Dear reader,
I hope this finds you well.
Recruitment is an essential part of any business, they need the best talent possible to stay competitive in their sector, so it’s understandable why as a recruitment consultant it is a very fast-paced environment to work in. Global Talent 2020 is a new business that presented me with a great opportunity to complete a 6-month Internship placement and find out what working in the recruitment industry was all about. Of course, as with any industry, there are some positivity and negativity towards the role and recruiters themselves. Hearing the typical ‘it’s a Wolf of Wall Street culture, “I hated working in recruitment”, and “Don’t do it, it’s rubbish”, were some of the typical things I heard from a circle of individuals. However, this only made me keener to experience the role and find out for myself. At the end of the day, I would either get 6-months of pretending to be Jordan Belfort, or 6-month enjoying the opportunity.
It is safe to say I was nervous about meeting the owners of the company Matthew Reeves and Andreas Maszczyk before I started my placement, but they ensured that I received a warm welcome, so I had trepidation only more towards the role itself and ensuring I would be able to perform it well. There was agreement from the outset that sometimes the best way to learn is by doing and growing from mistakes. Do not worry, I wasn’t thrown straight into the deep end. I was given a lot of training, on-the-job advice, and ongoing guidance on the whole recruitment process. It was explained in detail how to do the role professionally, and courteously, and what was expected of me, with which, I had to put it into practice to really learn.
Halfway into my placement and it had been an experience already. Meeting with clients had been good, learning how it is essential to build good relationships with these clients is key, because if a recruiter can meet their recruitment needs well, with a professional service, the recruiter’s credibility increases with more chance of securing future repeat work. Global Talent 2020 was a new business, set up during the pandemic, Matthew and Andreas have a lot of experience in the sector. And have established good relationships with quality clients over the years, so this was good to see how long-lasting relationships are key built to enable success.
Obviously, to be a successful recruiter you need candidates to fill the client’s recruitment needs. After the Covid 19 pandemic, all industries have been affected and needed to adapt to a new world in some instances. The Hospitality industry has been affected massively, which was shown through some candidates’ views, opinions, and attitudes towards current opportunities when canvassing them. Candidates now looking for a career change after having bad experiences with employers during the pandemic has left them feeling resentful towards the industry, in some instances. Other good experiences with candidates led to these progressing in recruitment processes. This is all part of the job, not every candidate you meet is open to new opportunities, this can be a very difficult part of the recruitment cycle process, but all candidates are human with different emotions, views, and goals so it’s understandable.
The second half of the placement was an evolution of core skills and on-the-job experiences to grow. By this point, there had been a few candidates almost placed for me, but a fall at the final hurdle meant it wasn’t to be, and this was frustrating, to say the least. This is for sure a part of a recruiter’s job, but they deal with humans not robots after all. Along with frustration comes a buzz of success, when finding the right candidate, who you can then successfully place with a client to meet both needs is rewarding on many levels. I was happy that I achieved this during my placement, the candidates were great to speak with, so building a good relationship was made easier. Thus, ensuring I was able to meet their needs and the clients was perfect.
So, what skills have I learned during my time as a recruitment consultant? Clear, concise, informative communication is an obvious one. The need for professionally dealing with and speaking with clients and candidates. I felt before I started the internship, that this would be best done by communicating face-to-face, or on the phone. I found this not to be completely true at Global Talent 2020. I learned the art of communicating through LinkedIn, and social media platforms, messaging, and constructing the right tone of the email were just as important. Relationship management and building them is key in this sector, it’s easy to speak with clients and candidates but if you are unable to build a lasting relationship with trust then it won’t last, or work for anyone. Having a good established, trusted rapport can make this easier, and with time a sound relationship will form. Possessing resilience is very important, and this is something I learned during my time with Global Talent 2020. You can make many calls, send many messages, and still have no luck even having an initial conversation with candidates but you must keep trying. Even if you have a candidate in process and you think it is going well, that can change suddenly even at the final hurdle, but you guessed right, it’s part of the role and you got to keep pushing on.
Final thoughts on recruitment – it is tough like any other industry, but it is a good one to be in, and I enjoyed my work placement at Global Talent 2020. Being a recruitment consultant can sometimes feel like being on a roller-coaster, some days you are on a high, and then suddenly you are on a low but there is for sure a buzz that comes with the ride all the time.
THANK YOU to the amazing team at Global Talent 2020 they have taught me a lot while providing me with good skills and experiences I will carry on through life with me. They helped me through the low parts of the rollercoaster but with their guidance and support reached the high parts as well.
Kindest regards,
Jacob Hobbis
