Podcast 13 Why a career in recruitment can be a great choice Viewpoint careers advice blog

Podcast 13 Why a career in recruitment can be a great choice Choosing a career path doesnt always come easy and the route to your perfect job isnt always obvious. So, if youre currently thinking about switching jobs or if youre looking for your first role, have you thought about a career in recruitment? To help you decide whether this could be an option for you well be speaking with Roop Bhumbra, Head of Talent Development at Hays UK. 1) So Roop, it would be great if you could quickly introduce yourself to our listeners. Im Roop Bhumbra and Im the UK and Ireland Head of Talent Development for Hays Specialist Recruitment. Ive been with Hays for nineteen years. I started as an associate a very long time ago, worked my way through a few promotions to become a Director and now I’m in a new role, which has been created to make sure were looking after all our talent, attracting the best people to come and work for Hays and making sure we train, support and develop their careers. 2. So, we are certainly speaking to the right person for todays subject because were here to talk about why recruitment could be a good choice for those looking for a new career. So just to start us off could you tell us a bit about the industry itself? Recruitment is an interesting one. Not everybody knows very much about recruitment. In fact, quite a few people just stumble across the sector through recommendations and friends, but everybody that you talk to will tell you that its fast-paced, its really challenging, its really fun and no two days are the same. Its hugely rewarding and thats not just from a job satisfaction and thats brilliant, but also from a career development and rewards perspective. Its a really, good sector to join and people do love it, I mean, I certainly do. You really get a chance to impact peoples lives positively. I know that sounds corny, however, everybody that you ask will have a story how theyve made a real difference to people that theyve worked with. There are a few different types of recruitment industries and just to kind of give you a quick flavor of those, you have generalist recruitment, which do a variety of roles across different industries. You have specialist recruitment, Hays is one of those specialist recruitment companies and you find that some companies can be like very small boutiques that are very specialist in their focus. You also get companies like Hays, more international and global so you really can experience a local company feel or a huge multinational global feel. The world is your oyster. You said there about impacting peoples lives positively. Ive been working for Hays for seven years now and certainly when speaking to people within the business, everybody has more than one story about how theyve positively impacted someones life and at Hays we are all about transforming peoples lives by getting them their perfect position, so that is nice to hear. 3)  If anyone was considering a job in recruitment, what skills and experiences would you say that they need? To get into recruitment you dont necessarily need to have any experience in recruitment. Certainly, at Hays, we look at the potential in people and their potential skills. Some of the other recruitment companies are the same and some, if youre in a very boutique specialist role, might expect you to have some experience there. For us, its all about have you got a can do attitude. I think some of the skills that you want are resilience and determination and to be hardworking, and I think people have those in abundance. I think you hear quite a lot about people saying recruitments becoming more automated. Processes are becoming influenced by AI, but that means the skills that you need to have in recruitment show that you need a much more human, personal and engaging methodology in terms of the work that you do. I think the skills for me that make a great recruiter are the fact that you can communicate well. Whether thats verbally or whether thats in the work that you do in the written form, thats important. I think the ability to research and question and be inquisitive is really important, but dont just ask the questions, take the time to listen to what people are telling you because that tells you so much. I think you learn from your mistakes and again my own personal journey is that over nineteen years there’s lots of things that Ive developed and learned from myself and I think being self-confident really helps. So, youve learned from your mistakes, okay, thats fine, but Ive got the confidence to keep going and develop what Im doing, but make sure you have a sense of humour, its really important. Youll be able to look back and reflect and say, Ive learned from that, but equally make sure that you have lots of fun because it can be really challenging at times. That depends on the team around you and the work that you do but you can really have some good fun. 4) Would you be able to give us an example of a typical working day in recruitment just to give people an idea of what their day to day would be like? Sure, I said it earlier that there are no two days that are the same and I can certainly testify to that over the last nineteen years. Everything is very, very different from day to day, but broadly there are things that you would do as a recruiter throughout the day and again depending on the time of day or the sector that youre in, you might be working with your candidates in the morning or your clients in the morning, so it just depends on you and your business and whats relevant to you. But you will be responding to people who are applying to you who want to come and work for your business. Youll be interviewing people, how exciting. You get to know and understand and question them in terms of their job, what they do, what makes them tick, what makes them as good as they are and why other people might want to give them a job. For me, thats really exciting. I think from a clients perspective, picking up the phone, maybe taking a reference, telling that client about the great person that youve met and how passionate you are about finding them the right role because they can make a difference to the company that youre talking to. I think the marketing that you do, I think the feedback that you give, its all really varied depending on the day and depending on the job. And then youve got the job side of what you do and that could be arranging interviews, following up, giving feedback, negotiating on behalf of your candidates about salary or vice versa and counter-offering. Its great when you can give people good news about their job and say, Congratulations, youve done it, youve been successful. But equally theres a skill around sensitively giving people feedback that isnt what they might want to hear, and I think thats a very typical day. 5) Just going back to the previous answer where you mentioned challenges that people may face. What do you think are the biggest challenges that employees are faced