Week beginning July 6th - Recruitment is like fishing

I feel very lucky that I have had quite a lot of experience in recruitment, mainly at Lord's Cricket Ground where I was for four years before opening Kaffeine, managing the staffing of the Catering department. I would have to assess 1000''s of CV's every year in the application process to ascertain if the applicant was good enough to be invited to a group interview for the 600 or so staff we needed for every game.

I am also lucky that I am a fairly fast reader, and can skim through things and pick out the important parts, the highlights, the main points, the things that grab my attention, so when reading an application for work, I guess I can find the good or bad points pretty quickly. Obviously operating Kaffeine we see a lot of CV's come across our emails, and now our manager Claire looks after this process very well indeed.

I also had to look for work when we first arrived on the UK in 2005, and had some very good and valuable feedback about how to write a CV from a professional recruiter. (I got rejected a lot, including by Cafe Nero to be their company trainer).

So I have been thinking about this and I may get into trouble for this analogy, but it is the only one I can think of to make this point and it goes both ways. For the applicant and the recruiter.

Recruitment is like fishing.

If you are the applicant, you are looking for the best possible employer to provide you with security, money, training, fun, reputation, leadership, opportunity, organisation etc etc. You go fishing for an employer.

If you are the recruiter you are looking for an employee who can provide you with skills, knowledge, passion, enthusiasm, honesty, work ethic, organisation, commitment etc etc. You go fishing for an employee.

So if you want to catch a good job, or if you want to catch a good applicant, it is like wanting to catch a good fish. When you want a good fish, what do you do? Well, you go fishing where there is a good possibility of catching one. And if you want to catch one, then you have to make your bait as ATTRACTIVE AS POSSIBLE!!!! And if the area you are fishing in is not known for many fish, then you have to be even smarter.

Why? Well most probably, if the spot you're fishing/recruiting in is known for great fish, then there will be others looking to make a catch too.  Imagine you are the fish, swimming past looking at all this bait. You want the best one don't you?

So, when I am skim reading applicant's cv's to assess whether I should take the bait or not and call them up to see if they wish to work for us, it really, really helps if the CV (the bait) makes me want to take it.

It is absolutely astounding how many C.V''s I have seen over the years that do not properly sell the person who is doing the fishing. Your CV needs to be concise, to the point and to highlight all the amazing things you have done to make you attractive to me, the fish.

It must not have any areas of confusion, any bad photos, any strange gaps in employment. It must not be able to be pulled apart by the fish as he takes the bait and then realises that this bait is not actually any good and tries to get away.

The first thing I look for is for the application letter and the CV to be nicely written. The second thing is relevant and recent experience. Straight away, skip straight to this. Writing, then experience. Skim read, assess the either great points or not great points. Delete or keep.

If we have ascertained this applicant fits the two criteria, we can then go into more details. It is often the details, the famous 1%'s, that applicants CV's go a bit off the rails. Some CV's have a few great points which make you take the bait, then you meet the person and realise they have completely undersold themselves, or completely oversold. Undersold is a real shame, oversold is well, sorry.

Here are some brief examples over the past 9 years.

• Saying you've been the manager for 2 years when in fact you have only been a manager for 6 months but you were a waiter/ess for the 18 months before that.
• Working in 2 countries at the same time
• Doing a really hard five year course in nutrition, but only showing it as one year course (the year of graduation) on the CV
• Not showing your amazing pass rates in the courses you did
• Doing a five week pastry course at the best Hospitality college in the country but only showing it as a one week course without the name of the college
• Saying you are a lead barista, but you only work there one day per week
• Saying the reason you want to work at the cricket is so you can watch the cricket
• Really poor English and grammar
• Really bad selfie photos with your pet
• No contact details

It also helps if you are the recruiter, that when you are looking for staff, that you make your advertisement/bait as attractive as possible as well. (Gumtree is full of these tips).

It goes both ways.

I hope you have a great week ahead, please do enjoy our menus for both stores and thank you for reading.


