Our blog has moved!!

We moved our blog some time ago so if you have been following us and wondering where all the updates have gone, you need to be looking here http://www.eurolondon.com/blog

You can search our archives, view our recent blogs and of course, check out the Euro London Appointments site.

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Happy New Year

Last week we celebrated Christmas, now it’s time to conclude the festive season! After eating all the food, opening all the presents and drinking all the champagne, it’s now time to welcome the New Year!

So let’s celebrate what we’ve accomplished and plan for what we want to achieve. The New Year is synonymous with doing something new. Resolutions; be it joining the gym, giving up a bad habit or taking up something new, are made around the world.

What do you want to achieve? Perhaps one of the options above, perhaps you’d like to shed a few kilos or perhaps you’d like to start a new job or career path and if you do, we’re here for you.

Wherever you are in the world on New Years Eve, have fun celebrating the start of the 2012!

These are some spectacular scenes from around the world last New Year! Where is the best place you have spent new years?

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It’s The Season To Be Jolly

It’s that time of year again!

The time of year when you wake up hoping today’s the day, the time of the year that it’s socially acceptable to wear the jumper your auntie got you four years ago, the time of year when the airwaves are filled with those songs that get everyone singing along and evoke the memories of your childhood.

That’s right, as the great Noddy Holder would say; “It’s Christmas!”

So hang up your stockings, write your Christmas cards and enjoy the Christmas markets. The last two months of planning and preparations have come together for this day! This one day; where the family get together, Christmas crackers are pulled and the Christmas dinner is carved. So enjoy it! For this day comes but once a year. So from Euro London Appointments Joyeux Noel, Fröhliche Weihnachten, Feliz Navidad and Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

We’ll be asking what your new year’s resolutions are going to be next week. So put your thinking camps on and ponder what you’re going to change next year! Whether it’s losing a few kilos or finding a new job we want to know what you’re going to do differently.

Merry Christmas!

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What Impact Is Social Media Having On Your Job Hunt?

If you look back at the last few years, there has been a growing buzzword used by businesses, organisations and individuals situated all over the world. This word is Social Media! The amalgamation of two very different words, social media was born out of the World Wide Web.

It has the ability to report the news to you, live and uncensored, the ability to bring down governments and the ability to get you a job!

In a recent survey of employers, 90% would check a social media network before or during a candidate’s interview process. These include Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, so if you’re on any of these networks, which statistically you probably will be; you’ve been warned!

Tweets on Twitter, Photos uploaded on Facebook and updates posted on LinkedIn may not be as private as you think and could unfortunately damage your job hunting opportunities and career prospects.

However, if you manage your social media networks right, far from being damaging, they can enhance your job hunting opportunities and it’s not as if it’s hard to do, you do it on a daily basis after all.

Check your privacy settings and what groups or pages you may like! More often than not you may have set your photos to private, but not any groups you may be a part of and these can show up on your flashcard page. If you don’t want recruiters/employers to see this, either leave the group or look to change your privacy settings.

Be careful what you say and to whom, Twitter is a prime suspect for this point. Twitter can turn from a friendly micro-blogging device into a disaster for your career opportunities very quickly, with one rash tweet.

Apart from taking care of your social media in a reactive role, you can also take a proactive position! Joining professional networks to interact with possible contacts, making sure you keep up to date with latest industry news and developments within your field can really show your commitment to any potential employer to your ambition and commitment to any career.

Social media is the new kid on the block and it’s got lots of friends in high places, be aware that recruiters no longer rely on just the interview to hire someone anymore.

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First Impressions Are Lasting Impressions

Whether you are going to an interview or starting your first day at work, it’s important to make a great first impression! Of course, you’ve heard it all before, but how can you be sure your first impression is a positive one? Studies show that a lasting impression will be formed of you within 30 seconds to ten minutes of meeting you, and this impression will last!

So what are the tricks, tips and all the good bits that can be shown off about your personality in these ten minuets to make a great lasting first impression?

Firstly let’s get rid of the clichés in this scenario! The strong handshake and not arriving late are the bear basics of the first impression and hopefully you know them already!

Your body language is the most important part to the art of a good impression! Studies show that 70 % of what you say is conveyed by your body language and a further 10% by the tone of your voice. This means that 80% of what you’re actually saying isn’t the words you are speaking at all. Standing tall, not slouching and making good eye contact is a great place to start when meeting someone new, as this will convey confidence and ability. If you are sitting down, don’t fold your arms or create what is called a unconscious barrier to you. Sit with your hands out and have an open, welcoming posture; smile and listen – we were given one mouth and two ears for a reason! This will lead you onto the second part to help develop a great first impression.

