Top 5 Survival Tips for New Recruiters

I remember sitting down at my desk on my first day in recruitment, daunted by the prospect of speaking to actual people on the phone, that I had never spoken to in my life, about stuff I knew nothing about. Scary right? Well, every expert was once a beginner, so below are my top 5 top tips on not only surviving recruitment as a rookie but smashing it out of the park.

Find a Niche

Straight out of the blocks, find a niche. It may not appear to you immediately and will certainly take time to develop but one of the biggest mistakes I have seen recruiters make is they’re a jack of all trades, but a master of none. Your desk title might be ‘HR’ or 'Technology sales’ but find an interest in those areas and dive in... My official desk title was ‘Digital’, but after landing a major Big Data client in the AdTech space, I quickly found my sweet spot.

Become an Expert

Once you’ve identified your niche, commit and become an expert in that area. “How can I be an expert when I have only been in recruitment for 30 days?” I hear you ask... Well, every expert was once a beginner. Find and read everything and I mean, everything in your niche and become a ‘Research Expert’. This means you regurgitate (and of course credit) other people’s options/articles and quotes to provide your audience with relevant information on your chosen topic. Eventually, you'll be the go-to ‘expert’ in this area because you are consistently providing solid information... this means not only will you have candidates and clients approaching you (ahh the dream!), but when you come to do searches or business development you know exactly you are targeting, making your work more efficient and providing consistent results.

Find a Mentor

When I first starting in recruitment, I was lucky to have one of the best recruiters in the company as my manager. He would sit with me, show me how he structured his work day, how he approached people, carried out new business and let me ask a million and one questions, without complaining about how annoying I was... Finding a mentor is integral to finding your own way of doing things. Number 1) you will learn the ropes quicker and Number 2) You won't have to reinvent the wheel. If something is working for someone, chances are if you can replicate it in your own way, you will find success. If your company doesn’t suggest a mentor, I would highly recommend approaching a new colleague you admire and politely asking if they could be your mentor... My Dad once told me,

“There is no such thing as a stupid question, only a stupid answer."

Stop Cold Calling

Yes, yes I know. You’ve been told that you have to hit 20 New Business calls a day (or 100 in some cases!), “How can I possibly not cold call?!” I hear you scream. Well, in my experience cold calling pisses potential clients off... and let’s be honest, out of those 20 - or 100 - calls you made yesterday, how many committed jobs did you actually get on? My guess is none. Before you pick up your phone, put together a list of target hiring managers/clients, do your research and send them an email. Ask yourself, "What value can I add? What content would interest this person?". But before you start reeling off impersonal emails, think about who your audience is. Remember what I said about becoming an expert? Now is your time to use your expertise to win at Business Development.

Hubspot’s free course is a great way to learn the most effective ways of warming up potential clients before you hit the phones - You can check it out here.

Be Ready to Fail

When I first joined Finlay James, my manager at the time told me

“There will be a time around 6 months in where you decide that you hate recruitment and you want to quit. ”

Sure enough, that 6-month blip came and I decided I hated my job. I wasn’t getting consistent results, my candidates dropping out and I sucked at recruitment - But I powered on. And guess what? After about 2 weeks of feeling sorry for myself, things picked up. I closed some big deals and won ‘Sales Person of the Month’ and 'Employee of the Month’ over two consecutive months. You see, recruitment is an industry of highs and lows. The key is don’t take it personally; Stay focused, committed and above all just remember that your job is to deal with people and people are unpredictable. As long as you’re doing your best, forget the rest and move on!

Like what you read? Check out some more pearls of wisdom here.