Diary of

Diary of...
Lynsey Coppard,
academy administrator,
FDM Group

Diary of...
Lynsey Coppard,
academy administrator,
FDM Group








Monday

Today is the first day of our graduate seminar. Once I am happy everything is in place I open the event and check that everyone has arrived. Then the rest of the team take over with seminars and presentations, so it's back to my desk to process the applications that have come in over the weekend. After lunch I go to meet the candidates and talk to them about the company. Answering questions and explaining our methods takes up most of the afternoon. I do a quick email check for the last hour and leave feeling positive.

Tuesday

Start by finishing off sorting yesterday's applications and getting ready for sales candidate interviews and presentations this afternoon. After lunch I monitor the interviews, focusing on how each candidate presents. Debrief with my colleagues afterwards and get a shortlist together.

Wednesday

Planning for Friday's open day means that today is mainly preparation. Spent the day printing packs about the company and its services for candidates. I check on registrations then spend the afternoon encouraging more people to come along. Attend a stream of technical interviews in the afternoon. It will be interesting to see who passes. There are a couple who I am keen on seeing again and I hope the team agrees.

Thursday

I spend much of the day printing packs and preparing training agreements. Catch up with my colleagues about yesterday afternoon's interviews. Am pleased we all singled out the same two candidates for second interview. Then more exciting news rolls in. One of our trainees, or Mounties as we call them, has done very well at an interview for a high flying IT position. If he gets the job that's another coup for us!

Friday

Open Day. In very early to set up and make final preparations before the candidates start to arrive. Photograph everyone so that it is easier for us to recognise people when they come for their interviews. Spend the afternoon interviewing and writing up candidate reports. I then hold a team debrief meeting and stack the paperwork ready for Monday before taking everyone for a quick drink.

 

Will this become an age-old problem?

Insurance firm Alan & Thomas has banned its employees sending each other birthday cards in case jokey comments about the recipient's age break new discrimination law.

Managing director Julian Boughton says: "Businesses should act to prevent discriminatory comments being written. Messages can easily be misinterpreted. Staff don't realise the implications of what they are writing."

Soon staff will have to consult a lawyer before attending after-work drinks to help ensure all remarks are compliant with anti-discrimination legislation on race, sex, size and... everything else.

Practicus on Wynn-ing form

Recruiter is happy the staff at project management recruitment specialists Practicus know how to celebrate in style. As a reward for generating £500,000 of gross profit in the third quarter, some of the team swapped Henley-on-Thames for the more glamorous surroundings of Las Vegas. They stayed at the five-star Wynn Hotel, the most expensive hotel ever built.

We hope this picture, of the team at the Grand Canyon, isn't an indication that they lost everything they had at the poker tables and were having to sleep rough.

Taking the Conservative approach

The Recruitment Society never fails to come up with interesting speakers for its events. However, as chairman Steve Huxham admitted last week, there is some danger of political bias creeping in. Last month, former health secretary Virginia Bottomley was a speaker. Last week, it was shadow small business minister Mark Prisk. Steven Norris will appear at the Society's Christmas event. They're all Conservatives. And Prisk wasn't above some gratuitous remarks about the government. When he was drowned out by the noise of a boat on the Thames at one point, he said it was the latest vehicle of deputy prime minister John 'Two Jags' Prescott.

Anyone for a pint?

Staff who enjoy a drink after work earn more than colleagues who go straight home, according to researchers from San José State University, California.

Research indicates that social drinkers earn, on average, up to 14% more than teetotallers in the same profession.

Drinkers may have an advantage in many workplaces because they are usually more outgoing and use their ability to mix well to great effect at work.

By drinking moderately outside the office they are also more likely to socialise with managers, colleagues and clients, building relationships as a result.

Women who go for a social drink after work will, on average, earn 14% more than female colleagues who do not, while male social drinkers can expect to earn about 10% more.

Teetotallers, meanwhile, fail to build up "social capital" by avoiding the occasional drink after work, the study said.

It's all about me...

In such a competitive job market it is important to make your CV stand out. But we can't help but wonder if one Yale student went a bit too far with his video CV, seven minutes long.

Aleksey Vayner's CV film was sent to investment bank UBS but soon found its way on to YouTube. The film showed him lifting weights, playing tennis, skiing, dancing and smashing a pile of bricks. Vayner also supplied an 11-page resume.

We can only hope for our readers' sake that this approach doesn't catch on.

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