In this first edition, I will be discussing the risk of not taking a call for what could be your dream role. 

The New York Risk market is going through one of its highest growth phases of the last 10 years. Big datasets and new technologies are transforming the way we mitigate risk. Over the coming weeks I’ll be discussing some subjects that are relevant to my network…

A large portion of my day is taken up speaking to candidates within Risk that fall into the following categories;

• Candidates that we have in process (resumes sent out, interviews happening)
• Candidates that are actively looking for new opportunities
• The Passive Candidate - candidates that are not actively looking but will listen to new opportunities

No shocks there - what is surprising is when a candidate says they are not interested taking a phone call from me. After all, we are in a niche market…Yes, OK, recruiters should be used to rejection, blah blah blah but can you not spend 10 minutes of your day hearing about a new company that could be more impressive than the one you're in? Are you telling me your current employer gives you every single thing you want? In that case, why do people leave the same company you're at all the time?

Granted a lot of this is based on what time of year it is.

Bonus Season - Understandably many people stick around until they’ve been paid out…

BUT - the good news is that many companies within risk are giving sign-on bonuses more and more which means you can make up a lot of what you would have earned at your current company. Businesses hiring for Risk professionals have realized that to attract staff in a candidate driven market they have to become flexible.

If you apply logic, the day bonuses are paid out, you are going to be competing with everyone actively looking for a new job. Securing a better role has just become 10x harder to achieve. Start your conversation with a recruiter earlier to get everything in place.

The holiday season is very similar - many people put any type of interest in getting a new job on hold until the new year. This just means that come January 1, the whole of Manhattan is looking around again. We've seen this in the first 10 days of 2019. Great news for employers, bad news for job searchers.

All of this information is nothing new and it won’t surprise anyone. My advice to every single person in a job is to always take a phone call from a recruiter... Well, me, at least.  USE ME. I AM FREE. Play me at my own game.

I spend 10 hours a day speaking to businesses and finding out what their hiring plans are for the coming months. We can tell you if a competitor is rewarding their staff more, if they provide you with more autonomy and if they listen and value your input. We can tell you what technologies they’re using and what the work/life balance is.

You may think that you're in your dream position and that you are completely happy - If I told you that you could earn an extra $25K for a similar amount of work and that you get five extra days of vacation a year then would you take a call? These jobs DOexist and if you are an impressive candidate then employers are being more and more flexible to get you on board. If we speak and it turns out the job is not good enough to switch then that’s no issue. You've spent 10 minutes making a new contact who will definitely be able to help you in the future. You've learned about what other companies are doing, you've learned about the technologies they use, how they stay ahead of their competition and how your package compares to theirs.

Remember there is no obligation to go forward for a role after we have spoken.

Think about this the next time you see a reputable recruiter send you a message on LinkedIn or call you at your desk. There are always better opportunities out there.