What is a recruitment consultant?
A recruitment consultant is a person or service that helps professional people to find work by introducing them to potential employers.
They are responsible for attracting people to apply and guiding them through the application process, placing advertisements, giving interviews and matching candidates to the appropriate roles, from entry-level to executive positions.
How to become a recruitment consultant?
As a graduate, it’s possible to enter recruitment with any degree, although some employers may prefer a subject related to the industry, like human resources, marketing, public relations and psychology.
Some recruitment agencies specialise in a sector of work so you may be expected to have a relevant degree or industry experience.
Recruitment consultant duties:
Recruitment consultant duties are diverse and depend on the employer and specialty, but some responsibilities are common to most:
- Communicate with clients to determine their hiring needs
- Interviewing and assessing prospective applicants and matching them with vacancies at client companies
- Present detailed candidate profile summaries
- Build long-term client relationships
- Sourcing suitable candidates and briefing them on the opportunities offered by the client
- Screening candidates and drawing up shortlists of candidates for clients to interview
- Advertising vacancies by drafting and placing adverts in a range of media, such as newspapers, websites and magazines
- Offering advice to both clients and candidates on pay rates, training and career progression
- Reviewing recruitment policies to ensure effectiveness of selection techniques and recruitment programmes
- Develop a sustainable candidate lead strategy
- Networking to build business information that can be converted into commercial opportunities
- Making visits and presentations to corporate clients
Recruitment consultant skills:
To be an effective recruitment consultant you’ll need certain skills and competencies. The following are often cited in job vacancies:
- Ambitious, confident, and results driven
- Patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
- Have a thorough understanding of computer systems and applications
- Creative
- Excellent presentation skills
- Organisational skills
- Ability to meet deadlines and targets
- Self-motivated
- Critical thinker
How to find a recruitment consultant job
Recruitment consultant jobs are advertised online, in local newspapers and at your local jobcentre. To find all the recruitment consultant jobs near you;
- Search for recruitment consultant jobs on popular job websites such as; Indeed, Total Jobs and CV Library
- Use the DWP’s Find A Job Service
- Check local newspapers and local Facebook groups, especially groups dedicated to local jobs
Recruitment Consultant Job Titles
When you search for recruitment consultant jobs online, be aware that the jobs might be advertised using a different job title. Popular job titles for recruitment consultant jobs include;
- Corporate Recruiter
- Recruitment Sourcer
- Junior Recruiter
- Recruitment associate
- Recruiter
- Recruitment Specialist
- Staffing Specialist
- Technical Recruiter
- Talent Acquisition Consultant
- Talent Acquisition Specialist
What does a recruitment consultant do?
The day-to-day tasks of a recruitment consultant include;
- Interviewing and testing job seekers, to create a pool of people ready to fill vacancies
- Matching candidates to suitable jobs
- Screening and shortlisting candidates before employers interview them
- Meeting targets for the number of vacancies taken or the number of people placed into jobs
- Keeping records of clients, employers and vacancies
- Negotiating your agency’s fees
- ‘Headhunting’ – finding and approaching candidates for executive or specialist jobs