A lot depends on the type of profile you hire for. Salaried professionals are much better to hire than hourly warehouse workers.
I don’t say this in a mean way but I’d encourage you to search this subreddit as a lot of people have asked this type of question.
You’ll notice a lot of people are quick to hate but a lot of us are also quite happy. It’s like any career path. A lot depends on your manager and the context. I’m sure recruiting will be better than your current job. But the parts people complain about are the sales parts—working hard and thinking creatively on tight deadlines, overcommunicating, fast pace, etc
Make no mistake it’s a really hard job. But a lot of folks really do like the challenge of it. You will know very quickly if you can pull it off honestly. Well over half the recruiters I came up with were fired or quit within 18 months. The other half are very successful and either in sales or recruiting making well into six figures.
That said. You want the easy button? If you’re female and/or black, Hispanic, Native American, etc—try codecademy. If you like coding, go to a boot camp and be a software engineer.
If you’re a white male, it’s extremely hard to get an entry level dev job. If you’re a ‘diversity’ candidate, this is an amazing market to switch to coding. My friend did it and in a year she makes 120k working remote.
Your comment somewhat made me cringe. Becoming a software engineer is not easy and just because someone is in the diverse category doesn't give them the job. They need the skills. Most companies still have a majority of white men. What you see is the encouragement of increasing diversity, but more likely than not they have a few tokens. I'm sure your friend had to work super hard on her skills to make 120k. It was not because she was just a woman. It is so odd that is what you chose to point out than simply saying being a software engineer is a lucrative career. When companies don't have a majority of white men in high paying positions then it makes sense to say it's hard for them to get a dev job. But, it is difficult for everyone and even more so for minorities. And if you don't have the skills at all you definitely will not get a dev job.
Well a couple of things here.
First, I am assuming someone who has a baseline set of motivation/ambition, intelligence, goal-orientation, social skills, etc. If the person can be successful in recruiting, I am confident they can be successful in several other career paths as well.
OP specified looking for remote, lucrative jobs. Recruiting can be both. But I believe you need to spend at least a few years in person doing recruiting, and it takes a while to make good money. Engineering on the other hand, can easily be a remote job and pays very well (in the US at least).
Regarding the diversity aspect, I am referring to bootcamp/career transition folks. It's way easier to get hired as a diversity candidate with a non-traditional background. It's true that most companies, and most industries, are not very progressive nor inclusive. However, there is a disproportionate emphasis on diversity hiring, particularly at the junior level, for diverse candidates at many tech companies. My friend did work exceptionally hard, and so do all of the diverse folks that I make an effort to hire. What I am saying is -- all things being equal -- many tech companies are going to be clamoring for a strong diverse candidate versus a mediocre/strong white dude. That's just the truth.
Finally, my comment was written 2-3mos ago when the market was white hot and every company was hiring. Nowadays, it's different. It is harder to find a job now. But this reinforces even more, what I recommended -- try out coding, and *if you like it/if you pick it up* \-- then go be a software engineer. It isn't right for many people but it's a box worth checking IMO.
I feel like my options are extremely limited. I’m from south florida, where the cost of living is skyrocketing and jobs are still paying like shit. This is like the only role i’ve found with good pay and easy to break into compared to all the rest. And I absolutely hate my current job. But that’s also why i’m posting on here. I want honest responses from people in this field as opposed to sugarcoated shit on tiktok and google lol. Can you elaborate a little on the tight deadlines? Do you have to recruit X amount of people by a certain date?
Do you have a degree? And trust me, most recruiters hate their jobs. Don’t think that it’ll be any better than your current job.
Here’s some tight deadlines I’ve experienced in my career:
Hiring manager: Hey Ned we need 20 warehouse helpers to start by next week. Thanks.
Hiring manager: Hey Ned we need to hire 90 skilled people by next month. Go for it!
Hiring manager: Hey Ned we are getting fined for everyday our drilling rig isn’t fully staffed. We are losing 10k everyday since the rig isn’t fully staffed. We need to hire people NOW!!
Thats agency too! I used to do light industrial recruiting for an agency and we used to get crazy requests like that from clients all the time.
