our approach
Our approach is based on working closely with you and helping you to plan your career and advise you of the myriad of different opportunities open to tax specialists. We aim to build long term relationships with our candidates and our starting point with a new candidate is to get to know them and their career aspirations rather than to place them into the first available job. Our bespoke approach varies from candidate to candidate. Some candidates like us to guide them in detail through every step of the process, others less so, but in all cases, we strive to provide a highly personalised service with a focus on giving genuine career advice.
compiling your C.V.
A CV should be far more than just a chronological list of your jobs with your qualifications thrown in for good measure. A well-prepared CV is an important selling document that grabs the reader’s attention and demonstrates that you have the skills, experience, and personality they seek and why you are worth an interview.
We have developed a format for the presentation of CVs, based on Mike Longman’s experience as a former Tax Partner in practice, which highlights those areas that busy employers focus on when deciding which CVs to reject and which candidates should be interviewed.
Our understanding of the tax profession enables us to get the balance right in terms of providing sufficient technical information without going overboard. As part of our quality control procedures all our CVs are reviewed internally before they are submitted to clients. This rigorous professional approach works, and we are often complimented by clients on the clarity of our CVs.
This system is also geared to making life easy for our candidates. Typically, candidates simply send us an email with a CV they have prepared themselves as a starting point. We then discuss this with them at our initial meeting and obtain any additional information to help us expand on key areas. This then gives us the data that we use to prepare our CV.
preparation for interviews
“You don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression”
That phrase, although a little hackneyed now, still holds true and emphasises the importance of preparing fully for an interview. The better prepared you are the more relaxed you will be and the better you will come across at interview.
When we are working with candidates in the early stages of their career, we regard helping them prepare for their interviews as being one of the key elements of the service we provide. As part of our service, we will give you lots of information about the firm and also point you in the right direction for any further research you may want to do.
We will also fully brief you about the people you will be meeting, the role they have in mind and the format of the interview. We guide you through the type of questions you can expect and generally regarding your interview technique.
Many larger organisations now include some form of testing as part of their recruitment process (often at an early stage). There are a wide range of tests that different clients use covering general aptitude, numerical and verbal reasoning, problem solving, personality profiling, selling skills and full-blown psychometric tests. We will brief you fully about any tests that you will face at interview and we can also often provide access to mock tests.
latest insights
As specialist tax recruiters we have lots of valuable insights we would like to share with you.
