Developing your career in recruitment

Working in the recruitment industry can be exciting, you get to work with a variety of people and you get to know a lot about a large range of industries. You also get the personal satisfaction of matching your business clients with their perfect candidate, or helping an individual find their perfect job role. Recruitment jobs need not be static, it is a very flexible industry, and there should be plenty of opportunity to progress. You could be promoted to manage a specialist team, manage your branch, or even your local area.  Alternatively you could progress to work with clients at higher levels of seniority, for example in executive search.   What about qualifications?  To get into recruitment you don’t need a specialist degree as such, but business or personnel related degrees may be useful; and relevant subjects for specialist consultants, e.g. accounting or law may be required.  If you are thinking about applying for higher level recruitment consultant jobs , you might want to undertake some further and relevant study.  There are a few options out there.  For instance the REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation) offer training and qualifications to Certificate, Diploma, Degree and Masters level. Various employment agencies also offer their own certificates and training, throughout the UK. The Open University and the REC now offer skills-based courses for their members.  These include various topics to update recruiters’ existing skills and knowledge, revolving around thirteen new online modules.  The modules can be completed in the candidate’s own time and at a pace that suits them, with each one taking around thirty hours to complete.  If the individual cannot commit to full time study this can be an ideal way to develop key skills and industry related knowledge.  This is quite common as it is rare that you can afford to take time out of working to complete a qualification. However, getting a qualification is by no means essential for career progression.  Within both agency and in house recruiter jobs , career progression may rely heavily on your willingness and on the structure of your employer.  If you consistently perform strongly and meet your targets there is every chance that you will one day make it to a managerial level.  You will need good skills in people management and financial management if you wish to pursue this path though, and a solid background in the industry of three years or more.  Alternatively, you may choose to develop your own specialisation in recruitment, focusing on a specific industry or on executive search.  You may alternatively choose to become a trainer of new recruitment consultants, helping them along their way in starting off in the industry. In such a versatile industry there are many paths the recruiter can take in developing their career, it just depends on what they are suited to, more study or more work experience or a combination of the two.

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