Recruitment is exhilarating.

Yes I really do find recruitment to be truly exhilarating. It’s like a bottle of fine Moët, delightful, intoxicating and fantastic fun! Other times it’s like the morning after, full of regret, ‘what-if’s’, headache and even disappointment.

Learning how to be ‘consistently persistent’ as one wise area manager told me early in my career is the key to lasting the distance. With the highs and lows that can make or break the consultant, it’s not surprising that recruitment has the highest employee turnover of 60% in the first year, higher than any other sales discipline. You need to be resilient, tenacious and highly motivated to last in this industry.

Sound appealing?!

Well, I actually have some good news for any would be recruitment consultants – if you dig deep, you find an area of the industry you love and you stick at it, this is one extremely rewarding career.

I can’t think of many other professions where you get to meet such a cross section of businesses, people and circumstances. If you’re good, you can earn good money, if you’re awesome – it can be incredibly lucrative. But it’s not all about the money – it’s about the hustle, the business, the people, the pace and diversity.

So what can it be like?

Sometimes it’s like bungee jumping off a bridge in New Zealand (c1994 for me!) into a heady heaven high when things are going so well, there’s nothing better than securing those deals and placing people into jobs. The pipeline looks amazing and clients are happy!

My driving force has always been the ability to change people’s lives through helping them choose the right career and on the other side, genuinely helping businesses to grow through hiring the right teams and senior management. When a client said recently “we couldn’t have grown without you” – that really did make my year, let alone my day!

A career in recruitment isn’t for everyone. But if you get the bug it’s addictive. I remember walking into an agency for the first time 15 years ago and thinking, this is fun – I want a piece of the action! And I wish more people would do the same!

My first recruitment role was like a baptism of fire, I was very green in my career and I cut my teeth on everything from construction managers to legal secretaries – when I didn’t really know much about either at all…! I now run my own recruitment company and I’m as excited and passionate about recruitment as I was back then.

Those were the days when we used to fax or send CV’s in the post. Technology now continues to revolutionise our industry everyday and it has made the world of recruitment both more accessible and yet complex.

On the reverse, it can literally be like a search for an oasis in the Sahara. The day, week or month of ‘bad luck’. You’ve gone from “‘hero to zero’ and none of it was your fault. A couple of candidates have changed their minds or had counter offers, your client decides to pull the plug on this piece of recruitment. And, because you’ve been so busy working ‘in the business’ your sales activity has plummeted with no visible opportunities in sight.

So perhaps you may ask why I have stayed in the industry for 15 years and still love it?

For me it’s always been my love of business – that’s what gets me up in the morning. One minute I can be interviewing an MD looking for their next role who has just assisted an SME with an MBO after having built the company from £18m to £85m turnover and the next minute I can be pitching to a new client with a large UK manufacturing facility and an international turnover of £2bn. That’s the juice!!

Recruitment can be a lot of things, but one thing that it isn’t is boring. In fact, it’s addictive.

If a career in recruitment appeals or you’d like to join our growing team as someone with recruitment experience in a specialist sector, please contact Helen Plumridge (MD of King Recruit) in confidence: M: 07808 537696 E: helen@kingrecruit.com