Jamie Browne

What you don’t get from LinkedIn applications…   I ran a poll last week that confirmed what we all suspected, with LinkedIn holding the monopoly, and Total Jobs getting 2%? Ouch. For context, when I started 20 years ago and up to five years ago, Total Jobs (then City Jobs) was a strong platform. I regularly found great candidates there. Now? It seems to be a waste of time!   LinkedIn gained 62% of the votes, and as you know, it's not just recruiters using this; every hiring manager, every talent acquisition team, every company is posting directly.   But there's the downside for a job seeker; Not a week goes by without someone telling me:   "I applied weeks ago, heard nothing" "Had three interviews, then radio silence" "Got an automated rejection with zero feedback"   LinkedIn's monopoly has created a paradox. More visibility, less human connection. Sure, you can apply to 50 roles in an hour. But good luck getting past the ATS, standing out from 100’s of other applicants, or getting actual feedback when it doesn't work out.   The reality? If you want someone to champion you, prep you for interviews, give you the inside track on what the hiring manager really wants, and fight for feedback when things go quiet, you still need a recruiter who knows the client inside out. LinkedIn gave everyone access. But access isn't the same as success, partner with your desired recruiter and get the benefits of LinkedIn whilst someone has your back. 

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Give context on your next General Counsel CV. Many CVs I have received recently lacked any details about the companies listed. A small tweak can make a huge impact. ➡️ Include a brief company overview under each role on your CV. Not every recruiter or hiring manager will know the size, scope, or industry of your current or past employers. Providing context highlights the relevance of your experience and makes your achievements stand out. What to include in a company overview? ✳️Is it a listed company, PE/VC-backed, or privately owned? ✳️Is it a UK-based or global organization? ✳️Does it operate in a regulated sector? ✳️Is it a large, established business or a fast-growing scale-up? ✳️Does it serve B2B or B2C markets? ✳️Who are its target customers? ✳️What’s the company’s size (revenue, headcount, or geographic reach)? Without this context, your CV might not immediately convey your suitability, even if your experience is spot-on. Examples of company overviews: ✳️A venture capital-backed B2B fintech startup with 150 employees, delivering payment solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises across Europe. ✳️A PE-backed SaaS platform that scaled from 100 to 500 employees across EMEA, North America and APAC, with 50% YOY revenue growth and exit valuation of $2billion. ✳️A publicly listed global B2C healthcare company with $5B in annual revenue, providing medical devices and services to hospitals and clinics worldwide. This simple addition can elevate your CV and help you stand out! #generalcounsel #inhouselegal #careertips

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When experiencing rapid growth, the business case for RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) is almost a dumb-not-to proposition: on-demand recruiters joining as an extension of your team on short notice, flexibility to scale up/down and turn on/off as hiring fluctuates, that's cost-effective compared to agencies, access to technology, etc, to name a few. During periods of uncertainty, like we have today, the use cases for RPO tend to revolve more around flexibility. Many Talent Acquisition Departments had to go through layoffs over the past 2 years and are running very lean. Here are some scenarios that we've been supporting customers with during this time period: - Adding temporary support during Q1 hiring budgets being set and an initial hiring frenzy - Adding fractional support (20hrs/week) for a handful of extra roles - Recruiting team is strong in one area but the team needs support in another area. (IE strong operations recruiters but influx of technical hiring needs) - Unplanned Recruiter turnover: Recruiter quits, fired, etc - Planned Maternity/Paternity Leave - Not wanting to add fixed overhead/full-time recruiters due to build-up/layoff cycles of the past 4 years and find a partner to keep things augmented - Larger organizations needing an external 'floater' team to be allocated as back-up to various departments, worksite locations, or even countries. These are some of the ways dynamic TA/HR Leaders are getting work done including leveraging a unique partner. 2025 is looking brighter, no doubt, but there are many risks to our market that are leaving business leaders in a position that prioritizes flexibility and needing to look at unique ways to operate their TA function. #rpo #chiefpeopleofficer #talentacquisition #chro

