3 Reasons Why Recruitment is a Brilliant Career Choice.

Like most recruitment professionals, I fell into the industry.  I am yet to meet the Recruitment Consultant that pranced around their bedroom, singing into a hairbrush, dreaming of going into recruitment instead of playing to sell-out crowds at the NEC, racing cars, or going into space. I was either going to be an intrepid explorer, a cross between Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, or the new David Attenborough.  And, while there are still some dreams and bucket list experiences I am yet to achieve, I can honestly say that the recruitment industry has been kind to me.  It has enabled me to learn and experience so many things and I think it is over-looked as a pretty fabulous career to get into.

With over 20 years recruitment experience under my belt, I know that it isn’t for the fainthearted.  However, it offers so much more in terms of personal and professional reward that it really should be a career choice people are aware of.

Here are my top 3 reasons why recruitment is a fabulous career to choose:

1. You get to help people everyday

I joined a very entrepreneurial and sales-driven agency in the mid-nineties, where “wanting to help people” was a reason to NOT hire would-be recruiters.  This attitude did not display the killer sales instinct they were after.  I always believed that you could help people and make money but it’s fair to say that helping people was often a happy by-product of what we did rather than a philanthropic aim.  This was very much the approach of most of the industry, and still is in many sectors, and it led to a very successful business being built which has put thousands of people into work over the years.

I am pleased to say that many recruitment businesses and professional recruiters appreciate that we have a great responsibility when we place people.  We all spend so much time at work and it impacts all other facets of life in some way.  What we can earn will influence, to some extent, the things we can have, places we can live, and life experiences we will have. The workplace environment can make us happy, motivated, contented, challenged and satisfied when we’re in the right one.  It can also lead to frustration, unhappiness, stress and depression.  Whether we go home and (metaphorically) kick the cat, are short-tempered with our nearest and dearest, or are a joy to be around can depend largely upon the type of day we’ve had and how good we feel in our work environment.

Helping people to improve their career, personal and professional development, and earning opportunities can be very rewarding.  There are often indirect factors, or seemingly less significant things, that can make a massive impact upon somebody’s life, and that makes for a warm and fuzzy glow.

I still remember a case, many years ago, where a candidate was placed in a job that was thirty minutes closer to home and had an early finish on Fridays.  Her personal, financial and work circumstances had meant that her ex-husband had main custody of their young daughter and she had her just for weekends.  She would pick her child up on Saturday morning and return her Sunday evening.  The new job meant that she could collect her daughter from school on Friday afternoons and drop her back there on Monday mornings.  Even this hardened recruiter had a lump in my throat, and tear in my eye, when she came into the branch to thank us and told us the full story.

More recently, a candidate came to me having lost her job after 13 years.  I’m still working on a permanent job and I have managed to keep her in temporary work for now.  She’s thankful the bills aren’t piling up unpaid and has had the chance to get used to a different working environment having been with the same employer for so long.  She told me this has helped her feel more relaxed about finding something new.

2. Earning potential, career progression & low barrier to entry

Good money can be made in recruitment.  While some of your operational efforts are influenced by others (candidates not turning up for interviews, or on start dates, for example), how well you do is largely down to you.  If you’re prepared to work hard, learn the skills required, and persist, you can practically write your own wage cheques.  Recruitment also has low barriers to entry.  Few recruitment agencies and businesses demand specific qualifications or academic achievements, and focus more on sales and people skills, and level of ambition.  Over the years I have worked with some very successful recruiters from a whole range of backgrounds.  Some are graduates, some barely scraped a few GCSEs, and all are very different.  The things they have in common include: willingness to learn new things; ambition to earn and/or progress; resilience and persistence; good work ethic; and good people and influencing skills.

In a 360° or business development role, both basic salaries and commission structures allow for making a very decent living.  Career progression and increased earning potential is also possible within even the smaller, independent agencies.  Boutique, niche and executive search or headhunt firms attract big fees and generous commission structures.  Most agencies, even small ones, have some level of hierarchy or progression paths to follow.  This may range from trainee Recruitment Consultant or Resourcer through to desk, departmental or divisional manager.  Larger agencies will have potentially more options available where individuals can progress into key account management, training and development, corporate sales, RPO (recruitment process outsourcing) and specialist services, and director-level roles.

One of the things that I love about recruitment is that your earning and level of progression is generally governed by the results you deliver rather than just time-served with an employer.

3. Skills gained

The recruitment industry can be very demanding and the challenges we face as recruiters on a day-to-day basis are opportunities for personal and professional development.  One of the most valuable skills honed through daily interactions with people is effective communication and influencing skills. These are essential skills for success in any type of role and are also handy when it comes to your personal and social life too.  A good recruiter will find that they soon learn how to get the measure of people quickly and are often good judges of character.  Learning the different “languages” and behavioural styles of people also lends itself to being able to empathise with people and, in some situations, influence outcomes.  This can be handy when, for example, you want to see a certain film and your friend/partner wants to watch something else.  It is a big responsibility to use this superpower responsibly!

Working in what can be a highly reactive environment equips you with the ability to adapt quickly to change, work out solutions while under pressure, and tend to remain calm while the shit hits the fan around you.  Many companies allow (or actively encourage) you to run your desk like it was our own business and this autonomy allows you to develop commercial awareness about margins, budgets and the return on investment you get for your time and actions.  Perhaps this is one of the reasons why many recruiters go on to own their own businesses at some stage.

Another valuable commonality for all good recruiters is the development of extensive networks of contacts.  The best relationship builders soon become a hub within their field or geographic location.  They become the go-to person not just to find staff or a job but for all sorts of introductions to useful people.  Once you have built good, strong networks and nourish those relationships, those networks will repay your efforts a thousand-fold.  With the right people in place, or accessible to you through personal introduction, you will never be without a job or career options.  Even more valuable than employment opportunities though, is the support, knowledge and growth that will be facilitated by having an extensive network of diverse experts within your reach.

So, these are my top three reasons why recruitment is a brilliant career choice.  I would love to hear what other recruiters think the best things about a career in the industry are.  Please feel free to add your own top three in the comments section.