my toe in a little deeper and see if I can stir up a hornet's nest.

What makes a good CV? I would hasten to highlight that this is my own personal perspective from having reviewed tens of thousands.

There's an awful and destructive little rule out there, that there should only ever be two pages to your CV. Rubbish (I did originally have a stronger word but was told to edit it!).

For a graduate straight out of university with some summer work experience under their belt then fine, but for someone with at least five years of experience, wrong, wrong, wrong.

If you're an experienced professional feel free to let yourself go with as many has four or five sides. BUT (and this is a big but), we don't want to see pages and pages of waffle.

We need to see more information, people! That means clear and concise outlines of what you do (and have done) on a daily basis, your strengths and your key achievements.

Please also note that the last five to eight years of your career tend to be the most relevant so we don't need to see reams of information on a job you did fifteen years ago. A sentence or two will suffice.

At the same time, we dont't need to know your life story. Keep it simple. Give us the information we need to know. A little about you as an individual (what makes you an ideal employee) is necessary, but the rest should really be the technical stuff i.e. responsibilities, software you can use, qualifications. Strange and bizarre hobbies are certainly a talking point but do be aware that they can be off-putting as well.

That was quite cathartic... I can feel about ten pounds' worth of stress lifting from my shoulders!

To break it down:

Who am I? Joanna Hoddinott. Senior Recruitment Consultant for Advanced Resource Managers.

What do I do? To expand upon the rather obvious job title - I'm a more experienced recruitment consultant working within the Transport and Infrastructure department at Advanced Resource Managers. My focus is purely on trains (that's Rolling Stock for those in the know). I started at ARM in November 2002 (take note as this is now my third anniversary with ARM; any congratulatory gifts are gratefully received), responsible for setting up a rail department. From there I have been developing ARM's presence in the industry to ensure that we provide a top notch service to clients and candidates alike.

What do I like doing? Well aside from my job (strange but true), I like driving anything with four wheels, but the faster it goes the better. I'm currently the owner of an MR2... in "Kermit the frog" green (yes for all you people in the office car park - including jobsite - that bright green monstrosity is mine). Colour aside (in my defence it was a lot cheaper as a result) it handles superbly and is brilliant for flying around Brands Hatch. For anyone tempted to say "hairdresser's car" - you'd think differently if you were in the passenger seat.

What else do I like? Well I spend an awful lot of time reading - I could say the usual (Dan Brown's Da Vinci code etc.) but let's try something different like The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (the only book to make me cry).

I am also beginning to fulfil a rather strange ambition to develop a production line for Sloe Gin: a very strange concept but have you tried it? No sarky comments are allowed until you've at least gone out and sampled it. I've currently got in excess of about ten litres of the stuff in various stages of readiness and it is enough to blow your socks off. The strange thing is that I'm almost completely tee-total. If you're interested, let me know - I'm sure we can come to some sort of financial arrangement for this liquid gold!
Blimey, I started off struggling to come up with ideas to talk about and now I've run away with myself! Next edition... I think maybe some ideas on how to stop myself being bored with my car, and some hints and tips on CVs (well possibly a small rant!)