1. FEBRUARY 2016 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY www.professionalsecurity.co.uk
Interview
A new year, a new job?
lunch with recruitment consultants:
48
Graham Bassett
Mike Hurst
In the age of Linkedin, when security
officers might be recruited purely
on what they have uploaded onto
websites, are the CV and the job
interview dead? we ask.
T
he short answer is no; but
the long answer took a lunch
with two specialist security
industry recruitment consultants,
Mike Hurst and Graham Bassett, who
you will recall we lunched with in
London last year. This time we went
to Vinoteca, Graham’s choice, next
door to St Pancras and Kings Cross
stations. Once, if you wanted to know
directions, you asked a policeman.
Now, at least if you are standing in the
plaza of that new development north
of Kings Cross and looking lost, a
red-coated ‘ambassador’ asks you if
you want directions. Embarrassingly,
where Professional Security was
going for lunch was in view, behind
him.
New year, new job?
One of the reasons for speaking to the
men was to ask if the new year is a
time when people make a resolution
to change their job, or at least look
for a new job. The two agreed. As
recruitment consultants, they have
relationships with clients (employers)
and candidates (employees). The
employer may decide it’s not worth
hiring someone, and settling them in,
in November; better to wait until the
new year. As for employees, they too
may wait, until after the Christmas
party, and the end of year bonus, and
returning their children to school;
then they focus on work - client and
candidate, Mike pointed out. January,
and the summer, are the two times
of years when people are looking,
or actually moving, Graham said:
“That time to reflect; you just have
a little more me-time.” As he added,
someone may have been thinking
about it for a long time - it’s not a
rash decision - and you have had time
to talk it over with wife or partner,
whether they’ve agreed or urged
‘stay put’. January, as Mike put it, is
a month when you’ve ‘cleared the
decks’ (or should that be desks?!).
“New year, new job, is often true.”
Grass is greener?
However: is the grass greener in the
other field? Professional Security
then asked. Mike replied that if
you are unhappy in a current role,
for whatever reason, then often the
grass does appear greener. As he tells
people, on the sales side of security,
for instance: if they are not enjoying
their job, so much so that they are
not wanting to get up in a morning,
it’s likely that your performance
will suffer. Graham agreed, adding
that there’s a big difference between
someone itching to leave their
job, whose employer would be
disappointed to lose them - than if an
employer gives someone the sack.
Giving the recruitment consultant’s
point of view, he said that he would
want to ask a candidate if it was really
a ‘mutual thing’ that someone left
their job, or whether they were given
the sack; because the next employer
will want to know. Eight out of ten
‘redundancies’, he suggested, are
not redundancies; they have gone
because of their performance, or lack
of. Or, as Mike added, because they
haven’t got on with their boss, or new
management; all sorts of reasons. Or,
as Graham added, what the candidate
thought they were signing up to, has
proven not to be the case in the first
couple of months. The grass has not
proved greener. In that case, Mike
said, it’s better to go after two months,
rather than nine, to say at once that
it’s not worked out - because if you
do stay those nine months, a future
employer may wonder why. This took
us back to what the two said in an
earlier talk with Professional Security
- and in a presentation to the ASIS
Europe conference last year - and
talking of that conference, the two
are giving another presentation at the
2016 conference in April in London.
Last year they talked in terms of being
‘authentic’; being true to yourself.
If a job hasn’t worked out for you,
and if the employer too realises that
you aren’t what they are looking for;
the search for the right candidate has
to start again, which might mess up
sales figures; and in turn may mean
some explaining away on your CV.
Clues to role
How can you avoid that, by looking
for clues about what a workplace
and a role is really going to be like?
Ask people who already work there,
if you know them, said Graham; or
if you don’t, look on Linkedin. In
a word: “Network.” Look at staff
turnover rate, Mike suggested; or
even their website, Graham added. An
interview can be as much of a chance
for the candidate to get a feel for the
employer as the other way round. Is
there still a need for an interview? “In
my opinion, yes,” Graham said. He as
a recruitment consultant certainly gets
more out of a face to face interview
than the same done over the ‘phone;
you might learn of an achievement
or a responsibility that you can tie in
with what the employer is seeking
(or doesn’t even know that they are
seeking, but it’d be useful). The
internet won’t replace the physical
interview, Graham said: “You can run
up a massive template of questions;
it isn’t the same as eye contact.” That
said, security officers might be hired
via such websites as Monster.
Four or five
Far from the interview being dead,
you could have four or five stages for
a senior job. You have an application
form to fill in; a telephone interview;
then a first interview proper; a second
interview, perhaps; and then you
might have to give a presentation. If
a candidate is not actively looking
and has not put themselves on the
job market; but, he or she has been
identified as having strong potential
(because they are doing well in a
job at a competitor), then the first
step above may be replaced with
an informal meeting over a coffee.
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2. FEBRUARY 2016 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY www.professionalsecurity.co.uk
contInueD ... From PAGe 48
Interview
50
left to right, Graham
Bassett and mike
hurst presenting
at the AsIs europe
conference in
Frankfurt last spring.
top: Vinoteca in
london n1
Does all that, and online profiles on
Linkedin, mean that the CV is dead?
