What Recruitment Company Should I join?

This is the second part of the series on How to get into Recruitment

So you have written your CV and it is ready to go but wait, first make sure someone apart from you has read it to ensure it makes sense. Amazingly the standards of resumes I read are quiet poor; there is no excuse with spell checker and grammar checker. Watch out here though as spell check will often not include headings or words written in capitals and on top of this it may be spelled correctly but just the wrong word!

I have had many a laugh at some of the spelling on curriculum vitae´s, it is often at the top big and bold but spelt incorrectly because it hasn’t been checked.

The next step is where to send your cv well this will really depend on what market sector you have chosen or where your skills best fit. I think these days there is a recruitment consultancy for nearly every single market. So the most logical direction would be a market that relates to your experience or degree, that way it will give you an edge.

Apart from industries there are the different fields of recruitment to consider

1) Permanent

2) Temporary/Contract

3) Head Hunting

4) In House

5) Or a Combination of above

The styles of the person vary greatly here The Temporary or Contract consultant can be very much a service type role where the role is very much about ensuring the candidates get to their job on time and the completion of time sheets.

The Permanent role is more sales orientated and is generally more new business driven, so here you need to have more of that sales drive.

Finally there is the headhunter, which although most people perceive that head hunting is generally recruitment; a true headhunter will command salaries in excess of £100,000. The role is much more involved in that you tend to work on assignments and on larger fees i.e. 30% of directors salaries, which can range between £50k to £100k.

To help you focus, if you are starting out then you will need to consider permanent or temporary and head hunting is for more senior and experienced individuals.

Next you need to consider the size of company to work for, whether to join a start up or a company like Manpower or a small agency. All have their advantages but starting you career with one of the big companies is the best way to go, as these companies will give you the training, which will set you up for life. Which is how I started.

I would try to avoid the start-ups as this can be very stressful, but generally you will have the advantage of working with someone who is very experienced and has broken away from an established consultancy.

If you cannot get into the likes of manpower then the smaller companies will often give you the break and a couple of years hear will give you the experience to join the larger organisations.

How to Get into Recruitment

Breaking into the field of recruitment can be so difficult for some and for others so easy, so with this site I hope to put together a series of help topic´s to ensure your success, called How to get into Recruitment.

Having been in recruitment for many years I can honestly say that Recruitment is a fantastic industry, it is one of the few industry that can give you so many opportunities, whether  it is monetary, management, sales or even the relatively easy way you can even start your own company and on top of all this you can be involved in virtually any industry.

But be warned it is a tough industry and unfortunately many enter the profession thinking it is a Human Resource role and as a result they generally fail. So I wanted to make one point clear, and that is a Recruitment Consultant is a SALES EXECUTIVE, so if you do not like sales I suggest you try another market.

On top of this recruitment is VERY COMPETITIVE so in essence you will need to have an abundance of drive and passion, with some sales experience. Saying this I do not want to put you off, because what makes this is a great industry is that compared to general sales, this product will say “thank you!!”

Based on this and other factors, I have put together a list of the key skills or attributes that I believe make up a successful Consultant and if you have most of them you are most of the way there.

• Communication skills (Clear diction, articulate)
• Hard working (overtime, make calls from home if necessary)
• Sales ability (able to promote the service of your company and get commitment)
• Time Management (You will be pulled in all directions)
• Competent writer (Adverts, resumes, reports etc, although I have got away with it for many years!)
• Smart Appearance
• Able to deal with rejection
• When it is tough have the strength to keep focused
• Good Rapport skills
• A personality (helps build a rapport)
• Able to think outside the box, there is always more than one way to skin a cat!

This should help you understand what the agency is looking for, which will help you succeed or I have put you off altogether.