Making good conversation! You may have already accounted for 80% of a conversation, but you’ve still got 20% to fill. This is a virtuous circle, the more conversation you make, the better you get at it and the more you will converse, so everyone is a winner, but remember that there’s a difference between good conversation and small talk! It’s very easy to spot small talk, it’s irrelevant and forgettable, an engaging conversation will leave a positive lasting impression.

Whether it’s a job you are going for or your first day; Research the company! Know what they do, how big they are, where they have offices etc, you don’t want to be left looking dumbfounded if someone asks you a question about the company. It takes 10 minutes to look into a company’s profile and shows that you are committed to the company from an early stage.

No matter how advanced our technology may be getting, it will always be important to make a personable good first impression! So make sure you’re prepared for your first interview and your first day.

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Cover yourself with your Cover Letter

Over the last few months we’ve given you some of our best advice on how to land that dream job of yours. We’ve given you great advice (well we think anyway) on how to write a CV, but what was missing from that advice is the obligatory Cover letter you need to send in with that brilliant CV of yours.

Cover letters are short articles, no more than one A4 piece of paper long, you write about yourself to send in with your CV. They don’t need to be long, they don’t have to be fancy, but they do have to explain why you are perfectly suited to the job. This means tailoring each and every cover letter to the job you are applying for. Whilst the jobs you apply for may not be that different to each other and you may not feel the need to change your cover letter, every hiring manager; no matter how similar the role, will have a different idea, a different set of attributes they will be looking for. It will therefore be up to you to demonstrate these indirectly through your actions written out in both your CV and your cover letter. Do your research on who they are looking for.

You may have heard the famous John Kennedy quote: “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”, the same can be said about going through the interview stages of an organisation. Incorporate the research you have done for the position into this covering letter and emphasis what you can do for the company.

Often if you are emailing or sending a CV to a recruiter the covering letter will be the first information they see about you, it’s so important to make a good first impression! Like previously stated in our blog on how to write a great CV, check for spelling and punctuation mistakes, make sure what you are sending out is literally perfect.

Overall cover letters should complement not duplicate your CV, if you find you’ve repeated the same points on both your CV and your cover letter, have a second look at what you’ve written.

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Relocation, Relocation, Relocation

The UK jobs market has seen one of the biggest squeezes in recent times with the decline in the availability of jobs, which is being matched around Europe. Even Germany, seen as the steady ship of Europe, is seeing a contraction in the number of jobs available and a rise in the number of people who are unemployed.

Being a multilingual recruitment agency, we often place people of various nationalities from around Europe into another country in Europe for a role, most are happy to relocate.

But it seems that in the UK, this option is extremely limited by the lack of ability to learn or even try and learn another language. A report out last week [1] states that two in three Brits can’t speak a single foreign word! We think that the report may be over exaggerated, but we know that other points were re-iterating what we have always known; that the majority of the British public’s attitude to want to learn a language is abysmal.

Without the possibility of relocating abroad to work, apart from the obvious British tourist hot spots, there is a very slim chance of finding work in a non English speaking country, vastly narrowing the number of job opportunities.

We often find that many of the companies we are working with to place staff, here and elsewhere around Europe, desire English speakers. But native English speakers more often than not, are not able to speak another language.

It’s not only the lack of experience and language ability that can hold someone’s job search back, but the lack of will to relocate or commute to any job that is not located on their back door.

It’s a global world; it’s time we all started thinking global.

Have a nice day! Goodbye! Au revoir! Auf Wiedersehen! Arrivederci! ¡Adiós! Ok, you get the point.

[1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2062982/Two-Britons-speak-SINGLE-foreign-word.html

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How Much Trouble Is Europe In?

This week has seen a culmination of the troubles that have been brewing for months within the economy of Europe. All current decisions made now, are being made to avert what would only be described as financial recession; it seems that the future of Europe is hanging on a knife edge.

There have been some quite considerable changes within EU member states; Italy and Greece have both appointed new leaders to try and stem the flow of ever growing worries within their economies, whilst Spain appears to be heading for a change of leadership.

Interest charged on government backed bonds is hitting unprecedented levels; these rates indicate the risk perceived on the ability of the country to pay it back, the higher the interest, the higher the risk. Earlier this week Greece was faced with having to pay back 22% on top of what it initially borrows over the course of 10 years, and there is a very high fear that Greece won’t be able to meet its commitments and that is worrying the financial markets. To put that 22% in perspective, Germany’s interest on a 10 year bond is just over 2%.

