Working as a Recruiter: The Good and The Bad Sides

If you ever wonder, is being recruiter a good career choice? Then the most answer you will get is yes. Being a recruiter will open up many opportunities, such as advancing your career and earning a hefty paycheck and bonuses if you reach your target. Additionally, there are not many requirements you have to meet in order to become a recruiter. You do not need to graduate from high degree university or have many job experiences. However, to be a recruiter, you need to be a great listener and speaker, besides a good ability to influence others.   

But do you know that being a recruiter is not all about the fun? Just like any other jobs, being a recruiter can give you hurdles and unpleasant challenges too. You might have to go through a hard time dealing with many kinds of people or meeting your targets. 

If you want to know more about a recruiter’s job, here is the list of good and bad sides of being one. 

The good

1. You play an important role

Let’s put it like this: talent is the heart of business, while recruiter is the brain of a business. Brain is the one that has control over our body, including pumping blood. It implies that recruiter is the one that helps shape a company now and in the future by bringing in people and placing them in the right position. As important as it is, if you hire the wrong person, the company’s life could be at risk.

2. You possess freedom

Every person working in an organisation usually has to work with a fixed working arrangement. As a recruiter, you can get control over your own schedule as long as you meet your targets. Employers often give freedom for recruiters to manage their own daily tasks. In addition, you will not be dependent on your manager because they already trust you and your ability to perform your tasks well.

3. It is your chance to have high earnings potential

In line with freedom, a recruiter will have control over their career. If you work hard enough to achieve the target by placing many candidates into roles, then you are likely to be rewarded for your work. Glassdoor survey cited that the average recruiter salary is $51,349 per year. Moreover, there is also a placement fee which is based on a candidate’s first-year salary. For instance, if you will be rewarded 20 percent on every IT candidate you recruit and the candidate’s first-year salary is $65.000, then you will earn $13,000 per candidates.

4. You can improve your knowledge better

As you meet various people and clients, you can learn from your experience about business or talent market that is booming in society. You can also learn about different company cultures, sectors, organisational structures, how to negotiate, and many more. Therefore, as you can educate yourself better in business, you will have many transferable skills.

The bad

1. You have little control of the outcome

The competitive talent market will obstruct you from getting the right and top-performer talents. While you could spend a whole day emailing, calling, and reaching out to potential talents, at the end of the day, it is the talents and hiring manager’s decisions which counts. For example, you see a candidate is a good fit for a certain company, then you send him forward to the hiring manager for further process. But it turns out that the hiring manager doesn’t really like him so he rejects your recommendation. 

On the other side, you cannot have control over top talents as well. In some cases, you might be a victim of candidate ghosting. For instance, you call the A candidate for an offer. She said she will think about it but never give an exact answer whether she wants the job or not.

2. You might be blamed for client’s mistakes

Recruiter is responsible to bridge the communication between client and job seeker. You also should be an influencer to make job seekers interested in applying for the offered position. Your mission is to deliver messages from your client to candidates. The clients, however, might give you an unclear job description or unclear key information about a job ad. While you can ask for a clearer job description, however, your clients might think that you are incompetent as you fail to understand the client’s wants. 

3. You might get burnout easily

Reaching out to a lot of people can be tiring and painful as not every person you call is giving the kind of response you want. You also have to go through a lot of candidate’s resume screening in order to find the right ones. Therefore, sometimes you might go in an awkward, tedious, or aggravating moments. And surely, it will make you tired easily.

And do you have anything more in mind about the good and bad sides of being a recruiter?

Next read: Why Recruiters Need Personal Brand?