by John Purser | Jul 29, 2021 | Blog
Be prepared. A scouts motto but it certainly can be applied to today’s job market. If you haven’t noticed, there has been an increase in opportunities out there in the engineering & manufacturing sectors but it’s not going to slow down anytime soon. So if you need or are thinking about bringing in top talent, the time is now! Back in March 2020, the job market was nuts. It was simple. There was a 12-18 month lead up to that point where it was becoming harder and harder to find good people. Hard to find top talent. COVID has just hidden this demand. First off, since around September 2020, companies had their COVID policies in place and were becoming more familiar with the new normal and hiring started back up. As you can imagine, there was not a lot of hiring from March to June-July of 2020. The increase in roles from last September to now has been a steady increase with a slight drop during the lockdown at the start of 2021. Here are a couple of the other signs of why you need to jump on hiring now: Retirements. Who was going to retire during the pandemic? A lot of upcoming retirements were pushed off if they had the choice. With all the uncertainty, why not take a paycheck to, in some cases, work from home. In other cases, it was still better to push off retiring to get the stability of a paycheck and retiring once the pandemic was over. So, over the next 6-12 months, I bet you we will see an uptick...
by John Purser | Apr 7, 2020 | Blog
How are you seeing the pandemic affect the job market? Although a lot of manufacturing companies in Canada are still up and running for the time being. Have companies put hiring on hold? Are the processes dragged out? Or is it business as usual and you’ve found a new job? We have seen a combination of all of the above. Having said that, in the markets that we have been doing work in recently (general manufacturing, industrial manufacturing, building materials, construction services, aerospace, automotive), hiring has almost come to a standstill. It makes sense. Feedback has been that they would rather be able to put that cost to keeping their current employees but that means bringing new people on board has to be put on hold. If it is a key position? Companies seem to be moving forward but still at a cautious pace. And I’d say that started before things got to where they are now. You could see it in January and February. Construction & Building Materials do seem to be moving forward. Infrastructure is a focus and these projects are going to keep needing people and need to be completed. I still think thats a small percentage though. If you are in the pharmaceutical, medical devices, logistics and/or CPG industries to name a few, I can see it as being busy. We have not seen this directly ourselves but it does make sense. What can you do if you are effected as a job seeker? Ensure your resume is up to date and can make an impact by using services like manufacturingresumes.ca. You want to...
by John Purser | May 9, 2017 | Blog
Improving LinkedIn profile’s is a very important topic if you are open to new opportunities in the engineering & manufacturing industry. It can help your own personal “online brand”, act as a resume to companies without you even applying, can give you a different level of references as well as help grow your network for when you make a more aggressive search. I read this article today and it prompted this blog post. I’ve outlined the main points you should focus on your profile from it below: Industry groups Search of rival companies Observing who is recommending and endorsing people Finding similar people to those they already know Finding alumni from specific colleges Using Google to search LinkedIn’s public profiles I don’t think companies in the manufacturing sector across Canada focus on the alumni part – I believe this is more in the US. In my entire recruitment career, I’ve never been asked to focus on people from a specific school. I would also essentially fill out your career history with everything from your resume. Be sure to outline what your current/past employers manufactures, how big the facility you work at is & the market it sits in. On top of that, focus on key achievements that you accomplished and quantify those achievements. Lastly, and this may seem obvious, grow your network! What are you doing to ensuring your LinkedIn profile is...
by John Purser | Nov 7, 2016 | Blog
Last Friday marked the 2nd anniversary of JP Recruitment. Time has flown by! It has been great and we are looking forward to many more years doing Engineering & Manufacturing recruitment. Doing technical jobs in the GTA, Ontario or even Canada wide can always be a challenge but in the end – it isn’t the biggest challenge of starting your own recruitment agency. I’ve listed the three main challenges of starting your own engineering recruitment firm below. Database – Coming from working for large recruitment company’s, I always had the luxury of a good database. Do not underestimate the power of that! When I first started, it was the main priority. Sure, I am a good headhunter and can find people the old fashioned way but having that active database of people ready to go makes life a lot easier and ensures you are giving your client the best candidate on the market. 2 years on, we have a solid database of qualified candidates to help fill our clients needs. Administrative Crap – Yes, crap! Working for someone else, I am sure you have to do a little administrative work that you probably complain about. Starting out on your own? Multiply it by thousands! Ranging from incorporation, website, email, accounts payable/receivable, social media to SEO…the list keeps going. Be prepared to like doing this stuff! This can/will consumes a lot of time!! Time Management – This is something we are all taught in the sales world right from the get go. However, usually we still have constraints on our “freedom” and the way we work because we report to someone...
by John Purser | Sep 15, 2016 | Blog
Five things I wish I knew before I started my Recruitment Career is an article I found on LinkedIn which I thought was oh so very true. Some of them are the reason I started this business, others are things you just cant avoid. I have inserted the article below for easy access. Great read Ed! Five things I wish I knew before I started my Recruitment Career – Ed Hunter I remember the day that I accepted my first recruitment job. I completed the “stringent” interview process with arguably one of the biggest agencies in the UK and I was so excited. Little did I know the land of placements, milk and honey was not as accessible as the front door of a trainee recruitment desk. It was at the end of a maze akin to something out of a Hollywood movie. I know what you’re thinking… ‘This is a fairytale story where Ed becomes a divisional manager, bills a million a year and marries the woman of his dreams.’ Well sorry to disappoint. I absolutely bombed. Hated every minute of my first job and was gone in 6 months. The good news is what I wasn’t told – recruitment is different in every company and ‘finding the right desk’ is less about Feng Shui, and more about actually just working for a good company. Thankfully my fortunes changed and I found MY desk! But I recently thought about what other things it might have been nice to know before I started in this wonderful world: 1. In your first recruitment role – the odds of winning the lottery and...
