Careers In Recruitment : Idealpeople on Tour

January 31st, 2008 · No Comments

We were delighted to be invited to speak to a group of final-year students at the University of Northampton’s Business Schoolearlier this week, on the subject of Careers in Recruitment.

We’ve recently been on a one-company mission (particularly in the absence of much help from the industry’s, ahem, “Regulator”) to change the way Recruitment as a career is seen, and to help develop it into a more-established graduate career pathway. Our motives are both selfish (in that we’d like to hire some trainees please) and selfless, in that we believe that improving the way the graduate population look at Recruitment will ultimately improve the industry as a whole.

For those who were there (and even for those who weren’t), the presentation you saw can be downloaded from here. We’re sorry that we ran out of brochures for careers with Idealpeople, so if you missed out then the link you want is here.

And if you’re interested in learning more about working for Idealpeople, or in applying for one of our trainee roles in either our Northampton/Milton Keynes office or our Uxbridge office, then e-mail us here.

For those that weren’t there, here’s a quick breakdown of what we talked about….

1 It’s a big bad world out there
With 500,000 graduates emerging from the UK academic system every year, competition for well-paid jobs is huge. Unfortunately, we live in a world dominated by Affluenza, which means that ultimately – regardless of what your motivations (both emotional and physical) are, you’ll need a career that pays you enough to live the life you want, whilst still delivering a challenge.

2 Recruitment is the most important job of all
Recruitment is the most important thing any company does. The difference between a successful company and a failing company is normally found in the way recruitment is conducted. Talent is ultimately the difference between getting products to market successfully and profitably. Companies who are capable of recruiting the best, through a mixture of great recruitment branding, great jobs and great recruitment partners/streams are capable of being the best. Recruiters are responsible for delivering that talent.

3 Money, money, money
Recruitment is one of the only industries where employees can significant sums of money early on into their career. A doctor will train for seven years, and still might not earn as much as a successful recruiter. It’s also a job which rewards effort: if you put in more than the person sitting next to you, then you’ll earn more money.

4 Recruitment is a whole host of fun
Unlike careers in Accountancy, Financial Advice or General Management Consultancy – for so long seen as the shining lights of graduate aspiration - Recruitment is actually fun. Because we deal with people, and people are unpredictable, no two days will ever be the same.

5 “Running your own business”In Recruitment, you are essentially responsible for running your own mini-business. You are responsible for sales, marketing, research and customer care. You’ll be exposed to skills across all these areas. You’ll be selling at board-level. You’ll be interviewing people vastly more experienced than yourself. The skills a career in Recruitment will give you are immense.

6 It’s not all fun and games
Recruitment is also the only sales-based industry where the product you’re selling can suddenly decide it doesn’t want to be sold to the person you’re selling it to. At times, it can be cruel. Working hours are normally long. You’ve got to enter Recruitment for the right reasons and be willing to commit to it.

7 Career Paths
Idealpeople have a structured career path (as do most reputable recruitment and staffing companies) for all hires: starting as an Associate Consultant, you’ll learn how to research the candidate market and approach people whose background and skills are appropriate for particular vacancies. Gradually, you’ll begin research into a specialist sector and taught how to add sales skills into what you’ve learned, leading to a Consultant role. Management skills will then be taught to those who are successful and keen, ultimately leading you to Branch Manager. It’s a structured and uncomplicated career path.

8 What do you need to get into the industry?

- A degree (preferably)
- Huge amounts of self-motivation
- A desire to learn quickly and try new things
- A sense of fearlessness

There was plenty more, but most of it was about HR. And we’re not going to blog about that now, are we . If you are interested in HR as a career, then check out the presentation for more info.