Is there a career path for Recruiters?
As you may (or may not) imagine, I get a lot of emails from my readers. Recently, someone posed a very interesting question that I wanted to share and get your opinion on. I quote…
One of our roles as staffing professions is to consult our clients on the career paths of its employees but what about the career path for recruiters? Is there life in corporate America after recruitment? If so, where and how do you make the transition? I often get asked why I haven’t gotten into sales because recruitment is basically the art of selling companies to prospective candidates and selling candidates to our hiring managers. I don’t think of myself as a salesman. I often refer to myself as a matchmaker, someone who merely presents opportunities to candidates and candidates to companies and if a match can made then great. If not I try to build a relationship with that candidate for later opportunities that are more applicable. It’s a practice that has worked well for me but being a young staffing professional in the world I often wonder where are the folks who did my job before me? The industry is flooded with recruiters but where do they go afterwards? What type of roles do they move into once they are done recruiting?
Anyone?
6 Responses to “Is there a career path for Recruiters?”
By Ben on Nov 14, 2007 | Reply
Where do they go afterwards?
Who says there is an afterwards? There are plenty of opportunities to move into corporate recruiting leadership roles these days, up to the VP level. Beyond that, one could move into a top HR executive role, or move into Recruiting consulting. The ‘afterwards’ question assumes that recruiting is not a lifelong profession. That, in my mind, is a big problem with recruiting today. When engineers, scientists, health care and finance professionals enter the workforce, typically, they will be in that field their entire career. The concept of a ‘recruiting career’ needs to be understood and accepted more for our profession to continue to grow and gain the respect it deserves.
By hirematters on Nov 14, 2007 | Reply
As an independent recruiter I have enjoyed the challenges of growing my business and making it more sustainable moving forward. Also working on higher level positions - moving from recruiting front line sales reps in the 90’s to VP and CEO levels today.
Not your typical corporate recruiting profile but this gives you an idea of the independent’s mindset.
By Shalonda on Nov 14, 2007 | Reply
Jim,
Great posting! The writer called themselves a “Young Staffing Professional”. I think we can start there…time will definitely show them a couple of eye opening experiences. One thing I think they will learn is that everyone recruiting is not a great recruiter!!! Some people just happen to fall into recruiting or thought “Oh, I can do that” and quickly learned that it is harder than it looks or sounds. Just like engineers love engineering, recruiters love recruiting. We have a passion and thrive on getting the right hire. I think those that fall into recruiting give the “World of Recruiting” a bad name and hurts our credibility. Great comments, Ben!!! Over time, I also think they will learn that the world of recruiting is unlimited. If you like to recruit but do not like sales…LIKE ME…try recruiting for a new industry, RPO, staffing agency, recruiting local vs. national vs. global, contracting, C-level, consulting, etc. They may find a function/area they love to recruit and stay there forever. Personally, I am a “Mix Bagger”. I love to recruit across functions to keep my skills sharpened. There are several options available but time will share those in the near future. I think time will also teach them that you have to network with great recruiters to understand recruiting. Emailing Jim was a great start!!! They can also subscribe to the daily ERE.net publications, network with other recruiters through Recruiting.com or LinkedIn or ERE.net. There are unlimited references online now. Let’s plug JobMachine.net also. Great resource! Please note that they were not always there but once again, time has given those to us. Lastly, I think and see you as a great recruiter who wants a lasting career in the profession. Therefore, see yourself as that and opportunities will come to you! Enjoy and Happy Hunting!
By Shalonda on Nov 14, 2007 | Reply
One correction…I had a typo…I stated that “I think those that fall into recruiting give the “World of Recruiting” a bad name and hurts our credibility. I meant to say “I think SOME that fall into recruiting….” my bad…my proofreader was out for lunch.
By Iseekgeeks on Nov 30, 2007 | Reply
Jim,
Thank you for another GREAT question. This is a question I have found myself thinking about quite a bit lately.
Over the years, I have thought about the various phases of recruiting and must say I enjoy our profession more now that research & strategy are key elements of what we do.
I recently did a breakdown of the various components that make up what I think of as recruiting. Then, I combined that with the forecasted recruiting outlook. I noticed one area that could be a key element of the future of HR that would be a great role for a strategic recruiter to move in to.
As the number of available candidates decrease, companies will work to improve efficiencies using the staff they have. Effective strategic modeling will become a key element to doing just that. Using models of real data, Staff Planning Analysts (Modelers) will be able to provide the most accurate scheduling of staff for the most efficient use of manpower. It may sound like a way to let people go, or overwork your staff, but actually this type of planning reduces strong shifts in head count, and breaks, etc can be added to assure your employees do not get to the point of burn-out.
Some companies are already doing this, but it tends to fall on the shoulders of the Finance Dept. Hopefully down the road it will be seen as a key role for HR.
Thank you for all you do. We appreciate you!
By Ankur Vachher on Apr 13, 2008 | Reply
Hi ,
I am currently working as recruiter in one of top IT company in India , and seen my managers who have started their career as recruiter’s, now they are recruitment manager and other is Director recruitment , so its a vast field , as your experience grow you hardly do recruitment , your main focus is towards making recruitment strategy, recruitment budget and handling different BU and work closely with sales team so he can make a strategy to fulfill the requirement and get the business for organization