6 tips to progress your career as a recruiter

There are lots of reasons to love the recruitment business, and if you think you’ve hit on the right career for you, you might be looking for ways to take your skills to the next step. Whether it’s the relationship-building, sense of achievement, varied workload or fast-paced environment that keeps you interested in recruitment, the good news is that if you love your job, there’s loads of opportunities for progression in this industry. And, if you want to climb the ladder of the recruitment biz, there’s a few simple things you can do to take those first steps. In this blog, we take a look at some of our top tips for recruiters looking to give their career a boost.

1.Set your goals

One of the first steps in accelerating your recruitment career is to know exactly where you’re headed before you slam your foot on the gas. Spend some time reflecting on your recruitment journey so far, and work out what your goals are for the future. This will guide your advances and help you decide where to focus your energy. For example, if you are thinking about taking on extra training or attending specific conferences, understanding what your goals are will help you prioritise which steps to take first.

2.Find your niche

While it’s possible to progress in the recruitment field following a more generalist track, one of the best ways to turbo-charge your career and make demand for your skills rocket is to develop a specialism in a particular area or sector. By becoming an expert in a specialist field, you’ll offer that extra edge and in-depth knowledge that’s so valuable in the recruitment game. This will enable you to really focus your career efforts. Specialist recruitment experts tend to be able to command higher wages than non-specialists. It will also help you build a loyal client base who keep coming back time and time again, because they know you know your stuff. To help you identify your niche, consider your own skills and experience – are there any areas that you’ve been particularly successful in in the past? You can also use your knowledge of the recruitment field to think about where the gaps or growth areas in the market might be – what roles have been particularly hard to fill recently? Could you specialise there?

3.Be proactive and get involved

If you’re thinking about getting ahead in your career, now is the time to challenge yourself, even if it’s something that scares you. It’s when we step outside our comfort zones that we see true growth in ourselves. So book to attend that conference! Pick up the phone to cold call that client! Offer to deliver the quarterly presentation to senior management! Any experience that you can get that expands your CV, develops your skills and puts you in front of the right people is one that you should definitely say “yes” to.

4.Network, network, network

There’s basically no industry where people are more important than recruitment – so get to know as many of them as possible! That includes other recruitment consultants, other firms, recruitment clients and contractors alike. The more connected you are in your line of recruiting work, the better chance you have of excelling at your job – being the first person a client approaches when they have a vacancy to fill, or  being the recruiter that contractors trust to get them placed quickly. All this will get you noticed as a talent in the industry. This is particularly important if you’ve decided on a specialism – then it’s your job to meet as many people in that area as you can. Recruiter networking is one of the most fun aspects of a recruitment career, so make sure you enjoy it.

5.Peer-to-peer training

Peer-to-peer training is a great way to make the most of the richness of knowledge and experience that you have right there in your recruitment team. Although you may work side-by-side with each other day-in, day-out, your colleagues probably have lots of hidden skills and learning to share, particularly if you all work on separate specialisms or different accounts. Set up peer learning sessions in work, where you take it in turns to share with colleagues knowledge about a particular topic or sector, like IR35, or tech sector recruitment. This can also be a really useful way to distribute and disseminate learning from events where not all the team are able to attend.

6.Take time for your career development

If you’re serious about recruiter progression, then be willing to invest some time in it and not just keep plodding on with the day-to-day. Set aside some time in your calendar each week for career development, that you can use for research, training or upskilling. There is a wealth of recruitment training courses out there, some free and some paid. If you speak to your boss about your development plans, your company may be able to support you undertaking some of these opportunities if there’s a cost involved. One of the advantages of the coronavirus lockdowns is that many of these training opportunities are now available remotely. Of course, the quality and usefulness of training courses does vary from provider to provider, so make sure you do your research and read some reviews beforehand – or seek recommendations from others.

If you’re looking to get ahead as a recruiter, Kingsbridge can help. We can ensure your IR35 knowledge is up-to-date so that you’re not held back by burdensome bureaucracy. Partners can also earn rewards on every contractor insurance policy they sell, bringing an extra revenue stream into your recruitment business. To find out more, get in touch with our partnerships team.