Self Development in recruitment jobs

Either way, a proactive approach to self development can be the key to a prosperous career.

If you are one of the lucky ones to have landed your first recruitment job with one of the global players such as Michael Page or Hudson, the chances are that you will have access to plenty of structured training from people who have been in the recruitment business for many years. However, for many recruitment consultants starting out in smaller agencies, your training will be what your recruitment manager will be able to tell you after their few years in the business. For very small organisations, you may even be hired as a lone consultant and left to fend for yourself.

Having dealt with many recruitment consultants over the years, it's surprising how many have not been formally trained and were hired due to basic qualities such as strong communication skills. After a career in sales myself, and recruitment is a a form of sales, I am in no doubt that formal training will make a huge difference in the ability to deliver consistent results, and also in the ability of consultants to progress on to bigger and better things. In particular, if you are a good recruitment consultant, without formal training, you may not actually understand why you are good! This would become a major weakness upon gaining a recruitment manager's position.

So if you are a recruitment consultant who hasn't been formally trained, what can you do to plug the gap? Well firstly, the internet will now out rank any book you'll ever find for self help and advice. You'll find plenty of topics on this site to broaden your knowledge, let alone once you start to probe google around your topic. To go a stage further raise the issue with your manager. There are a number of companies around which offer recruitment training and courses to staff in smaller companies not big enough to run their own training department. They may not be cheap but if you can persuade them it will help you make more placements, they should give you time off and the funding to do this.

This may seem like a lot of extra effort when your role as a recruitment consultant may already be busy enough. However, if you are planning an upwardly mobile career in recruitment jobs or any other sector, the more training you receive on the ground level the better your foundations are to grow.

Learning in this way not only gives you extra knowledge to succeed, but also demonstrates a good level of pro activity which will be attractive to future employers.

Good luck