Have we forgotten what recruitment is all about?

Recruitment is about people. People lie. People change their minds, and then change them again. People park like idiots. People ‘reply to all’. People take selfies at the gym. People recline their seats on the plane. People even chew with their mouth open. I could go on and on and on. I don’t really like people too much.

Strangely though, I love working in the recruitment industry. Masochism, right?

Anyway.

Recruitment is the business of people, and unlike all of the recruiters who (falsely) claim to be ‘different’ or ‘unique’, people actually are. There are however, some universal truths that it can be very easy to forget about whilst we’re self-aggrandising on LinkedIn.

Recruitment is about finally winning that target client or unearthing that dream candidate. It’s about your first placement and first retained assignment. It’s about that moment when it all ‘just clicks’, most of you will know what I mean. It’s about the promotion from Consultant to Senior to Principal to Senior Principal to Chief Overlord and then finally the holy grail… Non-billing Manager.

It’s also about clients moving goal posts and unrealistic candidate salary expectations. That first placement leaving after a week and you starting the following month on a minus. It’s about that moment when you realise nothing has clicked at all, and that recruitment is the spinning of multiple plates, only the plates are on fire, and so is the room, you ALL know what I mean now.

The truth is though. We live for the day it all works out. The day that hard work pays off. Whatever that looks like on your desk, in your office, with your agency. The day the client emails you a glowing testimonial without you having asked or even having written it. The day a candidate sends you wine, or beer, or chocolates because whilst you didn’t change their lives (as your LinkedIn profile claims), you did help them make a great move and they’re grateful for that.

Recruitment gets a bad rep, sometimes deservedly so, but *cough Bankers cough* we’ve never caused a recession.

A toast then. To those recruiters who deal with all of the flaws of human beings without committing murder or causing a recession.

To recruiters everywhere, you life-changing, career-defining, self-aggrandising, but generally well-meaning bunch.