frequently asked questions
Your own consultant, who you’ll meet when you first come in to see us. All appointments, interview arrangements, job offers and negotiations go through your consultant so they should always be your first point of contact.
Occasionally, you might receive a call from another person on your consultant’s team or from another consultant – but in all cases, they will have been thoroughly briefed by your own consultant who will act as your advocate.
The quality and professionalism of our consultants may come as a surprise if you’re used to run-of-the-mill employment agencies. Our people are all intelligent, highly trained, committed to their work, and ambitious in what they want to do for you.
Your consultant will start by searching through vacancies. Of course, this takes time – but when we offer you an interview, you can be sure that it’s been selected as one that is absolutely right for you. Unlike some agencies, we won’t waste your time by sending you to interviews for jobs that are nearly but not quite right.
And if that particular job you want isn’t available, we can be very creative in ways of getting you in front of a chosen employer.
We’ll brief you beforehand on the opportunity, the company, the team and people involved – so you’ll go through to the interview thoroughly prepared. Often, we’ll rehearse the kind of questions with you that you can expect, and help you improve your interview technique. Afterwards, we’ll discuss the interview with you and help you decide on next steps. We’ll also talk the employer which can help iron out any points of uncertainty for you and them.
If more than one interview is involved, we’ll follow the same briefing and de-briefing procedure each time.
When an offer is made, we’ll help you negotiate any outstanding details and arrange a start date.
How fast this all happens will vary with the kind of job you want, and how readily available it is.
Feel free to call your consultant to discuss what’s happening. And don’t be shy to ask them how likely the different possibilities are, and how long they could take.
To begin with, we ask you not to. Firstly, by registering with Katie Bard, you have placed yourself with the Midlands’ top office recruitment consultancy, so why devalue your talents by putting yourself in the hands of the second or third best?
Of course, you may find yourself in a position where time is not on your side. So, discuss this with your consultant and if your need for employment is pressing, we may ask you to give us a minimum of two weeks.
At the end of that time, by all means register with other agencies if you need to. We will, of course, continue to do what we can to help you.
The first person to contact is your consultant. They are best placed to help. If you’d like to know more about how Katie Bard works, ask about our programme of informal behind-the-scenes visits. We’re always happy to explain our work.
However, even in the best run organisations, breakdowns in communication and mistakes do sometimes happen. If you ever have a problem with our service and are not satisfied with how your consultant has dealt with it, we need to know so we can do something about it. Please write to our CEO, John Mortimer. In fact, if you have any comments about our service, positive or negative, we want to hear them. It will help us provide an even better service to our candidates and clients.
still have questions?
Please feel free to get in touch on 0121 633 4443 and we’d be happy to help.