Portfolious

As we begin the second decade of the NORA’s, it’s worth reflecting on just how much the UK online recruitment sector has changed, grown and matured since our very first awards were presented.  Back in 2001, we were seeing the initial bloom fall from the cheeks of many online businesses.  The Dotcom Bubble, as it was called had inflated so quickly, that new online ventures were being formed every day, and often gaining investment on the basis of a “fag-packet” business plan.  By 2001, no-one was investing, and many companies, like BOO.com, had folded after burning through immense amounts of investment.  

This may seem a no-brainer to anyone in the online recruitment industry, and perhaps even a preposterous question for me to ask, given my role in the sector over the past decade.

Commerce aside, it is perfectly possible to provide a service, where every single available vacancy is locatable via one solitary website.  How simple and convenient would that be for candidates?  If such a site existed, there would be no real need to trawl a multitude of job boards, searching, registering, applying again and again.  Surely then jobseekers would only have to register once in a great big CV Database.  Here too, employers could easily identify them, sure in the knowledge that these are the best available candidates to consider for each role?  “Crazy talk” you say? “It’ll never happen”.  

Britons work longer hours than our European neighbours and we are told that looking for a new job is a full-time job in itself. But when do you have the time to look when you are spending over 40 hours a week at work, running errands and fulfilling family and social commitments in addition to stealing some time to sleep? The answer is: you do it at work.

However, you don’t want your current employer to know that you are looking elsewhere because if they find out, you could jeopardise both your current position and future references.

Here is our advice on keeping your job search a secret from your employer.