succeed at the recruitment process

October 31, 2017, by Carla

The Recruitment Process: What’s New That You Need to Know?

By Gemma Foxall, Employability Officer

The way employers recruit continues to change; no longer do they require handwritten letters, so they can check what your handwriting looks like. Now the majority of applications you submit will be online, either via an online form or email.

Many employers do still ask for a CV and covering letter, however others are using new methods to help them shortlist the applicants they want to interview.

How?

Online testing is becoming increasingly common. Recruiters want to assess your personality, skills, and abilities to see how well you’d fit with their existing team and the needs of their business.

You can find examples of these tests to practise on our website. Have you had a go and you’re not scoring well? Book an appointment to discuss your results and find out how to improve.

What else can I expect?

Recruiters have realised that there are less formal ways to find the answers they’re looking for about you.

Enter: online recruitment games.

These games have been developed with psychologists to provide employers with information about your situational judgement, verbal and numerical ability, and problem solving skills. The main difference is the gaming environment, which has been developed to be more engaging.

Want to know more about game-based assessment? Find out what happened when our Employability Education Projects Officer, Erica, took one of the most popular platforms for a test drive here.

So, how likely is it that I will encounter this in the recruitment process?

That depends on who you’re applying to.

We know that many large companies who recruit a lot of graduates are starting to use these games. This includes Unilever, Vodafone, Barclays, and BBC Worldwide.

However,  if you’re applying to small businesses or for further study, you probably won’t. In those instances, you’re more likely to be asked to fill in an application form and/or provide a covering letter and CV.

For support with any stage of the recruitment process, visit our website or book an appointment to speak to one of our team.

Posted in Applying For Jobs