Is recruitment for you

Becoming a Recruitment Consultant By Rich Wooten

They are many entry routes to recruitment.



Some of them are very unusual. In fact there are no standard routes. Take my route for instance, I graduated in electronics after a few years of floating about in jobs I decided to go contracting.



As I felt I couldn’t commit to a company on a permanent basis. After, a few extensions to the contract, I spoke with the agency looking after me to say that I’d be interested in technical sales and whether they covered that. They were interested in my technical background and asked if I be interested in becoming a recruitment consultant.



The rest, as they say, is history.



So what qualities do you need?

Well there are no formal qualifications, no natural progression into the trade, there is no training that can prepare you. The only things you need is to be able to think quickly on your feet, to be able to sell, have a nose for gossip, an ability to talk to people and get them to open up, a desire to win and to be able to take many, many knock backs.



Why would you want to be a recruitment consultant?

There is only one reason…… Money. There is no other business (other than Politics) where someone with no qualifications can make a lot of money. There are very few people who get into this business with honourable intent of wanting to help people.



So what’s it like?

It a very tough job, in fact one that you are never able to switch off, for example I am always listening to people to hear what they do for a living and if it’s relevant to me either them as a candidate or who they work for.



In the first two years you can expect low pay, and bad conditions. For example in the first year you can expect to work 10 or 12 hours days. After a few years in the business you are able to relax but you can never take your foot off the pedal as there is always some young buck ready to take your place.



The are a lot of highs and a lot of lows. But the highs are very high and the lows, very low. For example the day your client calls you to say that they are cutting heads in the business and the first to go are your 10 contractors.



So what’s the first step?

In IT recruitment the first entry point is as a resourcer.



A resourcer spends his/her time calling candidates try to fill jobs and you’ll be there long after the consultants have gone home or swanning off early to play golf with a client.



Then you’ll move up to Consultant where you’d start to bring in Clients. That’s when life gets really tough. One thing to bare in mind is that 60% of all people that enter recruitment leave within the first year.