This was prompted by a post from the Birmingham post.

Accountancy remains an attractive career choice for new graduates despite job losses in the financial sector.

One of the country’s leading professional services firms Deloitte announced that more students are chosing to apply to the field.

Darren Page, graduate recruitment manager at Deloitte in Birmingham, said that the firm had recently seen an increase in the number of graduates applying for jobs. “Many students perceive a high level of job security in the accountancy industry and indeed, firms like Deloitte have seen increasing demand for advice from businesses struggling to cope with the economic environment.” Mr Page said students were seeking secure employment in sectors that are well placed to weather the economic storm. He said: “At the moment we are experiencing strong growth in our Reorganisation Services practice which looks after company receiverships.

The value attributed to job security by students is higher than I have seen before.”

However, according to recent reports from Highfliers Research, in 2009 there will be fewer job opportunities for graduates in the accountancy sector.

(c) 2009 Birmingham Post; Birmingham (UK). Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

I also believe that if you even prepare a presentation, which is often required at a second I find that psychological you are more tuned up for the interview and more importantly other candidates will not have done the same, thereby giving you an edge.

Preparing for an interview these days is so simple because virtually all companies have a web presence, so there are no excuses for not knowing about the company you have the interview with.

It still surprises me that people still do not check the company website before they arrive. In fact companies will mark this against you.

When you prepare for the interview I believe it is worth putting together a small presentation folder specific for the role and the company, it always looks better than just turning up. Generally I buy a A folder with clear plastics sheets inside, where I can drop the cv in etc.

Below I have outlined the things that I would generally put in the folder:

* A Front page (Name, Location, Time of interview and Name of interviewer)
* The CV (only 3 pages here please!)
* Show proof of success such as pay slips, awards, letters of commendation etc (Proves your ability)
* Information on the company you have the interview with (Print out from web etc) NB this shows you have done your research. Also it is often worth printing out details of the company you worked for, I am sure you have heard “a picture paints a thousand words.”
* List of 5 questions for the company (Saves that embarrassment when they ask have you any questions)
* List of 5 reasons why you can do a job for them (This they do not need to see but will help you sell yourself)
* Print 3 copies so that when you can leave you can leave them one, which will go down well.

Spend some time on getting this and right and ensure you have some one read over it and don’t forget to check the Grammar and Spelling is up to scratch.

Although this may seem a lot of work putting a presentation together for the company, even-though it may not be necessary, it is worth the effort. It is also worth noting that once done it will only take short time to prepare for another and as in my case I have kept it throughout my career and added to as I gained more experience.

During the first interview you will need to watch out for the testing questions, such as what sports do you do? really they just want to know if you are a team player and if you are competitive.

The same goes for what you do in you spare time as they want to see how gregarious you are.

In all they want to see certain key attributes personality, hard working, tenacious happy to use the phone and sales ability. So each time they ask a question they are looking for confirmation of the above points.

Finally be confident from the first greeting with a firm dry hand shake with asking for the job at the end of the interview.

The reason probably is due to lack of experience, although some recruitment companies prefer that so they can mould you the way that the want but generally even if you are a graduate straight from university they will prefer you to have had some commercial experience.

So if you haven’t any experience then I suggest you start something straight away. The ideal background is sales as recruitment is fundamentally a sales job, but again it is even more difficult to get a typical sales job. So my advice is sell advertising or double glazing, it may not be the most prestigious sales job , but in the time it takes to find you ideal role you would have gained some valuable sales experience. It may seem hash and generally at this point the graduate runs away, but the most successful people have done some thing like this to kick start their career, because if you can do commission only you can do anything. In addition the training and experience you will gain will be put to good use later. If it still worries you just think of it as free sales training!