Great Titchfield Street Menu

Breakfast

Traditional bircher muesli with Greek yoghurt and rhubarb and raspberry compote (v, nuts, milk) 4.00

Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses, Greek yoghurt and rhubarb and raspberry compote (v, nuts) 4.00

Fruit salad with pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passion fruit (v, gf) 3.90

Ciabatta roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 5.00

Ciabatta roll with avocado, omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 5.00

Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.90

Cinnamon and Raisin Toast 2.50

Pastries by Seven Seed bakery

French butter croissant 2.00

Pain au chocolat 2.50

Almond croissant 2.80

Baked Treats

Sweet muffin: Blueberry and bran (v, cereals, milk) 2.50

Savoury Scones: Red pepper pesto and courgette (v, cereals, milk) 2.50

Friand:  Cherry Ripe (v, gf, milk, nut)  2.50

Super moist chocolate brownies (gf) 2.70

White chocolate blondies 2.50

Portuguese tarts 2.00

ANZAC cookies 2.00

Almond and custard slice 2.80

Banana bread 2.50
Raspberry and coconut slice 2.50 (v, gf)

Lunch

French retro baguettes 5.30

Ham, dijon mustard, red onion, gherkins, gruyere cheese, rocket. (cereals, milk, mustard)

Buffalo mozzarella, aioli, plum tomato, fresh nectarine, spinach. (cereals, v, milk)

Foccacias 5.50

Smoked salmon, dill, caper, red onion, Black pepper mayo, rocket. (cereals, fish, mustard)

Grilled mint aubergine, courgette, camembert, spinach. (cereals, v, milk)

Salads: 5.50/6.90

Smoked mackerel, plum tomato, cucumber, black olive, red onion, lemon and chive dressing, watercress. (fish, mustard)

Fresh strawberry, avocado, feta cheese, basil, walnut, raspberry vinegar dressing, baby spinach (v, milk, mustard, nut)

Raw purple cauliflower and orange cauliflower with horseradish dressing, dill (v, milk)

Tart: 4.40 or 8.00 with salads
Baked polenta, smoked salmon, grilled asparagus and crème fraiche

Eastcastle Street Menu

Breakfast

Traditional bircher muesli with Greek yoghurt and rhubarb and raspberry compote (v, nuts, milk) 4.00

Paleo granola with with Greek yoghurt and rhubarb and raspberry compote (gf, ve, nuts) 4.00

Fruit salad with pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes and passion fruit (gf, v) 3.90

Smoked paprika brioche, calvados potato mash, medium baked egg, grilled courgette and onions with crème fraiche and chives (cereal, milk, egg) 5.00

Maple cured bacon in a sourdough wrap with own made smoked ketchup, mont d'or cheese and rocket (milk, egg) 4.90

Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach and plum tomatoes 4.90

Croissant with smoked salmon, chopped egg, tomato and sprouts (cereal, milk, egg, mustard) 5.00

Pastries by Seven Seed bakery

French butter croissant (milk) 2.00

Pain au chocolat (milk) 2.50

Almond croissant (milk, almonds) 2.80

Baked Treats

Muffins - Strawberry and white chocolate (v, cereal, milk, egg) 2.50

Savoury – Cheese, tarragon and onion (v, cereal, milk) 2.50

Chocolate brownies (gf, milk) 2.70

ANZAC cookies (nuts) 2.00
Ladybird tarts (v, milk, eggs) 2.90

Banana bread (milk) 2.50
Matcha Powder Slice 2.90
Portuguese Tarts 2.00
Raspberry and coconut slice 2.50 (v, gf)

Lunch
Flat Bread Wraps 5.00
Kaffeine Sourdough flat-bread with grilled halloumi, sweet chilli, ginger baked courgette and spinach (v, cereal, milk)

Baguettes 5.30

Kaffeine Sourdough baguette with Pancetta, avocado, tomato, basil, brie and rocket (cereal, milk) 

Kaffeine Sourdough baguette with tuna with caper, dill and onion mayonnaise, cucumber and watercress (cereal, mustard, fish, egg) 

Salads 5.50/7.00

Pimms cured salmon with cucumber, strawberry, lime, mint and wild watercress (gf, df, fish, mustard)

Cheese, wine and wild marjoram crackers (v, milk, cereal, egg)

Grilled carrots with spicy gooseberry, parsley dressing and carrot flowers.

Savoury Tart 4.40 or 8.00 with salads

Fish cake with buckthorn hollandaise (fish, cereal, egg, milk, mustard)

(v, cereal, egg)

Weekend Menu - Eastcastle Street Only

Salads 5.50/7.00

Seared beef, gem, shredded carrots and beetroot, avocado, mix seeds and burnt orange rosemary dressing ( gf, dairy, seeds )

Roasted butternut, cinnamon and sugar infused roasted apples, goats cheese, rocket, nuts & and mustard honey dressing (gf, v, nuts, dairy )

Blanched heritage carrots, caramelised onions, mix sesame seeds and spice cider dressing (gf, vegan, seeds, chilli )

Savoury Tart 4.40 or 8.00 with salads

Deep fried cream potato, vegetable, herbs topped with aioli sauce (gf, egg)