Bring your Value-Add..be different!!

I have been asked this question many a times by my colleagues & friends as to what makes me passionate & successful in Recruitment for so long, I have always felt that understanding the art behind recruitment is the key.

Now what makes you different is most important if you have to succeed & build a long term career in this six million dollar industry, here are few tips which I have learnt if you want to be successful even during the current pandemic slow market we are facing:

• Work on your Communication Skills: Whether you like it or not this industry expects one to have excellent verbal & written communication which a lot of times is not the top-1 priority in our schools & colleges, so invest sometime on yourself to get additional classroom/online training if required to sharpen your skills.
• Learn from your Peers: Always be a child when it comes to learning, not just from your Seniors but from your Juniors at work, since Recruitment like many other skills comes with real-life experiences you face while dealing with a Client or Candidate. Also be open to share your knowledge with your colleagues as well, remember "None of us is as smart as all of us:)"
• Understand your Client along with the Job Description: I have always felt the best gift humans have as compared to any other animals is our ability to speak & analyse, hence making it our biggest strength. So no matter how well written the Job Description is it cannot capture all that your hiring manager is looking for in a candidate, so its very important for you to have an open discussion with your hiring manager on what he/she is looking for apart from the JD - this will not only help you close your position with a shorter TAT but also gives confidence to the Client that their requirement is in the right hands.
• Its Ok to Ask Questions: We all along our lives have an unknown inhibition to ask a question so end up nodding our heads even though we may not have any clue of the subject:)..First thing you have to leave behind if you want to succeed here is this, please do your homework on any given JD you are working on to understand about the Client & their Services, about the Technologies mentioned in the Job Description, why are they looking for a particular skill set & the role he/she would play, if they are looking for a Diversity & Inclusion here..now this will go a long way in enhancing your confidence when you talk to the candidate & also probability to close a position in the highly competitive space we work in.
• Quality is what Matters: Gone are those days when Client would look for a minimum of 10 Candidates to close a position, now is the era where no one wants to look at more than 3 profiles to close a position. So focus on the Quality rather than the Quantity.
• Candidates are your best Teachers: A lot of times Recruiters especially in IT face this challenge in terms of understanding the technologies, as at the end of the day the finer aspects of skills is difficult to comprehend even for super good Recruiters. So the best guide of you here can be your own Candidates who will no doubt have in-depth knowledge on the given subject, hence don't shy away from seeking their help.
• Recruiter Assessment: This again is a key differentiator, as Recruiters you play the role of match making..in other words assessing the Candidate's skills against the Client Ask. So its very important for you to travel that extra mile to put across your honest inputs as to why you are proposing a particular candidate for a given role.
• Follow-Up till Closure: As most of us know a Recruiter's role doesn't stop at just sharing the profiles for a given requirement but more in hand holding the Client to make a decision and the Candidate to ultimately join the organization.

Hope this helps, welcome to the world of Recruitment!!