What I’ve Learnt in my First Month at a Recruiting Firm

My first month at a recruitment firm has been quite the experience! In the midst of Covid induced lockdowns and isolations, and the general madness of the world, I was fortunate to score a job at Technical Recruitment Solutions in Wellington. My official title is the Marketing Coordinator for the Construction and Industrial team. I’ve been working at Technical Recruitment Solutions for four weeks now and have really enjoyed the mahi. I’ve decided to write a blog post about what I’ve learnt in the hopes that it might help those who are thinking about getting into recruitment or are not sure what it’s about.

When I first interviewed for this job, I researched them online. I was lucky to find a blog post from the previous Marketing Coordinator, talking about his experience working here. His advice was incredibly helpful for my interview and my first month. He basically sold the job to me as I had never even considered working in recruitment, but after learning more about the role I seized the opportunity!

You do most of your learning on the job

Studying at Massey University was an amazing experience, it gave me a rich and broad introduction to my chosen vocation. I learnt lots about business communications, marketing, intercultural communication, public relations, and strategy development. Quite prepared for the world of work. What I hadn’t appreciated was how much more I needed to learn on-job!

Most of my work revolves around writing about things I’ve never studied, reading about work I’ve never done and talking to people all over the country, and I think I’ve done a pretty good job! The subjects I’m writing about include quantity surveying, mechanical engineering, and government visas for construction industry professionals. Of course, these are not subjects I studied during my degree, so I had to learn fast. While it may have been a daunting process during my first week, I’ve found that I can learn so much by just asking and listening to my co-workers. Last week I wrote an article about Building Information Modelling for a group of building experts, this was something I’d never heard about before the start of the week. I really enjoyed the experience learning about new technology trends and am looking forward to the next one.

Follow the script/looking for guidance

When I first started at Technical Recruitment Solutions I wanted to jump straight in, I wanted to talk to clients, recruit candidates and write articles about advanced engineering. Thankfully, my boss told me they would introduce these responsibilities when I was ready.

One of my duties at TRS is to try and get in contact with candidates we haven’t engaged with recently. This process involves researching them, calling them, and then updating the database with any new information.

I came up with a script for a candidate call and called up someone who hadn’t been in contact with us for a while to see if their details were still relevant. It did not go as well as I had hoped for. After the call, my boss wanted me to save the recording so he could listen to it and give me some advice. This was admittedly quite daunting, but I learnt a lot from the following conversation (don’t say awesome more than once in a recruitment call!). Roy and the team have continued to offer guidance for my learning experience here at Technical Recruitment Solutions.

Utility is far more important the specialisation (in marketing)

I remember being told this by my year 13 business studies teacher, I never really understood it before I stated here. Having a wider range of beginner or intermediate level skills is far more valuable when you are joining the workplace. Companies will invest in you and teach you more skills. I’m really glad I had a broad range of marketing, communications, media design and customer service skills when I started here rather than relying on a single speciality. A range of useful skills and experience is far more valuable to an employer than specialising in one, especially straight out of university

In recruiting no two days are the same. It is an exciting field, and people are always interesting to deal with! Of course, there are other lessons I have learnt here including professional note taking, how to pitch and how to read between the lines of an engineer’s CV (but that’s a trade secrets!) Get in contact if you are interested in hearing more about recruiting (or are looking for a role in the construction or industrial industry) I’d be happy to help!