Recruitment is a profession that brings you endless opportunities. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are over 4.7 million job openings in the U.S. and another study by Jobvite says 71% of the U.S. workforce are active job seekers. There is a huge opportunity for a recruiter to have a fulfilling career by making a way for a needy candidate to reach his/her dream job, create professional relationships and on the way not just make money but have a satisfying career for him/herself.

I am a recruiting professional and is exactly what I want to be successful at. So I asked myself this: How to be successful in what i am doing? How can i bring out the best in me?

Recruitment – finding exact match for an open position - is not as easy as it sounds. There are enough challenges in terms of meeting quality at the shortest turnaround time within the need of being compliant per the processes. Recruitment should alsobe not taken as a mundane job that most of us take it every day, which consists of sourcing, calling, meeting the target of ‘X’ number of submissions per requirement and following up. It’s a lot more than that.

Recruitment is all about value creation for all stake holders:

for the Clients, MSPs, VMSs – who entrust you to help meet the business goals
for the Job Seeker – who entrust you to get them to their dream job
for your Colleagues (Sub-ordinates, Peers, Superiors) – to grow together – financially and as professionals
Value creation for the Society

So how can a recruiter meet the trust of all the stakeholders and go about creating Value?

1) Believe - You are Important!

First thing first – and trust me when i say this – have faith in yourself. As recruiter, one should think the world of him/herself. We are the messengers sent to candidates, clients, our own companies and to all the other parties involved in the process. It’s a skilled recruiter who finds exact match for an open job position. It’s those quality submissions of ours that creates business for everyone. If you are the ONE who is bringing money to all these parties, don’t you think you are the most important person for everyone? Feels good, isn’t it? This is important for the very reason – you feel confident and can go full throttle in achieving your goals. Keep in mind, being confident doesn’t mean being proud. It is equally important to be humble enough to be always ready to learn from anyone around.

2) Have a Self-Drive

The next important thing is to have the Self-Drive.Without that passion, that personal drive recruiting will be the same mundane story. But when you have that drive in you, half of the battle is already won. Motivation to have that self-drive could be to –

Earn Respect - Believe that no requirement is an easy requirement. If it was, your client would have taken care of it and not invested in partnering with you. You crack that hard nut and earn respect from all the stake holders, helping clients meet their business goals and add direct value to the bottom line of your company, in-turn helping your peers to grow. Your work is appreciated and you earn respect.
Earn Money - It is not a hidden fact that when you prove your metal, you get rewarded in leaps and bounds, you earn money that will take you places.
The biggest motivator, you create that happy moment in a job-seeker‘s life by helping them get to that dream job they are looking for.

In no particular order, but there are enough reasons for one to feel motivated, to have that self-drive.

3) Trust - does it sound fancy?

Imagine a cricket team or any other sports team working together to win a game without actually trusting each other. Everyone has a role to play. Your success depends on others and vice versa. It’s the strategy that we design, plan and strive to execute, which helps in benefiting all the parties involved. Can it happen without trust? Trust your team and help others create that atmosphere where everyone is on the same page with the understanding of the common goal, what would possibly go wrong?

Now that we understand how important it is to have complete faith in yourself and in the team to crack that hard nut, there are external factors in a professional set-up that would challenge a recruiter’s self-drive and productivity on a daily basis.

Stay tuned for my next article where I will cover how important are Processes, Support from Superiors/Management and Work-Culture as a whole for a recruiter to be successful.