Why I chose the profession of a recruiter

The topic of the article is very personal: thoughts about the professional path of HR, about the experience experienced at work in many companies. I hope it will resonate with MP readers. The most important question: why have I been engaged in recruiting for many years? The answer is ready: because I get pleasure from my work! Thre are lots of HR specialists now and its difficult to find a good job that`s why your resume must be perfect. If you need help to make a resume use resume writing service - https://hrcareersearch.com/.

Entering to study at the university “as a psychologist”, I did not know anything about the profession of eychar (and recruiter). And not only me - then these words were practically not used in business life. I was very interested in my future profession, but, of course, I also thought about what I would do after graduation. She dreamed of working in industry. We were told about the areas in which a psychologist can be involved: professional selection and professionography, preparing a personnel reserve and forming a managerial link, forming working groups and scientific organization of labor, ergonomics and occupational health, business games and psychological unloading ...

But after working for a couple of years as a psychologist (not in production), I parted with the illusions typical of a young specialist and realized that the best place to apply my professional skills is recruiting. This is where knowledge on professional selection comes in handy.

First steps

At the very end of the last century ☺ in Lviv there was only one recruitment agency - Leonid; At that time, we had not yet heard of recruiting agencies. Therefore, my debut as a recruiter took place in ... a Kiev agency. First, colleagues from the capital asked for an interview with the applicant, sometimes - to find a candidate for them.

Around the same time, the first vacancies of HR managers appeared, where I submitted my resume. I was lucky: they accepted, and without experience in personnel management (and where did he come from?), And even in the IT company! Unfortunately, the dotcom crisis in 2000-2001 did not give her the opportunity to develop, so I had to look for another job.

Then I could not imagine myself anywhere other than recruiting. I really liked this work: interesting, lively, and connected with real business. The recruiter “brought” to the company people who brought money and created value. But the HR manager at that time still remained a “decorative element”, a kind of fashion tribute: here we have not some kind of mossy “personnel officer”, but a whole “eychar”! And it sounds proud, and a real HR girl can bring benefits: fill out a work book or organize a party, just pour flowers - and that’s the bread ... (I think my colleagues remember the attitude to the HR manager's position in the "zero".) I wanted to bring benefit to both people and business.

By that time, I already had a clear understanding of the role of the recruiter and his place in the business. I still adhere to this opinion.

Recruiter: why is he?

I will probably reveal one of my most important professional secrets: work is a very, very important part of a person’s life, sometimes even the most important one. Why is there so much talk about the balance “work / personal life”? Probably precisely because the problem is acute.

The work is so important that people tend to give it maximum resources. Good, beloved work is a necessary component of happiness. A person in his place benefits both the company in which he works, and the people around him, and himself. And who helps him find his dream job? Who connects like pieces of a puzzle, a good job and a good person? We recruiters! So, recruiting is an important, socially significant and socially useful work. Being convinced of this helps me a lot.

Yes, but ... After all, there are "uninteresting" vacancies, and among the candidates there are not very nice people who have to deal with ... What to do in this case? How not to stop loving your work? And just understand and accept that everything is very subjective. The position is "bad" only in your opinion: another person can perceive it in a completely different way, so it can be a wonderful fit for him. Useless - in your opinion - a person can do an excellent job. And the task of the recruiter is to connect the person and his work!

Recruiter: who is he?

Why do people come into recruiting and why do they leave it? And which people are the most successful in our profession?

I had a chance to see many successful recruiters. At first it seemed that the connection between success in work and loyalty to the profession was not too strong. I noticed that the successful leave, and the middle peasants who "pull the strap" continue to work ... And with the previous "success". Analyzing the experience of both my own and my colleagues, I came to the conclusion: yes, we are all different, but nevertheless, several types of specialists can be distinguished. In my opinion, they work most successfully in recruiting:

    "Communicators." Sociable extroverts are born networkers, therefore they have a wide circle of acquaintances, they are easily given a search. They constantly keep their network of contacts in full readiness, business-oriented, result-oriented. But there is also a “flip side to the coin”: such people are given a worse ability to work with information - to “extract”, organize and store it. They lead bases very badly: the data is lost, there are no reports, everything is “in the head”. Sooner or later (when the space in my head ceases to be enough) problems begin - candidates do not receive feedback about the results of the interview, the recruiter “forgets” about the need to close vacancies ... As a result, both the customers and the candidates are dissatisfied.

