A service is being launched to help practices across the UK fill their locum job vacancies in minutes.
Locum Vet Finder (LVF) has been designed to help solve some of the problems created by a recruitment crisis that has left hundreds of practices struggling with unfilled locum vacancies.
Based on an innovative technology platform that matches locums’ professional profiles to practice vacancies immediately, LVF promises to reduce the amount of time spent sourcing locums.
Transformational
”We believe Locum Vet Finder can make a real difference,” said Jo Woods, managing director of Veterinary Business Development, the company behind LVF.
”As a company, we thought long and hard about our audience, and how we might develop something that would really transform this process for them.
”We know it is tough, but we genuinely believe it’s the right time to put this technology into the hands of practices.”
A central hub for both locums and practices to advertise their availability or requirements – by species, working hours and salary – LVF allows locums to apply for roles in minutes, while market-leading smart matching technology ensures practices get the locum that best matches their need, alerting practices and locums to their matches instantly.
Features
LVF features include:
Smart matching aligns skills to the needs of practices.
Complete control – instant notification of matched vacancies.
Bookings can be made directly via the platform, with no third-party involvement.
Practice and locum profiles for practices and locums to build their LVF brand.
Star rating reviews.
A 24-hour service.
Free for all locums and cost effective for practices.
2017 has reared its hopefully not-so-ugly head, and with it comes the realisation my classmates and I are mere months from entering the real world of veterinary medicine.
The sheer number of poorly written recruitment ads has prompted Jordan to create a list of tips for advertising a job to new grad vets.
While tales of classmates getting job offers following placements become more frequent, those of us without much of a plan have, so far, remained blissfully ignorant. But now we fear our lazy flicking through the job adverts at the back of varying veterinary publications will have to become less of an exercise in procrastination and more of a quest for our future.
While my flatmate and I often indulge ourselves in shared exasperation at the lack of mixed or farm jobs, or simply flick through to see if we know the practices and try to work out who must have left, we have noticed a few patterns in poor adverts – and these mild grievances have resulted in this list of top tips for advertising a job to new grads.
(Disclaimer: these tips are not based on any success rates, merely on the opinion of myself and some of my colleagues)
Title
The most annoying thing when skimming job adverts is to read half a page of waffle, only to reach the end and realise it’s the wrong type of work or miles away from the area we’re looking around.
A short, snappy title wants to include type of work (small/farm/mixed vet), location and, perhaps, whether a new graduate is wanted. For example: “New grad position for mixed practice in Leicester.”
The practice name doesn’t really need to be there (we’ll read on to find out); the purpose of the title is to catch the eye of your prospective applicant.
Do you want a new grad?
“Suitable for new graduate” or “new graduates considered” is all we need to know. On the flip side, if you don’t want a new graduate, please say so (for example, “must have two years’ experience”), otherwise we’ll be wasting our time looking into it and wasting your time if we apply.
We also don’t really need further details on this topic. Information like “great support network for new graduate” is too wordy and the support needed will vary between individuals – we’ll only get a true feel for that on interview or trial.
Type of vet
Please, please, please say what type of practice you are or what type of vet you want. I know it sounds simple, but the number of adverts that leave me unsure whether they’re for a mixed or small animal role is frustrating. In these instances, I’ll often have to look at the practice logo to work out where to hedge my bets…
Type of vet (additional)
The term “mixed vet” doesn’t tell us a lot and “mainly SA [small animal], some LA [large animal]” doesn’t really tell us a great deal more. A clear (and preferably accurate) estimate of the likely proportions of work will give us the best idea of what to expect – “50% small, 30% farm, 20% equine”, for example.
Out-of-hours rota
Clearly stating the out-of-hours rota in an adequate amount of detail avoids any misunderstandings and helps us know what to expect from the off. For example, “1 in 3 rota” gives us a bit of an idea, but I’ve seen some really good adverts that clearly state something along the lines of: “4.5-day week with 1 in 3 weekends and 1 day off following a worked weekend.”
Things like this can be clarified at interview if not clear in the advert, but it just keeps everyone on the same page from the beginning.
Pay
Pay is not the be all and end all in a first job – and this will depend on whether other benefits are offered – but we’d still like a ballpark figure to be able to assess if what we’re being offered is reasonable.
