Recruiter: Job Profile and Role

Although modern technologies have been part of the job world for centuries, they, so far, have not managed to replace us quite yet. Meaning that “real-life” employees are still very much needed to run businesses in any sector. They must fulfil certain criteria and expectations, their applications should be composed accordingly.

One of the people responsible for checking these applications and consequently sourcing, screening, and hiring candidates is a company’s recruiter – the job we focus on in this blog. Here, you find out what is expected of you to become a recruiter, what you will get paid annually and where you can find employment. You also find out what your working day looks like and get three tips to advance your career in recruiting. 

Short Summary

• As a recruiter, you liaise with the client company to find out their employee needs and expectations.
• As a recruiter, you place job posts which nowadays typically happens on various online job portals.
• As a recruiter, you check each candidate’s applications, select the applicants most suited for the job, conduct job interviews, and hire the best candidate as an employee.

Job description

It is your job as a recruiter to function as the bridge between your client company and potential employees. After you have found out what a company is looking for in job applicants, you continue with market research and placing job listings on various online job portals. In the next step, you screen everyone who has applied to a post by checking their applications and references. Based on your first impressions, you select the most suited applicants and invite them for job interviews. Lastly, you choose the perfect candidate and hire him or her for your client company.

Responsibilities

• Job Analysis
• Market Research
• Negotiating Offers
• Reference Checking
• Sourcing Candidates
• Screening Candidates
• Interviewing Candidates
• Maintaining Relationships
• Compliance/Legal Awareness
• Application Process Management

Different types of Recruiters

• In-House Recruiter
• Freelance Recruiter
• Contingency Recruiter
• Recruitment Consultant
• Industry-Specific Recruiter 

Salary

When you start your first full-time job in recruiting, you can expect an annual salary of around ￡23,000. This can increase the longer you have worked in this profession and can then come in at around ￡38,000. Keep in mind that the average base salary paid to recruiters is circa ￡28,000. Also, note that the best employment options for you may well be in metropolitan areas since these tend to have more businesses/industries than rural parts of the UK. Besides your location, your employer has a say in what you earn each year, which you should also factor into your considerations when applying for a job.

Working Hours

Depending on your employment, you will work 35 to 40 hours a week which takes place during the core office hours from 9 to 5. Typically, you are expected to work from Monday to Friday, evening and/or weekend work does not tend to be a part of your weekly workload (and if so, only occasionally). 

Do not forget that you may be expected to work flexible hours, especially, when it comes to attending after-work meetings. This also applies if you work as a freelance recruiter. You may do some of the work online/remotely, meaning that you can work with global clients in different time zones. 

Employers

You can find recruitment work with every company that is looking for employees – in short, your employment options are nigh on limitless. You can also check whether you want to work as an in-house recruiter, meaning that you are directly employed by a company, or if you want to work for a recruitment agency. The latter also gives you the option to apply as a full-time employee or to offer your expertise and recruitment services as a freelancer. You can also look into working for online job platforms where you work on connecting employees with future employers.

Qualifications

All the info you get from us on the job of a recruiter is something you will forward to the applicants you work with in the future. You will likely tell them that passing their GCSEs (usually at pass grades 9 to 4/A* to C) and/or A levels tend to be an entry requirement to gain the appropriate educational background or work experience. Therefore, it will not surprise you that your secondary education sets the path for your education – be it an undergraduate degree, an apprenticeship, or “just” working towards the job of a recruiter. 

Besides, you should work on your technical and digital literacy since you will work with software and platforms daily. An in-depth knowledge of job portals is as important as knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite. You will also benefit from knowing multiple languages, especially, if you want to work with international companies and prospective job applicants.

Skills

If you want to work in recruiting, you probably already know the importance of closely checking job listings when it comes to the required qualifications and skills. For you, these competencies will include market and business knowledge as well as knowing your way around the most popular online job portals. These are just a few examples of competencies that will benefit you in your future career. What other skills are needed is what we look at in this section.

Active Listening

Although most client companies know exactly what they are looking for in a job applicant, you should always listen very closely. It is not always the case that an employer can define in so many words what he or she is looking for. Active listening skills will help you “extract” the knowledge and information you need to start finding the employee best suited for a vacancy. Hearing what’s said between the lines – or not, to be more precise – and asking the right questions is an important step towards placing a job post and attracting the right employee.

Non-Verbal Communication

Technically, you need all kinds of communication there are. However, non-verbal communication will be just as important as verbal communication. This competency ties in with your active listening skills. It enables you to figure out what a company is looking for in an employee. It also enables you to read an applicant correctly, for example, when it comes to them possibly having laid it on thick in their applications. Your ability to read people will be one of your most important assets in job interviews and goes a long way towards hiring the person who is right for the job.

Empathy/Compassion

Empathy and compassion should be part of your “emotional” setup if you want to work in recruiting. If you have already applied for a job, you know how excruciating and exhausting this process can be. Even if you think and know that you are the best person for the job and really, really, really want to get employed, the waiting process can be nerve-wracking – not forgetting job interviews that have the same effect. As a recruiter, you must be aware of this and (re-)act accordingly. Empathy and compassion enable you to walk the proverbial mile in an applicant’s shoes – and ensure that you are doing an excellent job.

