Outplacement First Reviews 

Fantastic assistance and support!
Following my redundancy, Bill McKeown from Outplacement First offered invaluable personal and professional support during a challenging period.
Bill provided excellent assistance in crafting my CV and preparing for interviews.
I cannot speak highly enough of Bill and the Virtual Career Centre!

I had a brilliant experience working with Bill McKeown after being made redundant. He had a wealth of knowledge and an encouraging approach which made a difficult situation much easier. He was motivational, couldn't be more supportive, and helped me land the first job I applied for (which I really wanted). A recipe for success!

I had an excellent experience with Laurence. He was awesome to work with and provided a high quality of service during my recent job search.

Laurence was extremely helpful and supportive throughout our contact. He had some very useful suggestions and prepared me well for interviews. Overall he made my job hunting time feel manageable and I felt confident throughout the process. Fantastic service and very approachable.

After 26 years in the same company I found myself unexpectedly looking for a new job. It can be a bewildering place to be. Bill from Outplacement First was knowledgeable, personable and so supportive as he patiently navigated me through creating a top class CV, how to deal with recruitment agencies and just generally restored my confidence. After only two months I have just accepted an exciting new role. I cannot recommend this company highly enough.

Thank you to Laurence and Bill for creating a tailored and flexible package for my situation. I enjoyed my meetings with Bill and his practical and friendly approach. I appreciated not only the help with creating my CV and LinkedIn profile but also his support with my overall wellbeing. Thank you very much.

Following redundancy at the end of April 2023 I was put in touch with Outplacement First by my previous employer.

I met with Laurence Martin via Teams weekly to begin with, and subsequently fortnightly.

Laurence was great,he helped me to streamline my CV and also provided tips and advice on improving my LinkedIn profile, which has really made a difference. Laurence was also reassuring, practical and helped me to remain optimistic during a difficult time when my confidence had been knocked and it felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me.

I have secured a new position within 2 months of redundancy and I am grateful to Laurence for his help during this difficult time.

Outplacement First delivered a first class service in helping me to find my next career move. I was put in contact with Bill McKeown, whose expert coaching and knowledge of the recruitment market were second to none. I cannot recommend his service highly enough.

I would just like to say a massive personal thank you to Matthew Dunsmore for his incredible support over the last few weeks. He is a complete credit to the company. He not only optimised my CV but spent the time preparing me for my interviews. He then followed up with emails with lots of useful links. He genuinely cared and he gave me such good advice throughout. I cannot recommend him enough. THANK YOU AGAIN!

Amazing experience with Bill McKeown. Bill worked with me over 8 weeks to help me with my CV update and interview coaching. Completely transformed my approach to applying and interviewing for jobs, resulting in getting an amazing offer.

Matthew Dunsmore was amazingly helpful. His extensive knowledge of, and experience in employment recruitment, enabled him to give me all the very best advice from start to finish of the job seeking process. I had never set up a LinkedIn profile so I was really happy when Matthew did that for me based on my CV. His practical help on CV presentation, visibility on job sites, and interview techniques, was invaluable. He was extremely patient and encouraging throughout, and a pleasure to work with. With Matthew's help I've been able to join a great company, in a fantastic role, and I would highly recommend his services to anybody looking for a new job opportunity.

The service and support that I have received from Matthew has been brilliant and I can’t thank him enough for this (and also for being so caring throughout the process).

I was made redundant (worked at the co for 15 years) so I had no CV or interview experience. I also had low self esteem and little confidence but after having the sessions with Matthew (and the resources available) I was offered a job within a few wks.

I am extremely grateful for his help, support and guidance and would completely recommend the company!

Thanks again Matthew

Matthew Dunsmore was my assigned contact and he was both really knowledgeable and helpful. His guidance was very much tailored to my personal situation and I felt that he was able to help his clients in different ways irrespective of their level or aspirations. Matthew's understanding of the inner workings of modern recruitment certainly helped me understnad where best to focus my time and efforts. He remained in contact and available to give help and feedback until I was finally settled into a new role. A great help and definitely a positive experience

Matthew Dunsmore provided me with exceptionally useful information and guidance over a couple of meetings. Matthew’s experienced background enabled him to provide me skills to navigate the journey of using recruitment agencies, right through to being completely prepared for an interview. I was able to prepare for interview by the fantastic mock questions offered by Outplacement First, and this left me feeling more confident in my interview. The service offered by Outplacement First is something I have never seen before and certainly something that I think should be more widely available. They gave me back the faith and confidence that I had lost, after looking for a job for so long. I am delighted to say that I am now working, thanks to the help and guidance provided by Outplacement First, and will be forever grateful for their help.

I was very fortunate to have a seasoned professional (Bill Mckeown) guide me through an uncertain job transition over the past several months. Bill was patient and made sure I took my time to craft a updated/compelling CV and Linkedin profile and then guided me on job outreach strategy and tactics. More importantly Bill provided excellent mental/psychological support in putting rejections and disappointments in perspective and encouraging me on my progress. I have ended up with a very good outcome thanks to his optimism and putting things in perspective. Deeply grateful for his counsel. I highly recommend him for experienced job seekers dealing with the shock an unforeseen job transition.

An unexpected strategic change of direction resulted in my role being made redundant, which I'm very aware could have thrown my world into complete disarray. However, thanks to the incredible support and guidance of Bill McKeown, I have emerged relatively unscathed mentally and delighted to be moving onto my next opportunity. Bill quickly understood me as an individual and offered incredible advice and steer, knowing when and how best to challenge my thinking to get the best from me, which at a time when you're at risk of doubting yourself, was invaluable.
Thank you for everything Bill!

after working for 47 years and having achieved good success, I thought I was planned for retirement. Bill McKeon was quick to realise that I had plenty of ideas, but none of these were in situ ready for retirement. He has counselled me excellently, so much so I have recommended him to a client.

Having decided to retire after 43 years my form kindly provided some retirement preparation sessions. Bill McKeown got in touch and I have to say provided outstanding thought provoking, sensible and challenging discussion points during a series of sessions to help ease me through. I liked his 'real life', wise and challenging dialogue, really very good indeed. I highly recommend Bill in this regard, he has definitely got me to think through what I want from the next (non-working) phase of my life. 10/10!

After 12 years since my last job search, Outplacement First and specifically Bill's calm reassuring guidance and support was honestly I think critical to my quick success. With Bill's weekly virtual sessions, tips, encouragement and a month of following his suggested methods I had three first interviews in one week and ended up with two offers the following week. Outplacement First understand how the job seeker feels and take well being into account, not just passing on all the latest knowledge. When I started with Bill I had no CV, let alone knowing how to reduce 40 years of working on to two pages someone would read! Thanks Bill. My success is your success.

After nearly 25 years with the same employer, I was approaching the open job market with a sense of trepidation! I needn't have worried, as Matthew at Outplacement First was there to support and advise. Our meetings were practical and insightful - as well as friendly and humerous. All round, a very enjoyable experience - and I now have a new job!!