Recruitment Consultants

[00snook]

I worked as a recruitment consultant for a few years.

I did temps for a major highstreet chain. Was OK work, and because I was a good "salesman" I made plenty of commission.

As has been said higher up this post if you are working in the higher salary brackets for company with major blue chip clients it can be a very lucrative job.

Good sales skills, and tenacity are crucial. Its all about building up a good portfolio of both clients and applicants, and then matching the two together.

I have moved onto training now, but one of my best mates is in medical recruitment and does very well out of it indeed. If you are a good salesman and understand what goes into that then you will do well in recruitment.

Did you have a particular industry sector in mind?

 

[Skaville]

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Is anyone here in the business or does anyone know of anyone that is? I am currently a sales person in the finance sector and seriously considering a change.Banks are not the most pleasant places to work at the moment. I have been speaking with a Recruitment consultant today who highly recommends being one and it does sound right up my street being that there seem to be lots of transferable skills from my current role.

Wondered if anyone had any pearls of wisdom about what to expect. OTE? Working Hours Etc.

Any advice or comment would be appreciated

Thanks

Working hours are long. In many recruitment roles your "desk" is essentially a profit centre, so you need to be prepared to put in the graft. I have done a minimum 47 hour week for the past nine years.

Be very, very choosy about who you work for. Many companies offer the earth and deliver nothing. Also, read the small print on you commsion. I've worked at two of the larger global agencies and they shaft you on things like company performance which you have very little control over. Changing employers in recruitment is costly as you generally lose your clients and owed commission. There are some really shoddy outfits. Pm me names of any potential employers and I'll let you know the heads up if I've heard anything.

Work out the industry and try and find your niche. It ranges from high street at the bottom end to search at the top. Many assume it's all the same but there are vast differences between things like contract and permanent recruitment and contingent or retained.

Finally, expect some shit! The industry has an awful reputation. Like Commander says, if your good and far from the stereotype it's hugely rewarding. I used to hate telling people what I did for a living but now I'm very proud of what we have achieved in our business.

 

[Skaville]

The other thing I would add is you absolutely must be resilient. You'll have three candidates on final interview one day and the next day you'll hear that one has accepted another offer, one has decided not to move and the third has vanished off the face of the earth. You have to be able to pick yourself up, dust yourself down and do it all again.

 

[Brovion]

I shagged your mum.

(I can't believe the thread has gone on this long without those immortal words being written. RIP Frank)

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

I shagged your mum.

(I can't believe the thread has gone on this long without those immortal words being written. RIP Frank)

Indeed. Frank would certainly have entertained us on this thread with his forthright views on this industry. RIP.

 

[Commander]

Recruitment Consultancy is a job for complete and utter f***ing mongs. The only skill you need is that to talk shit, nothing else. I have a couple of friends that are/have been in the 'industry', and although it no doubt pays well it is very boring, soul destroying at times and the hours they work are horric, 12+ hours a day. Completely different to what I do, and many others.

What do you do?

Oh and I work 9-5.30 Mon - Fri. Not exactly 12 hour days.

 

[Skaville]

One final bit of advice. Under promise, over deliver. There are a lot of charlatans out there so demonstrating integrity all times can really single you out.

 

[sussexadz121]

Thanks so much for all the replies so far. Most of them have been great. I haven't been put off just yet. I am at work at the moment but will PM some of you when I am at home if that is ok. Thanks Again

Adam

 

[Farehamseagull]

I certainly don't share the general view of this board that Recruitment Agents are scum, I've worked with some very good ones over the years. Like every industry you do get a few bad apples though.

Genuine question though, is it not a bad time to be getting into something like recruitment? We keep hearing about high levels of unemployment and I would have thought a lot of firms have cut down spending on things like using recuitment agents to save money in difficult times. I understand the benefits in using a good recruitment agent but it seems to me there are a lot of agencies fighting over very few roles at the moment.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

How did we get to a stage where a company gets paid for finding the company an employee, and then also takes a cut out of that persons wage each week for finding them the job. What a joke.

Something has gone wrong here if you ask me. About time these companies started advertising their own jobs like they did in the old days. It can't be that hard can it.

I have had a bad experience with an Agency. Our money was always late, one time it was five days late, so I phoned them up and they had a go at me on the phone for asking. I lost my rag and told them they where out of order. They never invited be back once the job finished. At the time I was the only British person on their books, so they could generally treat foreign workers like crap. Don't think they liked being told the truth.

The money was shit as well once the agency had taken their dirty little cut.

 

[reigate]

And that's the thing, if you're not a tanned slimy sales twat then you can do very well out of it, because most people who do it are.

As an accountant I always have to go through agents to either get a new job myself or recruit for a position, and you have hit the nail the head. I can't deal with the slimey sales twats (the tan doesn't offend!). As said by someone else, the big high street agents are the worse for this

 

[reigate]

How did we get to a stage where a company gets paid for finding the company an employee, and then also takes a cut out of that persons wage each week for finding them the job. What a joke.

Something has gone wrong here if you ask me. About time these companies started advertising their own jobs like they did in the old days. It can't be that hard can it.

I have had a bad experience with an Agency. Our money was always late, one time it was five days late, so I phoned them up and they had a go at me on the phone for asking. I lost my rag and told them they where out of order. They never invited be back once the job finished. At the time I was the only British person on their books, so they could generally treat foreign workers like crap. Don't think they liked being told the truth.