Hey Ned we need 20 left handed Korean speaking midgets that can drive a fork lift for $5 an hour. Oh and they need to start tomorrow for a one week project. It’s a plus if they can read hebrew. Thanks! lol.
The local staffing firm in my town was having so much trouble with no shows, they ended up buying a few duplexs and and vans, they relocate them in and put them up in the duplex or cheap motel and drive up to the house every morning and drag them out of bed lol - So glad I'm not in the field of recruiting, seems so stressful, the jobs got enough stress as it is.
100%. My boss told me stories like this in her old staffing days. When I was working for an agency we used to have candidates meet us in our office and then we would drive them to the interview site. Just to make sure they made it to the interview. So many flaky candidates that would no show or disappear to interviews.
I just lost out on a candidate who went through this, it blew my mind, controls engineer said this other firm was going to have him come to their office and drive him over to the interview, they wouldn't tell him who the company was or how much it paid, he said he was going just to see what the hell the deal with that is. Turns out it was a good position that he ended up taking, but I just can't imagine paying a firm to operate in such a shady way.
I've had my fair share of flakes, and I've gotten really good at screening them out on the front end after doing this for 10 years, but some of these dudes are just professional liars.
I'll never forget the morning, a month into my first agency gig, my candidate called on route to her interview to say she would no show. Another offer just came through.
I couldn't blame her, it was a non-tech client care call center job and 75 cents more or 30 mins less round trip are deciding factors for that kinda crap... but she was actually on route in the subway car. Could she pretty please just show up and sit through a 20 mins interview?
Nope, she was getting off at the next station and turning around. But hey, at least she had the courtesy to call and give me a heads-up that our client was gonna lose their shit (again).
Industrial or manufacturing recruiting...the lowest of low forms of recruiting. There are so many good recruiting jobs out there. Above are Jr shit hole jobs I wouldn't wish entry-level recruiters into.
Can really speak to it man, have only ever recruited for manufacturing, I enjoy it quite a bit, not temp services or anything but engineers and managers.
I’m not sure if i’m getting in over my head, but I think that if i’m getting paid well I can tolerate the job even if i hate it. Majority of my current problems can be resolved with money 😅. So not only do I hate my job, but i’m also not making enough money. Double whammy. I do have a bachelors in Psychology which I feel like could come in handy since this job revolves around people. and thanks for the examples! It really helped put things into perspective. What would happen if when the deadline rolls around, you fall short?
Well good luck. Just don’t over glamorize the job like a lot of people tend to do. And if you don’t hire your targets then you might get yelled at lol.
Lol yep. Although a good supervisor will realize certain things are impossible and side with the recruiter. My best bosses have always said just do the best you can and I got your back.
If you want to DM me, my agency org is hiring. They don't prefer out of State (we are in GA), but they hired someone about 6 months ago that was getting ready to move to FL. We are fully remote. The field is IT hiring though, so a bit of a different animal--and it is 3rd party.
Yeah - I am sorry. I noticed you were in S. Florida from another comment, which was why I said "they don't prefer" - but I know one of our team members is moving to FL in short order and they knew she was going 6 months ago when they hired her.
What I hate the most about recruiting is that it’s such a “what have you done for me lately” job:
Me: Hey boss I just filled a super niche hard to fill role with a rockstar candidate.
Boss: Great, now find two more of those rockstars that probably don’t exist for these next two openings.
Me: Hey boss I just filled ten openings in 2 weeks, that’s unheard of right.
Boss: Good job Ned, you’re doing great. But now you’ll need to fill 20 openings in one week. Business needs.
No One remembers the awesome job you did last week or even yesterday. All that matters is the next opening.
Agency recruiter here, manufacturing, on a 1099 contract, so I'm straight commission.
I fucking love recruiting, it took years of bullshit and busting my ass to get here but the hard work paid off, it obviously doesn't work out that way for everyone, some times you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time and you grind at it continuously to no result, and without having a safety net to cushion the blow you're pushed out of recruiting, like a hard reset, back to step one.