Career Path

Any career starts with the first step – be it an educational background or work experience that propels you to the next career stop. In recruiting, you have various career options, including the job of a senior recruiter or training to become a recruitment consultant. With the necessary experience and business acumen – never mind, the right network and clients – you can equally set up your own recruitment company and work as a freelancer.

Educational Background

Theoretically, you are not required to have a specific educational background when you want to work in recruiting. As you may know, an academic degree – for example, a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in business studies, human resources, and/or psychology – can make you more attractive to your potential employers. 

Then again, your future employer may prefer practical experience over degrees, in which case an apprenticeship is a better option. Here, you can complete an intermediate and/or an advanced apprenticeship, for instance, as a recruitment resourcer.

If you want to skip both these approaches and start gaining experience straight away, you can also work towards the job of a recruiter. Here, you need to look into on-the-job training since you will still need the required qualifications and certifications.

Entry Level

Depending on your approach, you start your recruitment career as an office assistant (you work towards the role) or a trainee recruiter. Keep in mind that gaining experience through working closely with more senior colleagues is only one aspect of progressing to mid-level and senior positions. While working in your entry-level job, you must invest time into further training and professional development. In the following section, we explore what this can entail.

Continuous Learning

The job of a recruiter comes with the caveat of advancing into consultancy roles which require further training. Some options are the following:

Diplomas: 

• Recruitment Leadership Diploma (Level 5)
• Recruitment Management Diploma (Level 4)

Certificates:

• Recruitment Practice Certificate (Level 3)
• Recruitment Resourcing (Level 2)

These qualifications are offered by both the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC).

The above-mentioned options enable you to broaden your knowledge of legal aspects (employment law), headhunting, and interviewing. You will equally benefit from improving your technical knowledge and abilities and earning qualifications in marketing and customer skills.

Getting to the Next (Education) Level

Among both educational backgrounds and further training, you can find Level XY diplomas and certificates. But what is behind these levels and how many are there? First, there are eight “level levels” in the UK, each of which represents your knowledge and skills. Each level is also connected to a credits system that represents your educational background, with levels 1, 2, and 3 referring to your secondary education and pass grades. Levels 4 to 8 are the equivalent of academic degrees, ranging from a Bachelor’s degree/studies to a Master’s degree and a Doctorate/PhD.

A Day in the Life of a Recruiter

Liaising with your client company is at the start of a recruitment process. Meetings with HR and the company’s directors are part of your working day as a recruiter. Here, you find out what needs and expectations need to be fulfilled by future employees regarding their qualifications and skills. After you have gathered the necessary intel, you can focus on the following three tasks that shape your working day.

Source/Screen Candidates

You have all the relevant information about your client’s dream candidate which means that you can now start to place job listings online, on social media, or in newspapers (yes, that is still an option). It will take almost no time till the first candidates have handed in their applications. This means that you can then start to screen them since the sourcing process is pretty much completed.

Check References

Screening all applicants implies checking their applications. What stands out in their respective CVs, which qualifications, skills, and (if applicable) work experience make them perfect for the job? This part of the application process must be accompanied by reference checking. What do previous employers say about a candidate? Where do they see their strengths, maybe even some weaknesses? Reference checking is also important since it shows you an applicant’s credibility. In short, whether he or she has made up a reference to improve his or her job chances.

Conduct Job Interviews

The above-mentioned steps have helped you to select the candidates most suited for the job. Now you invite each one for a job interview which can take place either in an office or online – as long as it is ideally face-to-face. Here, you can double-check the key points in their applications and personally discuss what expectations they have where the future job is concerned. Typically, you will narrow down your candidate list to a handful of prospective employees – and depending on your client’s needs, only one will get the much sought-after placement.

Tips for Thriving as a Recruiter

One of the things you may tell future employees is that they should always strive to improve, be it their professional or personal competencies. What applies to them is advice you should live by just as much. It does not matter whether you want to get to the top of this particular career ladder or not – in this case, you lead by example. Therefore, you will now receive three tips that help you thrive as a recruiter:

• Candidate experience
• Online expertise
• Strong networks

Candidate Experience

When you have worked in recruiting for several years, you will have placed a lot of candidates with their employers. You are the intermediary who is responsible for the whole application process and the first person future employees deal with. Therefore, you are responsible for making the application and hiring process as comfortable and positive as possible. If you want to thrive, you should tap into past candidate experiences. Get in touch with them and find out what things made the whole process a memorable success and where you may need to improve to provide a better service in the future. These insights are priceless and can set you apart from your recruitment colleagues.

Online Expertise

Yes, placing job listings in papers is still an option when you look for a company’s employees. However, online platforms and social media have made the hiring process a lot easier and faster. It has never been so easy to upload CVs, references, and more onto a platform or to just get in touch with employers through DMs on Instagram and Facebook. If you want to do your job, you need to know your way around all the relevant job sites, be it the big names like LinkedIn or the aforementioned social media giants. 

Strong Networks

Speaking of social media: networking is another factor to thrive as a recruiter. This does not necessarily have to be limited to Facebook et al. but should also happen in person, for example, by attending industry events and connecting with other recruiters at workshops or seminars. Tapping into their experience, tips, and expertise is just as important as getting previous candidates’ insights. With their knowledge also at your disposal, you can be sure to thrive in your profession.

Frequently Asked Questions