Why We Love To Talk Results Day (And You Should, Too!)

Provisional Results Day dates have been released and we discuss how you can be prepared to ensure you are at the forefront of candidates minds during this period, read on... 

For anyone in the Emerging Talent industry and in the business of communicating with those both in education, and those working in education, Results Day is a big one. And if it’s not in your calendar yet, it certainly should be.

JCQ will publish the finalised timetable by 30 June 2019. The provisional dates are:

 Thursday 15 August 2019 – release of AS and A level results to candidate

 Thursday 22 August 2019 – release of GCSE results to candidates

We all remember the emotion of Results Day. The fear of opening those envelopes, wondering whether you had done enough. Maybe even wishing they got your papers mixed up with someone smarter than you so that you can plan how you’re going to spend your millions instead of how you’re going to have to earn them.

One thing I don’t remember however, was knowing what I was going to do after school or college.

Options weren’t open back then, and although this is getting better now, it’s still not quite there. It seems a shame that so many opportunities should exist, yet less is known about them. The demand for Emerging Talent is so prominent, yet without suitable awareness of these opportunities, the opposite seems true.

This doesn’t even include the difficulties that businesses face in understanding the education system and how they can create opportunities that relate to them. Last year saw more subjects transferred to the new grading system. It was critical to employers to be able to properly understand candidate’s CV grading. Especially as it’s the sole representation of their achievements to date.

It seems to be that key peers or the person that reaches these wide-eyed individuals first, seem to have the most influence over their career choice and the direction they follow according to AAT  ‘One in five wished their parents had given them more in-depth advice and guidance about what to do after secondary school, but 10 per cent wish they had let them make up their own mind more.’

Read more here.

Although the advice and recommendations of these stakeholders has merit, it should be the young individual themselves calling the shots. And for that, an unbiased approach is required.

For GetMyFirstJob and TheTalentPeople this was our calling. Our desire to help businesses approach recruitment challenges with the appropriate tools, whilst also aiming to place more candidates in their dream roles is what continues to get us up in the morning. It seems to get our candidates up too, with over 35,000 placements made in 2018 alone! This has contributed to us having the industry’s most engaged candidate dataset and is something we are very proud of.

Back to results day. Being front of mind with those looking towards a career move is important. And the sooner the better. It’s all very well letting someone know that you’re hiring in the days following Results. But you’re missing out on large group of individuals who have made their decision on what they are hoping to work towards. It’s not a silly idea to start reaching out now – the reason being then when they come to make their decision, your options available to them and they will have considered all that is available to them. Here’s a few tips based on what we’ve seen to give your business that head start on Results day:

 Get your vacancy listed – With 50,000 Results Week website visits and 5,000 applications in the month of August last year, simply being present where candidates are looking will be sure to give your roles the interest they deserve. 

 Be vocal to candidates – This one comes in a few shapes and sizes. Firstly, you need to be shouting about your opportunities. Finding out where the candidates are communicating and looking for careers is important. Mainly because that tells you where you also need to be. But secondly, it tells you how you need to communicate. 1 billion people using Instagram every month, with 71% being under the age of 35? You should probably be on Instagram too, right?Email is unrivalled for our engaged database of candidates, and super easy

 Build candidate relationships – Much like your marketing emails, no matter how good they are, not often do people buy on the first send. Although candidates aren’t looking to buy anything from you, they are after your opportunities. And building relationships with them is sure to boost engagement.

Every year we see a rise in applications and candidates coming to GetMyfirstJob.co.uk, either looking for advice and using our resources to help them in their next steps, or applying for vacancies. Were excited to see what 2019 brings…