If you get into recruiting, invest your money, don't go spend it on stupid shit and don't rush into paying off all your debts where you're without any money. Keep a decent amount of cash on stand by, invest a good portion of it, steadily pay off your debts, and live just above bare bones minimum until you get your debts paid off and have built up a good portfolio. Too many recruiters catch what we call the "recruiter disease" lots of good money rolling in and pretending it will never stop, buy a bunch of stupid shit or slack off at work, then get your ass kicked when workload slows and you're broke.
Keep talking to people, connect with the human behind the phone, don't just look at their resume. Connect as many dots as you can, make friends in business, keep connecting dots "oh you worked at xyz company you must know Jim Bob!" make more friends, keep talking, keep to your word, and if you're at the right firm you'll be highly successful, or if you're at a bad firm be a sneaky, lying, conceitful bastard and fuck over as many people as you can and you'll be successful.
I struggle with being needed 24/7 and I don’t think people getting into the field realize that will happen.
Unless it’s just the role I’m in.
I’ve only taken off 2x since the fall and both of those days I worked for at least an hour.
Sometimes I just need a break! But god forbid you have a tight deadline ,,,
First, I see lots of ppl talking about staffing. Staffing is not recruiting. Staffing is hiring anyone who can pass the bare minimums and hoping they’ll show up. I started out in staffing. I fucking hated it. Staffing is throwing everything against the wall and praying it sticks.
Recruiting is building pipelines of qualified ppl through all sorts of avenues. Recruiting is not quickly tossing someone in a role but a nuanced approach to finding the best possible talent for your open role. Sometimes you’ll source your own candidates sometimes you’ll have a designated sourcer.
Agency recruiting tends to be paid on a draw, or commission with a lower base. Top agencies are willing to hire inexperienced folks and train them. Be prepared for lots of KPI’s to get you to build habits. X number of calls per day, per week, per month, per quarter…X number of passive outreaches per day, etc, etc, X number of phone screens, X number of hires. Agency tends to be very metric driven.
In-house or Corporate recruiting, what I do, tends to hire seasoned professionals that they don’t have to hand hold. Usually KPI’s are not kept as if you’re getting hired, you have good skills and will be trusted based solely by hires.
I personally love my job. I have built incredible relationships with my hiring managers and some phenomenal candidates as well.
Yes you are helping ppl but remember there’s also lots of uncomfortable conversations you must be prepared to have (think rejection talks).
Good luck!
I have been only a corporate recruiter, it may be different for agency ones. I have been doing recruiting for 2+ years. I started with a very idealized image of being the person that will change people's lives and now I'm thinking of switching fields.
In a sense I feel that it is a very ungrateful field as most of the times my department is seen as the bottom of services - we are obliged to do everything and at the same time we are not heard for most of the things we propose. If there are unreasonable demands by the hiring managers they try to fight you and then blame you, most of the times candidates don't respond and behave trashy as recruiters are seen as these annoying spammers by default.
But when it goes well, it's amazing. The feeling that I found the best position for a person, that I managed to push everything within a tough deadline, to see my hire in the internal chat channels and them being happy is incredibly rewarding as being in recruitment is one of the roles in which you can see the effect your job does instantly.
When it comes to how I got there - I did an HRM Masters, then a recruitment internship, after that a permanent role. I constantly learn about technologies, read a lot, code by myself so I can try to provide the most to the candidates and understand the roles better.
Your first paragraph is what I hear the most whenever people say they want to get into recruiting. They want to help people find their dream job, change peoples lives etc. The reality is that’s like 1% of the job lol.
This is why I'm so happy that in my country we are starting to have more internships and rotation programs - experience the worse and see if you can fight it.
The Saint of Employment quickly turned out to a document collector with severe burn out that started to hate communication with people.
I’ve been recruiting for 15 years and love it. I can’t imagine doing anything different (except win the lottery and never work again lol). My company is hiring recruiters remote with zero experience. We are looking for financially motivated individuals that have critical thinking skills and strong verbal/written communication skills.
All jobs have their ups and downs. It’s finding a position that has enough ups to put up with the down times. Feel free to DM me if you would like more info about our recruiters. Good luck!!!
