what is it like to work as a job recruiter

If you're wondering, "Should I be a recruiter?" so you're in the right place.

I've spent five+ years equally a professional recruiter, and I'1000 going to walk yous through the pros and cons of existence a recruiter so you can decide if it's right for You lot.

First, ane thing a lot of people don't realize well-nigh what it's like working as a recruiter: If you're working for a recruiting bureau, your job is basically sales.

I had no idea and thought it was mostly HR or match-making. I recall applying to recruiting jobs and writing in my comprehend letter nigh how I'd be great at figuring out where different people fit in an organization and matching them up.

I was WAY off – this is the concluding thing recruiting firms care about when hiring.

Don't worry, I'll explain everything below so you can learn what it's working as a recruiter and how to go hired for the job!

The Pros of Being a Recruiter:

Pro #1: High Potential Pay with Only a Bachelor's Degree

Nigh recruiting agencies merely require a bachelor's degree (or less) to become a recruiter. And you can earn six figures when you combine your base salary and commissions! I'll explicate more on commissions in the next detail on our list…

Pro #two: Get Paid for Your RESULTS with Commission

If you're like me, piece of work feels a bit pointless when y'all're only earning a base salary. Exercise a great job, or a horrible job, and yous get paid the same. That always tuckered my motivation.

So when I became a recruiter, I LOVED earning commission on height of my reasonable base salary.

You tin can wait a starting base salary betwixt $30,000 and $55,000 as a recruiter in the U.s.a., merely commissions can take you much college.

You meet, employers pay recruiters to "place" people into their jobs. Then when an employer hires a job candidate that you brought to them, your recruiting house gets a payout. And you get a per centum of that as commission, or at to the lowest degree you should!

(Note for job seekers: This commission or fee NEVER comes out of your starting salary. Don't worry. It's a fee your new employer pays to the recruiter in addition to whatever they've agreed to pay you lot, and it'due south just a one-time fee).

Pro #3: Flexibility and Command of Your Day

In both recruiting agencies I worked for, I was given a ton of freedom to prioritize my own mean solar day and decide what to work on.

This can be a good thing or a bad thing, of course. Merely if you're self-motivated and capable of planning your own solar day, this can exist a GREAT feeling 🙂 I absolutely loved it.

Even so, if you lot only want to push papers effectually and exist told what to exercise every hour, you lot'd exist happiest working every bit an internal recruiter for one company. That's more like a standard Hr job.

Being a recruiter for a recruitment agency is much more sales-oriented. I'll talk nigh that next.

Pro #4: Acquire Valuable Sales Skills

I mentioned earlier that if you piece of work for a recruiting agency, you get a commission when you introduce a job candidate to an employer and they get hired.

Nevertheless, you need to discover those candidates, and many of them aren't actively looking for jobs. (Companies who are paying a recruiter desire the BEST talent, which often ways they want you to contact people who are happily employed).

So you're going to be chasing people who don't always want to talk to you… on LinkedIn, on the phone, and via e-mail.

Yous learn fantastic skills through this, though. And you tin can have those skills to keep working as a recruiter up to earning six figures and beyond… or you can pivot into a dissimilar expanse of sales… go into concern for yourself like I did, or anything else.

Pro #5: Proficient Career Growth

As long as you join a proficient recruiting company that isn't declining, toxic, or merely run past terrible managers, y'all'll have good opportunities to grow as a recruiter.

You'll have the ability to earn substantially more money in your second and 3rd years of recruiting.

I started my offset yr as a recruiter earning $30,000 base of operations salary plus a flake of committee. I was quickly up to $42,000 plus a ameliorate committee structure in just my 2d year. I ended up earning $fifty,000-$55,000 my second yr.

Pro #6: Yous're Non Stuck in Ane Manufacture

As a recruiter, you'll have the power to work across multiple industries or switch industries if your detail industry has an economic downturn.

It'southward a very transferable skill-set. I mention elsewhere in this article that yous could transition into sales after this. You tin likewise transition into recruiting in any other industry.

It's pretty easy to explain to an employer in the interview that you lot'd exist able to learn their industry, every bit long equally you lot can show them you're a great recruiter in your current manufacture. The recruiting skills (i.e. sales skills) are what they care almost most.

Now allow's expect at some cons or downsides to working in recruitment.

Cons of Beingness a Recruiter:

Con #1: Dealing with the "Ups and Downs"

Because you're essentially trying to sell people on taking new jobs and earning a committee for it, y'all're going to accept some amazing weeks as a recruiter, just besides some bad ones.

You'll have weeks where Zilch goes your way. Every candidate who said they'd send over their resume goes silent. You have admittedly nothing to evidence the employers you're working with. And that's not a good feeling.

So if you want to exist successful as a recruiter, you lot demand to have some mental toughness and be able to hand the bad weeks along with the good. It all balances out in the long run, but it'southward tough to call back that in the center of a "drought".

Con #ii: The Endless Grind

This was one of the biggest cons for me and a big reason I left my recruiting career behind to focus on this weblog.

As before long every bit you fill i position, y'all're moving on to the adjacent one. Information technology never ends. There's e'er more than work. More people to call. People to follow upwardly with. New jobs to acquire and study and begin working on.

This is true of whatsoever client-based business or service business concern, I suppose. But information technology's definitely a part of working in recruitment.

