You only have to do an online search for ‘a recruitment consultant is…’ and you’ll be hit with a barrage of negative connotations associated with the job title, however, if you actually speak to people who have worked in the industry a whole different story will be told.
In this article, Head of People, Hannah Clarke highlights some myths that she’s personally come up against in her recruitment career (which spans over 12+ years) and she sheds light on what Oyster Partnership is really like. If you’re interested in a career in recruitment, why not contact her directly for an open and honest discussion about her experiences and to find out if this could be the career for you?
Urban Myth: Recruitment? That’s not a career.
Oyster Reality: This statement couldn’t be further from the truth! Here at Oyster, we want people to know that there is a career to be made out of recruitment and we know that there is a serious opportunity to grow and develop both personally and professionally.
Our career path has been specifically designed to ensure that everyone has something to aim towards. Not everyone wants to be a manager and traditionally the only ‘route to the top’ was through Management. Our career path now has three different succession routes, and consultants choose what they want to do and are encouraged to take ownership of their careers. If you want to manage and grow a team, you aim towards the management route; if you’d prefer to be targeted on developing new business you choose the business route; if you just love being a billing consultant, we have an enhanced commission route to ensure that experienced billing consultants are kept motivated.
Urban Myth: You have to have a degree to be a successful recruiter.
Oyster Reality: At Oyster we don’t have a ‘tick box’ of requirements, and a degree is certainly not a prerequisite of a successful consultant. Our MD, Sasza Bandiera joined Oyster 13 years ago as a Trainee Recruitment Consultant, and he didn’t have a degree. The great thing about Oyster is that everyone has a different background, and regardless of educational status or qualifications, the career path is open to everyone. Being a successful recruiter is all about attitude; if you want to makes things happen, you will.
Urban Myth: Recruiters only care about money.
Oyster Reality: Contrary to this, if a recruiter only really cared about the money their career would be short lived; why, you may ask? With over 37,000 agencies in the UK alone competition is tougher than it has ever been, and more people are aware of rogue agencies and poor consultants. If a recruiter only cared about the money, clients and candidates alike would soon realise this and would stop using the recruiter. A recruiter’s reputation in their market is priceless, and people talk! A great recruiter will have outstanding customer service skills, and the commission comes as a by-product of this.
Urban Myth: Recruitment is ‘cut throat.’
Oyster Reality: There’s no doubt about it, recruitment is a sales job. If we invest our time and resources into hiring someone, we want to ensure that we are supporting and guiding them as best we can. At Oyster, you will be targeted and you’ll have KPI’s set as a Trainee (to ensure that you are kept focussed) however, as you become more accustomed to what activity you need to achieve to ensure you’re hitting your goals, these targets will change and you’ll be responsible for providing your own targets. A target-driven sales environment shouldn’t be confused with recruitment being a cutthroat industry.
Urban Myth: If you don’t hit your target you’ll get fired.
Oyster Reality: It wouldn’t help anyone, including the business if we fired people for not hitting a target, rather we ask ourselves as the management team ‘why hasn’t this consultant hit their target’. At Oyster, all of your targets are set with you in mind – figures and projections are taken from what you are currently achieving because we want to keep people motivated to succeed! Many experienced consultants are surprised that their input is requested when setting targets.