If you are an employer looking to advertise a job, you have a few options on how to do so. Some companies always use recruitment agencies to fill vacancies and although this can be quite expensive, it often means you do not have to filter through CV’s (taking time and money) to find ideal candidates.

A recruitment agency will advertise the post for you and some will scour jobs boards to find people that they believe may be suited to the position. From the applications they receive, they will sort through and recommend people to you that they believe have the relevant experience and qualifications to apply.

Once you have these CV’s you can then have a read through and select candidates that you wish to attend an interview and ask the recruitment agency to invite them. Once you have seen all candidates it is then up to you to choose who you want (if anyone) to employ. If you employ someone that the agency has referred to you, then you usually pay a fee, this may be a fixed fee or a percentage of their annual salary.

If you are looking to train towards a career but want to be able to earn a small wages whilst doing so then an apprenticeship could be the way forward. An apprenticeship can be taken in a number of job roles within a wide range of industries and each course will vary in terms of time to complete and hours you will work during a week. For example, you may find an electrician apprenticeship that you wish to apply for that will take between 3 and 4 years to complete working four days a week, but some web developer apprenticeships only last 1 to 2 years.

If you are interested in looking in to this way of getting on the career ladder, then the .gov website has an online tool that allows you to search for apprenticeships within your area or selected radius of your address. You can then click through to apply for the position or find out more information. Although the wage for apprentices is pretty low in comparison, it does mean that you can work and earn a little instead of having to go to college or uni where you will not get paid for being in the classroom.

If you are looking to move in to a sales position then there are some points to consider to ensure that the career path is right for you.

• Time – Often sales jobs can be a little anti-social. It may be that you are expected to work later in the evenings or weekends when sales to the public mostly take place.
• Travel – Some sales jobs involve a lot of travel. This may be travelling locally to see clients or suppliers or you may even have to venture abroad for a number of weeks / months to oversee a new project or receive training to help you with your sales role.
• Pay – Some sales jobs come with quite a low base salary. This is because the majority of your money is earned through the sales you make. So if you do not sell anything, you will not make a lot of money. Some of the best sales people more than triple their basic salary with commission and / or bonuses.

For many people, they simply cannot walk in to the job role they want. Everyone has to start somewhere and often that involves working for a lower salary, long hours or having to travel a far distance to work.

Employers like to find staff that are conscientious and hard working. If you can show them that you are willing to muck in and put pride and effort in to any role you are given you are likely to progress up the career ladder quickly.

I, myself, started working as a cleaning at a car dealership and because they were so impressed with the pride I took in the job, very quickly offered me a job on the reception desk. This then led to a further promotion in to the Sales Administration role which was the job role I had wanted to work in.

It just shows that a little hard work really does go a long way.

Unfortunately one of the main reasons people tend to leave self-employment is due to lack of organisation. This may be that they are not very good at managing their time, forget to write down appointments for get too easily distracted and are not disciplined enough to use their “work time” productively.

Organisation is the key to ensure that your self-employment has the best chance of working. You will have to keep detailed records of all your accounts and make sure that you have receipts at the ready should you need to show them for a tax investigation.

Not only do you need to organise your accounts but you need to ensure that you have fully understood a project that you need to undertake and have taken down clear and concise notes from the client. If you do not do this, you will find yourself wasting time and possibly having to go back to the client to ask them again.

Many people get nervous when it comes to attending an interview for a job position but they may not realise that many employers actually get really nervous too. Finding the right employee can be a hard task at times, it may be that you are inundated with CV’s to go through and do not want to miss someone that may be perfect or maybe that you have only a handful none of which stand out as being suitable.

When interviewing a candidate, make sure you have a set questions that you wish to ask already written down and take detailed notes on the interviewee’s responses so you can compare at a later date. If there are any anomalies within their CV such as a crossover of employment or a gap in their work history then do not be afraid to ask.

If you are still not decided after the first interview then why not invite someone back for a second time or even ask them in for a trial session.

If you are thinking about going self employed then you need to consider what insurance you will require to cover you. Depending what type of work you will be doing, you may need public liability insurance and / or indemnity insurance. For example if you are a self employed electrician you will need public liability insurance to cover you against injury caused by your business or damage caused to third party property. Even if you work from home you may still need public liability insurance if you use your home as a meeting place.

Indemnity insurance covers you for things like client’s loss of profits or custom caused by something that your business has done.

There are many companies out there can can advise you of what type of insurance you need and although it is not always compulsory, it can be extremely costly if a case is raised against you and you haven’t got the correct level of insurance to cover you.

Whether you have trained as a financial advisor or whether you have worked in an administrative role, the financial sector is a popular place to find well paid rewarding work, however it is a rather volatile area of business that can go through ups and downs based on the current economic situations and very much based on government legislation.

With this in mind if you are looking for work in the financial sector you really need to keep up to date with what is currently happening with the country’s economy and what the most recent legislations are regarding pensions, benefits and taxations even if this is not your specialised area.

Before joining a new company it will always pay in this area of business to do a lot of background research into what the company does, how long it’s been established and whether it’s had any issues with the regulating body the FCA (financial conduct authority, previously the financial services authority). You can find out most of this information online so do your research before applying to a company to ensure a secure job for a reputable company.

Jobs in administration can be fairly low paid particularly if you are doing something quite basic such as data entry, however there are admin roles available that are more involved and as a result tend to pay a little more. If you are looking for admin work through an agency they will be looking at things such as your typing speed and scores in spelling and grammatical tests, the higher you score the more likely they are to put you in a higher paid more complex role.

If you have experience in a certain area of administration such as working for the financial sector then you could improve your salary by taking the relevant administration exams and earning your qualifications. The more qualifications that you have in that area the more desirable you’ll be to future employers looking for someone who can offer a little extra to the role.

If you stay in an admin role then you should have a development plan in place to become a senior administrator and increase your salary that way too, through experience.

Sometimes when you’re looking for a job you can find the perfect match, a company that you like, a role that you have experience in and a competitive salary, however the words ‘Temporary position’ or ‘Maternity cover’ can be a big red x for people after something on a permanent basis.
However this doesn’t have to be a complete showstopper, a temporary position, if taken by the right candidate can often lead to a permanent role or another job offer within the company at the end of your contract term.
This is a point that really is worth some consideration as if you make a good impression within a company they will be reluctant to let you go if they can possibly find a position for you. It’s worth remembering as well that when an employee goes on Maternity leave the employer legally has to presume that they will be returning to work after a maximum of 1 years leave, however that employee does not have to confirm this until 8 weeks prior to the end of the leave period. Therefore often a maternity cover position can become permanent if the previous employee decides not to return to work after their maternity leave is over.