Christmas Party 2010

Here are some of the photos from last weeks Christmas party. As you can see, Yellow Cat were joined by their loved ones as well as our business partners Tom from ProMind and James from Lawton Hope.

Amina get's the Wii bowling started:

The crew on the tube:

Peter shows off his technique:

Adam, the eventual winner, in full flow:

Peter and Tom:

The lovely ladies:

Liz get's a Yellow Cat sandwich:

The team!!
There were a few sore heads in the morning but all in all it was a great party!

If we don't speak to you before, Merry Christmas to all of our wonderful clients and candidates! We look forward to working with you all again in 2010.

Merry Christmas!

Children In Need Competition

A few weeks ago we announced that Yellow Cat Recruitment was going to be supporting this year’s BBC Children In Need Appeal. In order to raise money, we decided to ask our candidates to guess the number of lemon bonbons in the jar below. After registering with us, each candidate was asked to pay £2 per guess.

I know that there are many of you who have been desperate to find out how many bonbons there were. The lowest guess we had was 195, the highest 720 but I can finally announce that the number of bonbons in the Yellow Cat Children In Need Jar was...........

498!

The winner, with a spot on guess of 498, was Phoebe Wallington who registered with us for temporary work and has already been sent out on a number of assignments. Below you can see Phoebe being presented the bonbons by Yellow Cat director Jonny Breeze.

Over the course of the appeal we managed to raise £60 for Children In Need which Yellow Cat has doubled to £120. We are delighted to be able to help such a worthy cause and look forward to coming up with new fundraising ideas for 2010.

Well done Phoebe and keep up the good work Children In Need!

Win a boot signed by Pele!

It's competition time! A friend of Yellow Cat's, www.sportpost.com, are giving you the opportunity to win a football boot signed by one of the greatest footballers of all time - Pele!

The boot is mounted and comes with a certificate of authenticity. If you fancy winning it, all you have to do is go to www.sportpost.com and enter your email address - simple as that!

And the winner is...

London & South East Recruitment Awards 2009

On Friday myself (Adam) and Om attended the London & South East Recruitment Awards at the Radisson SAS Portman Hotel in London. Unfortunately Jonny had a prior engagement and Amina joined Yellow Cat too late to be able to get a ticket!

Straight after work we changed into our tuxedos and headed over to the hotel. Om was feeling a little nervous so we had a quick drink in the hotel bar before heading upstairs for the main event.

The evening was hosted by Paul Ross (Jonathan’s brother) and began with a three course meal where we had the chance to chat with the other companies on our table. Once the meal was finished the tension around the room grew as we waited for the awards to start!

Om had been shortlisted for the Rising Star award in recognition of the fantastic work he has done during his first 18 months in recruitment. Over this time Om has developed fantastic relationships with candidates and clients alike and has also been responsible for growing the Temporary Division.

Om’s category was one of the last to be announced which meant we had drunk plenty of free wine and Om had grown even more nervous! As the nominations were read out our table gave Om a huge cheer before the winner was announced......

Unfortunately, Om narrowly missed out on the award this year and as you would expect he was absolutely gutted. He was given a certificate of commendation and we both came away with memories of a good night out. Even though he didn’t win, he is determined to keep working hard and target his sights at the Recruitment Consultant of the Year award next year!

You’re still a winner in our eyes Om!

Welcome to the team Amina!

We are delighted to announce the arrival of a new Yellow Cat!

Amina Hassan joined us today as a Consultant and we are all very excited to welcome her to the team.

Amina comes from a background in media sales and has already impressed with her can-do attitude and great tea making skills!

“Everyone has made me feel really welcome and I’m really enjoying it so far. I’ve been very excited about joining Yellow Cat as I believe they are a great company who are really going places. I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into the vacancies the team are working on and building strong relationships with their exciting clients.”

Director of Yellow Cat Jonny Breeze said today “I am delighted to welcome Amina Hassan on board – with her personable and ambitious character she has the potential to become a real success here. I strongly believe Amina has a bright future with Yellow Cat Recruitment.”

Congratulations Amina – you are now a Yellow Cat!

Yellow Cat & Pudsey Team Up!