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As a UK recruitment group, we naturally focus on domestic trends - Brexit impacts, skills shortages, regional variations. But LinkedIn's State of the Labor Market report regularly offers a global lens that puts our challenges into deeper context. What can we see on the July 2025 report? The UK stands out - and not in a good way. While most European markets saw their hiring slowdowns moderate in H1 2025, we bucked the trend. Our hiring decline actually accelerated to -5% (Jan-Jun) vs just -1% in H2 2024. France, Germany, and the Netherlands all saw their pace of decline ease significantly. What strikes me most when reading the latest report is how interconnected global labour markets have become. Mexico's struggles reflect US trade policy changes. Germany continues wrestling with skilled labour shortages and energy shock aftereffects. Even emerging markets like India show 19% more applicants per role. Three key takeaways for UK recruitment according to this report include: ➡️ The global "stabilisation" everyone's talking about? We're missing it. While markets worldwide are finding their footing, UK hiring momentum continues deteriorating. ➡️ Competition dynamics vary wildly by geography. Where we're seeing candidate shortages in certain sectors, other markets are drowning in applications. ➡️ Industry divergence is stark everywhere - not just here. Utilities are down sharply globally (renewable energy particularly hit), while hospitality shows pockets of growth. In terms of the bigger picture, growth projections remain sluggish across major economies, resembling late-cycle patterns rather than expansion phases. With interest rates staying restrictive in the US through 2025 and ongoing trade uncertainties, workforce confidence remains subdued globally. For UK recruiters, this reinforces the need to think beyond our borders - understanding these global macro forces is crucial for advising clients and anticipating how international trends will impact domestic hiring patterns. What are you seeing in your markets? Are we experiencing this differently regionally? #ukrecruitment #globaltalent #workforceinsights #linkedin #recuitmentleaders #businessleaders #labourmarket #jobmarket

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An update on UK hiring trends. We're seeing some significant changes in the UK job market. The latest figures tell an interesting story, job postings across the UK are sitting 13% below pre-pandemic levels, with a 23% drop compared to last year. But despite these numbers, our unemployment rate is holding steady at 4.3%, and we're actually seeing wage growth for new hires at 6.7%, which is higher than many other countries. The impact isn't uniform across all sectors. While tech and professional services have seen the biggest changes, we're also noticing significant shifts in hospitality and retail. It's creating a really unique situation in our job market. I'm sharing this because whether you're hiring or job hunting, understanding these trends is crucial for making informed decisions. What changes are you seeing in your industry? #UKJobs #Recruitment #EmploymentTrends #Economy

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I’m currently supporting an organisation on a contingent basis, and their internal team mentioned that another agency is sending 10-15 CVs a week across just 3 roles. For transparency - DanOps has sent 7 CVs total across those same roles. At first glance, it looked like the other agency was “working harder”… but when you break it down, this is where being a true market specialist pays off. Principal Cloud Engineer - DanOps → 2 CVs → 100% 1st stage, 1 straight to final (no 2nd needed), 1 offer, 1 placement - Other agency → Sent 28 CVs (they had the role 5 weeks earlier), only 3 first stages, 1 second, 0 finals Head of SRE - DanOps → 2 CVs within 12 hours of receiving the brief → 100% requested for interview - Other agency → 16 CVs over 6 weeks, just 2 first stage requests Senior SRE - DanOps → 3 CVs → 100% 1st stage success - Other agency → 42 CVs in 5 weeks, 15 interviews booked… all dropped after failing to back up their CVs in interview On the surface, it looked like they were “smashing it” with volume. But volume isn’t value, it’s just noise. Worse still, they even sent CVs without speaking to the candidate about the role… which should honestly be outlawed in recruitment. When you live and breathe your market, quality isn’t a target - it's a standard. ✅ Quality of introduction ✅ Time saved on irrelevant interviews ✅ ££ saved in wasted process and feedback cycles That's why DanOps doesn’t do busy work. Don’t be fooled by fake busy.

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