Life after Recruitment

A little while back someone asked a question on the discussion board about “Life after recruitment“.   This got Satnam Brar, MD of Maximus thinking and he offered to write a guest post for us on his thoughts;

For most of us it seems hard to imagine a career after recruitment. Many professionals stay working in the industry very happily for years, starting in junior roles and working up to big billing team leader roles and even setting up their own agencies and search consultancies.

However, for others, the recruitment industry provides a valuable springboard to other careers and occupations. Whether you are making the move after a short introductory stint within recruitment or trying a new career direction after 20 years in the job, how do you plan your next move?

Plenty of options

The good news is that there are plenty of options available for your ‘post-recruitment world’ life. Some people automatically assume that a switch into internal recruitment is a good step, but the reality is that few of these jobs exist and the role can be comparable to the agency environment, but without the buzz of big commissions and incentives.

One popular option is the welfare to work industry. This is a growth sector, thanks in main to the government’s pledge to get jobless people away from benefits and into work. There are various private, third sector and not-for-profit organisations that sub-contract elements of the government’s Work Programme, along with myriad other schemes, such as Work Choice, which helps disabled professionals get back into work and a variety of geographical-based, private and locally-funded initiatives, often managed through local enterprise partnerships or organisations such as Chambers of Commerce. The appeal of this sector is that you can bring your recruitment skills to bear and provide real good to people struggling to transition back into work.

The motivational power of paid employment is proven and by helping people get into work, you can benefit from seeing the impact of your help first-hand. Demand for professionals in this sector is high and growing and the opportunities can be very interesting. For example, you might wish to focus on providing bulk recruitment for large local employers for a not-for-profit service provider, or you might focus on helping young people get into their first job via the apprenticeship model, matching employer roles with suitable young people. You might even choose to focus on ‘hard to help’ categories such as complex families or the offender population. These jobs can be challenging, rewarding, interesting and varied, much like your original recruitment role, but with the added benefit of providing societal gains.

Project management

This is another excellent area for those leaving the recruitment industry. Most recruiters have advanced skills at managing budgets, targets, staff, priorities and complex business information. Their need to be organised often lends itself well to a project management role, where effective relationships and the art of negotiation is key. Project roles can arise in any part of the working world and many of these roles are well paid contract ones, offering the chance to experience a new sector or discipline and potentially to see new parts of the world.

Events

Business networking and events organisations often hire recruiters for their killer ability to work the room, network effectively and bring people together for mutual benefit. The skills you gained in recruitment are infinitely transferable into this space and additionally, most recruiters are naturally blessed with an outgoing and confident personality, which is ideal for the events world. Look for opportunities within business networking organisations, events providers, or consider starting up your own niche events agency.

Sales

Recruitment is sales at its heart and good recruiters are incredibly skilled at the subtle arts of sales, to all levels and personalities. These skills transfer across beautifully to a range of sales roles, whether specialist IT field sales, or business development roles with marketing elements.

Start-ups

A career in recruitment often enables individuals to successfully create their own start-up businesses. After a career of operating among bright business brains, recruiters often have excellent ideas for new start-up opportunities- and the skills, drive, passion and energy to make it succeed.

Your own recruitment agency

Of course, you may have decided that recruitment is no longer for you, but how would you feel about running your own show? Possibly specialising in a particular niche, or maybe going into executive search, to leverage your experience and contacts? Maybe you feel that you could do it better than your previous employers and you have learned enough about running and developing a business to try it for yourself. Why not speak to a business growth coach or mentor to get your ideas of the ground if this is for you.

The ‘left-field’, alternative career of your dreams

If you have left recruitment with a desire to work in the job of your dreams, no matter how obscure or ‘unique’, then you owe it to yourself to make that ambition happen. Good recruiters are big billers and smart individuals will be putting aside as much of their bonuses as possible, to fund future plans. Whether that dream is to open a countryside tea shop, or run a specialist bike business, you owe yourself a chance to realise your dream.