A Career as a Recruitment Consultant

The job role

A Recruitment Consultant provides expertise to clients by helping them to fill job vacancies through understanding the skills and qualifications required and selecting the most suitable candidate accordingly.  Recruitment Consultants also work closely with job hunters to identify the types of roles they are looking for and to offer guidance on how they can increase their chances of employment.  In addition, there are general administrative duties associated with the role including writing job adverts, managing client files and scheduling interviews as well as assisting with the marketing of the recruitment agency.

The leading high-street agencies include Manpower, NAG, Pertemps and Adecco, while other agencies specialise in recruitment for particular industries such as Alpha Care Solutions who recruit for the health and social care industries, and Barclay Anderson who specialise in IT recruitment.

Relevant qualifications

Experience, such as a background in sales, is generally more important than qualifications when entering the recruitment industry although some graduate training schemes are offered by agencies that specialise in executive recruitment.  Professional Certificates and Diplomas in Recruitment Practice are available through the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and, in conjunction with Middlesex University Business School, they now offer a Foundation Degree and a BA in Recruitment Practice.

It is also possible to achieve a Level III Certificate in Recruitment and Selection and an NVQ Level III in Recruitment through the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Skills requirements

Being a target-driven and competitive industry sector, the most important attributes required by Recruitment Consultants are the ability to communicate and negotiate effectively and to manage relationships with both clients and job hunters.

Career development

The competitive, demanding nature of the role means that staff turnover is relatively high so available vacancies are frequent.  The more experienced Recruitment Consultants can progress to senior level or can specialise in headhunting, where they are responsible for proactively seeking candidates primarily for executive-level positions.