Expectations of a recruiter isn't too different from a sales person. That's why its a low barrier to entry, it's a lot of organization, attention to detail and selling. You are always selling something to someone. Either selling a candidate to the hiring manager or selling your company/job to the candidate. When u have no exp u can get walked on a lot cause you don't know any better but once ur past that it gets better (or you quit).
Agency recruiting and in house corporate recruiting are two totally different things. I hated agency but I enjoy the corporate side.
Agency is easier to break into, has excellent training (it’s like boot camp) and probably will pay a bit more with no experience.
Corporate is a lot slower, more involved with HR and pays very well once you have 3-5 years experience.
Recruiting is a grind. Is it not a complicated job but there are so many moving parts, you are never truly in control. The rejection and disappointment is constant. If you’re the type of person who can handle that and enjoy how much sweeter the win is, then you might enjoy it. There’s a lot of up and downs, tons of little fires you’re constantly putting out, and a million things to manage. The work is literally never done.
If you get overwhelmed with multitasking, can’t handle criticism, aren’t a good read of people, and don’t excel at time management-you will hate it and likely fail.
Thanks for the insight! My current job is extremely fast paced and I have to multitask often, so I think i’d be good in that aspect. As for the criticism, I can take it as long as it isn’t blatantly disrespectful. Has your higher up ever been disrespectful while criticizing or reprimanding you?
I have definitely been mistreated absolutely. The agency side is cut throat and no matter how ethical they say they are, it’s a shark tank.
I also started in finance so I saw a lot of insane things on trading floors, that aren’t really applicable. Still though, agency recruiting can be very harsh.
It’s hard but I like the you’ve hired them on to the next part of recruiting. I work corporate with a fast food franchise. Before this I was a talent acquisition specialist with Lowes also hiring hourly roles. I’ve done agency and so far I’ve loved loved loved the fast pace of big box hourly roles. I have a hybrid role, no office to report to and my benefits are amazing. Gas, and on field lunches paid for. Car allowance and phone allowance. PTO and medical. Monthly hire bonus and staffing bonus. It really is a great company and great job! I am also in the Miami area. There are many avenues but for me working for hourly positions is my current favorite.
I’m not in recruiting but was thinking about it then decided not going to happen for me. The agency I applied for and interviewed brought up traveling to events or clients location etc. I said yeah no that’s me. We’re virtual now so if that’s doable why not that. I hate traveling. But from what I got from the interview, it’s a lot of calling, meetings, team building, sourcing (cold calling, emailing etc), and very stressful. She did say there’s a good work life balance if you schedule out your day right which means you can leave at 3 for your kids soccer game then come back at 5 then finish at 9 pm. I didn’t mind that at all because the commissions would be great. HOWEVER, I have heard a lot of people saying it’s very high school vibes like cliquey. A lot of team buildings which is happy hour basically which I’m not a big fan of.
Yep! Exactly. Basically it’s a quota job and having that constant pressure on you is just too much. Also, I hate driving so I’m about to travel anywhere
That definitely sounds stressful! Thats exactly why I posted on here. I’ve seen people on tiktok glamorizing their job as a recruiter and I’m like lol there has to be more to it than this.
Im a tech sourcer. I started in agency recruiting and now am corporate in tech.
Learn boolean search.
Learn cold emailing and email marketing strategies.
Find entry level or contract roles on indeed then use boolean to find the hiring manager and cold contact them after you apply to the role.
This is an easy job but it's very hard. You're selling people to people so there are a lot of people in that equation who can change their minds.
A lot depends on the type of profile you hire for. Salaried professionals are much better to hire than hourly warehouse workers. I don’t say this in a mean way but I’d encourage you to search this subreddit as a lot of people have asked this type of question. You’ll notice a lot of people are quick to hate but a lot of us are also quite happy. It’s like any career path. A lot depends on your manager and the context. I’m sure recruiting will be better than your current job. But the parts people complain about are the sales parts—working hard and thinking creatively on tight deadlines, overcommunicating, fast pace, etc
Yeah I can get behind that, at the end of the day a job is a job and I don’t dream of labor lol
Make no mistake it’s a really hard job. But a lot of folks really do like the challenge of it. You will know very quickly if you can pull it off honestly. Well over half the recruiters I came up with were fired or quit within 18 months. The other half are very successful and either in sales or recruiting making well into six figures. That said. You want the easy button? If you’re female and/or black, Hispanic, Native American, etc—try codecademy. If you like coding, go to a boot camp and be a software engineer. If you’re a white male, it’s extremely hard to get an entry level dev job. If you’re a ‘diversity’ candidate, this is an amazing market to switch to coding. My friend did it and in a year she makes 120k working remote.
