LinkedIn: Quality over quantity.

I was at a dinner a few night ago chatting to a chap in his 40s who worked for a FTSE Plc and I was very surprised to hear that not only didn’t he have a LinkedIn account but that he was barely aware of it. Over a beer I tried to explain its uses and how he should best utilise it for his further career development.

Coming home it got me thinking that perhaps it was time to put those thoughts down on to paper and get the views of the LinkedIn community.

Oddly he was well aware that social media exists, he and his wife have Facebook profiles and he belongs to a number of members groups on Facebook but on Facebook, your popularity is measured by the sheer number of friends you have. However, on LinkedIn, padding your numbers doesn't increase your "worth." In fact, doing so could make it a less effective catalyst for your career.

My view is that you should carefully consider both quality and quantity when networking through LinkedIn:

Why shouldn't you connect with everyone on LinkedIn?
In the professional business world, quality always matters more than quantity, especially when it comes to business contacts. You could have a database full of "contacts," but how many of those contacts can you rely on to answer your emails instantly, find you a new recruit or help you out when you're in a jam?

So what should LinkedIn users aim for in terms of numbers?
There is no magic number but you should aim to have at least 50 connections. Once a member meets 50 contacts, they'll start to unlock many more networks and doors via their second- and third-degree connections.

What makes someone a worthwhile connection?
Before you connect with someone, ask yourself how you can help that person down the line and how you might benefit from connecting with them. Are they in a similar industry or an industry you're thinking of switching to? Working at a company you admire or one that's a competitor? Or are they an expert in their field or alumni with similar hobbies?

Is it ever OK to quickly add a lot of new contacts?
Yes, it's OK to have an increased number of followers if you are actually helping them. You can do this by sharing insightful comments, commenting on their posts, updating articles you're reading, joining group discussions and answering questions.

As long as you are maintaining a meaningful dialogue, then it is safe to create more connections. Despite what you might see from other contacts, having 1000+ by your name won’t actually change the way LinkedIn works for you: and yes I’m aware that I’m approaching 2000! But with the number of assignments I manage it is inevitable that I’ll have more contacts than most non-recruitment people.

What are signs that you're heading in the wrong direction?
If you find yourself inundated with comments, it might be time to backtrack and go through your connections and seek out who is truly meaningful to you and your professional growth. You can also go to your settings and cut down on the number of updates and shares you receive. Just like any other form of networking, you'll get more out of LinkedIn by the amount of time you spend on it. Create a welcoming interface. Join groups that you're actually going to participate in, and tailor LinkedIn Today to stories you are interested in reading. Connect with people who inspire you. They'll more than likely have great insight to share.

As ever we’re keen to hear from you, let us know how many people are you connected to on LinkedIn and how they have helped you or how you have helped them, blog@chestertongray.com or tweet us at @chestertongray

How to fall in love with your job again.

It's easy to love a new job. It's called the 'honeymoon phase' because everyone's hopes are high, it's a new challenge and it's a stimulating time, but after three to five years, that same exhilaration can often lead to boredom and frustration.

The buzz-kill here is familiarity. Initially in a new job, you're trying to understand your role. Once you've done that, you revel in the fact that you've developed a routine and are "good" at what you do. But then you get bored. Despite our common pursuit of less stressful lives, humans are wired for change, and new challenges are the fuel that makes life worth living.

It’s at this time of year, after the initial excitement of a new year and when the second quarter inertia kicks in for many, and they realise that they’re getting stale. So here are a few thoughts on how to spice up your job love life again.

Re-think your tools. It's easy to get overwhelmed by daily tasks and never-ending "to do' lists. Technology can help tame the beast. The great artists like Michelangelo spent enormous time making sure they had the best brushes, paints and materials for their canvases. The bottom line is that whatever you do for a living, there's probably an effective tool that can help you do it better. Depending on your business, different applications and software can help you accomplish daily chores faster and even make them more fun.

Say "yes" more. Variety can help an old job seem new, but you have to raise your hand when opportunities arise. It can be easier to just do what you've been doing, but if that isn't satisfying you have to challenge yourself to take on new tasks. Not only will you learn things, but you'll work with different people. That in itself may make a big difference.

