I thought there was a recession ???

[London Stone Paving]

I have been tearing my hair out. We have recently advertised for a buyer to take care of all of our UK and overseas purchasing. I thought that we would be in a very strong position to get someone decent. All I hear about on the news is "100 people applying for every position" We advertised the job on Monster adn offered a salary of £18,000-£25,000 depending upon experience.

(I know that it is not the most amazing salary in the world but we were looking to employ a graduate so in that respect the salary was pretty good)

In two weeks we have had 5 applications. 2 of the applicants were from Africa who needed sponsorship to work in the Uk, so they were a non starter. One of the applicants had a CV with more holes than dartboard.

This left two applicants who were worthy of an interview. So we arranged the interviews, I did loads of preperation, we got the offices looking spic and span, made sure the yards were all looking there best (on the basis that a good candidate may have a few job offers, so its important that we make a good impression too)

One of them didn't show up. Not a phone call or email, nothing. After the first one didnt show up I thought I better give the other one a calll to make sure he was coming. All through yesterday I called him and emailed him, nothing! Then I got a text at 11;30pm last night from the guy saying he was ill and could not make the interview. I was pleased that he let me know but I was not pleased that he woke me up.

[Ted]

Are you sure your advert is easily searchable/well-positioned on Monster?

I know lots of recent graduates as my brother has recently graduated and lots of his friends are unemployed or seriously under employed.

Mind you, I had a look on Monster the other evening as I was trying to help a very lazy old friend of mine who is on the dole to get off his arse and get a job and I did notice that there are a heck of a lot of job ads on there - there were even two opportunities within walking distance of his house which he was well qualified for even though he has a pretty poor CV... unfortunately the lazy sod still has not applied...

[bobbi o]

Last time i advertised for a contracts manager i got two replies,the first guy didnt turn up for interview,the second guy i gave the job to. Sadly the useless b'stard died shortly after.

[ilovesettsonmondays]

your close to london.18,000 is not alot for london.travel costs are horrendous .i pay 65 pound a week to go 23 miles each way a day.saying that.for me to go into central london its a minimum of 110 a day to just get a wage .my m8s a buyer in the north west and hes on 40,000 in a diff field engineering.have you tried the jobcentreplus to advertise it think its free .gumtree is only 15 pound to advertise a job .are you looking for a trainee

[London Stone Paving]

Ted, that did cross my mind. I think I will speak to Monster and see what they think about it. I've tried to help a few lazy mates into work over the years. It never seems to work out, you always end up wiping their arses for them.

Sett Mondays, we were willing to pay up to 25k for the right person. I thought we might get a graduate or maybe someone who was out of work and needed to get back into it. You here all these stories on the news of all these graduates with no jobs. Must be something to do with what Ted said, cant think of any other reason.

[lutonlagerlout]

its better that they feck it up now than start and be useless.you would have thought that the salary on offer although not massive is a good way to get in the door and if the business expands then opportunities would arise
have to say that the one time we used the job centre it was a total disaster,they sent a succession of people totally unqualified to do the job,
better to poach a decent rival IMHO
LLL

[ilovesettsonmondays]

what about paying a finders fee

[London Stone Paving]

Agencies will charge 20% of the yearly salary. If the person leaves after threee months you get nothing back. Bit rich for us at the moment

[ilovesettsonmondays]

advert in evening standard wed/fri or sun on a thursday

[London Stone Paving]

Thats more like it

[Ted]

Ted, that did cross my mind. I think I will speak to Monster and see what they think about it. I've tried to help a few lazy mates into work over the years. It never seems to work out, you always end up wiping their arses for them.

I don't know how Monster works but if there is a field where you add key words to make your ad searchable, I would imagine you should leave "stone" and "paving" and such terms out.

I would go for "buyer/purchasing" as loads of graduates want to be buyers and "building and construction products" as a sector description (lots of potential aspiring QS/engineer types who are unemployed may find it by searching this sector) and then you can be more precise when the potential applicant clicks on your ad and reads the detailed description of the job role.

You want to get as many people as possible to click on your ad and quite a few graduates probably think of stone and paving as very unsexy areas to work in; whereas, in fact, if they do a good job at buying stone or whatever for you they will gain good experience and be well-positioned to transfer into becoming a buyer for other products in the building and construction products sector as they will begin to understand this sector.

It would also be good experience for any graduate who wants to get into purchasing even if they don't want to do it in building products long term. But you need all these aspiring buyers to click the ad so you find a good one...

I'd try and be as vague and enticing as possible until the person has actually clicked on your ad and is reading your actual ad...