If you could ask any successful person in any given field how they found themselves to be in the job of their dreams, the same answer will be heard; hard work, determination, and passion. This is exactly what is required and developed in a career in recruitment, and what can take a person on a spectacular journey in their career, to anywhere they choose.
How to know if recruitment is for you?
Many people can relate to feeling lost at some point in their professional lives, especially after leaving higher education, or even before if they have decided not to continue with their studies. Don’t let not having a degree put you off trying your hand at recruitment, our MD, Sasza Bandiera is a true success story, and proof of what hard work and determination can achieve. Sasza joined Oyster 10 years ago as a Trainee Recruitment Consultant, without a degree or any form of higher education.
Oyster Partnership is made up of people who weren’t initially considering a career in recruitment, they just fell into it, however many have since reported that it was one of the best choices they could have made for their career. Having no experience in recruitment shouldn’t be a deterrent for you. At Oyster, 84% of our recruiters started with no recruitment experience.
If you are however considering a career in recruitment, without previous experience in the industry it might be overwhelming trying to sift through the overload of information available online. Just typing in ‘what is recruitment?’ into Google will throw 1,440,000,000 searches at you. It’s difficult to know what to even begin reading. Our Talent Manager Hannah Clarke has taken the time to debunk some of the many myths surrounding recruitment, which you can read about in her blog.
While there may be some negative assumptions about recruitment, like many sales-based roles, the positives, and long-term gains, easily outweigh the negatives. If you are looking for a career that will let you be in charge of your own income and will take you on a journey like no other, recruitment is, without a doubt, an excellent choice for your professional life and your personal growth.
Characteristics of a recruiter
You might embody lots of brilliant attributes, but not know how to apply these to a role that offers a wide range of choices for the future. Fortunately, recruitment does not require a person to fulfill strict criteria; rather, it requires a person to be motivated, demonstrates a desire to succeed in whichever capacity drives them the most, and be willing to work hard to achieve the best for themselves.
A job in recruitment allows for diversity and inclusion by their commitment to ensuring a broad range of skills are available for a wide selection of roles provided by clients. Those with an aptitude for learning new skills, meeting new people, and trying out new concepts will find an exciting and rewarding career ahead of them in recruitment.
While recruitment consultants will work towards targets and work in a sales environment, this should not be confused with working in a tough or hostile working conditions. Everyone can conjure up the image of a stereotypical salesperson; pushy, arrogant, who sounds like they are talking from a script. These are prime examples of poor communication and sales abilities, and these are not the characteristics of a good recruiter.
A good recruiter will have excellent communication and customer service skills and find a natural ability to engage with clients and candidates. They are instinctive problem solvers and negotiators. They are people who can form and maintain relationships, and are able to deal with challenging moments and individuals; these are the attributes that attain commission and are transferable across every professional role. A Wall Street Journal study surveyed over 900 executives of whom 92% reported that soft skills, including communication, are as important as technical skills.
While recruitment consultants will work towards targets and work in a sales environment, this should not be confused with working in a tough or hostile working condition. Everyone can conjure up the image of a stereotypical salesperson; pushy, arrogant, who sounds like they are talking from a script. These are prime examples of poor communication and sales abilities, and these are not the characteristics of a good recruiter.
A good recruiter will have excellent communication and customer service skills and find a natural ability to engage with clients and candidates. They are instinctive problem solvers and negotiators. They are people who can form and maintain relationships, and are able to deal with challenging moments and individuals; these are the attributes that attain commission and are transferable across every professional role. A Wall Street Journal study surveyed over 900 executives of whom 92% reported that soft skills, including communication, are as important as technical skills.
Opportunities as a recruiter
Experienced recruitment professionals will make no secret of the challenges a person will face as they begin their career, but there are countless testimonials on websites such as Glassdoor.co.uk, which highlight the amazing opportunities available at Oyster for those who are ready to put their hard work and determination into a job they can be proud of.
As well as the plethora of personal development opportunities recruitment and Oyster can provide, there are also a lot of rewards, social events, and incentives to work towards. There are countless opportunities to network, socialise and celebrate achievements with the company at events, end-of-year parties and promotional lunches, and even chances to travel up to 4 times a year if you hit your targets.
If it is your goal, you can achieve management status with the help of senior recruiters and others already on the management team, who can provide a wealth of advice and guidance throughout your journey. Not to worry if management is not the route you wish to follow, there are various other paths you can take within recruitment. Career paths might be different depending on the recruitment agency you choose to work for, but at Oyster, we have specifically designed routes people can take based on their preferences and personal strengths.
Above everything else, there are valuable friendships and professional relationships to be made with like-minded people who possess ambition, passion, and attitude. These people will push you to be your best self, which will shape your future as an expert in whichever field you choose within recruitment; the opportunities are endless.
The Oyster Academy
We are currently opening applications for The Oyster Academy, which is available to graduates, as well as those with different backgrounds. The course consists of 40 sessions over 12 weeks, delivered by Oyster’s Leadership Team. The Academy delivers a combination of classroom theory and on-the-floor training designed to provide all the information, knowledge, and experience to start a successful career in recruitment, whichever way it may take you.
Over the course of 12 weeks you will be taught everything you need to know about the recruitment and property industry; sourcing and qualifying candidates for roles, your numbers – KPI’s, commissions, targets, the recruitment process, types of recruitment, how to conduct emails, phone calls and interviews with effective communication.
Furthermore, Oyster Academy will teach you how to develop your own, personal brand alongside providing you with basic business acumen. How best to tailor communication to get the best out of specific audiences and identify and negotiate with clients, especially those who may be more challenging than others is a key part of building and retaining meaningful relationships.
When starting the Academy you will be allocated to a sector we specialise in based on where we think you will fit in the best, however, this doesn’t mean that you are locked into the desk for the rest of your career at Oyster. When you have developed a better grasp of that sector and the industry as a whole, you would have the opportunity to move to a desk that suits you better. A role in recruitment shapes a person’s resilience, a key skill in any professional role and a necessary attribute to cope with the unpredictable nature of life and recruitment.