Hopefully by now you have some experience on your cv and enough to get that interview, but if not then the next option can sometimes work. Follow up the cv with a call to the manager and then sell yourself to him and don’t get of the phone until you have an interview. It is incredible how few people actually do this these days. I can guarantee they will try to put you of but do not take no for an answer i.e. “you do not have enough experience” is typical but over come it “I understand this but what I do have is a desire to work within your industry because….” etc

In the end you may get to the point were they will give you an interview just to get you of the phone, then the rest is up to you.

It is also worth noting that if you have experiene or you have a trade or studied certain subjects like Accountancy, then this can be a lever for some recruitment companies such as Accountancy recruitment companies, welding recruitment, nursing recruitment retail recruitment. the list goes on but I hope you get my drift.

So you have written your CV and it is ready to go but wait, first make sure someone apart from you has read it to ensure it makes sense. Amazingly the standards of resumes I read are quiet poor; there is no excuse with spell checker and grammar checker. Watch out here though as spell check will often not include headings or words written in capitals and on top of this it may be spelled correctly but just the wrong word!

I have had many a laugh at some of the spelling on curriculum vitae´s, it is often at the top big and bold but spelt incorrectly because it hasn’t been checked.

The next step is where to send your cv well this will really depend on what market sector you have chosen or where your skills best fit. I think these days there is a recruitment consultancy for nearly every single market. So the most logical direction would be a market that relates to your experience or degree, that way it will give you an edge.

Apart from industries there are the different fields of recruitment to consider

1) Permanent

2) Temporary/Contract

3) Head Hunting

4) In House

5) Or a Combination of above

The styles of the person vary greatly here The Temporary or Contract consultant can be very much a service type role where the role is very much about ensuring the candidates get to their job on time and the completion of time sheets.

The Permanent role is more sales orientated and is generally more new business driven, so here you need to have more of that sales drive.

Finally there is the headhunter, which although most people perceive that head hunting is generally recruitment; a true headhunter will command salaries in excess of £100,000. The role is much more involved in that you tend to work on assignments and on larger fees i.e. 30% of directors salaries, which can range between £50k to £100k.

To help you focus, if you are starting out then you will need to consider permanent or temporary and head hunting is for more senior and experienced individuals.

Next you need to consider the size of company to work for, whether to join a start up or a company like Manpower or a small agency. All have their advantages but starting you career with one of the big companies is the best way to go, as these companies will give you the training, which will set you up for life. Which is how I started.

I would try to avoid the start-ups as this can be very stressful, but generally you will have the advantage of working with someone who is very experienced and has broken away from an established consultancy.

If you cannot get into the likes of manpower then the smaller companies will often give you the break and a couple of years hear will give you the experience to join the larger organisations.

Having been in recruitment for many years I can honestly say that Recruitment is a fantastic industry, it is one of the few industry that can give you so many opportunities, whether  it is monetary, management, sales or even the relatively easy way you can even start your own company and on top of all this you can be involved in virtually any industry.

But be warned it is a tough industry and unfortunately many enter the profession thinking it is a Human Resource role and as a result they generally fail. So I wanted to make one point clear, and that is a Recruitment Consultant is a SALES EXECUTIVE, so if you do not like sales I suggest you try another market.

On top of this recruitment is VERY COMPETITIVE so in essence you will need to have an abundance of drive and passion, with some sales experience. Saying this I do not want to put you off, because what makes this is a great industry is that compared to general sales, this product will say “thank you!!”

Based on this and other factors, I have put together a list of the key skills or attributes that I believe make up a successful Consultant and if you have most of them you are most of the way there.

• Communication skills (Clear diction, articulate)
• Hard working (overtime, make calls from home if necessary)
• Sales ability (able to promote the service of your company and get commitment)
• Time Management (You will be pulled in all directions)
• Competent writer (Adverts, resumes, reports etc, although I have got away with it for many years!)
• Smart Appearance
• Able to deal with rejection
• When it is tough have the strength to keep focused
• Good Rapport skills
• A personality (helps build a rapport)
• Able to think outside the box, there is always more than one way to skin a cat!

This should help you understand what the agency is looking for, which will help you succeed or I have put you off altogether.