I’ve been interviewed by one of your clients, what happens next?

We always seek to get feedback from our clients as soon as possible. Ideally we hope they'll be back in touch with us on the day your interview has taken place.

In practice this doesn't always happen. When it doesn't happen we, usually, wait till the next day before following up with them. If we don't get to speak to the relevant person the next day we keep at it till we do. If after five working days the client, or the client's representatives, have not been back in touch with us, or remain otherwise elusive, we will write to them to let them know that they are in imminent risk of losing you as a candidate.

The obvious exception to this default is when clients have advised us in advance of special circumstances likely to slow down proceedings, in such instances you can expect this information to be passed on to you by us in advance too.

We take this proactive approach because we respect the chefs who work through us at least as much as we value the business our clients bring to us. Compromising on this would, we believe, put our reputation with the culinary community at risk. We willingly pass on taking business from clients who are not prepared to offer our chefs timely feedback.

I applied for a Job. What’s next?

If your CV is a very close match for the type of position advertised and a good fit with the type of profile our client is seeking then you can expect to hear from us very soon.

If you dont receive a personalized response within a couple of days that usually means that we've had to focus on other applications ahead of yours.

Please do not take this to mean that there is anything wrong with your application. Often when clients approach an agency to work on a vacancy they come with a very specific description of what it is, and who it is, they want. Often these descriptions can be very proscriptive, even excessively so.

While we can, and often do, attempt to advise clients to consider a wider range of possibilities we are, in the end, their servant and can only suggest CVs and Chefs who closely match their requirements. Even if you have no success with your application it's still worthwhile that you applied because we fill a lot of positions from our database and in applying to us you've let us know of at least one type of job you're interested in.

So the next time we're approached to fill a similar position we're in a position to match you with the job.

What if I apply for the same job through multiple recruitment agencies?

There's no definitive answer to this but our considered opinion is that, you will not increase your chances of success and doing so might prove to be a real disadvantage to you.

Before putting any chef forward for a job we're obliged to ask candidates which jobs they're recently applied for in order to avoid such duplication.

Furthermore we suggest that if your CV finds it's way into an employers hands more than once, and especially if it gets there via more than one recruitment agency, you're sending potential employers the wrong signals which will, potentially, devalue you as a candidate.

What is Contingency Recruitment?

Contingency Recruitment describes the majority of recruitment transactions. A contingency recruiter, or recruitment agency, gets paid only upon the successful placement of a candidate in a job.

TOPCHEFS Careers & Recruitment is a contingency recruiter so we invoice you only if we succeed for you and place a chef with you.

This is in contrast to "Retained Recruitment." Any fee attaching to the, contingency, recruitment assignment belongs to the client and never to the candidate so the recruiter is working only for the client.

Fees are calculated as a percentage of the candidate's first year renumeration.

Will I have to pay TOPCHEFS to find me a job?

No! We will never seek a fee from any chef for job placement or recruitment service.

On those occasions when we're placing chefs abroad and working in tandem with accredited  immigration agents, fees will be due to them but only upon a chef receiving both their placement and their visa.

There is not, and there will not be, any fees due from chefs for placement.

Will TOPCHEFS check my job references?

When we reference check a chef's former employers we do so only with the candidates prior permission.

When we receive a CV/Resume where individual referees are provided by the candidate then that permission is assumed to exist and those referees will likely be contacted.

However reference checks will likely be carried out by the employer too.

Will TOPCHEFS respond to my job application?

We think it is best practice to respond to all applications and we endeavour to do so.

We do though ask applicants to appreciate that we receive a vast volume of CV's every week before rushing to judgement about responses.

We calculate that, to date, our response rate is above 80%. On occasion we've discovered CV's caught by spam filters and once or twice agents have left a CV aside in a folder to attend to later only to overlook it.

We're not perfect and we are working to reduce such incidents but if your situation is particularly urgent then please do give us a call.

On the other-hand if you uploaded your CV, as opposed to applying for a specific vacancy, you will receive a standard acknowledgement of receipt.

What is Retained Recruitment?

In contrast to "Contingency Recruitment" in retained recruitment the recruiter, or agency, gets paid for both the process of recruitment and successfully delivering the desired result.

Usually the deal is structured in three thirds, 1/3 of the fee up front, another 1/3 upon delivery of an agreed number of suitable qualified candidates CVs and the final third after the successful candidate has started work.

Usually retained recruitment is reserved for more senior positions and higher salaries. The fee structure is designed in this way to enable the recruiters to deploy more manpower and resources to the search process than in contingency recruitment, where all the risk is borne by the recruiter.