    "Systematizers." Surprisingly, among successful recruiters there are many introverts, people who are shy and can not communicate. But they also have a “flip side”: such people are meticulously and responsibly approach to working with information and often have non-standard thinking. This helps them succeed.

    "Harmonious." There are similar people among us ☺. These are those who combine the best features of the two previous types.

    Party People. Recently, (especially in IT companies), new types of recruiters have appeared: these people do not come to work, their goals are to organize events, "recreate", just chat ... The strangest thing is that they also manage to attract the right people to the company. Although, perhaps, this is a specificity of the IT industry, it is still difficult to say.

Recruiter: is it forever?

So, people come into recruiting for self-realization. The success in this field is based on interest in people, the ability to communicate and "sell" information. Why leave the profession? Among the main reasons I would single out the following:

1. Emotional burnout. This is a common problem for all professions related to working with people.

2. Uncertainty. In my opinion, this is very "pressure" on the psyche. Moreover, not only freelancers, but also full-time employees of agencies face a similar problem, because the search result is not guaranteed. Probably, almost all colleagues had to get into a situation of “playing, but not guessing a single letter”:

    He worked a lot, hard, hard - and in a month did not close a single vacancy.
    Vacant staffing unit eliminated.
    Not a single applicant came up.
    They took the candidate of another recruiter.
    Another company was "intercepted" by the other company (as an option - he received a better offer at his current job) ...

Is that familiar? Unpleasant? But even more unpleasant when failures are strongly reflected in the salary. And if so for several months in a row?

3. Routine. Monotony breeds boredom and dissatisfaction. Every day the same thing: flipping through a resume, browsing through profiles in the database and LinkedIn ... Skype conversations, interviews, filling out reports ... New vacancies are similar to old ones, all candidates are “one person”.

What can be done? For example, with experience comes the ability to highlight bright types and "classify" incoming people. I have often heard from colleagues that they also create their own typologies. For example: “All programmers can be divided into“ nerds ”,“ choleric ”and“ athletes ”. Or "money lovers" and "professional development fans." Some are fond of formalized approaches to classification, for example, socionics, typology of people based on the diagnosis of leading representative systems, identifying metaprograms, etc.

How effective is it to “sort through” people? It depends on the specialist himself ... For one, as a result, life will become a little more interesting, for another, on the contrary, even more dreary ...

I was lucky - I found "my" profession, which I have already given away for many years. Working in a recruiting agency, I had to close a variety of vacancies. For this, it was necessary to constantly study, to understand the nuances of other professions and destinies, to discover hitherto unknown to me details and needs of people ...

At some point I felt that I was plunging into a routine. Had to look for how to maintain interest in the job? Over time, I found my "recipe":

    deeply study the industry in which the vacancy closes;

    scrupulously maintain databases (yes, this is not only useful, but also interesting: to structure, design, because then it helps to quickly get access to the necessary information);

    accompany successful candidates after employment;

    organize networking (attending business events is different, not only where you can get to know each other and maintain relationships with the right / interesting people);

    Switch to other activities.

4. A small salary. The profession of a recruiter has long become widespread. In principle, it cannot be classified as highly profitable, because neither at the start of a career, nor "at its zenith" (already held in the profession), it is impossible to count on "excess profits". But at the same time, there is a place for “stars” who earn very good money (especially in the IT field). Of course, most of us sooner or later reach our “ceiling”.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Job & Career Accelerator: Resume & Cover Letter Building Tools - 5

Job & Career Accelerator: Resume & Cover Letter Building Tools - 3