Depending on the role, a recruiter may spend their day browsing job platforms, chatting with businesses about what they’re looking for from a new hire, helping candidates prepare for job interviews, or attending industry events and meeting new people. Your responsibilities in this role will also change as you climb the career ladder.
Recruiters receive hundreds of emails and LinkedIn messages during a typical week. After their morning meeting, they spend some time answering those messages, following up with candidates, and filling out paperwork. They also need to catch up with clients, go through the resumes from job postings, and verify references. Other responsibilities may include:
- Calling potential job candidates
- Posting job adverts
- Meeting with hiring managers
- Scheduling interviews
- Reviewing job applications
- Identifying potential candidates
Again, no two days are alike when you work in this field. Priorities and deadlines can shift at a moment’s notice, so it’s crucial to stay organized and keep yourself accountable.
Every day is different. It’s not your monotonous nine-to-five. The pace and switch up like that, and there is always something different going on. You don’t have to wait for someone to assign you anything, you can go out and find what you want to do, chase your own clients; you haven’t got to wait for someone to drip-feed you a task. You can go and do it yourself.
Trainee Recruitment Consultant/ Recruiter Executive
Finding the best person for the job
“My favorite thing about being a recruiter is that I’m able to help people find the right position for themselves and also make the customer happy,” explains Alexandra Tamele, an Account Manager at Jefferson Frank.
Recruiters use their expertise to match the right people to the right positions. They also need to ensure there is a cultural fit between job seekers and potential employers. To do that, they screen, interview, and vet candidates before moving on with their job applications.
Chloe Brant, a Senior Service Now Recruiter Consultant at Nelson Frank, emphasizes the importance of building rapport with your prospects. Recruiters must also commit to continuous learning so they can help potential hires understand what’s expected of them. Recruiters not only screen and interview candidates but also prepare them for the recruiter’s roles and responsibilities.
Depending on the situation, they may help them fine-tune their CVs, discuss the types of projects they’ll be working on, or assist them with their job applications. On most days, they spend time browsing LinkedIn, Xing, Indeed, and other platforms to identify potential new hires.
This kind of work can be challenging and time-consuming, but it’s worth it. “The best part of my day is whenever I receive positive feedback—it doesn’t matter if it’s from the client side, candidate side, or from one of my delivery consultants,” says Tamele.
The best part is definitely when you actually speak to a candidate and they get the job. I think that when you are doing all the preparation and you are speaking with them a lot, you get to know these people on a more personal level. It feels good to see they are happy because they got what they wanted—and to know that you have played a part in that.
Growing, learning, and bettering ourselves
When we work in recruitment, we have the opportunity to continuously learn and grow. There are going to be staff meetings, workshops, seminars, team-building events, and much more. Ongoing learning is part of the job. Most recruiters receive training at work and are encouraged to attend networking events.
They also work closely with other teams and departments, which allows them to grasp new concepts. As you can see, recruiters carry a lot of responsibility on their shoulders. Their work is diverse, exciting, and challenging all at once, and no two days are the same.
What does a recruiter do on a daily basis?
A recruiter does more than find people for jobs. They also help people prepare for interviews, assist with resumes, and cover letters, manage salary negotiation, advise clients on employment issues, stay up to date with labor laws, as well as share market and industry knowledge.
When you become a recruiter, you instantly become adaptable because things are always changing. There is never a dull moment. It is challenging to put together what a typical day would look like as a recruiter because no two days are ever the same, but below I have provided some insight about some constants in an ever-changing environment as a recruiter. Who knows, maybe when you are done reading, you’d be interested in joining us
What does our typical day consist of?
Each day varies in responsibilities, which makes work fun! Every morning consists of first getting yourself prepared for the day and managing your calendar. The next step is going through all of your Outlook emails and making sure to check in on the status of all our open requisitions (having open communication with hiring managers, fellow recruiters, and the candidates are critical).
Once we’ve checked in on open requisitions, we should take the time to go through all of the inbound resumes from
job postings, and follow up with all of the prospected candidates. The rest of the day may consist of active and passive sourcing by utilizing different recruiting platforms such as LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, the internal database, and referrals (to list a few).
Other daily responsibilities include: conducting technical phone screens, resume reviewing, scheduling interviews, preparing candidates for interviews, collaborating with hiring managers, and the best part.
What is the most rewarding part of the job?
The most rewarding part of being a recruiter is helping people find their dream job and watching them thrive in them. Being able to play matchmaker and connect an amazing company with top talent is what truly motivates me as a recruiter!
What are some of the challenges faced on the job?
As a part of any job, there come hardships. As a recruiter, we are constantly learning and dealing with new situations. Some of the challenges include: not hearing back from a candidate, not taking interview feedback in a positive manner, and the least exciting part.
People are all different and can change their minds at any given point during the interview process. Not being able to control the uncontrollable is not easy. A candidate can be extremely excited about an opportunity one day and the next they
decide that they may no longer be interested.
Another challenge is receiving negative feedback from his or her interview or profile – because let’s face it, no one likes rejection. In this situation, as a recruiter, we want to make sure to be cautious of how we relay any information to the candidate.
