As we all know, the recruitment world is constantly challenged with finding great senior talent. As a Rec to Rec consultant, a large part of my role is finding and sourcing this talent. However, I also believe that senior talent always started as a fresh recruit somewhere and I do spend time recruiting graduates for the recruitment industry.
I often get asked, what makes a good graduate in the recruitment industry?
- They need an incredible leader and mentor who is happy to train, develop and inspire them. The first 3 months are sink or swim. The agency taking a graduate on needs to have systems in place to allow this graduate to swim.
- They need to have the fire in their belly and they need to demonstrate to me how competitive they are. I want to hear about achievements, how they love to compete and how they have achieved something many others have not. It is not about how big the achievement is but what it took to get there.
- They need to engage, build amazing rapport and win me over with body language that energizes me
- They need to show me that they have juggled working part time whilst at uni and at school and I need to know that they have not been spoon fed by others
- Working in a retail or any sales environment part-time whilst studying is highly regarded as they have been exposed to budgets, upselling and targets
- Show me resilience, energy and a competitive spirit! I need them to turn up to my interview in a way that indicates they care about how they look and I love getting insight into a dynamic personality
Explaining to a graduate about what recruitment is hard! It is not HR admin like a lot of people think it is. For graduates coming into the industry, I love to explain the role as a recruitment consultant with the following points:
- HR administration is one part of the role (writing seek ads, managing response etc). However, this is just a very small part of what recruitment is.
- Recruitment is creating a personal brand alongside the brand you chose to work with
- It is managing and maintaining current client relationships (phone, meetings, lunches and networking nights)
- Agency recruitment is delivering on the requirements the client asks of you and if you can’t deliver, its managing the process of re-setting expectations (ability to persuade, negotiate and influence are key characteristics required for many conversations within agency recruitment)
- Attending client meetings. You need to walk in there and make that client remember you. Being different and diverse can really be used to set yourself apart from the pack, so use it, don’t hide it. Client meetings can have many purposes:
- Introducing yourself as the new contact
- They may want to understand the current structure in more detail and identify upcoming recruitment requirements and projects that may affect staffing levels
- You may be called down to the client to take in a full job brief and start recruiting
- Someone you placed may not be working out and the issue needs discussion
- The meeting could be to discuss recruitment fee’s
- You may be working with one area of the business and they would like you to meet another area of the business
- Candidate sourcing and finding innovative ways to source top talent
- Building yourself a great LinkedIn profile
- Matching top talent to the jobs you are working on with your clients
- Attracting new clients through lead generation, sales and business development calls
- Managing the database and making sure all follow up calls are logged and actioned
- Never forget the importance of internal relationships. Your internal peers will always be an important factor to your success. They are the ones that will introduce you to clients, assist you with candidates, cross sell your services and bring you into the bigger team.
- Meeting the Key Performance Measures of your role. In recruitment activity equals results!
- Recruitment is HR administration, sales, business development and the management of key relationships to enable you to fill the job requirements of your clients.
- Success at balancing the above can give you a very lucrative career where no day or even hour will ever be the same!
If you have interested in a career in agency recruitment, please email or call me today on: andrea@connectingrecruiters.com.au 0408560393