Most people have 'their sport' and Golf was mine for over a decade. Looking back, I was actually quite the professional. It never dawned on me that one day I would replace my golf club with a telephone, and frankly my old man qualities made it even more daunting. I type at the speed of a snail with sleep deprivation, I'm used to wearing golf tops, and to put it bluntly the prospect of wearing suits was laughable because I TEACH GOLF! Surely I didn't fit the stereotype of a recruiter?
I do!
Wherever you go, business is business and the years of corporate golf experience and coaching that I have been subjected to is beginning to pay off. Suddenly, all of my organisational skills, my ability to pick up on client mannerisms and getting people to talk about themselves to death that I developed in my golfing past are coming in handy.
What I was not prepared for was how quickly the contract market moves. You can go from having an empty board (and a nice early finish) to working four requirements at once, a crate of Red Bull as company, and a very long night ahead of you just to start to build the right bridge between a client and candidate.
It sounds simple enough, but not getting the marriage right first time between candidate and client can be detrimental for all of the parties involved so it's better to invest a few more hours into what you're doing and make sure that you've got happy and engaged people all round.
My first deal took twenty-four hours from requirement to placement and that takes some skill! That's when I knew that my job in recruitment was the right decision. I found the client, found the candidates, arranged the interviews, chased everyone up and completed all of the paperwork with the enthusiasm of a child locked in a sweet shop. Not only did my wallet put on a bit of weight, but I suddenly realised that recruitment is actually satisfying as well as rewarding. Imagine moving from trying to fix old Mavis' backswing to genuinely helping a promising IT Engineer find their perfect role. This is life changing stuff.
Our office is a funny little place, so when our manager started giving me pieces of paper saying 'C#' and 'VMWare' I thought he was having me on. Apparently not; it may have been a foreign language to me then but it turns out that these people really know what they're doing and these random words actually mean something to them. I may sound light hearted about the IT market but it turns out that it is far from an easy sector to get into and stay in. These contractors are really good at their jobs and have real talent so it's crucial that neither recruiters nor clients see them as 'just a CV', give them the respect they deserve, and take the time to get to know the person as well as the skill sets they carry.
As for how our company treats us, Brookwood Selection and the team we have in place Is everything I could ask for and more. They're professional yet good fun, and well, they must be doing something right because they brought me onboard. The long and short of it is that a role in recruitment is a hard nut to crack and is most definitely not for everyone. However, with the right attitude, a first class team and a world class set of trainers, you really can achieve anything!
By the way, and just in case you were curious; yes, this did take me 45-55 minutes to type and yes, I may have broken my backspace key, but it's all for your pleasure people!