Yellow Cat are pleased to announce that this year we are supporting Children In Need!

We are going to be raising funds in various different ways in the build up to the

big night on Friday 20th November.

One of the main ways we aim to make money is by getting everyone who registers with us over the next three weeks to guess how many yellow bonbons are in the jar below. It costs £2 to enter and whoever guesses correctly (or get's nearest!) win's the jar! If you are coming in to register soon remember your £2 - you wouldn't want to miss out!

Feel free to hazard a guess but remember, you've got to be in it to win it!

The New Yellow Cat Website!

Hello from the Yellow Cat! How are you all?

As you may have noticed, it’s been a long time since we last blogged. Why you ask? Have we been off playing with balls of wool? Have we been off scratching furniture? Have we been off chasing mice?

Well actually, the truth is that we have been extremely busy over the last couple of months; perhaps the busiest we’ve been since Yellow Cat was started by Jonny Breeze in 2005. After what was a very slow first half of 2009 we have seen the number of permanent and temporary roles we’ve been working on shoot right up.

In addition to this, there have been a number of changes made to the Yellow Cat Website which I would love to tell you about! Firstly, you may notice we have expanded the number of sectors we now work on. As Yellow Cat Recruitment has grown we have developed an extensive contact list and have worked on a number of roles within a variety of companies. Rather than pigeonhole ourselves to just Media & Creative, we wanted to show that we are confident and capable when working in a number of more specific areas such as Digital, IT and Sales.

You may have also noticed a number of small changes that we have made in order to help with the usability and navigation of the website. We have a Featured Jobs section on the homepage for people who are not able to spend a long time on our site, the jobs section has been redeveloped to make searching for your perfect role easier and we also have brand new photos of the team which you might enjoy seeing (no rude comments please!)

There are a lot of new images on the website and this is thanks to Adam who has been working very hard over the past few months. His design skills have come in very useful and he is now responsible for generating as much traffic to the new site as possible.

Finally, if you look at the bottom left hand corner of every page you will see a ‘Follow The Yellow Cat’ box. This links to the various social media sites we are using at the moment and this is an area that we are getting very interested in and will use a lot more in future. We love Twitter and Facebook and have already started using them regularly to update our followers and fans on up to the minute vacancies and news. We are also going to make sure we update the blog on a more regular basis. We are expecting news any minute on whether or not Om has won the Rising Star award and will be sure to post the results and photos here!

If you have an opinion, good or bad, on the new site please get in touch. We’d love to hear your feedback!

Om 'Rising Star' Ruparel!

We have some fantastic news to announce! Our very own Om Ruparel has been shortlisted in the ‘Rising Star’ category at this year’s London & South East Recruitment Awards!

The awards, which will be held at the London Radisson Portman Hotel in November, were set up to recognise the many successful and proactive companies and employees within the Recruitment, HR & Training industries.

The Rising Star award was set up to recognise the best new talent within the industry so we are very proud that Om has reached the final shortlist of just 10 people. Considering he’s only been in recruitment for 18 months, he’s done absolutely brilliantly to get where he is today.

The whole Yellow Cat team will be at the ceremony in November to cheer him on. Good luck Om! We know you can win it!

Preparing for an interview is just like going to a festival!

It’s festival season again and although most of us are cutting back on costs, tickets for this year’s festivals are selling within weeks of going on sale.

Preparing for a festival is much like preparing for an interview and with many of the happy campers who are attending on the job hunt, here is my essential guide to getting your perfect job:

Check out the line up
What’s the first thing you do when you’re going to a festival? Find out who’s performing of course! Although you’ll have an idea of the genre of music you’ll be seeing you’ll still want to find out exactly who’s playing so you can start planning who you want to see. The same should apply for when preparing for an interview.
It is always important to check out the website of the company you are going to see so that you learn more about the company. Sometimes it may also be possible to read information on the person you are interviewing with and learn about their background. This is always beneficial as it can help you to feel more relaxed when meeting them for the first time.

