“If I could turn back time…”, as Cher sings. Everybody has their regrets, that’s an inevitable part of life. The important thing is to learn from your own mistakes, but why not learn also from somebody else’s errors?

Career-wise, it can also be beneficial to reflect on what other people might have done differently in their job search so as to know the “don’ts” of job hunting and avoid them.

The short BlueSteps article “4 Things Most Would Do Differently Job Hunting If Turning Back Time” gives you the opportunity to do so. So, what would your fellow job hunters would have done differently if turning back time was an option?

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In our LinkedIn Learning-based series of blog posts we have covered the topic on interview preparation. But what about your own questions? What would you like to know from recruiters, hiring managers, headhunters… the interviewers?

To quote Jenny Foss, a career strategist and the author of the next LinkedIn Learning video, “show up with some questions to ask so you don’t look like a dang fool.”

This course of 17m 16s, entitled Job Seeker Tips, is rather short but very insightful. It also covers other tricky issues, such as handling gaps in your CV!

We chose the most interesting highlights for you & here is the sneak peak of the content:

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The current job market is an ever-changing competitive environment. There are more start-ups and innovations than ever before which results in increased job insecurity, but also completely new opportunities. Though some still might think “I don’t have to worry about it, my job is stable and I won’t get fired”. Just think about all the international corporations who choose Shared Service Centers or go through deep restructuring by e.g. flattening their hierarchy. It effects all of us. Sooner or later. Expectedly and sometimes out of the blue.

In other words: be prepared. Always! How? The Linkedin Learning video series on career advises you to adopt a permanent “job hunting” mindset. Here’s the sneak peak of the content of the video we choose for this post:

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According to a LinkedIn survey published on August 15:

• the average American has been in the same job for 9.88 years, rising substantially to 13.91 years for professionals over 55
• 22% admit that they “fell” into their job rather than actively choosing
• 23% say that they feel like they are “on a treadmill going nowhere”

Although the data represents 2000 US American professionals, we confirm that – based on our experience and observation – the numbers across Europe could be very similar.

At Career Angels we call that a career “on autopilot”. Looking at the research data from Decision Dynamics, as many as 64% of over a million professionals do not have a career that matches their innermost preferences and motives.

Why does that happen and what can you do about it?

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How would you like to be described by a potential employer after your job interview? Confident, experienced, determined?

“Desperate”: that’s certainly not something you would like to hear.

When your job search process drags on and there’s still no offer on the horizon, you may start to unwillingly show signs of desperation to your prospective employers.

But how to stop worrying and not appear as if you “need a job too much”, you may ask. Here’s an approach: Read more →

Any candidate would like the recruitment process to be as impartial as possible, but as Alexander Pope once said: to err is human. And recruiters are no exception to that rule.

Here is what a Forbes article entitled “Data-Driven HR: How Big Data And Analytics Are Transforming Recruitment” has to say on the subject: “many HR professionals or hiring managers would probably admit that they make appointments based on gut feeling.”

Disheartening though it may sound, the good news is that data and analytics are helping employers take the guesswork out of recruitment.

Not only that, but also the rise of people-first approach in recruitment makes the job search experience increasingly candidate-friendly. Here is a short summary of two valuable articles on the subject:

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Based on our own observations of the last 12 months, we see that:

• mid-level managers are also offered individual outplacement
• more and more modern / online tools are being used due to technology advancement
• the employees’ awareness is greater: instead of being ashamed of being laid-off, they actively ask for support in navigating the job market
• there’s an increase in the number of employers who tell their employees: “We have a budget of XX, you can choose the service provider yourself”. Sometimes the employer imposes a number of for example 3 companies which fulfill certain requirements. In such situation it is the employee who contacts different companies, has “casting” meetings and then returns with their own choice.

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Companies can be assisted by a specialized freelancer, a boutique, a local or international company. There are also companies for which outplacement services are only a small portion of their turnover, as they normally focus on recruitment or HR consulting.

The price and quality of outplacement services depends on many different factors, not only on the company type. To choose a service provider that fulfills all requirements of the firm, it is best to answer the following questions that will then constitute criteria of evaluation:

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