Ashleigh Brown Interview on FM Recruitment
How do you see the FM recruitment market at the moment?
Ashleigh Brown, Dovetail FM Recruitment: "FM Recruitment was really tough in 2010, but I am definitely seeing a slight recovery and hope that this continues through 2011 and gets stronger and stronger. It is tough for a lot of people at the moment with so many candidates looking for a new role and jobs are often attracting over 100 applicants. Many candidates are failing to impress with badly written CV's and a lack of attention to the role they are applying for. Companies are being more specific on the types of people they want to employ and the selection process is favouring candidates with a positive and flexible attitude who are commercially aware as well as operationally strong."
What new roles do you see being created in the FM industry?
Ashleigh Brown: "I see more business development roles within FM coming up, as companies rally to solidify their place in a slowly recovering market."
Where do you find most of your candidates?
Ashleigh Brown: "Most of the candidates I am finding are coming from networking through the BIFM and IFMA and my own database collected over the last 11 years working within the industry."
What top piece of advice would you give to someone thinking about changing roles?
Ashleigh Brown: "If you want to change your job but stay within the same type of role, just with a different company, then this is going to be far easier for you at the moment. Where it gets difficult is if you are trying to completely change your role from one thing to another where you have little or no experience. This is because you will be competing in a candidate-rich environment against other people who have been made redundant with the skills you might be lacking, so you will have to do a really good job of motivating your reason for the change and your suitability. But also do not get despondent if trying to make a career change at the moment - patience, perseverance and a positive attitude will win out."
Why is it still beneficial to use recruitment agencies to find the top candidates?
Ashleigh Brown: "One of the best reasons for continuing to use agencies for your recruitment would be that they cut out all the hard and time consuming work. They will only send you the best of all the applicants to review/interview. Good recruiters also network a lot within the industry and thus have access to a wide range of skill sets, which could prove very useful for some of the more challenging positions that you might have. It also pays to use industry specific recruiters to fill your requirements within FM as many of the generalist agencies do not understand FM at all."