Make sure you know where you’re going
Although you are usually provided with one when you first arrive at a festival, it is usually possible to print off a map of the site beforehand. This will help you when it comes to finding your camp site, locating the main stage or more importantly directions to the nearest bar!
Most company websites will also have a map which will enable you to locate their premises. I would strongly recommend that you print one out before you set off. Even if you think you know where you’re going, there is nothing worse than arriving late to an interview.

Dress appropriately
When it comes to dress code, at most festivals there is an element of "anything goes" but generally there tends to be a theme depending on the genre of music. At a hard rock festival for example you may expect to find lots of people wearing black. Alternatively, at a dance festival you are probably more likely to find a number of people wearing fluorescent colours with glow sticks in hand!
When you’re preparing for an interview, it is always important to consider the kind of company you are visiting. If you are interviewing for a position within a merchant bank you would want to go for formal attire such as a suit. If you’re going for a job within a trendy media company, you may want to go for a slightly more funky or stylish approach. But remember that it is always better to arrive at an interview overdressed than underdressed!

Remember the basics
So, now you know which bands you’re going to see, how to get there and what clothes to wear, now you need to think about your sleeping arrangements! These days it is possible to stay in a local hotel, pull up in a caravan or even hire a tepee. The majority of festival goers however choose to sleep in a tent. There are tents of all shapes and sizes available but as all good campers will know if you forget the tent pegs, the tent is near enough useless.
This links nicely to applying for jobs and attending interviews as it is very similar to preparing your CV - you may have fantastic experience but if you forget the basics, your CV won’t hold together. Many candidates forget important information such as their qualifications or their previous career gaps. In some cases contact details have been forgotten which can make it very hard for employers or recruiters to arrange interviews!

Be prepared!
Finally, it is very important to be prepared for adverse situations. Even though most of Britain’s festivals occur over the summer months you can usually guarantee that if you’re spending a weekend in the great outdoors it will probably rain at some point! For this reason it is vital that you are prepared and that you pack your wellies and a waterproof jacket.
When getting ready for an interview it is also important to be prepared for any difficult questions that may arise. If you have any gaps in your CV can you explain them? If you only spent a short time with one company, what was your reason for leaving? Even if you have a very straight forward and easy-to-understand CV there may be areas that the employer or recruiter are unsure about so always ensure you read your CV fully before your interview. This will enable you to feel more confident when talking about your experiences and avoid making any mistakes when trying to remember any details.

If you are currently preparing for an interview or indeed a festival I really hope you will have found these tips helpful. Preparation is key so if you follow my advice there is no reason why you can’t have a fantastic festival weekend or, more importantly, impress in an interview and bag yourself a fantastic new job.

Follow Yellow Cat on Facebook!

Yellow Cat Recruitment now have a page on Facebook!

We will use this page for job updates and news on any events we may be holding.

If you're on Facebook, become a fan of our page now! Click here to check it out!

Happy Birthday Om!

Om celebrated his birthday last Sunday and yesterday we all went out for lunch to celebrate.

Although we ate loads, we still managed to find room for the cakes you can see in the photo below!

Many Happy Returns Om!

We Love Sunny London!

Who's been enjoying the weather then? Hasn't been amazing?! Some people have said it's been too hot but like all cats we've absolutely loved lazing about in the sun over the past few weeks.

We feel very lucky to be able to work in such a vibrant and lively city where there is always so much going on. When the weather is good London has to be one of the best cities when it comes to sightseeing, chilling out in parks or attending live events.

Over the past couple of months between us we've managed to see Blur in Hyde Park, The Killers at The Royal Albert Hall, Derren Brown at the Adelphi, the FA Cup Final at Wembley, Twenty20 Cricket at the Oval and the Isle Wight Festival.

It also seems to be stag do season with Jonny in Krakow, Om in Tallinn and Adam in Dublin all within the space of two weeks!

During this time we've also been really busy in the office which is great. We're working on a number of jobs at the moment so make sure you keep checking the jobs page on our website for updates.

In the meantime, let us know what you've been up to over the Summer so far. All stories welcome, the funnier the better!

