The Student Room Group
high unemployment?? More people looking for work so these guys step in to help??
It's been like this for years. Whenever you go on graduate jobs recruitment sites the majority of jobs that come up are recruitment consultant. They often are the ones that look a bit 'too good to be true' as well, eg say after 3 years you could be earning £60k.

I wonder how legit all of the jobs are. I do know a few people from uni that have done it, it's basically a sales job, quite tough work. They work longish hours, have stressful targets to hit. That said, if you can do it, it's a way of earning a decent graduate level salary (£22-25k) but you do need to be good at sales.
Reply 3
I thought you said there were no jobs :rolleyes:
What work do all these Recruitment Consultants do if there are no jobs around?!
Reply 5
Original post by PlantVZombie
high unemployment?? More people looking for work so these guys step in to help??



Original post by Philbert
I thought you said there were no jobs :rolleyes:



Original post by The Real Quaid
What work do all these Recruitment Consultants do if there are no jobs around?!


One of my friends does it, so here is my view:

There are jobs available. There is just more competition for them, pushing up the requirements.

Recruitment Consultants are not employed to find jobs for people, it is up to them to find the right people for the job. For example, KPMG might be looking for a new Director for Restructuring, specialising in public transport. They could hire a recruitment agency to fill the job for them, so the consultant takes a fee to headhunt people, make phone calls, go through CVs/applications, carry out interviews etc and narrow down the applicants so KPMG only need to see the very best candidates.

Because there are more people going for every job, it is more important for recruitment agencies to be able to find suitable people to do the jobs.

As far as the job goes, it involves a lot of raw networking. It is very hard work, with long days and performance related pay. My friend needs to fill approx 3 jobs per month to get a decent bonus. If you have the gift of being likeable and able to talk a lot/get on well with people, can really close a sale, and are able to work independently most of the time, it may be a good job for you.
Reply 6
Original post by al45ta1r
One of my friends does it, so here is my view:

There are jobs available. There is just more competition for them, pushing up the requirements.

Recruitment Consultants are not employed to find jobs for people, it is up to them to find the right people for the job. For example, KPMG might be looking for a new Director for Restructuring, specialising in public transport. They could hire a recruitment agency to fill the job for them, so the consultant takes a fee to headhunt people, make phone calls, go through CVs/applications, carry out interviews etc and narrow down the applicants so KPMG only need to see the very best candidates.

Because there are more people going for every job, it is more important for recruitment agencies to be able to find suitable people to do the jobs.

As far as the job goes, it involves a lot of raw networking. It is very hard work, with long days and performance related pay. My friend needs to fill approx 3 jobs per month to get a decent bonus. If you have the gift of being likeable and able to talk a lot/get on well with people, can really close a sale, and are able to work independently most of the time, it may be a good job for you.


Yep. To sum it up, there are less jobs/more unemployed, so loads more people apply per job. Its a lot of work to get decent candidates, as the applications increase more people are needed.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 7
We're all just going to end up selling each other insurance policies.
Reply 8
Thanks for that. Was wondering the same thing myself. The job sounds like a nightmare; like perpetual job-seeking.
Original post by MagicNMedicine
It's been like this for years. Whenever you go on graduate jobs recruitment sites the majority of jobs that come up are recruitment consultant. They often are the ones that look a bit 'too good to be true' as well, eg say after 3 years you could be earning £60k.

I wonder how legit all of the jobs are. I do know a few people from uni that have done it, it's basically a sales job, quite tough work. They work longish hours, have stressful targets to hit. That said, if you can do it, it's a way of earning a decent graduate level salary (£22-25k) but you do need to be good at sales.


I interned at a recruitment consultancy over the summer. The majority of the workforce's take home pay was over 38k (including commission). But yes, you have to be good at sales, always on the ball (constantly on the phone) and they work around 9 hours a day.
Reply 10
yeah but why are there sooooo many of these agencies/recruitment consultant jobs....its frustrating when these pop up all the time....
1) Because recruitment companies negotiate bulk advertising deals with online advertisers (look at the Guardian jobs website, it's so infested with them at more senior 60k+ jobs it's nearly impossible to use the site), when they haven't got real jobs to advertise, they fill the slots they've already paid for anyway with recruitment advertisements.

2) People answer these adverts (out of desperation?) and what does that give Recruiters? It gives them material to go back to employers and say Hey! I have got loads of superb <name any relevant job>, get in touch! In other words, it keeps business ticking over for Recruiters, they survive by seeing CVs and it's the only way they are going to generate candidates. (Recruiting for jobs that blatantly don't exist is a bit trickier ethically and people might begin to see a pattern).

Just my conclusions having noticed the same flood of recruitment agency positions in the last year.
Original post by Favourite Worst Nightmare
I interned at a recruitment consultancy over the summer. The majority of the workforce's take home pay was over 38k (including commission). But yes, you have to be good at sales, always on the ball (constantly on the phone) and they work around 9 hours a day.


Is 9 hours a day supposed to be a lot...?
Original post by BeautifullyTragic
Is 9 hours a day supposed to be a lot...?


Not really, i just wanted to point out what the hours actually were where I worked as people in the thread were speculating. Obviously 9 hours is the minimum. If you have a big role and your clients wants a shortlist of candidates by the morning or whatever, you can end up staying till the late evening. And if you haven't hit your targets you may have to come in at weekends.
Original post by ploder
Thanks for that. Was wondering the same thing myself. The job sounds like a nightmare; like perpetual job-seeking.


It's one of those jobs where you're constantly on your toes, and working at ungodly hours. Is it better to be unemployed? Probably. But, the turnover is pretty huge from what I have heard. There's a reason they are targeting graduates specifically, because the majority of graduates are unemployed, and it's probably better to have a desperate grad, than some loser with 2 a levels. Either way, whether or not these jobs actually exist, there are billions of them on every job board being advertised. The only "jobs" available now are through recruitment agencies in short.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 15
Recruitment can be one of the best careers you can make, it really depends on obviously the company you work for, like any other industry. I've been in recruitment for almost two years since graduating and it isn't 'too good to be true' you can earn an annual salary of £60k as I am very almost there. Like most City and office jobs, if you manage your time well the hours don't have to be excessively long (max 45 hours for my company) and you meet some great people.
Original post by AestheticOverload
The turnover these days must be HUGE is why I think. Is there any other reason why so many of these are being created? And more importantly, has anyone ever done this job before?

If you're wondering what I'm talking about, go to any job board and type in "Recruitment Consultant".

So 11yrs later the situations the same… also why do so many say you must be good at sales/have sales experience?