These days candidates have generally got the point that to manage their career effectively they need to have a good handle on the job market and a feel for the supply and demand dynamics across different disciplines.

However candidates are often very weak with awareness of their own identity in the marketplace, in regards to their skills, strengths and weaknesses, how they themselves fit in to the marketplace and how to project what they have to offer.

As recruiters, we have a key role here, helping candidates turn their search inwards and developing a stronger sense of their own identity.

Of course, it's human nature to be outward looking, to pay attention to what things looks like in the outside world, what other people are doing, what other people are being paid, and who's hiring who.

But it's a harder thing for candidates to look inside and have a clear understanding of their own identity.

Questions to candidates-

What are you doing?

Many people come to us believing that they just need to leave the organisation they're with, and then they'll be happy. But when we sit down with them, they realise that they don't really know what they do, or what their role is. This isn't always their fault, others around them may be struggling with their own demons, making it very hard to compare with them.

What are your skills?

And once candidates have identified what they do, and where it fits - are they actually any good at it?

What could they change to make things more satisfying, for their job to be more fulfilling?

How do you communicate it?

Once candidates know what they want to get across to people, are they actually doing that when they interact, or more specifically when they are in an interview?

A candidate needs to be clear about what they can do for the employer, how they can make a difference to themselves and their organisation's lives.

Candidates need to develop an understanding of their own being, their own worth and where they are best positioned in the marketplace to make a real contribution that somebody else values. Recruiters should ignore this at their peril.

Contributor: Penny Terndrup, Director, EJ Group