Picture the scene:

You have just secured a new role – Congratulations! It is working for a company you had not heard of prior to finding the role, they do however offer you your birthday off as a ‘benefit’ and you received a pay-rise compared to your last role. Not too shabby, right? You’ve been in the role for a month, and you get a call from a recruitment agency as you’ve forgotten to up-date your CV Library account. You hastily make excuses to get off the phone, you’ve just started a new job don’t forget – and you get your birthday off!

 

Consider this:

What if you had not rushed to get off the phone? What if you listened to what they, the recruiter, had to say? What if you had spared them a mere 5 minutes and noted a few headline details about the role they were calling you about? What if this was THE ONE, the elusive career unicorn you genuinely didn’t think existed. But you hung up so will never know.

 

Here is my question:

What would it take for you to leave your proverbial light on when it comes to your employment status?

I understand the risks in this approach, also the potential ‘wasted time,’ as you continue to be emailed/called/LinkedIn messaged by recruiters. Who wants to spend their evenings working through a mass of emails, trying to work out whether it’s worth arranging call-backs?

 

Remember though, we are talking about the possible career unicorn. Recruiters will have access to roles that are not advertised or out there in the public domain. Did you know every 23 seconds in the UK a Recruiter finds a role for a permanent candidate? Now that is exciting. Coupled with that, 70% of ‘candidates’ are what we (recruiters) deem to be passive – they aren’t even looking for a job because they are very happy in their current role. It’s this pool of candidates, that aren’t active, that our hiring clients want to speak to most.

 

What’s even more exciting about leaving that light on is that it’s really, really easy. With the improved functionality of LinkedIn, you can literally just tick the field that nudges recruiters and lets us know that you are open to a conversation. Oh, and you can just leave your CV Library account as active. Neither are written in blood commitments to leave the role you are in where you already get your birthday off. They are just the potential for a conversation.

 

From my own personal experience, I can assure you that career unicorns do exist. If it wasn’t due to relocation, I would still be in ‘that’ role, a role I wholeheartedly adored, working with a team who were fantastic. And yet, despite my perfect job, I still left my light on. Well, you just never know, right?

Post by Lauren Parsons.

Lauren is the Talent Partner at Digital 51, you can contact her on to talk about whether your light is on or off right now.