with when they start in a role as a recruitment consultant? Its overwhelming in recruitment in terms of the scope and the opportunities that you can have in a recruiting desk, so therefore you can get overwhelmed or you can plan, you can research, you can talk to your peer network or your managers or the people around you, your support network and take advice in terms of how you can manage your workload and manage your day, I think thats really important. I think there are lots and lots of skills that you need to demonstrate in recruitment which can be a challenge, but again, find what you enjoy in the skills and the job that you do. But if youre not so sure whether you have the right skills, talk to your manager or your team about what learning and development opportunities are available to you so that if you find something more challenging youve got the right support and you can continue to do well in your job because there are so many different facets to what you do. The other aspect of it is if you are being a specialist in a company such as Hays or a multinational where youve got industry knowledge to gain, that can be overwhelming but again, Ill always advise anybody to ask for support and make sure they take some ownership of going and doing some research prior to taking the job or even as you are in the job, keep asking questions. Keep your own journey of learning and development going and I think that will, although its a challenge, really help you to overcome those challenges. And probably, last but not least, the final challenge I would say is the amount of energy that you might need because it is a full day and it is really fast-paced as I said. 6) Now, taking that into consideration, some of the people that might be considering a job in recruitment, it might be their first job. Would you say that recruitment is suited to someone whos perhaps fresh out of university and looking for their first role? Absolutely, I think its well suited for those looking to their first job. I think that there are people whove been successful in their second or third or fourth career, but definitely for people looking for their first job. Were at a time where people have multiple careers and having a job for life is probably less relevant and less meaningful than it used to be, but in recruitment you can have multiple careers. So, you work for a company and in terms of the world of talent and development, you can start in one role, find what youre good at and develop to another one, look for another opportunity, and that certainly can happen in large recruitment companies such as Hays. I think you can get a lot of roles and lots of varieties and different accounts that use your skill set and for me, it gives you the opportunity to springboard yourself into other roles. So, if you find that you are better working with candidates and you just want to focus on that side of your job you can do that, so almost youve got a mini career, but what youve got behind you is a company who knows your track record, knows your ability, and therefore youve got the benefit of long tenure within recruitment so you get the best of both worlds I think. I certainly have found that in recruitment and the people that Ive worked with, that they have found a sector that they really like, and they want to go make a difference. So, for example, during my time within the education sector I certainly found people who worked with schools and thought this is amazing. I want to go be a teacher and you make a difference that way. And then some of them have then said, Actually now Ive had my industry experience behind me, Id like to come back. So, people exit the sector and then come back, so dont be put off if youre a first-timer, in fact, the opportunities are really open to you at whatever level, but especially at a first-time career. Thats great, youre able to explore different areas of interest, find out where your strengths are and I suppose thats one of the reasons, one of the many reasons why weve got so many people that have been at Hays for such a long time that theres variety to it and youre able to really explore and take up different opportunities. Yes, and there’s probably something else Id like to add to that Jon, is that when you go for your first job, absolutely look at a company that matches to your values and your philosophy and make sure that they can show you those additional things that are important to you. Whether its work-life balance, whether its the career structure, whether its your corporate social responsibility, and again, there are some recruitment companies, and Im proud to say that Hays is one of them that really lives and breathes those values. 7) So, building on what weve covered, what would you say is the best thing about working in the recruitment sector? The first thing is the people. Youve touched on it from a Hays perspective. The people that Ive worked with throughout my nineteen years across the globe have been incredibly talented and have shared their expertise and made the journey a great deal of fun and I know Ive used that word a few times, but it genuinely has been that. I think on the other side, candidates who Ive worked with and the clients that Ive worked with when Ive tried to support their recruitment projects. A gentleman who I worked with some time ago, when I first started nineteen years ago, we worked on a recruitment project together which spanned a year and because we got to know each other really well, he wanted me to meet his wife and his children so he brought them into the office just to say, Roop, youve made a difference and supported me with the job that I had, which was very challenging and weve spent a lot of time together. Id like you to meet my family, and we still keep in touch. I mean that is testimony to the people that I work with both from a company perspective as well as making a difference for the clients and the candidates that you can work with. 8) Yes, it definitely is, thank you very much. This has been extremely helpful, and I just have one question left now, and this is a question that we like to ask all our guests. If you had one piece of careers advice, what would that be? Theres so much you can say on this topic, but for me probably I would say you can choose your attitude and you can show your values as an individual, whatever career you do at whatever level youre at, so bring your best authentic self to work. For me, its asking good questions and listening to people. Having a genuine interest in them and showing the values that youve got. Go that extra mile for yourself and for the people that you work with and take every opportunity that you can and if youre passionate about what you do in terms of your best authentic self, never be afraid to show it. Did you find this advice useful? You may enjoy some of the  related content  below: 7 reasons a role in recruitment will kick start your career 8 ways AI will impact digital tech recruitment Could you be a recruiter? Introducing the new world of recruitment The future of recruitment