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Working in Recruitment: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly things
October 22, 2020
11 minutes
4996 Viewers
When I was in my school, my teachers always taught me that there are no unmixed blessings on earth. So, working in recruitment also includes downsides along with its brighter aspects. In this blog, I’ll try to demonstrate three sides of the recruitment profession which are, the good, the bad and the ugly. So, keep reading the article. I will try to cover up to let you know all the three aspects.
What does a recruiter do for a company?
Basically, a recruiter is a responsible person in a company or organisation to fill up the required vacancy. From job advertisement, interviewing candidates, validate qualifications, salary negotiation to on-boarding process, these are the core responsibilities of a recruiter.
Skills needed to work in recruitment
Every profession require some core skills. To get a job as a recruiter in a company, 10 core skills needed to work in recruitment. Here, you will get the list of skills at a glance-
Some myths about recruitment
In the recruitment profession, you’ll hear loads of misconceptions and misinterpretations. That is to say; many believe that recruitment put people off from pursuing a career in this industry.
Therefore, these myths create the picture that recruitment has many pitfalls that aren’t actually real. For instance, one of the biggest misconceptions is that you have to be an extrovert and outgoing to be a good recruiter, whereas the fact is not the same.
There are many quiet and introvert person who turned out to be the best recruiters. After all, the ability to listen attentively is an essential skill for any recruiter.
Another misjudgment is that recruiters only care about filling a role as quickly as possible. That, again, isn’t true. Recruiters don’t just focus on short-term gains. They’re interested in finding the best talent for a role and building long-term relationships with their candidates.
Also, despite being the middleman between candidates and the company, recruiters still have an impact on hiring decisions. As a recruiter, your input about candidates is valued and taken into account by hiring managers.
Working in recruitment-The ugly things
In my blog, firstly, I’ll talk about the worst part of the recruitment profession and will end with the best ones so that you can leave with a positive vibe. So, what are the most ill-favoured aspects of working in recruitment? Well, they are the following:
1. Rejecting people
It’s an awful thing in the recruiting profession. Every day you’ll meet people who desperately need a job, and getting a job is a do or die thing for them. But you can’t help to convey the rejection news to them. Besides, your candidates won’t always get the role.
Sometimes it’s something you can affect, and sometimes it’s beyond your reach. However, all you can do is keep learning and trying to make sure you find the right candidates for your clients and the right roles for your candidates.
2. Confused candidates
Aargh! Each day you’ll meet candidates of the special kind who are always confused! And I must say they are the most irritating to handle. They frequently keep changing their decisions which lag you behind in arranging their interviews with the clients. And as a recruiter, you have to tolerate these politely with a smile in your face. So, if you ask me, I’ll say it’s a dark side of working in recruitment.
3. You'll become very sceptical
When you have heard a flock of excuses for people not attending an interview or taking your call, you do tend to be a little less trusting. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure many are genuine, but when the same candidate’s grandma has died four times, you start to lose sympathy. And losing empathy and compassion are not welcomed at any cost!
4. Fight against bad recruiters’ reputations
It’s pretty typical of people to have a negative perception of recruiters as a whole, simply because of bad experiences with other bad recruiters. Whilst these particular recruiters only represent a small percentage of the industry, their poor behaviour can act as a black mark against the profession as a whole, regardless of the excellent approach, abilities and reputation of the majority.
Combating this can be challenging as although you haven’t put a foot wrong, you are automatically at a disadvantage with some candidates. That is, of course, all part of the challenge, and changing people’s perceptions is just another of the many rewards you can earn in the field of recruitment.
Working in recruitment-The bad
Now, let’s talk about the bad side of the recruitment profession. The basic difference between the ugly and bad part of working in recruitment is the scale of negativeness. That is to say, bad parts are more tolerable than ugly ones. However, the bad sphere may include:
1. Work-life balance
You know that a successful life means a perfect balance between work and life. Without it, our life becomes nothing but a miserable one! However, in recruitment, unfortunately, the balance is not that great.
Recruitment means long hours, high stress and a lot of knock-backs. You end up thinking about work when you are not there and stressing about emails meetings, targets etc. What I would say is it does get easier. You get more organised, more resilient and generally more empowered as you build your client base. But be prepared, you will see your colleagues more than your partner.
