The ups and downs of working in recruitment

Some days this job is brilliant. Everything is going fine, clients are happy, candidates are suitable and being placed in roles. It all seems to work perfectly. The sun is shining, you can do no wrong. You think, well this is easy and let’s face it is not hard labour. Our clients have a need and candidates are seeking a new position, often with an improved salary package. It is the perfect win-win scenario.

Other days I think, why I am doing this. Nothing but problems, one after the other. Candidates drop out, clients have issues with candidates, too much work or not enough work! Nothing goes right, the light at the end of tunnel turns out to be an oncoming train! The pressure builds up and you can feel stress mounting. I think there must be better easier ways to make a living. Why I am doing this job!

Overall I am glad to say the good days outweigh the bad days. And as I often tell the team, without the bad days, you would not enjoy the good days as much. You need the bad days to put the good days into perspective. It is true to say, if this job was easy it would have no value, so you need a level of problems and difficulty to show value. If it was just about posting some job adverts and forwarding on the CV’s anyone could do it.

So the more difficult and problematic the better. Keep this in mind on the tough days. As long as you are doing your best, working hard and being honest you have nothing to worry about. Problems will happen, you are often judged on how you deal with the problems most.

So as the old saying goes, “what doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger!”. This is very apt for the recruitment industry.

After seventeen years working in this business I still enjoy each day, so I have no complaints and would not change anything.