In common with most universities, at RGU we used to spend a lot (i.e. over a hundred thousand pounds) every year advertising jobs. Those days, fortunately, have gone. Sadly though, it doesn’t mean the money gets reinvested in the recruitment team’s Christmas party! However, as with any major regional/national and indeed occasionally international recruiter, we do get a lot of speculative applications and people approach us to ask where and when they can find out about jobs at RGU.

The answer is pretty simple. All our jobs are advertised on our website. Not only that, but you can register on the site and we’ll send you an alert to let you know when a suitable job that matches your skills/career aspirations is available.

That said, we know that we’re competing in a tough market where lots of other universities or businesses are seeking the same candidates. A big university such as RGU has an enormous variety of jobs, not just the academic/research/teaching ones that most associate with an institution like ours, but also the scores of admin, support, IT, facilities, finance and HR oneswho provide vital services and support to academic colleagues and our 17,000 students. We can’t rely on all candidates finding us via the web, so some external advertising is required.

If you are seeking an academic job then we use jobs.ac.uk and Research Gate a lot. Within specific disciplines we will occasionally use the relevant industry/sector journals, for example, Synergy for Radiography Lecturers or Physiotherapy Frontline for physio jobs.

On the other hand, if you are looking for a more generalist role, you will find some jobs on S1jobs and all of our jobs on Indeed.co.uk, who lift jobs from most recruiters across the country. Perhaps surprisingly, we hardly ever use the Press and Journal but you will find many of our cleaning/janitorial/grounds staff roles in the Evening Express.

You’ll also find us on myjobscotland, the award-winning public sector portal for Scotland, along with other councils, emergency services and universities/colleges. Many of these sites have the added benefit of covering Scotland and the UK, so as much as we’d like you to join us, we understand you might want to keep your options open and these sites will help widen your job search.

As obvious as it sounds, its really important to keep your CV/profile up to date with new skills and jobs. As well as advertising roles on these sites, we also search CVs and profiles, so you want to ensure we don’t pass you by when that ideal job comes up.

Finally, and most excitingly, we’ve made huge strides in using social media to reach out to the local market. Over the last year we’ve grown our audience in and around Aberdeen, more than doubled our Facebook following and increased our Twitter followers sixteen-fold. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter and you’ll find not just our jobs but also lots of useful information about living and working in Aberdeen and what’s going on in the university.

Julie Skinner, Resourcing and Benefit Specialist, RGU