Brush up on your people skills. After a few years on the job, you have probably mastered the nuts and bolts of the position. Now's the time to work on meeting new people, leading a team speaking in public or pitching your ideas. Formal programs like can help, or you can simply take time to work on these softer skills every day. Your efforts won't be wasted. Learn to deal with people more effectively and you'll become a star at the office.

Write a "did" list. At the end of each day, don't just cross off things that are done on your to-do list. Instead, write a quick "did" list, an informal summary of everything and anything you accomplished, from sharing a smart idea in a meeting to finally cleaning off your desk. If you regularly celebrate your successes both small and large, you won't have to wait for praise or a promotion for a boost.

Look at the big picture. If you feel like a cog in a wheel, focus on seeing how important the wheel is within the company. In the day-to-day battle, it's often tough to see the bigger picture and learn the impact you're making in the world. But perspective matters and each person makes a difference. A great manager should be showing you this, but that doesn't mean you can't try to see it for yourself, too.


Try these tips today, and hopefully you'll start loving -- or at least enjoying -- your work a little more. And if your honeymoon period is well and truly over and this work marriage looks doomed, maybe it's time to break up and start looking for something new. In which case, you know who to call!

As ever we’re keen to hear from you, let us know your thoughts at blog@chestertongray.com or tweet us at @chestertongray

Why do recruitment consultants ask the questions that they do?

Every now and then we take a lot of criticism as recruitment consultants – some of which is justified, a lot isn’t. So I’ve borrowed this and hope that it explains why we ask the questions that we do in interviews.

What salary are you expecting?
There’s nothing sinister behind this question. We want to understand what you are looking for so we can negotiate on your behalf.

Please don’t believe what you read and be tempted to talk up your salary hoping that you’ll score an extraordinary pay increase next role. We have a strong idea about the companies that pay well and the ones that don’t. Be warned some clients ask us to verify your salary claims with your pay-slip.

We know market rates. We know good candidates. We can tell you whether your expectations are realistic. We’ll also understand if you say you are underpaid in your current role and want more money.

Some clients have salary bands. This means they can only offer salaries within a particular range. When we ask what you’re after, we want to know whether your salary expectations match the range of roles we have on offer.

Why did you leave your last job?
Fundamentally our role is to determine whether you match the roles we have with our clients. You’d be surprised how many people forget this.

We ask three questions of any candidate when we are considering them against a role on offer:
- Can you do the job?
- Will you do the job?
- Will you fit the team?

We ask why you have left your roles for a few reasons.

We want to truly comprehend what you are looking for in your next role. If you left because you didn’t like the company, the work, the size of the team, the limited career opportunities and so on, then what we are about to say makes common sense.

We are not going to offer you an opportunity or a role with similar conditions.

We’ll also delve deep on this question to understand whether your stated reason for leaving “makes sense.” We ask ourselves if the reason you give is consistent with what we know of that company, that type of role and the market place.

You can expect more of a grilling if you have many short stints on your CV. Plus our antennas are alert if you leave a company in less than three months, and we know that industry or company is expanding.

We interview you for one role, but we ask if you are interested in another.
This happens quite often.

From our discussions in interview we may discover that you are a better fit for another company. If we do not think you are appropriate for one role, based on what you have told us what you want – and what our client needs then we will not put you forward to that client.

If we have other roles that will suit you, we may well talk to you about that role in interview, or call you and discuss it at a later date.

Why do you take so long to call?
This isn’t a question we ask, but a question we’ve heard asked of us.

Often the decision to appoint someone or even organise a second interview can take time. This is for a few reasons:
- someone internal appears out of nowhere
- someone internal makes a referral for another applicant
- the business restructures
- the employer likes you, but is not confident they have seen the best in the market
- the employer does not have their paperwork in order and forgot to get sign-off.
- the employer wants someone more senior to see you and that person is simply not available
- you are being hired for a newly created role.

If an employer is recruiting for an established role, then they have a more tangible sense of the opportunity cost or the cost of lost productivity. Often for newly established roles there is less urgency as an employer has less sense of what they are missing out on.

