Firstly, I believe recruitment is not a career anyone decides to pursue. Most recruiters I know have landed in recruitment by default!
Being in recruitment for over 15 years has exposed me to all walks of life, from placing an office cleaner to placing top executives in large international corporate organisations, both nationally and internationally.
I am often asked how I have managed to stay in recruitment for so long. Like many of us who have a passion for what we do, I have learnt to become adaptable, learnt to be creative, innovative and applied continuous improvement initiatives to everything possible.
I know of many companies that drive and enforce recruiters to specialise in one field and I don’t disagree with this strategy. However, I feel this can play a negative role on a recruiters moral in that they know coming into the workplace that they will be working the same / similar vacancies on a daily basis, almost to the point of boredom.
I would suggest that we as recruiters look for different ways of doing things, be it in our specialisation or not. Don’t limit yourself to any opportunity that knocks on the door. Embrace new challenges. Look at yourself as a specialist recruiter (Matchmaker) whereby your specialisation is in finding the right candidate for the right opportunity. This is an art on its own and offers great satisfaction in knowing that you have placed someone outside of your unique, so called specialisation. This in turn contributes towards your self-development. It is both challenging and rewarding which helps us keep going and keep pushing our individual/personal boundaries.
Look at every opportunity as an opportunity to learn. Try change things up to keep your job interesting, be creative with activities that bore you, keep innovating to avoid flat-lining and to ensure you stay ahead of the competition.
By: Terence van der Westhuizen
