Paula, our brilliant Candidate Assessment Facilitator, joined Artemis Clarke in late 2023.
Paula is now the person who interviews candidates who have made it through the first four stages of our 5-Stage Candidate Assessment Process.
Her background and skills make her a natural for the part, and it was a very easy choice to offer Paula this key role in Artemis Clarke. With her business background, she deeply understands exactly what each business owner that works with us might need.
What makes Paula unique in this role is the fact that she came to us, initially, as a candidate. In other words, Paula was looking to Artemis Clarke to help find her the next step in her finance career but ended up joining the company.
While the role itself isn’t specifically what she was looking for, her expert skill set is perfect for the role. This gives Paul an additional perspective on what it means to be a candidate. She combines both sides of the business with aplomb!
Let’s find out why Paula chose Artemis Clarke to help her find a role in finance.
“When searching for a new job, I initially spent my time browsing job websites. My social media then became flooded with adverts for various jobs. I soon found myself stuck in a loop of repetitive ads, all looking for the same type of candidate. It became frustrating to find something different or interesting when I wasn’t precisely sure what I was looking for. The process quickly became overwhelming.
It reminded me of the time I was looking for a holiday. The headache of too much choice, pressure from holiday companies and bad reviews made me question everything – I soon felt like I didn’t even want a holiday. A friend recommended her independent travel consultant. Feeling doubtful, I sent a list of my criteria for the perfect holiday to the consultant. Shortly, this wonderful person came back with two perfect suggestions. We booked one of them and absolutely loved the holiday. I have never looked back!
Thinking about my job-hunting stress: was the same available for finding the perfect job?
My previous experience of recruitment agents as a job seeker was that they are always keen to match you with anything that earns a fee. From an employer’s perspective, they seem to be focused on taking the money and running. If the person doesn’t work out, then that’s on you. My experience had led me to always specify “no agencies” on job adverts to avoid these types of people so I wasn’t especially hopeful.
However, buoyed by my experience of an excellent travel consultant, I put the feelers out and asked a friend if she knew any recruiters that were different, the kind that that would care and be prepared to listen to what I did and didn’t want.
My friend told me to contact Kate at Artemis Clarke.
I reached out to Kate via LinkedIn. She came straight back to me and detailed the Artemis Clarke Assessment Process. A 5-stage system designed to enable the team to understand me and what I wanted and would bring to a role. She explained that one of the team, Jane, would guide me through the process. Feeling reassured, I decided to give it a go.
The first step was the completion of two online assessments. One on aptitude and one on bookkeeping. The tests balance knowledge with speed, so I took myself to a quiet place and gave the tests a go.
I didn’t find them as easy as I’d hoped, but you do get to see your results straight away. This helped with my own awareness of my ability, as well as informing the Artemis Clarke team. I welcomed the fact that the test results gave the team a clear picture of my skills– allowing them to find me something at my level.
Due to my concern with my bookkeeping result, Artemis Clarke followed up with an Attention to Detail test. I did much better in this and the combined results enabled me to go to the next stage.
This next stage, while not a test, seemed harder as it involves self-recorded video answers to a set of questions. For anyone who doesn’t enjoy being on camera, or who doesn’t feel overly confident with new tech, you’ll understand why I panicked at first!
I didn’t need to worry: the system is simple and straight forward.
I was sent a link to an intuitive platform which provided the questions in advance alongside a simple ‘record and stop’ mechanism. You can also re-record each answer as many times as needed before submitting them. Crucially, Artemis Clarke highlight the fact that the recording doesn’t need to be perfect. It’s more like a quick interview – which you would expect from a Candidate Assessment Process – rather than a professional video!
I decided that, unless the recording went badly wrong, I would do just one take and send it through! I thought that if this is their opportunity to see me and what I’m like then I wanted to be as authentically me as possible and not some over rehearsed person that I couldn’t live up to in a daily job. After checking the questions, thinking about an answer, I went for it. I had the usual self-criticism at seeing myself on screen (don’t we all?) but reminded myself that I was not auditioning for an acting job but allowing Artemis Clarke to get an idea of the real me.
Thankfully, Artemis Clarke are true to their word!
Thankfully, Artemis Clarke are true to their word, and can see past the odd verbal stumble!
I was delighted to hear that I got through this stage too. I then completed a Candidate Form detailing facts about qualifications, experience, right to work etc which was straight forward and thorough. This led swiftly on to the final stage of the process: a 1:1 Teams meeting with one of their candidate assessors. For me it was with Kate, the founder of Artemis Clarke.
I was told that we would talk about my job experience to date and really get to the bottom of what kind of work I was looking for, what industry, what hours, location etc. I already felt like I’d been able to give a good account of myself in the earlier stages, so this in-depth meeting made me feel valuable, like they truly wanted to know me.
The Teams call was enjoyable. Kate was genuinely interested in hearing about me and I was able to discuss the things I definitely did, and didn’t want from a job and the things that I might be open to. We had an enjoyable, wide-ranging discussion and covered a lot of ground.
My story then took an unexpected turn as Kate inquired about me joining their team!
I didn’t imagine for one minute it would go this way but was thankful that I had been able to put my concern about recruiters aside, show my honest self and be willing to give something new a go. The recruitment process at Artemis Clarke works so well that they were able to find their newest team member as a result!
I should at this point mention that while Artemis Clarke don’t usually end up keeping the people they interview, it does show that their process is designed to the highest level. In other words, it is good enough for them so you can be reassured that it is very rigorous!
If you’re looking for similar support yourself in your job-hunting journey then I think you’d appreciate the partnership approach that Artemis Clarke offer. I look forward to helping out candidates just like me to find a place that feels absolutely right for them too.
I’d love to hear from you if my story resonates with you – either via contact page or LinkedIn – so do get in touch!
