Sital Ruparelia

In recent weeks I have mentioned a couple of times here and here about the importance of using your network to find job opportunities in the current economic market.

Yes, I know, I’m sounding like a stuck record – but I am coming across people who still think that recruiters and head hunters know where the ‘hidden opportunities’ are. That they have some ‘secret code’ that opens up a treasure chest of job opportunities.

Well having worked in both recruitment consultancy and in-house recruitment within London’s financial centre, I can tell you they don’t. And even if they do, they are not always the ones filling the roles. 

This is backed up by some recruitment stats I saw on Louise Triances’ UK Recruiter Blog recently which provided some recruitment figures from Sky; the UK based Satellite TV Company. The figures provide a break down of where Sky has sourced their recent hires from.

What stuck out for me was that only 20% of the hires Sky make come via recruiters and retained search firms (i.e. head hunters). 60% of their hires are sourced from a mixture of direct applications, referrals and direct sourcing methods (e.g. Linked In). The remaining 20% coming from internal recruitment.

Now admittedly, Sky are not a financial services institution and some of their 60% do include some lower level higher hiring such as call centre staff. But nonetheless, they are a major player within a very competitive sector and their hiring practices will reflect how other blue chip organisations approach recruitment.

Their figures illustrate the point I have been making about not focussing purely on recruiters and head hunters as part of your job search. If you do, then (based on these stats) you are missing out on a lot of opportunities.

As banks continue making write offs following the sub-prime issues, recruitment costs across the whole banking sector are under scrutiny. So logically, there is an ever increasing focus on hiring through employee referrals, direct applications, Linked In and the like. 

So if you’re searching for work in the current market and looking to find something quickly, then ensure that you widen the net with your search. Of course use recruiters – but don’t focus purely on them.

If you do, you’re severely limiting your options.