A year ago today I started working with Technical Recruitment Solutions as their new Marketing Coordinator. As a recent graduate with limited experience in the workforce, I knew very little about the recruitment industry and even less about the technical industries that we specialise in. Here are the most important lessons I’ve learned about the industry in the year that I’ve been here.

A Fresh Perspective

When I turned up for my job interview, I was still very hazy about what a recruitment consultancy actually did and what was involved. Before I sat down with Roy, I had spent some time researching Technical Recruitment Solutions online. I knew that recruitment was about bridging the gap between employers and job seekers – but I didn’t know a lot about the actual process. In other words, I had a handle on the ‘What’, but not on the ‘How’. I also wasn’t sure how integral my role would be to the rest of the team (the answer to that turned out to be: highly).

I’m certainly no recruitment jedi (although we have plenty in the office), but I have learned a lot nonetheless!

Over time, I was exposed to the ins and outs of the recruitment industry. With today being a year since I first took on the role of Marketing Coordinator at Technical Recruitment Solutions, I thought I’d share the most important three things that I know about the industry now that I didn’t 12 months ago.

Lesson 1: No Downsides for Job Seekers

Having never approached a recruiter before, and not knowing much about the industry, I naturally assumed that recruitment was a paid service for both employers and job seekers. Once I found out it was free for job seekers, I began to realise what a good deal that was. The thought immediately occurred to me – if you’re looking for a job, why wouldn’t you just send your CV through to a recruiter (or give them a call) as well as looking independently? All you’re doing is improving your chances without having to put in any extra effort.

Put it like this – if you lost your wedding ring (or The One Ring of Power) on the beach and someone with a metal detector offered to help you look for it indefinitely and for free, you’d take them up on that wouldn’t you?

Even in a worst case scenario where the recruiter doesn’t have any suitable opportunities for you, you’re still free to continue searching independently without losing any time. Plus, a recruiter will be able to retain your details and give you a call at a later point in time if something good does come up. I’ve advised many of my job-seeking friends and family recently to approach a recruiter.

If you are one such job seeker, you might want to check out Technical Recruitment Solutions’ current jobs and drop us your CV.

Lesson 2: A Worthwhile Service for Employers

Clients also get a really good deal. Initially I was confused as to why an employer would pay a recruiter to do something they could do themselves. Over time, a plethora of reasons presented themselves.

Firstly – small companies. Unless you’re a big player in the market, your company may not have a dedicated HR department (or any HR personnel, for that matter!). In instances like those, who does the hiring? No matter which way you cut it, someone is taking time away from their actual job in order to do this. The resulting loss in productivity can have a notable impact on operations – with no guarantee of actually making a successful hire at the end of the day. Recruitment consultancies such as Technical Recruitment Solutions offer to remedy this issue. With internal staff free to focus on their work while the recruiter finds, screens and presents the talent, employers are able to get on with their work while the hiring process carries on in the background.

Secondly – not all job seekers are independently searching. Something I realised during my first month in the office was that the senior candidates we work with are usually not desperately looking to ‘jump ship’. They’re happy enough in their current position to the extent that they won’t actively look for work themselves and instead will let us come back to them when we’ve got something exceptional for them. Employers who want to handle the recruitment process in-house should be aware of this, especially if they’re wanting to hire senior personnel. Where an internal search may turn up no suitable results, you may find that a skilled recruiter can present multiple suitable candidates within the first week due to their vast network of connections.

Thirdly – sometimes the recruiter will know more about the person you need than you will. I can’t speak for all recruiters on this one, but as far as Technical Recruitment Solutions goes, the recruiters here have mostly come from technical backgrounds before turning their hand to recruitment. This means that they’re experts in their fields. When you consider their years of recruitment experience they have, it almost goes without saying that they’re good at what they do. This is especially true when an employer creates a new role and doesn’t know for sure what kind of employee they need to look for. The recruiters here will work with them to find the most suitable candidates with relevant skills and experience.

Lesson 3: A Fulfilling Career

For anyone thinking about becoming a recruiter, I recommend it for a number of reasons. Although I’m not a recruiter myself, I have read many grateful testimonials from the job seekers that we’ve found new opportunities for. Work is a big part of everyone’s lives, so it usually means a lot to people if you can secure them a great new opportunity. This is especially true for candidates from abroad who we’ve successfully placed into NZ roles. I’ve said this before in a previous blog, but I liken recruitment to teaching in the sense that you get to go home at the end of the day knowing that you’ve directly impacted someone’s life for the better.

You’ve also got clear career progression as a recruiter. Again using Technical Recruitment Solutions as an example, you can start out as a candidate manager or consultant support before progressing to a fully fledged recruitment consultant, and then into more senior roles including team leadership.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the flexibility here. Recruiters can usually work from home at their discretion if they need to, and if you need to start early so you can finish early, you can do that too.

You caught me, this is a (not so) subtle plug for working with us. If you are a recruiter looking for a change of scenery or someone wanting to get into recruitment, read more at trs.co.nz/our-team.

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Of course, there’s a lot that I’ve learned that I don’t have the space or time to write here;

• I know a lot about the technical job markets in New Zealand and what roles comprise them.
• I’ve been able to witness the recruitment process first hand and support the consultants here in that process.
• And then of course, there’s all the marketing knowledge I’ve accrued during the various projects that I’ve worked on.

All in all, it’s been a very positive experience and I’m certainly looking forward to the rest of 2019!

Got a question for me about the recruitment industry or anything I alluded to above? Leave a comment below or on LinkedIn and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Article by Dario Luca, Marketing Coordinator