How to Become a Recruitment Consultant
Recruitment Consultants provide a much needed link between clients and candidates. Recruitment Consultants need to find the best candidates for the job for their client companies.
You’ll take the time you need to build up a relationship with clients and advise candidates in what training they need to undertake and the salary rates they can expect. Being a Recruitment Consultant can be a demanding and fast paced jobs and many Consultants will have to meet monthly targets.
Required Qualifications
There are no mandatory qualifications needed to become a Recruitment Consultant. You may receive a preference if you have experience or a degree in:
• Business Studies
• Management
Many employers may put a higher preference on experience over qualification but if you’re going for a specialised role, such as becoming an IT Recruitment Consultant, you may need to have a relevant degree.
Key Skills
• Be commercially aware
• Have excellent presentation skills
• Have strong written and verbal communication skills
• Be proficient in IT and numeracy
• Be able to work independently and stay self-motivated
• Have strong negotiation and sales skills
• Be able to work under pressure and stick to targets
Useful Work Experience
The best kind of experience to have will always be recruitment industry experience if you’re aiming to become a Recruitment Consultant. With this field of work, the experience you have will often be worth more than your qualifications. A great way to get the work experience you need in the field is to work an internship or doing temporary work.
A Typical Working Day
Recruitment Consultants will usually work out of an office but they may need to travel and meet with clients on occasion. Their office hours are typically between 9AM and 6PM but you may have to work overtime, especially if you deal with a client who isn’t available during your working hours. There is a general list of responsibilities for Recruitment Consultants though different sectors may have their own different duties:
• Making use of sales and marketing techniques to network and attract clients
• Visiting clients in person to create and develop relationships
• Developing an understanding of your clients and the industry, work culture, and environment they work with
• Advertising job openings by creating adverts and sending them out to different media such as newspapers, websites and magazines
• Headhunting – the practice of finding and approaching the best candidate, even if they’re already employed
• Making use of a candidate database to find the ideal fit for the vacancy
• Working through applications, establishing interviews and tests, and putting together a shortlist of the best candidates for the client
• Briefing the candidate to inform them of their responsibilities, salaries, and benefits they can expect from the job
• Putting together interviews the client requests
• Negotiating the salary rates and finalising any arrangements between the client and the candidate
Best Part of the Job
The best part about being a Recruitment Consultant is how rewarding it is. You know that as the recruitment consultant you’re playing an important part in helping candidates find work and you know that you’ve met the needs of your client.
What to be Prepared For
Sometimes being a Recruitment Consultant could mean working long hours, especially if there are a lot of targets that need to be met. It can also be a high-pressure environment to work in so you need to be able to keep a level head.
Key Qualities
To succeed as a Recruitment Consultant, you need to be energetic and resilient. You also need to be confident to make new business leads and it helps to be tenacious and target-driven. Recruitment Consultants need to be outgoing and creative as they have to use a variety of different methods to bring together candidates and clients.