Is the Golden Era of Recruitment over? (Recession Coming)

Could the greatest time to be a recruiter be over??

How to prepare yourself for the changing times...

2021 and 2022 the number one problem most companies had was struggling to win the war for talent.?On top of that most organizations faced great resignation and it was a struggle to retain top talent.

During this time millions and millions of Americans quit their jobs in search of better opportunities and during this time one of the most coveted professions was recruiters.?

The market was on fire for external recruiters.?Great Internal recruiters in many places were getting salaries and benefits over $200K.?Great recruiters became one of the hottest professions out there.

Recruiting professionals mattered to many organizations.

The need for recruiters was so hot that places like Peleton were hiring 30-40 at a time and onboarding them all at once.?Facebook/Meta created a new program to grow people from hospitality and retail backgrounds into professional recruiters in 12 months.?Many other tech giants were advertising looking for 50-200 recruiters at a time. On top of that many companies even started creating a new growth position, a CRO: the chief recruiting officer .

Outside recruiting firms and specialists became a hot commodity.

The market was on fire!

One of the greatest things is that many organizations finally recognized how important recruiters were.?If the sales teams were not staffed.?Sales were not getting made.?If engineers and developers were not there to build products, deadlines get pushed out, or products could fail.?A good recruiter can have an impact on an organization that could be worth millions or tens of millions of dollars and that was finally recognized.?

Recruiters became a necessary investment.

But with the looming recession and the valuation of many organizations tanking, the golden era of recruiting could be coming to an end.

As the times change you need to recognize internally or externally that companies are not going to be looking for a resume pusher anymore.?The days of throwing as many paper-pushing recruiters at the problem are no longer the case.?Companies are going to be looking for expert-level help internally and externally.?

As a recruiter that has gone through a few recessions.?Now is the time to prepare because you never know how long it could last if one comes.

This is the time to uplevel your skills, stash some extra cash, and try out new things.

In a recent interview with David Stephan Patterson for The Elite Recruiter Podcast on Apple or Spotify , (Part 1 and Part 2 ) we spoke about getting ready for an upcoming downturn.?One of the top things we covered at the start of the interview was getting your cash right.?If you are an internal recruiter, make sure you have 3-6 months of emergency funds set aside just in case you get laid off.?If you are a search firm owner with a team or a solo recruitment search firm.?Make sure you have 3-6 months of cash set aside or expenses and salaries for your team along with your emergency savings.??

We also spoke about the number one most important skill that all recruiters will need in the future.?David Stephan Patterson mentioned that Copywriting would be one of the most important skills that you need to learn. I would highly recommend taking the time and learning from one of the best in the Industry Henna Pryor (Interview ). If you are an internal recruiter this is a perfect time to conquer the chaos and learn how to implement Sprint Recruiting Methodology into your recruiting environment as Trent Cotten has with many organizations (Interview ).

This could be the perfect time to also learn some new skills outside of recruiting like Dandan Zhu (Interview ) and build start to build out a real estate portfolio along with building a successful agency.

This also could be the time that you decide to buckle down like Aaron Opalewski (Interview ) did and build a large successful recruiting firm helping thousands of people per year with amazing job opportunities. Or you can focus on leveling up your skills to become a 7 figure biller like Rich Rosen (Interview ), Scott Love (Interview), Paul Johnson (Interview ), or Gavin Johnston (Interview). You can expand upon the digital marketing game and learn from great people like Kelli Schutrop (Interview ) and digital branding like Joel Lalgee . (Interview ). You can even learn how to double down on your sourcing skills so you can find the right talent as my friend Jonathan Kidder did (Interview ). Or you can work on becoming a better leader like Adam Meekhof did (Interview ).

No matter what you decide to do, you need to make sure that you control your future as my friend Andy Storch says (Interview ).

There are so many good people and places to learn from, but as the golden era of recruiting comes potentially to an end. You need to make sure you set yourself up in a place for you to not only survive a potential upcoming downturn but thrive.

Let's thrive together!

Benjamin Mena

Need to hire? We can help! This article was written by?Benjamin Mena ?who is a Managing Partner of?Select Source Solutions ?which?is a boutique executive recruitment firm.

If you’d like to have a conversation about employee retention, growing your team, or hiring plans for the rest of the year, please get in touch!?[email protected]

Join me on upcoming episodes of the?Elite Recruiter Podcast ?on?Apple ?or?Spotify !

Or the Decentralized Careers Podcast on Apple or Spotify !