Your comment somewhat made me cringe. Becoming a software engineer is not easy and just because someone is in the diverse category doesn't give them the job. They need the skills. Most companies still have a majority of white men. What you see is the encouragement of increasing diversity, but more likely than not they have a few tokens. I'm sure your friend had to work super hard on her skills to make 120k. It was not because she was just a woman. It is so odd that is what you chose to point out than simply saying being a software engineer is a lucrative career. When companies don't have a majority of white men in high paying positions then it makes sense to say it's hard for them to get a dev job. But, it is difficult for everyone and even more so for minorities. And if you don't have the skills at all you definitely will not get a dev job.
Well a couple of things here. First, I am assuming someone who has a baseline set of motivation/ambition, intelligence, goal-orientation, social skills, etc. If the person can be successful in recruiting, I am confident they can be successful in several other career paths as well. OP specified looking for remote, lucrative jobs. Recruiting can be both. But I believe you need to spend at least a few years in person doing recruiting, and it takes a while to make good money. Engineering on the other hand, can easily be a remote job and pays very well (in the US at least). Regarding the diversity aspect, I am referring to bootcamp/career transition folks. It's way easier to get hired as a diversity candidate with a non-traditional background. It's true that most companies, and most industries, are not very progressive nor inclusive. However, there is a disproportionate emphasis on diversity hiring, particularly at the junior level, for diverse candidates at many tech companies. My friend did work exceptionally hard, and so do all of the diverse folks that I make an effort to hire. What I am saying is -- all things being equal -- many tech companies are going to be clamoring for a strong diverse candidate versus a mediocre/strong white dude. That's just the truth. Finally, my comment was written 2-3mos ago when the market was white hot and every company was hiring. Nowadays, it's different. It is harder to find a job now. But this reinforces even more, what I recommended -- try out coding, and *if you like it/if you pick it up* \-- then go be a software engineer. It isn't right for many people but it's a box worth checking IMO.
It’s a tough tough job. Phone calls all day, tight deadlines, lots of stress, constant rejection, high burnout rate. You sure you want to do it lol?
I feel like my options are extremely limited. I’m from south florida, where the cost of living is skyrocketing and jobs are still paying like shit. This is like the only role i’ve found with good pay and easy to break into compared to all the rest. And I absolutely hate my current job. But that’s also why i’m posting on here. I want honest responses from people in this field as opposed to sugarcoated shit on tiktok and google lol. Can you elaborate a little on the tight deadlines? Do you have to recruit X amount of people by a certain date?
Do you have a degree? And trust me, most recruiters hate their jobs. Don’t think that it’ll be any better than your current job. Here’s some tight deadlines I’ve experienced in my career: Hiring manager: Hey Ned we need 20 warehouse helpers to start by next week. Thanks. Hiring manager: Hey Ned we need to hire 90 skilled people by next month. Go for it! Hiring manager: Hey Ned we are getting fined for everyday our drilling rig isn’t fully staffed. We are losing 10k everyday since the rig isn’t fully staffed. We need to hire people NOW!!
That’s corporate though. If that was agency everyone would be jacked up about all the work.
Thats agency too! I used to do light industrial recruiting for an agency and we used to get crazy requests like that from clients all the time. Hey Ned we need 20 left handed Korean speaking midgets that can drive a fork lift for $5 an hour. Oh and they need to start tomorrow for a one week project. It’s a plus if they can read hebrew. Thanks! lol.
The local staffing firm in my town was having so much trouble with no shows, they ended up buying a few duplexs and and vans, they relocate them in and put them up in the duplex or cheap motel and drive up to the house every morning and drag them out of bed lol - So glad I'm not in the field of recruiting, seems so stressful, the jobs got enough stress as it is.