The money was shit as well once the agency had taken their dirty little cut.

Nearly everyjob I have had has been through an agency and they have not charged me a penny. They get about 20% of 1st years salary from the employer though. This actually helped me get a payrise once, as I said was prepared to leave for more money and pointed out it would have cost my employer £10k to replace me, before training costs, knowlewdge loss etc

 

[cooliobhafc]

I am a recruitment consultant and have been for over 12 years, if you want to get in touch with me, feel free to do so, we are an Executive Level search firm, specailising in the Finance and Technology sectors. PM me if you want some up to date industry advice.

 

[Commander]

Genuine question though, is it not a bad time to be getting into something like recruitment? We keep hearing about high levels of unemployment and I would have thought a lot of firms have cut down spending on things like using recuitment agents to save money in difficult times. I understand the benefits in using a good recruitment agent but it seems to me there are a lot of agencies fighting over very few roles at the moment.

It depends on what niche you work in. There are always booming markets, even during a recession. Mine is Social Care and it was booming a few years ago whilst everything else was crashing. Now it's a bit static so I'm trying to get out and get into a booming one again. Things like renewable energy and pharma are big at the moment, there's always a few industries that will be bucking the trend.

How did we get to a stage where a company gets paid for finding the company an employee, and then also takes a cut out of that persons wage each week for finding them the job. What a joke.

Something has gone wrong here if you ask me. About time these companies started advertising their own jobs like they did in the old days. It can't be that hard can it.

I have had a bad experience with an Agency. Our money was always late, one time it was five days late, so I phoned them up and they had a go at me on the phone for asking. I lost my rag and told them they where out of order. They never invited be back once the job finished. At the time I was the only British person on their books, so they could generally treat foreign workers like crap. Don't think they liked being told the truth.

The money was shit as well once the agency had taken their dirty little cut.

Well it's pretty simple really. Nobody is forcing these companies to use agents, for a start. But in a tough market it's hard to find good people, and the time, effort and money it takes for a company to find one, they're better off in paying an agent to do it for them so they can get on with running their business. If they weren't, then they wouldn't do it. Most companies will still advertise the roles themselves, but the recruitment companies get a far better response because they are experts in doing it and can spend weeks head-hunting the right person. No company director is going to spend 10 hours a day calling all their competitors to try and tempt someone away from them, are they? They have far better things to do with their time.

So I'm not really sure how that equates to the agency 'taking their dirty little cut'. Should they do it for free?

 

[Skaville]

Genuine question though, is it not a bad time to be getting into something like recruitment? We keep hearing about high levels of unemployment and I would have thought a lot of firms have cut down spending on things like using recuitment agents to save money in difficult times. I understand the benefits in using a good recruitment agent but it seems to me there are a lot of agencies fighting over very few roles at the moment.

It really does depend on the market you are in. We've been in business for 15 years and are currently having our best year ever. One thing that has helped us is that the tightening of purse strings in many organisations has led to smaller HR teams who struggle to cope with more work on less resources. Working with a good recruitment consultant is essentially outsourcing, so it makes sense when you want your business to be lean.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

These are times that I really miss the dear departed Frank and his views, often extreme and involving unspeakable acts with various people's mothers

God bless Frank....sleep tight

 

[Monsieur Le Plonk]

It depends on what niche you work in. There are always booming markets, even during a recession. Mine is Social Care and it was booming a few years ago whilst everything else was crashing. Now it's a bit static so I'm trying to get out and get into a booming one again. Things like renewable energy and pharma are big at the moment, there's always a few industries that will be bucking the trend.

Barchester Healthcare 'dismayed' by lack of youths wanting care jobs - Telegraph

Looks VERY static

 

[Commander]

It depends on what niche you work in. There are always booming markets, even during a recession. Mine is Social Care and it was booming a few years ago whilst everything else was crashing. Now it's a bit static so I'm trying to get out and get into a booming one again. Things like renewable energy and pharma are big at the moment, there's always a few industries that will be bucking the trend.

Barchester Healthcare 'dismayed' by lack of youths wanting care jobs - Telegraph

Looks VERY static

Goodness me I don't deal with those oiks, it's a more senior level I work at. There's not much money in placing people who earn minimum wage.

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

I certainly don't share the general view of this board that Recruitment Agents are scum, I've worked with some very good ones over the years. Like every industry you do get a few bad apples though.

Genuine question though, is it not a bad time to be getting into something like recruitment? We keep hearing about high levels of unemployment and I would have thought a lot of firms have cut down spending on things like using recuitment agents to save money in difficult times. I understand the benefits in using a good recruitment agent but it seems to me there are a lot of agencies fighting over very few roles at the moment.

And in the world of temp recruitment, companies will have minimum staff in these tricky times, they win a contract that will last say 3 months and need to increase staff to carry the contract out. They will use an agency to do this as they dont employ them or pay them. They can also increase or decrease the handling on a daily basis if they want. There are plenty of companies picking up contracts.

 

[JJB]

What do you do?

Oh and I work 9-5.30 Mon - Fri. Not exactly 12 hour days.

Worked in finance, got my qualifications, moved into management consultancy and am now executive director of the company I work in and non exec of others. All of which that create value.