How do you ‘do’ Recruitment?

So, you’ve done it. You’ve got the job. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and you’ve just taken the first one. The only problem is, you’ve only got a vague idea of what your new job actually entails. You’re new to this, you have an idea of how people get jobs, you’ve just got yourself a new one, after all. But you don’t actually know how to ‘do’ recruitment. More to the point, what do you know about Engineering, let alone specialist Engineering Recruitment?

You arrive, day one. Your new colleagues have very kindly prepared some resources for you to read about the firms you’ll be working with, the legislation, the rules, the market trends, how to work with different types of people. You read, you study, you want to know how to get it right. But still, you don’t know how to ‘do’ recruitment. You are presented with volumes of information, about people, about firms, about the vernacular, about different sectors, current market trends. You try to absorb all of this information, try to learn everything you can. Still you want to know more. How do you ‘do’ recruitment?

You speak to different people, people who want jobs, jobs who want people, jobs who don’t want people but might have a look if the perfect one came along, people who definitely don’t want jobs thank you very much! The week comes to a close, you have the Friday get-together and are asked how your first week has been. You smile, you say you’ve enjoyed it, but you’re still not sure that you’ve ‘done’ much recruitment. How do you ‘do’ recruitment? You get a knowing smile in return.

A month passes. You’ve spoken to lots of people now. You speak to them in different ways, at different times, about many different things. Some of the people like being spoken to, some not so much. But you find you enjoy speaking to everyone. You learn the lingo. Candidates, clients, business development, contracts, portal, perm(anent), contractor, fixed-term, percentages, PSL, WIP. These terms become more familiar as time goes by. You reel them off in casual conversation like you’ve used them all your life. You’ve had some nibbles, some people actually like talking to you. You take the time to try and know what clients and candidates want before they do. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes not, but you learn from every exchange. But how do you ‘do’ recruitment?

Finally, it happens. An interview! You’ve qualified the role, sourced a candidate with the right skills, location, salary expectations and is interested in your well-qualified role. This is it! They don’t get the job. You are crushed. How do you ‘do’ recruitment? But your colleagues encourage you. You’re learning. Do what you did to get that person to interview stage, again. You think maybe you were lucky to get even this one. But you endeavour to keep at it. You qualify your roles, continue with the business development, what do clients really want, what skills, what sort of person, how urgent is it, why are they looking? You qualify your candidates, what are they looking for, why are they looking, where are they looking, would they go to the Outer Hebrides, how much are they being paid, no, how much are they really being paid?

You book more interviews, and finally, it happens! A job offer (and an acceptance)! You are elated. You give the Wimbledon fist pump and feel like you’ve climbed Mount Everest twice to get here. It’s been 3 months. Now, do that again. And again. It’s your Friday meeting. Everyone is pleased for you. Is that how you ‘do’ recruitment? Again, you get smiles.

It hits six months, you did it again and again, you made more placements. In fact, you’ve made enough for a promotion, you get to drop the ‘trainee’ part of your title. It’s a milestone in your journey of a thousand miles. You’re still not sure you know how to ‘do’ recruitment. You get smiles again – you’ve been ‘doing’ recruitment the whole time.

One final note, we are looking for new recruitment consultants to join us here at Critical Project Resourcing. We have 2 positions available within the company; one on our Local Authority team and the other on our Infrastructure team. Interested? Find out more info here.

Sam Turmer
sam@cpresourcing.co.uk
01732 455300