Dan Woodcock (Woody)

Did you know the term “freelance” comes from medieval times? Back then, a “free lance” was a mercenary warrior—loyal to no one lord but open to the highest bidder. In a gig economy, freelancers thrive by being adaptable, skilled, and always ready for the next opportunity. But with that freedom comes the challenge of consistency and the hustle to find clients. If you’re navigating freelance work, remember to not only sharpen your skills but also build your network—your next project may come from someone already in your circle. How do you balance the freedom of freelancing with the need for stability? #Freelancing #GigEconomy #RemoteWork #CareerAdvice #IndependentContractor #FreelanceLife #JobSeekers #EntrepreneurMindset

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Guess who's coming to chat this week on Design Unfiltered ?! None other than Melissa Cullens ! Link to view/attend the livestream in comments. Where do I start with Melissa in regards to why you absolutely want to be there this week? - Melissa has scaled to the highest levels as a Designer; CXO, CDO, VP, Head of Design; whatever the title might be, Melissa embodies Design Leadership - Navigating that growth as a Designer and makes a Designer Leader vs. a Designer - Melissa has hired numerous top tier Designers - how does she spot them? What stands out to a Design Leader like Melissa when it comes to the teams she's built - Designing in early stage and rapidly scaling companies - no easy task to navigate - Working with non-design leaders to achieve great design - How to survive being an empathetic Designer in 2024 I could go on, but I think it's best you tune in Wednesday! #designunfiltered

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A prospective client I spoke to recently really needs to hire. They have 2 agencies working across their roles. They have been open for 6 or so weeks. No progress has been made. They don't know why, either. One question I asked which the manager didn't know the answer to: "How much time are they spending on your vacancy both this week and what do they plan to spend on it next week?". I have absolutely no doubt in my mind, that the time the client believes is being spent on their role, compared to what is actually happening, would be miles apart. It would blow their mind. And not in a good way. If you're hiring and you can't answer those questions, arrange a meeting with your recruiter to find out!

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Maximising your interview potential isn't just about showing up; it's about shining the brightest in a room full of stars 💫 Here's how:   💼 Know the Business Dig beyond the 'About Us' page. Hunt down their latest announcements, projects, and industry movements. Your thorough knowledge showcases genuine interest and foresight.   🎯 Tailor Your Stories Align your experience with the company's needs. Craft your narratives to reflect how you've tackled similar challenges or driven results in your past roles.   🤝 Connect with Recruiters A recruiter is your behind-the-scenes ally. They have the inside track on the company's culture and expectations. Engaging with them could give you that crucial edge.   👂 Listen and Adapt An interview is a dance. Pay attention to verbal cues and body language. Adapt your approach accordingly to maintain the synergy.   🙌 Be Your Best Self While you're pitching your professional experience, let your personality shine. Companies don't just hire skills; they hire people.   Remember, every interview is a step closer to where you're meant to be. Drop your thoughts below! 👇   #InterviewTips #CareerGrowth #RecruitmentInsights

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🎩 Title : Freelance Senior Branding + PowerPoint Designer  🎩 Start : Ideally tomorrow 😅 🎩 Length : 1 month (view to 3 months) 🎩 Client : Real Estate 🎩 Day rate : £250 a day 🎩 IR35 : Outside IR35 🎩 Remote : Hybrid working - 5 days a week: 1-day in-house with the other 4 days remote per week (there is lots of flexibility here) 🎩 Brief : 🔫 Production of brand assets - specifically PowerPoint decks, + understand these narratives. 🔫 To understand how to finesse the content by putting together PowerPoints. 🔫 Creation of presentation. 🔫 This won't be defining the brand, but instead working with brand assets, guidelines, and TOV and then creating compelling presentations like pitching. 🔫 Solid in Figma and presentation.     🎩 Location : Central London     🎩 🌈

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Who’s working your role? 🤔 Going head to head in pitches for business with larger agencies always pushes me to encourage my clients to ask the question.. ‘’Who will be working this vacancy?’’ You’re dealing with an agency with 15 years experience, a solid database and people who know the market inside out.. sounds great right? But the reality is your first call and first meeting might be with someone who has this experience, but your role is often then passed to a junior resourcing team to find and source the candidates. In a candidate driven market, you need to be sure how your business is being represented, inmails don’t work, if you want get the best people you have to be proactive. Who will be selling your business? Who will be helping navigate and manage counter offers? Who will be an advisor when it comes to discussing the competitive landscape? Now this isn’t a post digging out junior recruiters, we all start somewhere, but I think it’s important to be transparent about who will be working your role Hi….. My names Emma, and I’ll be working your vacancy ☺️👋

