There’s a reason why, on LinkedIn, there’s currently over 229,000 recruitment consultants based in the UK alone. It can be an incredibly rewarding, exciting, lucrative and fulfilling career - not only are you helping businesses thrive and people find their dream jobs, but you’re also somewhat in control of how much money you make based on the amount of work you put in.
With that being said, recruitment isn’t a suitable career for everyone. Not all recruiters are the same, but there are certain characteristics that the best recruitment consultants tend to have in common, which ultimately enable them to be successful in their roles.
Have you ever considered a career in recruitment?
Or, are you currently working as a recruitment consultant and not necessarily seeing the success you’d expected?
Found out what the six most recognisable skills and characteristics of successful recruiters are below.
1. Recruiters need to be competitive
When it comes to either a) winning new client business, b) retaining clients, or c) placing candidates in roles, it is imperative that recruiters need to tap into their competitive side to be successful. The competition in recruitment is fierce - not only do you have other recruitment companies that you’re up against when it comes to winning and retaining clients, the candidate-led market we are currently in makes the job even more challenging, so resilience is key.
If you are confident in your ability to communicate with people to such a degree that they’ll always want to work with you, regardless of whether it’s as a client or a candidate, you may be suited to a role as a recruitment consultant.
2. Recruitment consultants need to be driven
Due to the nature of the job and the fast-paced nature of speaking to clients, taking briefs, attending meetings, screening candidates, organising interviews, providing feedback and the hundreds of other things a recruiter does in a day - being driven is essential.
To be successful in recruitment, it’s simply not possible to kick your feet up for a few hours a day and hope the job applications roll in on their own. Being driven, resilient and self-motivated is what will keep your placement numbers going in the right direction.
3. Recruiters must be commercially aware
It’s one thing understanding a client brief and explaining the job role to relevant candidates, but understanding why a business is recruiting for that role, and how a specific candidate can fulfil that role and contribute to the overall business, is an entirely different skill. This one comes with experience, and people starting their recruitment careers from scratch may not necessarily know the ins and outs of the industries and sectors they recruit in from day one.
But, through communicating with your colleagues, discussing business goals with clients and previous experience with candidates, your commercial awareness will develop over time.
4. Recruitment consultants have to be relationship-focused
Developing relationships with clients and candidates is at the very core of working in recruitment. To have a successful working relationship with your clients, they need to like you, trust you and enjoy working with you, and this is only possible through developing a strong relationship with them over time.
Similarly, candidates need to feel comfortable ringing, texting or emailing you about any queries they may have during their job search - not only will this give you a good reputation in your market and encourage referrals, but will keep them coming back throughout their career.
5. Recruiters have to be tech-savvy
The days of CVs in filing cabinets and Post-it Notes taking over a recruiter’s desk are gone. Now, to stay organised and ultimately be successful in recruitment, being tech-savvy is absolutely essential.
Applicant tracking systems, CRMs, job aggregators, social media scheduling tools, calendar management platforms, email automation tools, WhatsApp and so many other pieces of tech are now a daily go-to for recruiters to make their lives easier. Plus, clients occasionally like to introduce their own platforms or tools that they prefer to use, so understanding and adapting to new technologies is an essential part of the role.
6. Recruitment consultants need to be resilient
With recruitment being so competitive, being resilient and able to stay focused and motivated is absolutely essential. The combination of a candidate-short market and businesses pausing their recruitment due to financial limitations in the current economic climate can lead to many last-minute drop-outs and changes to your plans.
Whilst recruitment overall is a very rewarding job, there will always be challenges along the way, which is why resilience is one of the key requirements. If you struggle to stay motivated and focused on your main goals - placing candidates in jobs, and finding the best talent for your clients - you may find yourself reaching the point of burnout. However, if you are resilient, able to accept challenges as part of the job, and able to keep the ball rolling no matter how many bumps in the road you face, your resilience can lead to a very successful and lucrative career in recruitment.
Get in touch
Here at Scantec, we are passionate about finding and developing the best talent for our business. If you’re new to recruitment or an experienced recruiter and want to learn about building a career with us, we want to hear from you. Find out more on our Work for Us page, or contact Andrea Davison at andread@scantec.co.uk.
