Have got what it takes to becoming a successful trainee recruitment consultant and quickly climb up the career ladder? Check out this post where we share our tips for acing your first recruitment job.

Are you thinking about becoming a recruitment consultant? As specialist technical recruiters ourselves, we think that’s an excellent idea! Our team live and breathe recruitment and find the job hugely rewarding both from a job satisfaction point of view as well as financial POV.

Starting out as a trainee recruiter can be a bit daunting. Many recruitment agencies are highly competitive environments, with recruiters often pitched against each other to get placements and make money. Here at Energi People we advocate a more collaborative and team driven approach, where we all help each other succeed. We also genuinely like helping our candidates achieve their career goals; to get that next job that will enable them to be more successful. That said, we are naturally motivated by money! The recruitment business model is target driven and successful recruiters want to excel and reap the financial rewards of bonuses or commission.

If you want to become a trainee recruitment consultant, here are our tips for acing it and quickly progressing to Recruitment Consultant, then Senior, Principal and even Team Leader.

10 tips for excelling as a trainee recruitment consultant

1. Develop a great work ethic. The more you put in, the more you get out of your career so be prepared to work hard and you will be rewarded. Slackers don’t last long in the recruitment industry, so you need to turn up and put the work in.
2. Develop your student mentality. Be curious and hungry for information and knowledge, strive for personal development. Be open to new ideas and try to be a ‘humble’ learner. If you’re a bit of a know-it-all, try to rein that in and instead accept that you’re not yet an expert in recruitment and that there’s lots to learn.
3. Practice your relationship building skills. You can’t be successful in the recruitment industry if you don’t have the ability to develop long term relationships with people at all levels. Communicate with honesty and transparency to develop trust and your credibility. A “quick buck” attitude will not serve you well as you will just burn bridges, what you want to do is invest the time to nurture and develop relationships for repeat business.
4. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes are all part of learning and everyone makes them. But make sure you own up to your mistakes and take steps to put them right, you’ll get a lot more respect from colleagues, clients and candidates if you do the right thing.
5. Learn your market quickly. It’s much easier to be confident in your job when you know what you’re talking about. Many of our consultants have not come from a technical background, some didn’t have a clue what a structural engineer does until they started working at Energi! But successful consultants educate themselves quickly so they can talk with confidence about jobs and the market in general. Installing confidence in candidates and clients.
6. Get on the phone and make connections. Recruitment is all about who you know, so the quicker you can build your network the better.
7. Hone your networking skills. Whether you’re at a networking event, in the pub or at a friend’s wedding, keep looking to connect with people. Be professional, listen to other people, be helpful and interested in them, and always remember to follow up with an email or phone call to cement the connection.
8. Learn to be resilient. Recruitment can sometimes feel like a rollercoaster ride where some weeks you don’t make any progress and feel like you’ve hit the bottom, whereas other weeks you’re at the top and business is booming. Learn to cope with the quiet times by being proactive and getting on the phone, and you’ll get rewarded when all your hard work produces results.
9. Always ask questions. Keep learning by asking your colleagues and team leader questions to help you do your job better. But also remember to ask clients and candidates questions too. The more you know about a candidate or client, the better position you’re in to help them achieve their goals.
10. Surround yourself with successful people. Give yourself something to strive for by nurturing friendships with successful people. This will drive you to be more successful, and you can also learn from them. They don’t have to be in the same industry, it’s about learning what characteristics and behaviours make people successful and then applying them in your own life.

Got what it takes to be a successful technical recruitment consultant? Energi People is recruiting ambitious and motivated individuals who want a great career in the recruitment industry. If you want to know why our consultants rate us as a great employer, read 5 Reasons To Work For Energi People!

If you’re interested in joining our growing team please get in touch. In the first instance send your CV with a covering letter / email to Jemma Kittle – [email protected]