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The #1 way to significantly improve your odds of finding your next senior design or engineering role. I speak to Directors, VPs and Heads of Design and Engineering every week who are struggling to find the right role. It might be down to location, salary expectations, lack of suitable jobs advertised, confusing job adverts (half way through reading the ad you see that it’s a digital design role) or something else. The fact is, roughly only 10% of vacancies ever make it to a job board or a recruiter. The vast majority are filled through word-of-mouth – especially at the senior level. So, the one thing I advise everyone I meet with to do is leverage your network. How many people are you connected to on LinkedIn? 100? 500? 1,000+? I’m willing to bet that there’s people in your connections list that are either hiring now or have plans to in the next few months. And even if they’re not, they may someone who is hiring that they can introduce you to. My advice? 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝟭𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻. Here’s how: Web browser: 1.       Click on “My Network” at the top of the page. 2.       Under “Manage my network” on the left, click “Connections”. 3.       Click “Search with filters” on the top right 4.       Select the “Locations” tab at the top and enter your desired work location. You can select a few cities or keep it broad if you like. 5.       If you have a premium account you can filter further by seniority, job title or industry. Unless you have thousands of connections, I wouldn’t bother with this as you’ll end up filtering out good people. Mobile app: 1.       Click on “My Network” on the bottom. 2.       Click “Manage my network” 3.       Click “Connections” 4.       Click the magnifying glass and then “Advanced” 5.       Swipe right along the top and select the “Locations” 6.       Enter your desired work location. You can select a few cities or keep it broad if you like. 7.       Click “Show Results” 8.       Again, if you have a premium account you can filter further by seniority, job title or industry. So now you have you list of connections, what next? 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺! “𝘏𝘦𝘺 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴, 𝘏𝘰𝘸’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴? 𝘞𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘶𝘱 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯. 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦?” Keep it simple. People are generally happy to help and engage with other human beings. What do you think? How would you respond to a message like this? 𝗣𝗦 – level up your messaging by leaving a voicenote using the LinkedIn mobile app. Let me know if you’ve been brave enough to try this!

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If I were a Head of Talent Acquisition, here are the 8 tactics I’d develop asap; - Weaponised candidate experience - Leadership Personal Branding - Guerilla employer branding - Content Library (Ungated) - Pipeline, pipeline, pipeline - Talent Market Research - Show under the hood - Talent Communities HR and Talent peeps, what strategies are you focusing on for 2024?

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At Solis, we’ve ditched the CV. My experience is that the most unconventional candidates make the biggest impact. A lack of direct experience is only a barrier until someone is given a chance. That’s why we partner with agencies to build inclusive teams using a non-traditional hiring approach. CVs only tell part of the story. They miss out on key qualities like life experience, raw talent, passion, and drive. Instead of CVs we present digital profiles. Giving hiring managers a chance to review a candidate video, situational judgement test (SJT) and a full summary from our own candidate screening. More effective. More accurate. Sound like what you need? Reach out via DM to see an example of our candidate profiles.

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Do you know which background checks are most suitable for your business?📱 We've created the ultimate guide to UK background checks to help you understand all background checks! Download it now for FREE!✅ https://lnkd.in/eKNwAUXN #backgroundchecks #UKbackgroundchecks #vetting #hrtech

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What does it mean to be an agency recruiter? 💼 Welcome to our new series, “In The Recruitment Chair”, where we pull back the curtain to answer your questions about what it’s like to work in recruitment at IT/IQ. We’re kicking it off with Recruitment Specialist Emily Hirst, who shares the most rewarding aspects of her work. Interested in learning more? Stay tuned for part two of our chat with Emily next week, and in the meantime, feel free to drop your burning recruitment questions in the comments. #Recruiters #TechRecruitment #SalesJobs #Hiring 

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Recruitment business owners... Is messy data holding your recruitment business back? 🤔 Join our 45-minute webinar on 21st November to learn how to turn your data into a profit-generating asset. Kamal Ladwa, Nick Washbourne, Paul Rawson MBA and Jo Perrotta will show you how to: ➡️ Spot the difference between good and bad data ➡️ Use automations that help your recruiters focus on what matters ➡️ Clean up your CRM for better BD and candidate experiences 📅 Don't miss out! Register now to secure your post: https://lnkd.in/e8ZVexFb #RecruitmentMarketing #DataStrategy #Webinar