As ever we’re keen to hear from you, let us know your thoughts at blog@chestertongray.com or tweet us at @chestertongray

Should you wait for a second job offer?

The economic problems that have affected us over the last few years have had a massive impact upon the psyche of those candidates that are job hunting and especially those that have been out of work through no fault of their own. Redundancy can have a massive impact upon self-confidence and there is only so much ‘down time’ that you can have between jobs before you start to become stir crazy as well as getting under your partners feet having done all the decorating that any house could possibly need!

Interviews can be stressful and it’s a relief to get through the process and to be advised that the company will be making an offer. What happens though if you’re concluding one but still interviewing with another company?

Job offers can be like London buses, you wait ages for one and then fortuitously (or not) a couple arrive at once. Over the years we are consistently asked by candidates how they should address this issue and whilst there is no perfect catch all answer, there are a number of issues that you need to think about before making a decision.

The first thing you need to be clear about in your own mind is how the two companies stack up in relation to each other and how that affects whatever time constraints are being placed upon you. The company that has already offered you a role won’t be expecting an instant acceptance but neither will they be prepared to let you drag the process out longer than is reasonable. They have a business to run and need to make plans too. The fundamental questions about the offer that you should be asking yourself are (a) does the role offer me the challenges that I’m looking for? (b) can the company offer me the long term career opportunities that I’m after? (c) can I work with this person as my new boss? (d) does the salary match up to my expectations? If you answer ‘yes’ to all four, then you should seriously be considering accepting the offer!

If you want to pursue the second company then you need to talk (urgently) either with them or the recruitment firm about the time frames that the current and next interview steps will take. If they’re talking several weeks for second and/or third interviews, then it’s decision time for you. If you drag out the first company and don’t get the second offer there is a very high risk that the first offer will be withdrawn and you ‘ll be back to square one. If the second company expect it to be wrapped up within the next week, then you have the opportunity to run with it, but you need to make sure that the first company knows that you will make a decision by a fixed date.

Professionalism is the key to this. You need to manage this well because you never know when you might bump into either party again or whether quite by chance one of them might actually end up your boss one day in the future!

If fortune has smiled upon you, you might now have two offers sitting on your desk, in which case you go back to the four questions that you asked after the first offer. With those out of the way, you should have a much clearer idea of which offer you are going to accept.

If you are in gainful employment you now come to the day when you have to hand in your resignation. A word of warning; as for your current company giving you a counter offer? Forget it. Counteroffers generally end badly; you went out looking for a new job because of problems with your current one. A bigger salary doesn't solve any of those problems and from now on they’ll be keeping an eye on you as they know that you’ve tried to leave once. Say nice things about them in your exit interview and walk away with (hopefully) glowing references.

If you are currently in the job market, then good luck and I hope that everything slots into place for you.

As ever we’re keen to hear from you, let us know your thoughts at blog@chestertongray.com or tweet us at @chestertongray

10 things that you shouldn’t say in an office

Office jargon has been around since the first office was created and is frankly pretty annoying; it's an assault on the ears even to hear it. If you’re a cricket fan then the chances are you have played Boycott Bingo or if you too are one of those frustrated employees then the chances are that you’ve been to a meeting and played "Buzzword Bingo" using cards with expressions like "outside the box" or "on the same page."

Fortunately, such jargon goes out of style pretty quickly. I haven't heard "going forward" for a while but equally on the flip side, old expressions are almost immediately replaced by new, even more irritating ones.

Over a cup of coffee one morning we “brainstormed” the jargon we hear on a daily basis and here are a few of the results, with the odd example.

Leverage. Deployment of an insufficient amount of something to do that which was previously done with much more. Example: "After the layoffs, we can leverage our staff of three to cover the entire country".

Reach out. This one really is my pet hate for so many reasons. To deliver news. To talk or connect with someone. Example: "I wanted to reach out to you about my next job". No you don’t, you want to talk to me!!

It is what it is. Meaning: Get used to it.

Viral. So prevalent that it has almost became the word of 2013. Example: "Twitter has gone viral".

Game changer. A catalyst that will transform a frog into a prince or vice-versa. Example: "Getting indicted for fraud was a game changer for Joe Bloggs".

