Careers
How to Build a Strong Candidate Profile
Employers on Found Next narrow by industry and location, then read what you have written — never your name. Here is what decides whether they ask to contact you.
On Found Next the people are the listings. An employer does not post a job and wait — they narrow the list by industry and by where they are hiring, and then they read what you have written down. That changes what a good profile looks like, and it is worth a few minutes of your time to get right once.
Your industry and location decide whose list you are on
Employers narrow by industry and by where they are hiring. If your industry is wrong, or your location is missing, you are on the wrong lists. If you would move for the right job, say where: an employer in another country sees you only if you named their country or region.
Your skills decide whether they ask
This is the part most people rush. Once an employer is looking at your profile, your skills are how they tell whether you can do the job — and a skill you leave off is one they cannot know you have.
Pick the skills you actually use, not the ones that sound impressive. If you do more than one kind of work, say so: most jobs have two or three sides to them and employers look for each one separately.
- Name the specific systems, subjects, tools or equipment you work with. Those are what an employer recognises.
- Add anything the list does not offer. A skill you type yourself is shown exactly like one we suggested.
- Leave off the ones that describe everybody. “Hard working” tells an employer nothing.
Your job title is read before anything else
Write the title you would use to describe yourself to someone in your own trade. It is free text on purpose — if your job is not on anyone’s list, that is a problem with the list, not with your job.
Availability is the first thing an employer checks
Being straight about when you can start saves everyone a wasted week, and it is the one field that goes stale on its own. Employers can sort by who is available soonest and by who was active recently, and confirming your availability counts as activity.
You decide who sees you
Employers never see your name, and they see your contact details only if you choose to share them. They see the work. If a business wants to reach you they send a request, and you decide whether to answer it and what to share.
If you are looking while employed, you can also hide your profile from your current employer specifically, and stay visible to everyone else.
Read your own profile as a stranger would. From the skills, availability and history alone, could someone tell whether you are the person for the job they are trying to fill this week?