Other benefits
A lot of practices seem to like to highlight their CPD allowance, which is all very well for those more experienced vets, but new graduates have the Personal Development Programme to occupy them in their first year of practice, so an attractive CPD allowance doesn’t mean much to us.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for a new graduate, state whether you have accommodation or a car available – again the details will be discussed at interview, but these can be a priority for some new graduates who are potentially moving to a new area. We may discard an advert that doesn’t state whether they have accommodation, even if it would transpire later they can offer some.
Final thoughts
I’m not drawn to an “all singing, all dancing” colour advert that takes up half a page in particular – the most important things for me are a clear and concise title, and an advert that is short enough to keep my attention, but includes just the right amount of detail.
Regular vetsonline users (or at least those with an interest in changing their career path) may have noticed a change to the site in the past couple of months – specifically our recruitment section.
What was initially a fairly basic affair with a handful of job listings has been transformed into an all-singing, all-dancing recruitment platform that is set to revolutionise the veterinary recruitment process for both employers and job seekers.
For those looking to hire new staff, vetsonlinejobs makes it simpler, easier, faster and cheaper to find the right person for the role. For job seekers, the site – which can be found at www.vetsonlinejobs.com – offers the ability to upload your CV and search the very latest job ads from around the country.
More than that, however, we’ve tried to make sure vetsonlinejobs is a site that suits ALL the needs of the employment seeker. As such, we also offer a growing selection of articles to help you win the job of your dreams – from basic CV writing tips through to advice on what to wear to your interview (not a clown outfit, apparently – but then, you probably already realised that!).
Some of our latest articles include:
Interview nerves? How to calm yourself before an interview – If sweating and nerves can cause a politician to lose a presidential election, then they can surely hurt your job interview. Simple techniques to control your nervousness in interviews are available.
Creating an alluring covering letter – The main aim of a covering letter is to encourage recruiters to read your CV. However, it needs to do a lot more than say, “here is my CV!”. In short, it is the biggest chance you have to sell yourself.
Jobseekers: be prepared for the tough questions – Interview jitters can make it difficult to come up with great responses on the spot, so try to anticipate the questions your interviewers will ask you and have the perfect answers ready in advance.
More articles are being added on a weekly basis, so be sure to visit vetsonlinejobs regularly. Alternatively, get them posted straight to your social media streams by following @vetsonlinejobs on Twitter, or “liking” www.facebook.com/vetsonlinejobs, which both also feature the latest job listings.
If you have a vague, non-specific CV then it might be time for a quick CV review, as these are fast becoming the bane of employers and recruiters’ working lives.
Normally these CVs can be spotted a mile off; all the right skills and achievements are included but none of them really go into any real detail. The CV contains few examples and there’s a general sense of hollowness about the whole document. It’s as though the CV is full of words, yet nothing is really being said.
Not the best way to impress a potential new employer.
A vague CV says to an employer that the applicant either has poor communication skills, has something to hide, or is just plain lazy. Perhaps all of the above.
Conduct your own CV review – and be honest
Obviously most jobseekers are not lying about their work history or too lazy to write a more detailed CV – they just can’t remember what the details are anymore. If you simply can’t remember all of the different roles you’ve fulfilled and skills you’ve honed then it’s understandable really.
After holding a job for a number of years, if you’re suddenly looking for a new position and it’s time to update that old CV it can be tough. If you haven’t updated it for a while it may well be difficult trying to recall all of your achievements and accomplishments. You know you were very busy in your previous roles and you know you were doing great work, it’s just that you can’t remember the exact details.
And as any recruiter will tell you, it’s the details that matter.
So you rewrite your CV without fleshing it out with any detail and it reads like a vague list of imaginary skills. It shows no personality, no uniqueness and nodetail.
So what can you do about a vague CV?
Well, particularly in the current employment market, a small proportion of clever folk are keeping one step ahead at all times by updating their CV every few months or so. They’re conducting their own CV review. Just thirty minutes is all they need to review their recent projects, challenges and achievements and review and update their CVs accordingly.
There’s no excuse – make time to do this and stick to it. You’ll feel far more confident about your skills and your accomplishments, plus future employers won’t be put off by a bland, vague and boring CV.
Claire Brown has been in recruitment for 10 years and works for The CV Site – a professional CV writing site. The CV Site reviews CVs for free and makes suggestions on both content and layout. To get a free ‘The CV Site’ review go to http://www.thecvsite.co.uk or call them on 0845 094 1950.