2. Highly competitive
You will be surprised to hear that in the UK recently there are 39,232 recruitment agencies and the number is still growing. Therefore, as a freshman, you have to compete with people having more experience, more clients, more relationships and more candidates.
Besides, you’ll hear horror stories of recruiters pretending to be candidates, withholding information from colleagues, even faking CVs to get ahead. But a wrong deed is always a wrong deed, and you’ll never end up going well by doing so. Try and be one of the good recruiters! Work hard, and it will come good eventually provided you have the right training and the right environment.
3. Intuition
Another drawback of recruiting is you have to rely on intuition to make hiring decisions which is difficult to justify. Especially, it becomes a daunting task when candidates have to pass pre-employment assessments and be able to show their skills and qualifications during the interview process.
Suppose, a candidate has sent you a humble thank you note after the phone interview, and you really feel positive about the applicant. But it is not adequate for you to convince the client for hiring that candidate. The worst part about recruiting is, therefore, being able to justify a hiring decision when you can’t point to strong reasons why you believe one candidate is more suitable than the other.
4. Lot of time over phone
On average, a recruiter works 40 hours per week. Besides, as a recruiter, you’ll spend 78,352 minutes on the phone a year. Therefore, you have to pay about 63% of their time on the phone per week. Essentially, recruiters are spending an average of 25 hours per week on the phone, which means they are spending significant amount of time multi-tasking or potentially working overtime to complete their weekly tasks.
Ultimately, the amount of time recruiters is spending on their phones means they have to work fast and effectively. Perhaps the number of time recruiters spends making phone calls effects this next statistic.
5. Little control over the outcome
One of the bad parts of working in recruitment is related to the fact that you have little control over the outcome of our work. Especially in the ultra-competitive high-end recruiting fields (like executive, sales, engineering, etc.) a recruiter can literally spend weeks searching, emailing, calling, networking, relationship building, and interviewing and do everything 100% correctly and still end up with a negative result. Recruiters get to work with people all the time, but as a result, there is no certainty. It’s kind of a gift and a curse.
Working in recruitment-The good
Like all other professions, work in recruitment also has millions of benefits and rewards. In this section, let’s talk about the good side of this prominent profession. The good in recruitment may involve:
1. The reward
You know what, you can earn a smart amount of money on recruitment in a pretty short period. Yes, I’m talking about the on-target earnings, sounds amazing to get banded around a lot. Although during the first year you won’t make that much, it will take a couple of years before you start seeing some perfect money.
By being focused all the time, you can achieve some great things financially. I have seen people earn more in a month than some people will make in a year.
2. Incentives
This job is full of perks. That is to say; things like trips abroad (Ibiza, New York, Vegas, Budapest), paid lunches at top restaurants, nights out, great holiday allowances and cash incentives are pretty common in this profession but not the norms in many jobs. If you do well in recruitment, you’ll get great incentives!
3. Career progression
In the recruitment field, promotion is very frequent. Moreover, I haven’t seen or heard of many jobs where you can get promoted more than one time in a year. But surely, you’ll see it done in recruitment. Clear targets make progression easy to aim for and achieve if you work hard.
4. Life skills
Many people enter into recruitment straight out of college or university. This profession forces you to come out of your shell and engage with a wide range of people across all walks of life. It also builds confidence, communication, organisation and language skills, to name a few. Therefore, if you’re young and a bit “wet behind the ears” in many ways, this job is perfect for you.
5. Helping people
Despite working in a sales environment, recruiters are not here to help people get jobs which is the work of job centres. Besides, as a recruiter, you are here to fill the needs of your clients with suitable candidates.
However, a great by-product of that is actually helping people secure the job they have been hoping for. When you can assist a person in securing the role that helps them progress, it is a great feeling. Being able to stay in touch and build relationships with candidates is a rewarding part of what can be a draining job. And surely, it’s the best part of the job!
Bottom line
However, throughout the blog, I intend to demonstrate all the three aspects of working in recruitment. It will be my immense pleasure if this blog encourages you to decide your career. I wish you good luck in this regard.
Lastly, please do visit our website to get exciting career buildup courses at an affordable price. Click Here! And thank you mate, for staying this long.
Adios!
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