The recruitment industry is often depicted as being an exciting vocational specialism that blends people skills with sales acumen in one HR-centric profession.
Charged with attracting and sourcing the right candidates for the roles available, relationship building is key, both internally and externally, while understanding the needs of both client and candidate is paramount.
With social interactions and travel a key part of the role, it’s no surprise that jobs in recruitment can be highly sought-after. However, while that may be the dream ticket to some, to others, it may also seem a little daunting.
For those considering a career in recruitment, this blog aims to help paint a bigger picture, providing additional details and a peek behind the curtain at what life is like working in recruitment.
Working in Recruitment: Pros and Cons
It’s fair to say that recruitment is a fast-paced industry that covers a lot of ground. To help you gain a well-rounded view of the profession and work out if it’s the right career for you, we’ve outlined some of the pros and cons below.
Benefits of Working in Recruitment
The recruitment industry can be a hugely rewarding endeavour, boasting a myriad of perks, incentives and upsides. Here are a few great reasons to consider pursuing a career in recruitment.
No Strict Entry Requirements
Unlike an academic profession, you don’t need any specific qualification to pursue a career in the recruitment industry.
While a degree or relevant experience may be advantageous, recruitment jobs don’t involve any formal prerequisites, providing an attractive proposition for a variety of backgrounds.
The non-discriminatory aspect of a recruitment career means it can be just as suitable for a school-leaver as it is a veteran worker looking for a career change.
Provided you boast the necessary sales ability and people skills, along with a healthy drive and ambition for the task at hand, a degree can be completely irrelevant and largely unnecessary.
Great Salaries and Scope for Progression
For many candidates, career progression is an important part of working life and developmental prospects can be the difference between taking a role and going elsewhere.
The opportunity to progress professionally is one of the key USPs of recruitment. If you put the work in, you could advance up the ladder in no time.
With that progression naturally comes financial incentive and higher salaries. While this can vary from one agency to the next, the financial rewards can be great.
Trainees typically start at £15-20k, while consultants commonly earn between £22 and 28k/annum. As you progress up the food chain, senior positions and management roles can habitually break the £40k barrier.
Meanwhile, many roles will also offer commission-based salaries with OTE (on-target earnings) in excess of their baseline salary, providing the incentive to work hard and achieve for virtually limitless earning potential.
Additionally, other perks – such as a company car, phone or laptop – can often come included as you advance to more senior roles, while company training and healthy pension schemes are also commonplace.
Excitement and Variety
A key selling point of recruitment as an attractive profession has long been its status as an exciting field. A lot of this excitement can be attributed to the variety involved in a typical working day.
From sourcing candidates and arranging interviews through to continued communication and negotiating offers of employment, recruitment can rarely be described as monotonous.
The travel opportunities that come with the job also be very attractive. Trips abroad, high-end lunches and team socials aren’t unusual occurrences in the recruitment industry.
Meanwhile, even client visitations can present a natural way of keeping the working environment fresh and stimulating, providing a welcome change of scenery from the office setting.
Additionally, a career in recruitment can also be extremely rewarding and fulfilling. While the work can be challenging at times, delivering potentially life-changing, positive news to a candidate can be a natural mood-booster.
Negatives of Working in Recruitment
Like any industry, recruitment isn’t all rainbows and butterflies. Naturally, there are going to be professional challenges in any vocation and a job in recruitment is no different.
The daily challenges, while rewarding, can also be challenging and necessitate long hours in pursuit of achieving a positive end result. Meanwhile, roles that rely heavily on commission and performance-based incentives can also bring with them a high degree of stress, particularly for workers unfamiliar with high-pressure working environment.
Meanwhile, the positive aspect of social interaction can also just as quickly take a negative turn when it comes to delivering bad news; for example, informing a candidate that they have been unsuccessful following an interview.
"Should I Work in Recruitment?"
When it comes to determining if recruitment is the right industry for you, a lot of it can depend on the individual and their personality. A role in recruitment can be the perfect career for one person, while it may be totally the wrong path for someone else.
For example, introverts that enjoy a set routine and a rigidly structured approach to the working day may not translate as well to a recruitment role as a socialite with the gift of the gab who thrives on a varied, fast-paced environment.
Luckily, recruitment is also an industry that is very much sink or swim. Whether you take to it like a duck to water or flounder unceremoniously, it won’t take you long to find out if it’s the right sector for you.
That being said, the benefits can far outweigh the drawbacks for the right candidate and the risk can be well worth the reward. As such, a “no guts, no glory” mentality could pay off big time, while the alternative could leave you forever wondering “what could have been”.
For more information on the benefits of working in recruitment and the ins and outs of life in the industry, why not drop us a line? Call now on 0203 225 5120 or get in touch online by clicking the button below.
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