The last and worst challenge is having a candidate decline an offer. The best action to take would be to let the individual think about their options and make a decision on what is best for their career. At the end of the day, whether the candidate takes the offer or not, it is important to remind ourselves that we did our best to help someone and hopefully made a new friend along the way.
Why did People enter this field?
They entered the field of recruiting because they literally change people’s lives. As recruiters, they are the face of the company and managers are grateful to have their assistance when it comes to hiring talent. They also love the competition, the opportunity to meet the best people, interact with management, have freedom, and control, work on different jobs, and utilize new recruiting tools!
What are some personal recruiter qualities who want to work in the recruitment industry?
Personal qualities can vary in importance depending on the department that we are supporting. Therefore, I will speak for myself as an R4R recruiter (recruiting for recruiters).
Here are some of the top skills I find important: being target-driven, confident, having strong communication skills, having relationship-building experience, having time management skills, being an expert at multitasking, excellent problem solver, and being able to work in a team setting.
If someone enjoys change, then he or she will love being a recruiter because no two days are alike. Each and every day is completely different from the last. However, the list of his or her to-do tasks and responsibilities will be the same.
To start the day, a recruiter will prepare for the day and manage their calendar, which can consist of interviews with potential candidates, check-ins with employers, internal meetings with the team, or one-on-one conversations with her manager.
Once he has accessed his calendar for the day, next is responding to emails. Recruiters answer hundreds of emails over the course of a month. He could be answering a question from a fellow recruiter asking for feedback from an employer to giving directions to a job seeker for an interview location. To start, he answers all the urgent emails first and put out any “fires,” then answers the top priority emails, and then it trickles down from there.
After responding to emails, recruiters work off their list of open requisitions. This includes a variety of tasks: running searches of potential candidates through databases, reviewing resumes, setting up and conducting interviews, preparing job seekers for interviews with the employer (and sometimes sitting in on those interviews), following up with candidates, providing feedback, and (the best part) extending offers.
Other daily responsibilities include:
posting jobs, changing job requirements, searching for candidates and building a talent pipeline, engaging with passive candidates, working on brand management and crafting content, and attending
team meetings. Every day is very full, but no matter what happens, you need to stay on your feet because it can be a very demanding yet rewarding job.
Skills Recruiters Should Possess
To be in this line of work, a person needs a particular set of recruiter skills that will help to succeed.
1. Communication
Communication is probably the number one required skill to have as a recruiter. We are connecting with so many different people throughout our day, from hiring companies to job seekers to our own team members and managers. It is important that we are able to juggle communication with multiple candidates, multiple roles, and multiple internal stakeholders.
We also need to remember that we’re constantly building rapport and trust with these relationships, so we need to keep in contact with people. It can be easy to miss an email in our long list, but attention to detail is vital.
2. Organizational and time management
These are other critical skills to have because there is a lot of multi-tasking that happens every day. We must know what is going on with each company and candidate at all times. Every day we’re managing multiple calendars and scheduling. It can be quite challenging to juggle so many things on our to-do, but the rewards are so worth it.
3. Innovation and creativity
This can go a long way for a recruiter. We are competing with many other recruiters’ teams and staffing agencies; therefore, we need to stand out amongst them vying for the talent’s attention. we need to craft creative job postings/ recruiter JDs because there are thousands listed out there. We must also learn how to write compelling emails so candidates open them and respond to us. Knowing trends, tricks of the trade and other helpful hacks help to put us ahead of the
competition.
4. Being able to deal with rejection and disappointment
This is important because it comes with the territory of this type of job. It can be hard spending so much time with a candidate, building a relationship, only for them to change their mind or decline an offer, and walk away. It’s also difficult to hear from a hiring manager that they are passing on our applicant, and then we have to relay this feedback to the job seeker.
Therefore, if you’re someone who likes to feel in control all the time, then this may not be the right career for you. However, if we can roll with the punches, and at the end of the day, remind ourselves that we did the best we could to help someone and if things happen out of our control, then we’ll do well.
5. A few other skills that will help us thrive in this industry are confidence, ambition and drive, integrity, problem-solving, resilience, and being a team player. Those who are naturally proactive and work hard will absolutely reap the benefits of this career.
The Best Part of Being a Recruiter Process
Knowing that we helped someone find their dream job, and at the same time, knowing we also helped a company find their dream employee can feel completely satisfying and rewarding. It’s a win-win! We’re changing lives when we match the right job seekers to the right positions.
A person’s professional career affects their livelihood, their family, and their life. It can also feel gratifying to hear from a candidate that we placed a few years back and how they have developed in the role they were placed in and hear them express their gratitude. Recruiters can have a huge impact on people’s lives.
On the other hand, from the side of the hiring company, we may go on an arduous journey with them to find the perfect candidate, but in the end, we’ve built a strong relationship with them. They may even start coming to us for advice outside of the recruitment dashboard, which may ultimately be our goal – to become an advisor for clients when it comes to HR-related support.
Conclusion
Do you like a fast-paced work environment?. The job that is having a variety of tasks to do, meeting new people, talking with various companies and people. This job, no doubt is impacting lives in a positive way. You may want to think about becoming a recruiter if your intent is to help others.