Con #3: You're Never Really "Off the Clock"

In many recruiting jobs, you're expected to be available to answer emails or make a telephone telephone call into the evening if needed.

It'southward normal for the most successful recruiters to take a telephone telephone call at 8PM if necessary.

You're constantly trying to get in touch with job seekers and candidates during the workday, but they're busy at their jobs at those same times.

So they get off piece of work at 5PM or 6PM and start returning your calls and emails, but when you were planning on relaxing for the evening.

And so that's a major downside of beingness a recruiter.

Con #iv: Recruiting is Essentially a Sales Chore

Although you're non selling an actual product, recruiting is very similar to sales. Most people who ask "Should I exist a recruiter?" don't realize how much "selling" and common cold calling is involved. You're often calling people that aren't actively looking for jobs and trying to sell them on a job opportunity that they hadn't previously considered. Recruiting has more similarities than differences when compared with a typical inside sales job.

This can exist great for some people, and you'll be learning a very valuable skill. (I'1000 SO glad I did all that cold-calling and cold-emailing. I learned ridiculously valuable lessons that I still employ today to make money).

But for some people, this is a plough-off, so it'due south worth mentioning as a con of being a recruiter.

Con #5: Competition

If you're not at least a scrap competitive, y'all might struggle to enjoy working in recruitment.

Similar almost sales jobs, there are quotas and goals to hit, and pressure that comes with that.

You lot'll likewise face contest from other recruiting firms; while you're trying to contact job seekers and present them to the employers you're working with, other recruiters from other firms are contacting them, likewise.

And merely one person can place them into a task! So y'all will lose some commissions due to competition from other firms, which tin can be frustrating when y'all've put in a lot of time to working with a candidate.

The all-time recruiters use this competition every bit motivation. If you detest competition, yous might not want to work as a recruiter.

Recruiter Salary: How Much Practice Recruiters Make?

The average entry level recruiter salary is $30,000-45,000. Some firms may pay higher if you accept prior work experience in a related field like sales. With commissions, yous tin cease up earning $50,000 or more in your get-go twelvemonth as a recruiter, and much more in your second and third years.

Over time, many recruiters proceed to earn six figures. The top recruiters within recruitment agencies tin earn $200,000-$300,000 or more through commissions.

If working every bit an "internal recruiter" for ane single employer (non a recruitment agency), you lot tin await to earn a starting salary of $thirty,000-$60,000, just have the same uncapped earnings potential as an agency recruiter being paid on committee.

The Lesser Line: Should Y'all Become a Recruiter?

The respond to whether you should be a recruiter depends on many factors. If you enjoy helping people and are motivated by tangible goals and the opportunity to earn commissions, and can handle fluctuations in pay from month to month, then you might find recruiting to be a rewarding profession.

And it's one of the top ways to earn a lot of coin with just a bachelor's degree.

Notwithstanding, if y'all want to check out at 5PM every day and rely on the same amount of coin being deposited into your depository financial institution account each month, recruiting might not be what you're looking for.

If y'all're notwithstanding wondering "Should I become a recruiter?" you can always try it for a year and see get-go-paw. That'southward the best style to see if you'll like a job.

Do You Demand to exist Extroverted to Work every bit a Recruiter?

Yous do not demand to be naturally extroverted to succeed as a recruiter. Some of the best recruiters are quiet and introverted. Being able to listen actively and empathize objections is one of the strongest skills you lot can take equally a recruiter. The ability or tendency to mind more than than you speak can exist a very valuable nugget to any recruiter. This is easier said than done!

All the same, in that location's one scenario where you'll pretty much have to be outgoing, and that's when information technology comes to networking and edifice contacts in whichever industry you cull to recruit in.

The ability to build trust and rapport as y'all develop relationships with candidates and hiring managers is what sets the best recruiters autonomously from the residuum of the field. This becomes more than evident later on one or two years in the industry, when a recruiter will get calls from the aforementioned hiring managers and candidates rather consistently, resulting in a decreased need for cold calling.

The bottom line is this: There isn't one single type of person that is fantastic at recruiting.

Some of the best recruiters I've e'er met are shy, quirky, and repose. That's not to say that there aren't many outstanding recruiters that are loud, outgoing, and extremely attracted to large social gatherings.

This outgoing type of person is more than the norm than the exception, from what I've observed. But there's room in recruiting for all personality types as long equally you have the drive and decision to succeed. In the end, you'll get out whatever you put in.

How to Go Hired as an Entry-Level Recruiter

At present that we've looked at the pros and cons of being a recruiter, I'k going to share some tips on how to go hired for the job! Because I really struggled to get my start recruiting task because I didn't sympathize it was really almost sales.

(If you don't know what I mean by this, go back and re-read the article, because I explicate in detail why recruiting is basically a sales job).

And then if I were doing it over over again, I'd focus much more than heavily on showing employers that I'm interested in the sales-aspects of recruiting. Tell them that you lot're eager to acquire cold calling, network-building, deal-endmost, etc.

They'll LOVE this.

And bear witness a bit of a competitive nature. You lot don't accept to exist the most competitive person on earth to get a job as a recruiter, just if you lot played a sport in the past or can signal to any other competitive activity you lot've washed or enjoyed, it'll help persuade them to rent you.

This advice higher up for how to get hired as a recruiter is relevant for cover letters as well as chore interviews.

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