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Cost per hire isn't tracked by 89% of care companies in the UK. That frightens me. Not tracking your cost per hire leads me to asking the following questions: 1. How do you know what budget to set for your advertising spend (Indeed etc). 2. Where is money being lost? 3. How can we reduce the cost per hire going forward? I've written a short blog post called 'My top 9 tips on reducing your cost per hire.' Read it on the link below if you feel this can add value to you and your team. https://lnkd.in/gPbFwfsJ #carerecruitment #retention #costperhire

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YES!!! I'm seeing this LOADS on my feed at the moment! 😍 LinkedIn may have employed a 3 year old to do their graphic design work, but it's a pretty bloody beautiful sight! Why? Cause it means people are getting new jobs! It means companies are making compelling and lucrative offers! It means the unemployed are finding work! It means companies are respecting candidates and are executing decent recruitment practices! It also means, if people are switching roles, there might be some roles left in their wake to back fill... leading to even more people hopefully getting new jobs! Yes, it looks like something I would have drawn when I was barely able to walk, but it serves it's purpose! Here's to more job offers and acceptances!!!! #marketing #headhunter

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Hiring in the social space? Would you like some guidance on salaries and skillsets for different jobs? Hit the link in the comments for our downloadable guide. #creativenatives

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You've got 7 seconds. What's the first thing recruiters see on your CV? 7 seconds. That’s how long recruiters and hiring managers spend reviewing a CV before deciding whether to dig deeper or move on. 📄⏳ In a recent chat with Tim Maclean on The Design Journeys Podcast, we discussed how structure and presentation can make or break your chances. Here’s a quick insight: 🔹 Presentability and Structure Matter If your CV is clear, concise, and visually inviting, people are far more likely to take notice. In contrast, a block of grey text? That’s much more likely to get lost in the shuffle. 🔹 Make It Memorable Personally, I’m more likely to spend longer reviewing a CV that stands out—for good or bad reasons! The key is to make it different enough to warrant attention. “...if your CV is presentable and structured, people will skim it and put it in the ‘yes’ pile. But if it looks the same as others, the likelihood is that unless something jumps out, it ends up in the ‘no’ pile.” Keep it short, clean, and compelling. Design it with the reader’s limited time in mind. Make sure those 7 seconds count. 🚀 What’s one thing you think makes a CV stand out? Let me know in the comments! --- PS - Tim features on the Design Journeys Podcast on Wednesday 16th October. Click the 🔔 at the top of my profile so you don't miss it!

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We launched a TV app to help you launch an AI startup or work for one. You can watch videos in the beta app and soon create videos with AI . The link is here https://crewdog.co.uk/ #genai #ai #startup #elevatorpitch This pitch is interesting ..

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📢 THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES' MOST COMPREHENSIVE 2024 SALARY CENSUS HAS LANDED 📢    We’ve just dropped our most comprehensive Census yet – bringing you the latest #careers, #salaries and #workplace trends. Using insights from 3821 respondents, this year’s Salary Census from Major Players | B Corp™ delves deeper than ever before into what really matters for employees and employers.   Here’s just a snapshot of this year’s findings 👇   💡 Annual salaries have increased, on average by 5.5%, with freelancer day rates going up by 8% - despite these increases, many are experiencing lower living standards as the cost-of-living crisis is still pinching   💡 46% of businesses anticipate hiring within the next 6 months, with 34% of talent actively looking for a new role and a further 30% passively looking   💡 The gender pay gap has narrowed in the last 12 months, falling from 15.1% to 10.1% - however, we have seen regression in other areas   💡 Holiday allowance and flexible working remain key benefits talent look for when considering their current and next roles   💡 Over one-fifth of workers are concerned that AI is a direct threat to their job   Want to find out more about the latest workplace trends? Want to benchmark your salary or day rate with those of your peers? Want to explore how your workplace strategy compares?   Download your FREE copy here --> https://lnkd.in/ermqb922

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👏Female-Led Recruitment Start-ups - Top daily motivational tips👏 Developing a robust sales strategy is crucial for your agency's growth 🔥 Download our free guide to starting your new recruitment venture: https://lnkd.in/ezM2rmWV Here’s how: 👌 Identify Your Target Market: Clearly define who your ideal clients are and understand their needs. 👌 Develop a Unique Value Proposition: What makes your agency stand out? Communicate this effectively. 👌 Build a Sales Process: Create a structured approach to acquiring new clients, from initial contact to closing the deal. Helen says…'Early on in my business I developed a solid and consistent sales strategy to only target SME’s with certain criteria, e.g. PE investment or funding and/or founder-led with significant growth plans. Building an engagement plan week on week with those firms meant that we were able to not only secure multi-hire clients but build predictable income' #whynotyouwhynotnow #professionalwomen #recruitment #entrepreneurship #motivation #innovation"

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