How to Get Into a Career in Recruitment

Starting on a new career can be a daunting experience, particularly if it seems you have to start afresh; however, what if you could use your existing skills and knowledge and springboard into a different career? That is what the How to Get Intro Series is all about.

Recruitment is a career choice that can provide many opportunities. Understanding your customer’s needs are important and having the skills to match the right people to the right job is essential. Provided you don’t mind hard work and perseverance it can be very rewarding.

Typical Skills Needed for Recruitment

Knowledge of recruitment area – If you’re going to recruit people for a particular industry, such as IT, it’s important to have some knowledge and understanding of the field. It’s likely that you’ll need to assess whether people have particular skills and experience, and without at least a moderate level of knowledge you won’t be able to identify who’s got the skills and who’s good at talking. Writing good job advertisements is essential to attracting the right candidates, and good job ads mean understanding what the job is all about. You'll also need to answer potential candidates questions about the role.

Interviewing – Recruitment agencies are employed by companies to provide them with high quality short-list of possible candidates. They are relying on the recruitment consultant to be able to conduct the first level of interviews so success as a recruiter greatly depends on their success at being able to identify good candidates.

Reading between the lines – It’s not always easy to determine whether someone will be a good candidate or not. Much of it comes down to the recruiter’s ability to identify elements of a CV that match well to the job description.

Good Listener – A recruiter needs to have a good understanding of the type of person a company is looking for. Some of it will be down to skills and abilities. Other characteristics, such as softer skills like negotiation or communication, are less evident through CVs and resumes and more obvious through speaking with people. Being able to identify whether a applicant is a good fit, both for the skills required and the culture of the organisation, is important for a recruiter.

Recommended Training to Prepare for Recruitment

• Basic knowledge for area to recruit into
• Interviewing
• Strong telephone skills
• Able to read quickly and scan for content

Considerations for Becoming a Recruiter

• Do you like spending a lot of time on the telephone talking with people?
• Do you have the perseverance to read through a high volume of CVs?
• Do you listen well and have the ability to ask questions to understand further?

Recruiter: A Case Study

While working as a sales woman for an IT software company, Maree identified a need by large organisations for high quality candidates for temporary and contract roles. Keen to avoid the costly exercise of searching for possible candidates, this was something that she recognised companies were keen to get other people to do. She decided to grab an opportunity and set up her own small recruitment company.

With a background in IT software development she decided to specialise in this area. Focusing on software development roles she sold her recruitment services into a couple of organisations that she had previously worked with. They liked the fact that Maree had a strong understanding of their industry and could immediately understand the types of candidates they were looking for. She set up a rigorous process for assessing potential candidates and prided herself and her business on only putting forward the best candidates. This sometimes meant putting in long hours where she had to keep looking for the right person.

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