Recruiters looking for a new job...this one's for you!

There’s a lot of recruiters out there looking for jobs at the moment, furlough, redundancies and a generally unexpected 2020 have definitely taken their toll on recruitment. While there are many exceptions to this rule, companies still growing and adjusting their operating models so they’ve managed to thrive throughout the year so far it doesn’t apply to all.

The fact is there are more recruiters now looking for work, and as a recruiter on interview you have more competition…good competition. So how can you stand out from the others, level yourself up and gain that promotion/ salary increase/ long term career path you’re looking for. As rec 2 recs we spend our days speaking with recruiters and recruitment agencies. What makes us want to work with a candidate at the moment? What makes our clients want to invest in a new member of staff in the middle of a pandemic? Here is my advice to anyone at the moment looking for a new recruitment job….

Know your stats. You are going to be asked for examples of why you have been of value to your last employer and what you can bring to your next. The easiest way to do this is through stats, be this your billings, margins or number of clients/ candidates you generated against set targets. Now more than ever it is essential to come to an interview, even a preliminary one with a rec 2 rec or internal recruiter armed with these. Make sure you know your month on month performance for 2019, highest grossing fee, number of client accounts you won and other specific data you may be able to collate to demonstrate how much you are able to achieve!

Know what you want. We don’t all want the same career path, that’s absolutely fine- just take some time to think what you actually want to do and own it! Your potential employer isn’t going to appreciate you interviewing for a job you’ll ‘make-do’ with if something better comes along. Number one faux par? “I’m interested in a sales focused Recruitment Consultant role or internal recruitment”. These are completely different jobs, whichever you want to focus on- focus on. Casting your net to ‘anything I can technically do’ just dilutes your message and could come off as being unfocused.

Be mindful that we are in a recession. Even if on the surface a company is doing well they’re still conscious of return on investment and probably are in a good financial position because they had long term commercial plans in place. Rather than attending an interview with a list of requirements what a company can do for you, turn it around and consider what you can bring to them and the tangible resources you’ll need to do this. Yes, team jaunts to Ibiza, long lunches, early Friday finishes and thousands on salaries for Resourcers to support you before you’ve truly begun generating a profit are great…..but a lot of the companies who offered things like this have been hit hardest by the pandemic and as a result shed staff.