Disconnect. A situation in which you wanted jam, but someone gave you peanut butter. Example: "There is a disconnect between what the consumer wants and what we intend to provide".

Value-add. A gain, usually financial. Example:

Circle back. See you again and again and again whether or not you want to be seen. Example: "The stalker abided by the court's restraining order but then circled back to hang out by the house".

Socialise. Ram the idea down their throats. Example: "We need to socialise to our patients our practice of closing the doctor's office every day for two hours at lunch." In other words, “Call an ambulance”!

Cutting edge. Oh dear, my second pet hate. So modern, it's to die for. Example: "Their offering is so cutting edge that they will take the country by storm".

Now that these expressions have been officially identified as irritating jargon, you might want to give them up, or add to the list! Unless your boss is planning to circle back to reach out to interface and socialise to your value-add. What can I tell you? It is what it is.

As ever we’re keen to hear from you, let us know your thoughts at blog@chestertongray.com or tweet us at @chestertongray

Five personalities that might wreck your meeting!

When I secured my first “proper” job I don’t think that I was really aware of what the ‘management’ actually got up to or that they were never available for me to talk to because they were in meetings; in fact they always had a looming presence!

These days the world has moved on and it doesn’t really seem to matter who you work for, whether you’re a small family firm or whether you work in a large corporation, the chances are that you spend a lot of time in meetings.

And if you do spend a lot of time in meetings, you soon see human nature displayed in its full glory as your colleagues and customers jockey for attention, claim credit for anything they can and prey, Darwinian-style, on weaker members of the tribe.

So, next time that you are called to a meeting, here are five kinds of people that can make things go awry fast -- and a few thoughts on how to deal with them:

1. The bully. Speaks loudly and speaks for softer-spoken team members, apparently deciding that they are unable to make their points for themselves. Actually says things like "that's a stupid idea" to someone whose ideas aren't stupid. Feel free to treat this person like the primary schoolchild whose behaviour they’re channelling. If you let them get away with their infractions, they’re only going to get worse.

2. The non sequitur. This person needs to be heard and either doesn't understand or doesn't care that the ground rules of a discussion require at least some relation between discussion points. As a counterpoint you could interrupt swiftly with "That's an interesting point. Let's note that and move back to our current agenda." If you don't have a timed meeting agenda, then you're inviting this behaviour.

3. The would-be visionary. This person is a frustrated philosopher who has a nasty habit of sending the discussion down a rabbit hole by proposing ideas that sound important the first time you hear them, but rapidly leave you cringing by the time they’ve brought them up in a third or fourth meeting. Respond with humour if you can but it’s key to bring the discussion back to your line.

4. The constant questioner. This person assumes that asking questions about everything the speaker says makes them sound smart and attentive, not realising (or caring) how distracting it is for the others in the meeting. Unless the person is your boss, this person usually turns out not to have any real questions once he or she realises it won't be possible to turn the meeting into a Socratic dialogue.

5. The rambler. Now we all know of these! Occasionally makes good points, but buries each nugget in 10 minutes of fluff. Unless you want your 20-minute meeting to last an hour, get adept at asking a question that cuts to the chase.

Those are my thoughts, how do you keep bad meeting personalities in check?

As ever we’re keen to hear from you, let us know your thoughts at blog@chestertongray.com or tweet us at @chestertongray

‘Tis the season to be job hunting!

The first “proper” working Monday of the New Year is supposed to be the day when disgruntled employees finally decide after the Christmas and New Year break that enough is enough and that it’s time to look for a new job. And ideally a pay rise!!

The big job boards report increased activity, particularly at lunch time (odd that!) and at about 6pm when candidates get home and log on having said hello to the wife/husband/kids/dog/cats/hamster and start trawling for the net for their next career move.
The other incentive to move is that many companies are now in a new financial year and as a consequence have the budgets to hire the next round of talent that’s coming onto the market.

So, if that sounds like you today, then head over to www.chestertongray.com and talk to one of the Directors or consultants about the roles that we are recruiting or if you’re a company come and discuss how we work and can help you unearth your next superstar.