Our Blogs

Considering working in recruitment but don’t think you have the necessary skills? You thought wrong.

This Christmas whilst back at home for the holidays sitting by the fire in your Christmas jumper and slippers, tucking into some cold turkey sandwiches and watching World’s Strongest Man you are going to be using various transferable skills without even realising that they are perfect for recruitment. 

These 8 skills you will use over Christmas transfer perfectly into a professional recruitment role:

1) Networking

Recruitment is all about speaking to a broad range of people, expanding your professional network and building long lasting relationships. This is often done using LinkedIn, corporate work events or over the phone. This Christmas you will inevitably be reunited with old friends, families and people from school who you haven’t spoken to in a decade. As such these networking skills are exactly what companies look for when hiring a recruitment consultant.

2) Negotiation

When your two young nephews are fighting over who plays with their newest toy on Christmas day, or who gets to break the wishbone use your negotiation skills to calm down the situation. This will be a key transferable skill you will use daily, but even more when you need to secure that deal you’ve been working hard towards.

3) Relationship management

In recruitment managing relationships is crucial. Whilst at home placating your Aunt or your Nan who moans about how everything is not how it used to be, you’re managing difficult relationships. As a recruitment consultant you will be speaking to new people on a daily basis having to manage the expectations of both clients and candidates and keep everyone happy.

4) Time management

3:00 pm on Christmas day strikes and where are you? On the sofa with a full stomach ready for the queen’s speech of course! Not with bad time management skills though. Make sure you plan your lunch and present opening in time for the speech or your favourite Christmas film on TV. Balancing your day is crucial in recruitment to make sure you are able to hit your key deliverables.

5) Team work

What better way to show team work than getting stuck in and help prepare the veg on Christmas morning, to pull a Christmas cracker or even better get involved in team Pictionary. Team work as a transferrable skill is imperative, especially in a collaborative business where sharing of client and candidate information is key as well as winning new business to support various departments in one business.

6) Resilience  

People often describe being a recruitment consultant as a roller coaster ride, one day you will have someone accept an offer and the next someone might just disappear off the radar after securing them an interview with your top client. It’s all about keeping positive and not giving up. Getting through that second or third helping of Christmas dinner is what I’m talking about here, don’t give up, make the most of this day that comes but once a year. Expect to be eating turkey for the next few days as well. 

7) Communication skills

We read ‘great communication skills’ on every job spec for recruitment and sales roles so what better way to practice these than in a game of charades. Really listening and interpreting body language and signals will allow you to go the extra mile in recruitment allowing you to secure that deal leading to a nice pay cheque at the end of the month or quarter. Understanding the needs of both your clients and candidates is paramount to make sure all parties are satisfied with the outcome of a process.

8) Professionalism

Last but not least, after a few days with all the family over, when you've had enough and want to tell everyone its home time, keeping that smile on your face until the last car pulls away from the drive will keep everyone happy. Client and candidate meetings always require this level of enthusiasm and to remain professional. If neither party respect you and vice versa no deals will be made which means no commission.

Morgan McKinley are actively recruiting in a number of key business areas for experienced and non-experienced hires. If you haven’t worked in recruitment before, or worked in a similar industry and would like to transition, give us a call and we can discuss suitability.