Shaun McKenzie leads our insurance practice, which he has successfully grown over the last 10 years. A glimpse of Shaun’s indispensable market knowledge is shared in the following questions he answered for us below.
1. WHAT ARE THE LATEST OPPORTUNITIES IN IT RECRUITMENT TO WATCH OUT?
Latest trends of job opportunities I’m seeing in the insurance sector include roles within information security, digital / insurtech, data science and regulatory. Job opportunities in these areas have also opened up the insurance sector to bring candidates from outside of industry bringing fresh ideas and approaches to drive the insurance market forward.
2. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A CANDIDATE WHEN PREPARING TO MAKE A CAREER MOVE?
There are many reasons why someone might want to make a career move. However, you should be sure to ask yourself why you’re looking to make such a move. Will this career move give you what you’re looking for? For example, better career prospects in the future, higher remuneration, job satisfaction, etc.
3. HOW WOULD YOU ADVISE A CANDIDATE TO PREPARE FOR AN INTERVIEW?
There are a couple of tips a candidate should follow to increase the chances of a successful interview.
Firstly, you should make sure you fully understand the role you are being interviewed for. Getting prepared is important, so do as much research on the company, project, programme you are interviewing for.
Also, I would suggest finding out about the person(s) you’re interviewing with, check out their LinkedIn profile, speak to previous work colleagues to get a clear picture of their work style.
Punctuality! Ensure you give yourself plenty of time to be on time for your interview; plan to have time to grab a pre-interview coffee or tea to grab some last-minute research of notes.
4. WHAT TOP TIPS WOULD YOU GIVE A JOB SEEKER?
There are 4 simple and effective tips I would like to suggest to a job seeker.
Firstly, use your own personal network of previous work colleagues and friends rather than relying on traditional means, i.e. job adverts. Increasingly more and more roles are being filled through personal referrals and recommendations.
The effective use of LinkedIn is vital in job seeking nowadays. Keep your LinkedIn profile current and relevant to the roles, projects and skills you have. Set up job strings on various job boards; you will then have jobs that you are interested or include keywords you’ve selected sent to you to review before making a decision to apply or not.
Speak to recruitment agencies you’ve previously worked with who will be able to present roles that are of interest and suitable to you.
Don’t get too down on yourself when looking for job opportunities when you’re unsuccessful in being shortlisted or interviewed. Be sure you find out as much as you can as to the reasons why you weren’t selected to see where you can make improvements giving you a better chance of success when the next opportunities arise.