4 Reasons Why Recruiters Aren't *Actually* Sharks

Recruitment is a thankless task - but why? We can change our candidates' lives for the better, setting them on career paths they may have never considered, or into companies and jobs they would have no chance of getting into without our help - do we ever get a thank you? - Not often. We can find candidates for our clients who help them solve major company defining issues; do they ever call and say "Hey, good job there" - Hardly ever. It's not just clients and candidates either; I remember going to the pub (yes, I used to go drinking once) at 9pm after work to see friends, and the first comment I got from them when I walked in was "that recruitment game - It's money for old rope, isn't it?" I should note that I had gone straight from work to the pub at 9pm, while they were getting "tanked up" in the pub from 6pm discussing how easy my work life was. So what is it that creates animosity about the profession? I've heard a few consistent themes over the years, and frankly, they're rubbish.

1. It's money for old rope (money earned for little or no effort)

I've heard this one quite a few times and it used to really annoy me. It always came from people who not only had never experienced a recruitment floor; they hadn't even picked up a phone and tried to make a sales call, let alone 50 sales calls per day, every day. This work is hard, and to be successful it requires resilience, long hours, phenomenal organisation, tenacity, quick and effective data interpretation, the ability to relate to a variety of personalities, multi-task many briefs, and candidates at the same time. Recruitment is based on consistent and continual hard work, for long hours, days, weeks and years to build up a profitable client base. This job is hard and anyone who has done it for a period of time knows it takes years to build up your skill and competency level. This isn't money for old rope, this is money for being a skilled, hard-working professional recruiter, and even then it still takes about three years before you get truly rewarded.

2. Consultants make too much money and anyone can do their job

Well, that's definitely not true. Recruitment as an industry has a high staff turnover rate - why? Because you have to be skilled at what you do. The people who are successful in this career are successful because they have those key ingredients and they consistently do it. Potential recruiters don't come into this industry and leave because the work is "too easy" for the money you earn. They leave because they are not good enough or they can't do the work.

3. Recruiters earn big fees for just a CV

This misconception annoys me the most. After a company has completed the final interviews and decided who they want to hire, some of them, at the end of the process, come back and try to renegotiate the agreed fees with the tactic "we don't need to hire them, and all you have given us is a CV". This annoys me on a couple of fronts:

a. Recruitment companies are generally paid purely on success

Clients seem to forget the work we have done for them. We might source 6 relevant candidates for a suitable role, at the expense of working on another project, and after one week of solid work they decide to put a hold on all hiring budgets. That equates to quite a big loss in working hours that have to be paid by the agency.

b. If clients went down any other route, they would have to pay upfront fees

Here we're referring to advertising and CV selection. The client would have to complete a huge amount of work and still have no guarantee of finding and hiring the right person. Recruitment companies, however, take on all the risk and cost with absolutely no guarantee of payment. But for the client, using an agency could be a lot cheaper in terms of all the contributing costs involved.

4. Agencies make huge profits

I wish that was the case, but it's not. The overheads are huge. Most other companies are a "margin" business, which means a high percentage of their costs are directly attributable to the production of each "unit" they make. Therefore, if they produce more, their costs go up. As a result, you can align costs with the demand to ensure you stay profitable. Recruitment companies are "overhead businesses". The good news: (apart from commission) the costs stay the same regardless of how many placements. The bad news: the overheads are massively high, regardless of the number of placements, and will always be the same. Subsequently, we have to make a lot of placements just to break even. Sadly, companies and candidates will still have their preconceived ideas, and it will still be a thankless task. I guess there is nothing we can do about that, but it is important to know that recruitment is essential to society. This job is one of the most critical services in the industry. Without the thousands of recruiters in the country, the right people wouldn't go to the right roles, at the right time and the UK's GDP would be a lot lower. We oil the wheels of commerce and we make nearly all sectors of industry more efficient and effective. How many roles can say they do that?

Are there any other misconceptions about recruitment that you've heard? If so, tweet us: @thegrbteam

Chris Cater, alongside Dan Hawes, co-founded the GRB in 1997 after graduating from the University of Brighton. Every day, the Graduate Recruitment Bureau help to find graduates their perfect first roles - for free! Get in touch today.