Big a1

Hi

After finishing Uni this year with a marketing management degree I am still on the lookout for a job.

Up to yet I have applied for the RAF (failed on eyesight ) and several marketing type jobs. Don't seem to be getting too far, possibly because my hearts not in getting an office type job. Anyhow just started applying for a few jobs as recruitment consultants, pay seems ok with quite attractive OTE's.

Just wondered if anybody had any opinions on said roles, either from a salary perspective or how rewarding it is?

cheers Al

milo

well people on here are always looking for new jobs so u could probably make a killing just placing them!

i reckon you'd be onto a right money spinner if u started your own recruitment consultancy for senior management. its pretty standard i think to be getting 20% of a candidates' first years' salary for placing them.... which is a **** load if you're working in the higher end of the market.

you have to be a certain kind of person (pushy, a lil cocky, majorly ambitious etc) to do well in any sales role tho... most of the earnings are OTE if you're working for someone else. and more stressful as it's easy to measure exactly how much you're making/not making a firm.

note that im not in sales/recruitment so take all of this with the standard NSR pinch of salt

deanimus

I work for a sales recruitment agency (not as a consultant), the consultants I work with get a lot of stress from dealing with candidates/clients and have a solid sales background but the rewards can be fantastic, imagine placing someone where you get 20% of a 100k basic
(although the company takes most of it and these sort of placements are rare )

Big a1

Right then, i'll see how the applications go and take it from there.

In all fairness I don't relish the thought of working in a sales environment but I hope it wont be long term.

Need to get some experience in a real job to help me get some call backs for jobs I actually like the sound of.

TopBanana

If you don't mind lying through you're teeth you'll do well

ChrisB

Indeed, I know a lot of people in the IT Industry whose opinion of recruitment consultants / agents is lower than mud on your shoes...

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Not all recruitment consultants are horrible. My sister is a recruitment consultant for Reed and she's neither a liar, pushy, cocky, overly ambitious or from a sales background, she was a PA to a famous sports promoter before this job.

She's built up a very good relationship with her clients and is very conscientous about what she does, for example she'll never send anyone to an employer that she thinks isn't right for the job just to get her sales figures up. She's been very successful in her role and has earnt very high OTE in the last year. She's also just been promoted to Branch Manager and sent to an underperforming branch of the company to sort it out and get it's profits back up so she must be doing something right

ProperCharlie

IME recruitment consultants are exclusively attractive females in their early thirties. I began to wonder if the agencies deliberately "profiled" the consultants that they sent to see me, as they all fitted a very similar description, and were all mildly flirtatious. All in all, I was really quite sad that I didn't have more use for them.

Drunken Bungle Whore

I worked for Reed for 7 years - for the last 4 of those I was responsible for training all the new recruits.


My advice would be to go in with your eyes open and work for a reputable agency. First and foremost it's a sales job and you'll spend a lot of time on the phone every day calling people who a) abuse you or b) slam the phone down! You can't be too soft on candidates - you basically have to judge everyone who registers with you in financial terms - can I place them and make money out of the or not? Don't even think about it if you're a sucker for lost causes - you'll only be placing people who are placeable. (This is the main reason I left the branches and started training instead! )

Make sure you join an agency that has excellent training - Reed has great training (well I would say that wouldn't I.....) - but so do many of the big name ones. Ask them questions about the training at inerview. Also clarify what's expected for the money they're offering. Many agencies would try and poach my staff by telling them "If you work for us you could earn £50,000 OTE". Well, they could have earned that with me if I'd made them work all the hours god sent!

I heard many, MANY, stories of people who were promised the earth at other agencies then sat in front of a phone on day 1 with zero training and told to get on with it!

PM me or email me as profile if you want any other info. It's not a career for everyone, but I loved my time at Reed and we parted company on really good terms. They are massively focused on personal development and you'd get the chance to study for all sorts of things there if you wanted to.

Good luck!

Richard130875

Not all recruitment consultants lie through there teeth. I have been a Recruitment Consultant nearly 9 years and have never needed to lie or bend the truth. Some of us are actually quite honest and provide a service that companies and prospective employers need. If you where to look for your own jobs you wouldn't get half as many choices as you would going through a Rec Company.

Big a1

Right then guys, cheers for replies.

Based on the positive response regarding Reed I'm going to send a resume and covering letter to them on the off chance they are recruiting on an internal basis.

Its not a career I dreamt about doing as a kid (no offence to the recruitment consultants ) but not many people pursue there dreams of becoming an astronaut etc do they...

As I said before I just need to get some real work experience under my belt.