// for candidates

What happensafter you apply.

Kairos HR is a recruitment agency. Employers pay us to fill roles, so you never pay us anything. This page is the whole of it: what we do with your application, roughly how long each part takes, and what going through us gets you that going direct does not.

// how we work with people

Six things,said plainly.

You are never charged: Not for applying, not for a CV review, not for an introduction, not for a place on a list. The employer pays the fee. If anybody asks you for money in our name, it is not us.
You find out who the employer is before you meet them: Most adverts name the company. A confidential one does not, and that usually means they are replacing somebody who still works there. We tell you who they are before you meet them, and you can stop at that point with no hard feelings.
Your details reach a client when we put you forward, and not before: Until they accept you, most clients see your experience and our written summary without your name or your contact details. Some have that turned off by agreement and see your name from the start.
We check the things that waste an interview: Notice period, salary expectation, whether you can legally work where the job is, and whether you actually want it. A difficult ten minutes with us beats a wasted afternoon with them.
We hold your CV to put you forward for jobs: That is the purpose and it is the only one. Not a list to sell, and not kept forever. Ask what we hold and we will tell you; ask us to delete it and we will.
We cannot promise you a job: We can promise you an answer. Nobody is left refreshing an inbox to work out that it was a no.

// after you press send

Six steps,and you can see all of them.

Applying takes about five minutes and you can do the whole thing on a phone. At the end you are offered an account, and it is worth taking: the stage of every application you have made is in it, and it is faster than emailing us. Skip it and you have still applied. You can set a password later from the sign-in page.

Application received

It reaches us the moment you press send. Nothing waits in an inbox for somebody to open it, and if you took the account at the end of the form, it is listed in there already.

Under review

Your CV is read against the brief the employer signed off, not against a keyword list. If it is close we call you, and that call is where most of the real screening happens.

Assessment

Only on roles that have one, and your account does not show the step if yours does not. Where there is one it comes with a deadline and you do it in your own time.

First interview

You pick a time that suits you out of the ones that are open. We tell you who you are meeting before you meet them.

Second interview

Some roles have one, some have three, some have none. Whichever it is, the round you are on is on your account, not only in an email you have to go and find.

Decision

An offer, or a no. If we are keeping your details on file for something else we say that, rather than going quiet and letting you assume it.

// timings

How longeach part takes.

These are the timings we work to with the employer, which is what really decides when you hear from us. They are the honest versions rather than the flattering ones.

Advert up, to a shortlist going inFive to ten working days: That is the search, and it runs whether or not you have applied yet. A role that has been up a week is usually still very much open.
Shortlist, to a first interviewThe employer sets the pace: We book what they accept. When it goes quiet here it is almost always a diary rather than a decision, and you are allowed to ask us which.
Offer, to a start dateTwo to four weeks, mostly notice periods: We handle the offer conversation and the counter-offer from your current employer. Counter-offers are common, and we will have asked how you would answer one before it arrives.

What we will not put a number on

How quickly you hear back after applying. We would rather say nothing than publish a target we miss in a busy week. What we will say is that every application gets an answer, and that the stage yours is at is visible to you the whole time.

// why go through us

What this gets youthat going direct does not.

Roles you cannot see anywhere else: Some employers will not advertise under their own name, and some do not advertise at all. Those searches are run through agencies or they are not run.
Somebody has already sat with the employer: We take an hour of their time before the advert goes up and ask what a good first six months looks like. When we tell you what they want, it is not a reading of their own job advert.
You go forward with an argument attached: Everybody we put forward carries a written summary: what they have done, why they fit the brief, and what the risk is. An application form has nowhere to put any of that.
The awkward conversations are ours: The salary, the counter-offer, the notice period and the resignation. We have those conversations for a living and you have them every few years.
One application, more than one role: If you are right for something else we are working on, we will say so rather than making you find it yourself.

When you should go direct instead

If you already know the company and somebody there knows you, go direct. An agency in the middle of that adds a fee and nothing else. We are worth having when you do not have the introduction, or when the role was never advertised.

Have a look at what is open.

Applying is free and takes about five minutes.

Browse jobs →Check an application

What we do with your CV, who sees it, and how to have it deleted. Privacy notice