Apparently we’re in the middle of the biggest recruitment career crisis ever – According to new LinkedIn data, demand for recruiters has fallen 10x more than average. So if you are a recruiter, you are quite possibly out of a job or fear you soon could be.
I read this joyful statistic in one of LinkedIn’s blog posts last week. To be honest, the blog was pretty dull reading, about how 40% of people who leave recruitment end up in HR. 16% in Sales. 6% in Business Development.
Groundbreaking stuff, here, LinkedIn. Knocked me off my seat.
But hang on, the numbers only add up to 71% – so what are the other 29% of ex-recruiters doing?
Well I did my own research on the other 29% and found out where the rest of you have gone?
JOB SEARCH COACHES is what I think!
There’s soooo many touting their wares all over LinkedIn at the moment.
Screw the career crisis, I say, recruitment’s here to stay!
For those of you who don’t want to get out of ‘the game’, having a career in recruitment is a pretty wild ride, or perhaps it’s not? I reckon I can break it into three categories. Two are open to any recruiter, one is a wild ride, one isn’t, one might be that you kissed enough ass on the way…
Let me tell you about them.
- You are a star, you are top biller, top consultant, top perm consultant, top freelance consultant, new recruiter of the year. Whatever. You get my point. You’ve got to go on stage at the Christmas piss up, shake hands with the CEO, get a wad of cash, have all the other recruiters clap you like they give a damn. If you fall into this category, at some point, someone above you will think you can cut it as a manager and leader of other recruiters and you can pass on some of your golden touch on to the next gen. You get promoted to Teamleader, sales manager, Billing Manager, branch manager, whatever. You do well at that, you get a few more awards given to you at the office disco, you get the next promotion to director of this, director of that. Great. You have done well in your recruitment career. You have made someone wealthy with your talent and hard work. Fail at this step 1 at any point and you actually join number 2…
- You are a good enough recruiter and can bill, but either you never were good enough to get the top biller accolades and are, in fact a decent, middle of the road recruiter or you never actually were a great manager or perhaps you sucked at making your P higher than your L. Then your recruitment career inevitably gets stuck at a level, or perhaps even the level below. You are a career recruiter and that’s your lot. You’ll never get that next job and you are destined to be talking to clients and candidates to make deals for the rest of your career. You know what – that ain’t a bad place to be, in all honesty. Recruitment is different every day and so there is always fresh challenges. But it does mean someone else is controlling your destiny and has judged you. Sucks to be you in this situation, IMO, as you don’t control your own destiny.
- You have some guts and, once you’ve cut your teeth as a recruiter, you do it for yourself. Then you can do 1 or 2, but it’s on your own terms, not someone else’s. You can promote yourself to Manager of a team, Director of a P&L, you have to then make it work for yourself. Or you can be a lifestyle recruiter and bill what you need to bill to pay the bills and spend the rest of the time on the beach, travelling the world (yeh right, and be quarantined – come on, Pete! Don’t you read the news…) or whatever you want to do with your life.
Anyhow, maybe there is a 4th career choice for a recruiter, (well, according to Linked In, it’s become a HR Manager…) but I can only think of those three avenues open to you! Which is your choice?
Pete Marston
Other Posts...
