Articles From the Team
Why I enjoy working in recruitment, and why you could too.
I had an interesting conversation at the weekend, with a couple of acquaintances who were very disparaging about the recruitment industry and recruiters in general. In all fairness, their gripes were absolutely fair! Their experience of dealing with recruiters was – quite frankly – terrible.
It got me thinking about recruitment in general and my career in particular. Why do I enjoy working in an industry that many people regard as poorly as car sales and estate agency?
It is probably worth initially making the point that not all recruitment companies or recruiters are terrible! However, the industry itself is pretty much unregulated (or at least signing up to a regulatory body is voluntary). As a result, anyone can set up a website, buy some advertising space on a job board, call themselves a recruiter and start sending out in-mail on LinkedIn.
Within niche areas such as legal – those without proper training or exposure to the legal world are almost inevitably going to get things wrong. They contact people about the wrong jobs, they send the wrong kind of people to clients and generally, it becomes a terrible existence of just trying to throw so much mud, that some of it sticks.
Generally speaking, these are the people that give recruitment a bad name. Unfortunately, it sometimes feels like these are the majority. Or least the impression is created that this is the majority because they shout the loudest.
So given the above – why have do I enjoy working in recruitment and why could you?
That means that I get to help individuals to make their dream moves. It could be a search for better work life balance, relocation, or anything! But it always makes a difference to that person.
I work for a company that invests in new people and tries to give them good training and support. Sometimes our juniors do make mistakes, but they are generally small or understandable. For example, they may contact a development lawyer about an L&T focussed job. In some instances that’s not an actual mistake, the client may be happy to look at real estate lawyers with a different focus.
As a result, I think BCL’s reputation is pretty good with both our candidates and our clients. We certainly seem to be one of only a couple of legal recruitment specialists that have preferred supplier relationships with leading firms across the length and breadth of the country. The feedback we have from clients is that most other companies name us as their main competition, almost no matter where in the UK they are based.
Working for a company with a good reputation is important. It helps me feel like we stand out from the crowd!
I know that I’ve been lucky and received good training at all stages of my career. I genuinely believe that I do a good job for both candidates and clients. Fortunately, I can see that and quantify it from the NPS scores that I get. I feel like people speak highly of me as an individual. It is important that the people that who with me don’t see me as “one of those” recruiters!
All that being said; is personal and company reputation what keeps me coming back every day? Of course it isn’t! Those things are important because it means that people trust me with their recruitment needs – which means that I get to assist with their recruitment needs!
That means that I get to help individuals to make their dream moves. It could be a search for better work life balance, relocation, or anything! But it always makes a difference to that person.
It also means that I get to help Partners grow and develop their teams. I get to work with brilliant, ambitious and hardworking people doing something that makes a real difference to their business.
On both sides people often say “thank you”. That is why I enjoy working in recruitment.
Working for a company with a good reputation is important. It helps me feel like we stand out from the crowd!
So if you are considering moving into recruitment but are “put off” by the reputation of recruiters – don’t be. Find a good company like BCL Legal and jump right in.
The job satisfaction is second to none, and with the right attitude, you could be one of the good ones.
So if you currently work in law and would like to find out more about working in recruitment get in touch with our Talent Acquisition Manager Joanna Leaver to find out more. Please contact BCL Legal for more information or call us on 0845 241 0933. More than half of our recruitment consultants are ex-lawyers!