Insight Analyst: Getting a foot in the door

One of our clients is a well-known communications agency who specialise in fragile and conflict states. We advertised a junior level role for an Arabic speaker, and we were immediately contacted by a candidate.

Unfortunately, shortly after the application the role was filled and no longer available but the candidate was keen to talk so we arranged an online meeting.

In our initial call, I was able to get an understanding both of the candidate’s skill set but also their personality. They were impressive, arrived as a refugee in this country at the age of 9, they went on to have an amazing academic journey graduating with a Masters at the age of 22.

Now looking for their first role they were finding the process slow and difficult with very few opportunities becoming available.

Given the understanding I now had of the candidate, I reapproached the communications agency to see if there were other roles that would be suitable. My client asked a few colleagues, and we were able to identify another role in a slightly different team.

After several video meetings we arranged a face-to-face meeting in London. The agency paid the travel expenses for our candidate which was very helpful as they weren’t working. 10 weeks from the initial meeting our candidate accepted a role with the agency.

The candidate relocated to London, found somewhere to live and has now started their career and a new life in London. I checked in before they started and again after a few weeks and am pleased to say it’s all going well.

There were a lot of components in this process but luckily it all came together.