Some (foolish) people think Agency recruitment is easy.

The truth is this.

Recruitment is very easy to describe.

It is just very, very, very hard to do well.

And there are many reasons for that.

Not least of which is the fact that while recruitment needs to involve a strong process, it’s actually the ‘craft‘ of recruitment that is the leverage point.

The sophisticated influencing skills mostly.

So I wrote a book on what I learned about being a great Agency recruiter.

You really should get it. (Here :)

Meanwhile, I extracted 100 ‘rules‘ or ‘truths’ from that book and from my four decades of experience and summed them up here for you.

The first ten were published here recently.

Here are the next Ten

Remember, each of these is a ‘snapshot’. It’s a thought starter.  The book has a detailed chapter (or several in some cases) to support each statement.

So read ‘Recruit. The Savage Way’ before you decide on each of my ‘rules‘ for yourself.

1: Candidate shortages are a good thing! Clients use us to access candidates they can’t find themselves! When it is hard for employers to find talent, it’s nirvana for us. Don’t complain about a lack of candidates. Celebrate it! It is the reason your client came to you, and why you are valuable. (Note. If you are any good, of course).

2: To a candidate waiting for information and feedback, no news is news. The concept of CCCCF is fundamental to candidate care and recruiter success

3: With clients (and candidates, too), you cannot advise, consult or influence if you do not build trust. And if you can’t advise, you can’t be ‘consultative‘. And if you are not consultative, you are transactional. And if you are transactional, you will be smashed by automation that will do what you do, but better.

4: The intelligent, sophisticated recruiter will get paid for a higher percentage of the work they do, usually via securing exclusive job orders and also by triaging the work they do have

5: No one will care more about your recruitment career… than you. You must own, work and drive your career plan. You own your career. Not your current employer

 6: Recruitment. It will be better that you fail and give up than be mediocre. If you are only average at this job, there are too few highs to compensate for the many inevitable lows

Get the ‘Savage Recruitment Books‘

7: The ‘C’ word will kill your career. Complacency. ‘Complacent‘ does not mean ‘lazy’. It means being satisfied with the status quo. Past success is no predictor of future success in a fast-evolving environment. You must be ‘coachable’ and constantly looking to add to your ‘skills briefcase‘.

8: Great recruiters are sponges for life. In this business, you are never totally ‘on top of your game‘. You can always get better. And if you don’t, others around you most certainly will.

9: Treasure your reputation. It’s the only thing you really own. People will judge you by how you make them feel. Your reputation is the sum of all the small things you do well, or badly. Burnish it and guard it.

10: Recruitment is more art than science. Stock your ‘skills briefcase‘ accordingly.

So you had the first ten ‘truths’, and now the second ten ‘rules.’

Hope they help

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If you are in the UK, join me for this ‘Recruit’ Masterclass

Bristol, Birmingham, London, Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast.

Please join us here.

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