The two said not; and the men advised
that you don’t leave inconsistencies
between your CV and your online
profile. It looks bad, whether you
have something to hide, or you’re
just not very competent at setting
out your own job history (or both).
Mike spoke of one candidate where
he knew a past job was missing -
because he’d put the candidate up for
that job. That’s given the recruitment
consultant an ethical dilemma - should
he forward that to the client? - and a
practical one; if the employer sees a
gap in a history, and wonders why,
that’s already a negative. And Mike
brought up the ‘recommending’ that
Linkedin lets you do for others. He
said that he’s had ‘hundreds and
hundreds’ of recommendations for
security management, something
he doesn’t do. Graham also raised
recommendations given by someone
who’s a supplier; are they just saying
nice things because you’ve given
them an order?! All that said, such
networking sites do allow you to put
your face out there. The CV deserves
some thought as to what you say,
about your achievements rather than
woolly phrases such as ‘team player’,
and how you lay it out. Mike and
more about AsIs europe
The annual ASIS Europe conference runs in London from April 6 to 8, at
the Business Design Centre. Mike Hurst and Graham Bassett are doing a
double act for a second year, speaking this time about nudge theory; ‘using
behavioural economics to enhance personal development and influence
decision-making’. Among other UK speakers, Prof Martin Gill is chairing a
panel on low margins in the manned guarding sector; he will also speak on
recent research on the value of security, featured in our November issue,
arguing that security has been under-sold by its practitioners. Speaking on
corporate security are Corin Dennison CPP, Director (Global Investigations),
Adidas Group, and Andy Martin, Retail, Business Development Manager, Axis
Communications. Another past speaker, Martin Smith, chairman and founder
of The Security Company, is talking on the insider threat. Robert Hall, Director
of Security and Resilience Network, at the business body London First, will
discuss organisational resilience. ❐
new blood can workwhile our talk with mike hurst and Graham Bassett
focused on the cV and interview, they turned to the job
advert.
They queried if security employers are, by giving only
the most basic information in an ad, selling their business
enough. If the (for example) guarding company doesn’t set
out its full benefits, it may find itself getting poorer-quality
officers. Set out a benefit package, and a guard contractor
may attract better officers that don’t want to leave. On a
wider topic, the security industry could do more to bring
on talent, including people with transferable skills from
outside Security. Why state in an advert that the applicant
must have sold CCTV, intruder alarms or guarding? When
you may find yourself interviewing an experienced, but
average or under-performing salesman? Why not, Graham
said, hire someone with good sales skills, or a manager
who can get the best out of people: “I am a great advocate
of bringing people in [from outside the industry] ... I firmly
believe in transferable skills; you have got fresh blood,
you haven’t got history or baggage with them. We just
don’t encourage new blood.” He named Stuart Tootal as
one example of a man who went from the British Army
into corporate security, at Barclays (‘and look at how
successful Stuart is in that role’). That new blood can work
both ways; private security people can move into facilities
management or IT, and perhaps back again. While Graham
spoke of a real synergy with manned guarding and facilities
services such as cleaning - hence the ‘bundling’ of contract
services - he also spoke warmly of Prof Martin Gill’s
Security Research Initiative that has pointed to the value in
security; and how security people could do more to ‘sell’
what they do. Some corporates, having taken up bundling
as a good idea - and contractors obliging by including
security at low or no margin in a far larger contract with
an overall margin - now some corporates are separating
security from maintenance, gardening and so on. You
may move out of security for a while, perhaps to bring up
children, and full-time work need not be the only option.
try before you buy
Job candidate and employer may go for what Graham
called a ‘try before you buy’ arrangement, particularly on
a specific project. As Mike added, an employer may hire
a project manager at the rate of £70k or £80k a year, and
‘once the hard part’s done’, run that project with someone
recruited at a lower salary. An employer may want a short-
term person to draw up a marketing strategy, or write a
tender, or a specification document for an installer; things
that the employer doesn’t have the capability to do in-
house. The catch is that such work may be too inconsistent
for you to make a living at over a year. ❐
Graham may do a candidate ‘bio’,
besides a CV, after an interview, as
something the consultant puts his
name to, stating that the candidate
‘ticks boxes’ or boxes the client
hadn’t thought of.
Knowledge of cattle
Nor do you necessarily put your
whole CV on Linkedin, or your whole
identity into your CV; for security
reasons, for one thing. If you have
served in the police or Army, you
may not want some people to know
your home ‘phone number and street
address; better to use your mobile
number, and personal email address
(not your work one!) and give only
your town or area you live in. You
cannot be sure where your CV will
turn up. And both suggested it would
make sense to have someone check
your CV. A CV has to be relevant,
besides accurate. As Mike said, if
you were a sniper, is that of use to
a civilian employer (even if they
might be tempted to make use of that
skill?!). He smiled to recall one CV
that under hobbies said ‘marital arts’,
and one about someone who had
worked in agricultural fencing, who
knew about ‘cattle erections’. ❐
hAPPY
‘It’s trespass, but only if
you get caught.’
Dan witchalls, who
recently jumped off
canary wharf buildings
(with parachute), having
avoided security guards.
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