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Tips for Building a Successful Career in Recruitment

Recruitment offers exciting, varied work, often quite a lot of flexibility and can be very rewarding for those who do it well, but it’s also an extremely competitive field. In this article were sharing advice on how the most successful recruiters got where they are today.

Build strong relationships

Recruitment is about relationships. Both your clients and your candidates have an important problem to solve, and you need them to trust you to help them solve it. More; you need them to think of you when the problem first arises.

When your clients find themselves with a vacancy to fill, you want them to call you to talk it over. When candidates decide to look for work, you want them to ask for your advice. A strong relationship is the only way to achieve this.

Consistency is key

Those all-important relationships are built on trust, and we decide if we can trust people by comparing what they say to what they do. It follows that the best way to succeed as a recruiter is to consistently keep your promises and offer good advice.

Look after your clients and candidates, genuinely do what you can to help them and if you promise them something make sure it happens. Keep this up and people will seek you out when they need a recruiter, and your network will grow through recommendations.

Learn to negotiate

Whether it’s about fixing the terms with a client or talking pay-rates with a candidate, negotiation is a huge part of what a recruiter does and it’s important that you’re comfortable with it, and that you learn how to get the best long-term outcome.

The aim should be for all parties to be happy with the outcome, which means you need to understand their expectations and boundaries, and be prepared to walk away if your minimum requirements can’t be met.

Have a career plan

Making a plan can improve your chances of success at most things, and building your career is no exception. It’s obviously possible that your plan will change - life has a habit of throwing the unexpected at us - but the key is to think about what you want to achieve, and execute a strategy to get you there.

Keep learning and be yourself

As a new recruiter, you’ll be surrounded by people with more experience than you, and watching what they do is a great way to learn what works and what doesn’t. Take parts of what other people do and really make it your own, but don’t force yourself to be like someone else.

You’re looking to build long term business relationships with people, and it’s easier to do that if they can connect with you in a genuine way. People see past a mask, so being yourself is the best way for you to succeed in a career as a recruiter.

Build your network

If you’re going to consistently find great candidates, you need to have a substantial personal network full of talented people. LinkedIn is an obvious starting point, but don’t leave all your networking to the digital realm. Attend networking events and career fairs too, because they’ll play an important part in your role as a recruiter.

Staying in touch with your candidates, both after placing them with a client and where they were unsuccessful is a great way to build your network. Check in on them to see how their new role is going, or offer help and advice with their ongoing job search. Be interested and helpful when you no longer need anything from them, and they’ll think of you when they, or someone they know needs a recruiter.

If you have questions or if we can help in any way, please call our expert team on 01296 468483 or email info@orangegenie.com. 

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