UK

Did you ever stop to think about how much having a job actually costs you? Here's a clue: It ain't cheap. Think about how much you spend on your train tickets or petrol, how much you fork out for your daily lattes and those overpriced lunches at the organic cafe round the corner from the office.
 
Before you get your spreadsheets out, have a look at this infographic compiled by Guardian Jobs on the price of living and working in the UK. Some of the key findings are:
 
• The average salary in London is £33,899, the average salary in the UK is 26% lower at £26,978
• The average person in a job has spent 8 years, 7 months and 2 hours of their life working
• The average annual cost of peak-time train pass with tube travel is a whopping £6,000
• A coffee from Costa, Starbucks or Caffe Nero will range from £1.40 to £2.50
• If you made instant coffee instead, you could save £888.61 annually
• A daily sandwich will on average cost £2.49 at Pret a Manger
• If you make your own sandwiches you could save £261
• Finally, the average monthly rent in the UK is £713, in London it's £1,202

I say tomato, you say tomaydo. I spell potato, you spell potatoe. Winston Churchill famously said that Britain and America were two nations divided by a common language. So common in fact, that 'creative' is the no. 1 buzzword on both US and UK LinkedIn profiles.

 
But what about our favorite topic hera at The Undercover Recruiter, the recruiters themselves? What do they have in common across the pond and what differs? Thanks to our friends at Bullhorn and via our friends at 4Mat we'd like to publish an infographic that addresses just this.

 
One striking difference is of course the fact that the UK has lots more recruiters in proportion to its population. We would venture to guess that half of the recruiters in the UK are based in Greater London and serving the UK, EMEA and sometimes the world.

Most common words on British LinkedIn profiles? I'm thinking words like jolly good, smashing, spiffing, whippersnapper, old chap, balderdash and tickety boo old bean. Not so I'm afraid, the British contingent on LinkedIn have succumbed to corporate buzzwords just like the rest of the world. 

LinkedIn now has 135 million members worldwide (8 million of those in jolly old Britain), and they released the most overused words and phrases in members’ LinkedIn Profiles for 2011 the other day. You may not be surprised that ‘creative’ has topped the list this year; could it be that UK professionals realize they need to up their game to get noticed, whether job hunting or networking, in the current economic climate. But the clear message from this research is that professionals shouldn’t rely on buzzwords that they think will get them noticed – employers and head-hunters are looking for substance and plus style. 

So rather than saying you are “creative”, LinkedIn recommends that professionals try to use simple language to clearly state what work or projects they have helped to deliver that demonstrates their creativity – experience has never counted for so much, so give specific examples, results and if possible, personal testimonials.

A recent survey by LondonLovesJobs.com is the latest evidence to show that social media is playing an increasingly important role in job searching. The results, illustrated in the infographic below, also show that the popularity of social media varies greatly depending on the gender and the professional level of the job hunter.
 
In the survey of 500 business leaders and 500 other adults in Greater London, 43% of respondents said that they used social media when searching for a job. Looking beyond this figure reveals some further insights:

• 43% of respondents said that they used social media when searching for a job
• 52% of men said they would use social media compared to just 33% of women
• 30% of business leaders said they would look for their next role using LinkedIn compared with just 13% of other respondents  

See some tips at How To Use Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn for Your Job Search.
  

Are employers adopting social media?

 
While 43% of job searchers are looking on social media sites, only 14% of employers surveyed said that they were marketing their job vacancies via these channels. This is a big disparity when compared to other more ‘traditional’ job search media, which tend to be well utilised by employers.
 
Recruitment websites remained the most popular job search tool, with 67% of all respondents saying they used them to find a job. 34% of employers said they advertised on these sites.
However, employers should not take it for granted that the websites they choose are marketing their vacancies on social media on their behalf.
 

Britain is definitely lagging on the Twitter job posting front so I will do best to stimulate some employer tweeting in the realm. Here is a list of the major British companies doing it already (no recruiters).