However, positive news can be found in the consolation that the economy of the 17-nation Euro Zone grew by 0.2%, between July and September, not much but at least it has grown, kept buoyant primarily by the German and French economies after several other countries including Greece’s economy shrunk.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has described the ongoing Euro Zone situation as the continents toughest hour since World War Two, a highly charged use of words that was sure to grab the headlines across Europe and highlight how serious the predicament we are faced with.

What are your views on the current situation around Europe? Have the EU leaders got it right?

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Equality – Is it just a word?

It’s been decades since most states within the European Union developed legislation that protect men and women from discrimination in the workplace on matters such as pay and promotion. However, this week new statistics out have showed a worrying trend. All three of the top stock exchanges of Europe; London’s FTSE, Frankfurt’s DAX and Paris’s CAC, have Less than 20% of the seats on the board of directors occupied by women[1]. This week, Theresa May, the United Kingdom’s home secretary, stated that she thinks the UK alone is missing out on £21 billion a year in growth in the markets through a lack of female leaders and a further £42 billion a year would be produced if there were as many female entrepreneurs ran businesses as men [2].

So why is there still the fabled “glass ceiling” for so many women, when not only is there legislation to prevent discrimination, but also groups set up to help, such as the 30% club on the FTSE which hopes to see 30% of the number of the seats on boards taken by females. (I’m not sure why it’s not 50% to be honest, if you’re going to aim to make a difference, why not aim for equality?). There is also a general consensus that female board members are greatly beneficial, bringing a type of process and calculation to situations where a man’s pride may have taken over in a male dominated environment.

So is it a lack of ambition? Perhaps; But the world has turned into the most equal it has ever been! Where before the norm would have been for a daughter to cook and clean, to be the doting wife to the husband who would go out to work, nowadays a daughter is just as encouraged and supported as a son to go out and aspire to be all they can be.

Perhaps then women don’t want to fall into the stereotypes of a leading woman “conniving…ice queens…single…a token…a cheerleader”, but are these stereotypes still relevant today? Were they ever truly relevant at all…apart from in the films? The female leaders of some of the worlds biggest companies, such as Indra Nooyi, the chief executive of PepsiCo, has never lived up to any of the previously stated stereotypes.

So why do you believe there is still a disproportionate amount of men in positions of leadership? Especially in industry, the lucrative banking and petroleum companies etc. When do you think we will be equal? Will we ever?

[1]http://www.corpgov.deloitte.com/binary/com.epicentric.contentmanagement.servlet.ContentDeliveryServlet/USEng/Documents/Nominating-Corporate%20Governance%20Committee/Board%20Composition%20and%20Recruitment/Women%20in%20the%20Boardroom_Deloitte_012011.pdf

[2] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057723/Theresa-May-Female-talent-boost-economy-60bn.html

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“Don’t Talk Politics or Religion” – Ever

There is an old saying that states “don’t talk politics or religion”, this is as it seems to evoke a sense of passion in a person that is rarely seen elsewhere. Never the less, this saying is usually reserved for business and pleasure rather than society as a whole; however this week the British government decided it would not give the option to discuss the politics surrounding the EU debate to their citizens.

In the UK, no one under the age of 56 has ever had the option to say what they think about the EU in a vote, that means 53% of the UK population of voting age, 18+, has never had a say; that’s almost ¾ of the UK population if you count all under 56 year olds, including under 18’s.

Here at Euro London we have a multitude of different views from all of our staff who themselves come from around Europe; we’re a multilingual recruitment agency after all! So we find ourselves with a very encompassing approach to political views from across the spectrum and around the EU, but we wanted to gauge your views from right around Europe. Do you believe the European Union gives us as nations greater security, opportunity and prospects or has it evolved to far to infringe on national identities and actually a drain on our economies?

For those of you who may not know how the EU came about, here’s a little blast from the past. The EU started life as the EEC, European Economic Community, a free trade agreement between the 6 countries of: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany in 1957 and has gradually expanded over 50 years to now include 27 member states, many of whom are integrated through departments, law systems and the Euro, which sees 17 nations in Europe linked through a singular currency.

However, in a recent European poll across member states, it was found that only 28% of the UK population thought that EU membership in its current capacity was a “good thing” compared to 66% and 69% in Germany and France respectively.

So should a countries government block its citizen’s right for a discussion on a topic? What are your views on the EU?

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