**After all our talk about the summer heat it is now absolutely chuking it down on Charlotte St! Typical English weather!**

Judge A Candidate On Their Credentials, Not Their Nationality

Everyone who lives in London would appreciate that it is one of the most multicultural cities in the world. It has 7 million inhabitants who between them speak over 300 languages and each and every one of them has something to offer. Over the years we have had the pleasure of working with colleagues, clients and candidates from all over the world and I believe their knowledge and experience has not only benefited us but also the organisations they have gone on to work for. For this reason, it always surprises us when we hear about instances of discrimination when it comes to hiring new staff.

Last year, we were lucky enough to work with a fantastic candidate called Helena Annuk who originates from Estonia. Helena dropped by to our office one day and we were immediately impressed by her drive and enthusiasm to find a role within the film industry. Once we got talking to her it was clear that she was a very strong candidate who we felt we could help. We were working on a role for a leading film production and distribution company at the time and within a week we had managed to secure Helena an interview.

Helena didn’t have experience of working within the media industry but her skills and experience matched the role perfectly and we knew instantly that her personality was right for the environment we were trying to place her in. She told us that she felt other agencies had pigeonholed her and tried to put her into jobs purely based on her language skills. She hadn’t been told about any exciting opportunities until she came to Yellow Cat and she felt that we listened to what she actually wanted to do rather than push her into a job that she wouldn’t be happy in.

Helena’s nationality didn’t affect her application or how she performed in her interview. She managed to beat 12 other candidates to the job and has been in her role for 6 months now. We keep in touch on a regular basis and she consistently tells me how happy she is which is obviously hugely rewarding for the Yellow Cat Team.

Helena is one of the many success stories we can tell regarding candidates who have moved to the UK in search of their dream jobs. The enthusiasm and drive we have seen in many of these candidates has, in many ways, made our job easy when it comes to placing them and I can see no logical reason why other recruiters may choose to discriminate against them. At the end of the day, it is our job to find the best candidate for the job, regardless of where they grew up.

The Cat Is Back On Track

Can you believe it has been 5 months since we last blogged? In our defence there have been a lot of changes at Yellow Cat Recruitment since our last update and as they say, time flies when you’re having fun!

One of the major changes to Yellow Cat over the past few months was our office move back in April. We’re still at 66 Charlotte St but have moved up a floor to a bigger office. We now have a lovely private interview area as well as a shiny new TV to keep up to date with all the latest recruitment news (or Sky Sports News!). Hopefully you will get a chance to pop in soon whether you are a new or existing candidate or one of our lovely clients. We’re a friendly bunch so feel free to pop in and say hi!

Last month, as a reward for hitting target, Jonny took Adam and Om to Amsterdam for a weekend of “team building”. We had an absolute ball which included hiring bikes to cycle around the city and a trip to the Van Gogh museum. It was great to get away from London for a couple of days and sample the delights that Amsterdam has to offer. The aim now is to continue finding great jobs for great candidates so that we can keep meeting targets and hopefully visit more fantastic cities such as Amsterdam.


Although we can’t deny that 2009 so far has been a little tougher than previous years, Yellow Cat Recruitment have still been working on plenty of jobs and are getting busier and busier. Now that Summer has arrived we are bracing ourselves for a flurry of new jobs as industries such as Experiential Marketing and TV Production start looking for new talent to assist with new projects and campaigns. Because of this, now is the time to get your CV to us if you are looking for a new role. Remember, if you are looking for a Permanent Job email your CV to jobs@yellowcatrecruitment.co.uk and if you are looking for Temporary Work email temps@yellowcatrecruitment.co.uk

We have recently been working on a number of temp and perm Customer Service roles based within Head Offices of various companies within the Financial and Retail industries. If you have relevant experience in these fields, now is the time to get in touch!

That’s it, we’re up to date again! Thanks for dropping by and remember to follow the Yellow Cat!

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year to all of you, I trust you all had a fantastic festive period?

The Yellow Cat team are back in the office with a renewed enthusiasm and bags of energy. We've even joined the loccal gym in an effort to lose the excess pounds we gained from all that turkey!

It may be freezing outside but things are beginning to hotten up again on the job front so keep an eye on our website and our Twitter account for updates.

To kick start 2009 we are running a poll to see how the credit crunch is effecting job hunters and we would be delighted if you were to take part....

We will post the results in our next blog but in the meantime here's to a succesful 2009!!