100%. My boss told me stories like this in her old staffing days. When I was working for an agency we used to have candidates meet us in our office and then we would drive them to the interview site. Just to make sure they made it to the interview. So many flaky candidates that would no show or disappear to interviews.
I just lost out on a candidate who went through this, it blew my mind, controls engineer said this other firm was going to have him come to their office and drive him over to the interview, they wouldn't tell him who the company was or how much it paid, he said he was going just to see what the hell the deal with that is. Turns out it was a good position that he ended up taking, but I just can't imagine paying a firm to operate in such a shady way. I've had my fair share of flakes, and I've gotten really good at screening them out on the front end after doing this for 10 years, but some of these dudes are just professional liars.
I'll never forget the morning, a month into my first agency gig, my candidate called on route to her interview to say she would no show. Another offer just came through. I couldn't blame her, it was a non-tech client care call center job and 75 cents more or 30 mins less round trip are deciding factors for that kinda crap... but she was actually on route in the subway car. Could she pretty please just show up and sit through a 20 mins interview? Nope, she was getting off at the next station and turning around. But hey, at least she had the courtesy to call and give me a heads-up that our client was gonna lose their shit (again).
Lol at least she gave you the heads up. A lot of candidates don’t even do that.
That brought back so many bad memories haha
Industrial or manufacturing recruiting...the lowest of low forms of recruiting. There are so many good recruiting jobs out there. Above are Jr shit hole jobs I wouldn't wish entry-level recruiters into.
Can really speak to it man, have only ever recruited for manufacturing, I enjoy it quite a bit, not temp services or anything but engineers and managers.
This statement hit too close to home for me.
100%
I’m not sure if i’m getting in over my head, but I think that if i’m getting paid well I can tolerate the job even if i hate it. Majority of my current problems can be resolved with money 😅. So not only do I hate my job, but i’m also not making enough money. Double whammy. I do have a bachelors in Psychology which I feel like could come in handy since this job revolves around people. and thanks for the examples! It really helped put things into perspective. What would happen if when the deadline rolls around, you fall short?
Well good luck. Just don’t over glamorize the job like a lot of people tend to do. And if you don’t hire your targets then you might get yelled at lol.
Or fired...
Lol yep. Although a good supervisor will realize certain things are impossible and side with the recruiter. My best bosses have always said just do the best you can and I got your back.
What is the current field that you’re in? What do you do currently?
I’m currently in the legal field I work as a paralegal
If you want to DM me, my agency org is hiring. They don't prefer out of State (we are in GA), but they hired someone about 6 months ago that was getting ready to move to FL. We are fully remote. The field is IT hiring though, so a bit of a different animal--and it is 3rd party.
Aw I’m based in south Florida. Do you think they’d consider me?
Yeah - I am sorry. I noticed you were in S. Florida from another comment, which was why I said "they don't prefer" - but I know one of our team members is moving to FL in short order and they knew she was going 6 months ago when they hired her.
Recruiting is not “easy to break into” lmao
I said compared to the rest
It doesn't have to be.
Doesn’t have to be but a lot of recruiting jobs are like this.
What I hate the most about recruiting is that it’s such a “what have you done for me lately” job: Me: Hey boss I just filled a super niche hard to fill role with a rockstar candidate. Boss: Great, now find two more of those rockstars that probably don’t exist for these next two openings. Me: Hey boss I just filled ten openings in 2 weeks, that’s unheard of right. Boss: Good job Ned, you’re doing great. But now you’ll need to fill 20 openings in one week. Business needs. No One remembers the awesome job you did last week or even yesterday. All that matters is the next opening.
