A day in the life of Recruitment

Starting to think about life after school is an exciting and also terrifying thought – you can dare to dream of evenings and weekends where you don’t have to think about homework deadlines and can completely switch off on a Friday. For many students who have just started their final year of university, or school, you have only been back a few weeks and it’s already time to think about Graduate Schemes, Apprenticeships or UCAS applications.

If you’re looking for a career that will be rewarding, help you to develop an impressive skill set, offer you variation, proactivity and a fast-paced and different rhythm each day, then you should consider working within the recruitment industry.

What is involved?

The purpose of recruitment is to fill a role, build relationships with businesses (Clients) and those who are looking for a new job (Candidates). Recruitment can sometimes be a juggling act, as you need to ensure that there is a good fit for the business and make sure the role meets the candidate’s needs and requirements. It’s vital to build good relationships with both the candidate and your clients, to ensure repeat business.

There are a number of different roles within recruitment and which one you would fall into will depend on your strengths and skill set. For example, if you like helping people find work and are a good relationship builder, then the role of a Resourcer could be a good fit. If want to expand into seeing new business opportunities and build long lasting relationships with those companies, then being a recruitment consultant could be the role for you. If you’re really good at chatting to people, have the ‘gift of the gab’ and can win new business, then becoming a Business Development Manager might be worth considering, or if you want to focus at developing solid relationships with a small amount of business you can look at becoming an Account Manager. Some companies will split these type of roles out, or all the roles can be milestones towards your development where once reached, you would then become and all round recruiter.

Many recruiters choose to focus on becoming an expert in one particular market, especially if there is an interest and passion there. This doesn’t pigeon hole you into only being able to work within that niche areas for life. There are a lot of skills that can be transferred between the markets so it is possible to change if you wish to.

Qualifications

Although there are no mandatory qualifications needed to work in recruitment, many agencies will have their own criteria of set qualifications that they require. Like Zenopa, some agencies will offer apprenticeships to school leavers and/or a graduate programme, whilst others find prefer to employ those who have experience.

Key skills that are generally used through this type of role include:

• Presentation skills,
• Good written and verbal skills
• IT and numeracy skills
• Ability to work independently and part of team
• Be self-motivating
• Have good negotiation and sales skills
• Can work well under pressure and meet targets

A typical working day

At Zenopa, our roles are usually office based, but you may at times, be required to travel and meet clients. Typical day to day jobs will include (but this will depend on the agency);

• attracting new business,
• advertising job vacancies,
• briefing the job to candidates,
• booking interviews,
• gaining interview feedback,
• conducting screening interviews either face-to –face or via skype,
• using the company database to match candidates to job roles,
• negotiating and finalising job offers between clients and candidates,

Our core office hours are 09.30 – 5pm, with the option of flexible working, and there maybe times where you will be required to work later to meet candidates and clients requirements who may not be available in office hours.

The bigger picture:

This is very much an industry where you will be rewarded for the work that you put in, but it is down to your own self-motivation. Within Zenopa, there is a clear career path in place to help you grow and develop, where within 5 years, you can progress into senior, managerial or team leader positions. It can be a high pressure and target driven environment, so you need to energetic, and resilient. The hours can sometimes be long, but knowing that you have played a vital part in helping a candidates find their dream job, and meeting your clients’ needs and requirements makes the whole thing enriching and worth it.

Thinking about a role in recruitment?

We are currently seeking those who are in their final year at university or school to join our Summer 2019 Apprenticeship and Graduate Programmes.

If you’re seeking a new role, we are also hiring experienced recruitment consultants to join our team.

If you would like to find out more about what our roles please email our internal recruiter angela@zenopa.com, or call 01494 818 044.