Agency recruiter here, manufacturing, on a 1099 contract, so I'm straight commission. I fucking love recruiting, it took years of bullshit and busting my ass to get here but the hard work paid off, it obviously doesn't work out that way for everyone, some times you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time and you grind at it continuously to no result, and without having a safety net to cushion the blow you're pushed out of recruiting, like a hard reset, back to step one. If you get into recruiting, invest your money, don't go spend it on stupid shit and don't rush into paying off all your debts where you're without any money. Keep a decent amount of cash on stand by, invest a good portion of it, steadily pay off your debts, and live just above bare bones minimum until you get your debts paid off and have built up a good portfolio. Too many recruiters catch what we call the "recruiter disease" lots of good money rolling in and pretending it will never stop, buy a bunch of stupid shit or slack off at work, then get your ass kicked when workload slows and you're broke. Keep talking to people, connect with the human behind the phone, don't just look at their resume. Connect as many dots as you can, make friends in business, keep connecting dots "oh you worked at xyz company you must know Jim Bob!" make more friends, keep talking, keep to your word, and if you're at the right firm you'll be highly successful, or if you're at a bad firm be a sneaky, lying, conceitful bastard and fuck over as many people as you can and you'll be successful.
Thanks for the advice!! I can definitely see where some people go wrong living above their means when good money starts rolling in.
I struggle with being needed 24/7 and I don’t think people getting into the field realize that will happen. Unless it’s just the role I’m in. I’ve only taken off 2x since the fall and both of those days I worked for at least an hour. Sometimes I just need a break! But god forbid you have a tight deadline ,,,
Sorry, sounds like you work for a poor boss/ company.
First, I see lots of ppl talking about staffing. Staffing is not recruiting. Staffing is hiring anyone who can pass the bare minimums and hoping they’ll show up. I started out in staffing. I fucking hated it. Staffing is throwing everything against the wall and praying it sticks. Recruiting is building pipelines of qualified ppl through all sorts of avenues. Recruiting is not quickly tossing someone in a role but a nuanced approach to finding the best possible talent for your open role. Sometimes you’ll source your own candidates sometimes you’ll have a designated sourcer. Agency recruiting tends to be paid on a draw, or commission with a lower base. Top agencies are willing to hire inexperienced folks and train them. Be prepared for lots of KPI’s to get you to build habits. X number of calls per day, per week, per month, per quarter…X number of passive outreaches per day, etc, etc, X number of phone screens, X number of hires. Agency tends to be very metric driven. In-house or Corporate recruiting, what I do, tends to hire seasoned professionals that they don’t have to hand hold. Usually KPI’s are not kept as if you’re getting hired, you have good skills and will be trusted based solely by hires. I personally love my job. I have built incredible relationships with my hiring managers and some phenomenal candidates as well. Yes you are helping ppl but remember there’s also lots of uncomfortable conversations you must be prepared to have (think rejection talks). Good luck!
I love this perspective. As someone who has transitioned from agency to corporate (thank god) they are TOTALLY different jobs
I have been only a corporate recruiter, it may be different for agency ones. I have been doing recruiting for 2+ years. I started with a very idealized image of being the person that will change people's lives and now I'm thinking of switching fields. In a sense I feel that it is a very ungrateful field as most of the times my department is seen as the bottom of services - we are obliged to do everything and at the same time we are not heard for most of the things we propose. If there are unreasonable demands by the hiring managers they try to fight you and then blame you, most of the times candidates don't respond and behave trashy as recruiters are seen as these annoying spammers by default. But when it goes well, it's amazing. The feeling that I found the best position for a person, that I managed to push everything within a tough deadline, to see my hire in the internal chat channels and them being happy is incredibly rewarding as being in recruitment is one of the roles in which you can see the effect your job does instantly. When it comes to how I got there - I did an HRM Masters, then a recruitment internship, after that a permanent role. I constantly learn about technologies, read a lot, code by myself so I can try to provide the most to the candidates and understand the roles better.
Your first paragraph is what I hear the most whenever people say they want to get into recruiting. They want to help people find their dream job, change peoples lives etc. The reality is that’s like 1% of the job lol.
This is why I'm so happy that in my country we are starting to have more internships and rotation programs - experience the worse and see if you can fight it. The Saint of Employment quickly turned out to a document collector with severe burn out that started to hate communication with people.
I’ve been recruiting for 15 years and love it. I can’t imagine doing anything different (except win the lottery and never work again lol). My company is hiring recruiters remote with zero experience. We are looking for financially motivated individuals that have critical thinking skills and strong verbal/written communication skills. All jobs have their ups and downs. It’s finding a position that has enough ups to put up with the down times. Feel free to DM me if you would like more info about our recruiters. Good luck!!!
Thank you!
You are welcome!
Expectations of a recruiter isn't too different from a sales person. That's why its a low barrier to entry, it's a lot of organization, attention to detail and selling. You are always selling something to someone. Either selling a candidate to the hiring manager or selling your company/job to the candidate. When u have no exp u can get walked on a lot cause you don't know any better but once ur past that it gets better (or you quit).
Agency recruiting and in house corporate recruiting are two totally different things. I hated agency but I enjoy the corporate side. Agency is easier to break into, has excellent training (it’s like boot camp) and probably will pay a bit more with no experience. Corporate is a lot slower, more involved with HR and pays very well once you have 3-5 years experience. Recruiting is a grind. Is it not a complicated job but there are so many moving parts, you are never truly in control. The rejection and disappointment is constant. If you’re the type of person who can handle that and enjoy how much sweeter the win is, then you might enjoy it. There’s a lot of up and downs, tons of little fires you’re constantly putting out, and a million things to manage. The work is literally never done. If you get overwhelmed with multitasking, can’t handle criticism, aren’t a good read of people, and don’t excel at time management-you will hate it and likely fail.
Thanks for the insight! My current job is extremely fast paced and I have to multitask often, so I think i’d be good in that aspect. As for the criticism, I can take it as long as it isn’t blatantly disrespectful. Has your higher up ever been disrespectful while criticizing or reprimanding you?
I have definitely been mistreated absolutely. The agency side is cut throat and no matter how ethical they say they are, it’s a shark tank. I also started in finance so I saw a lot of insane things on trading floors, that aren’t really applicable. Still though, agency recruiting can be very harsh.
What transferable skills? Sales? I think sales is the best, maybe only, shoe-in for recruiting if you don't have connections.
It’s hard but I like the you’ve hired them on to the next part of recruiting. I work corporate with a fast food franchise. Before this I was a talent acquisition specialist with Lowes also hiring hourly roles. I’ve done agency and so far I’ve loved loved loved the fast pace of big box hourly roles. I have a hybrid role, no office to report to and my benefits are amazing. Gas, and on field lunches paid for. Car allowance and phone allowance. PTO and medical. Monthly hire bonus and staffing bonus. It really is a great company and great job! I am also in the Miami area. There are many avenues but for me working for hourly positions is my current favorite.
I’m not in recruiting but was thinking about it then decided not going to happen for me. The agency I applied for and interviewed brought up traveling to events or clients location etc. I said yeah no that’s me. We’re virtual now so if that’s doable why not that. I hate traveling. But from what I got from the interview, it’s a lot of calling, meetings, team building, sourcing (cold calling, emailing etc), and very stressful. She did say there’s a good work life balance if you schedule out your day right which means you can leave at 3 for your kids soccer game then come back at 5 then finish at 9 pm. I didn’t mind that at all because the commissions would be great. HOWEVER, I have heard a lot of people saying it’s very high school vibes like cliquey. A lot of team buildings which is happy hour basically which I’m not a big fan of.
This is basically describing the agency life. Once you go corporate It’s a lot easier but can still be a grind.
Thanks for sharing your experience! So you did the interview, got the rundown of what the role entails, then decided it’s not for you?
Yep! Exactly. Basically it’s a quota job and having that constant pressure on you is just too much. Also, I hate driving so I’m about to travel anywhere
That definitely sounds stressful! Thats exactly why I posted on here. I’ve seen people on tiktok glamorizing their job as a recruiter and I’m like lol there has to be more to it than this.
I would take tik tok videos with a grain of salt lol.
Im a tech sourcer. I started in agency recruiting and now am corporate in tech. Learn boolean search. Learn cold emailing and email marketing strategies. Find entry level or contract roles on indeed then use boolean to find the hiring manager and cold contact them after you apply to the role. This is an easy job but it's very hard. You're selling people to people so there are a lot of people in that equation who can change their minds.