A week in the life of a recruitment consultant

If you are considering a career in recruitment, or you’d like to know more about what goes into being a recruitment consultant, read on…

Kate Goodman, one of our principal consultants, has shared how a typical week in her life runs in our Accountancy & Finance team. Kate has been with Vanilla since 2013. She works with a wide range of clients predominantly on roles like:

Accountants / Finance Managers / Head of Finance
Management Accountants / Assistant Management Accountants
Credit Control
Purchase / Sales Ledger Clerks
Audit and Accounts Associates (Practice)
Payroll Managers / Payroll Assistants
Accounts Assistants / Administrators

Let’s hear from Kate:

Hello, I’m Kate. I’ve been with Vanilla since 2013. I joined the team with 10+ year’s recruitment experience. My area of recruitment expertise is Accountancy and Finance and I work with both temporary and permanent commercial roles as well as practice roles within accountancy firms. I recruit for qualified and non-qualified positions and the part of the job I really like is gaining a great understanding of what both my candidates and clients are seeking in order to ensure a great match.

The role of a recruitment consultant is a very varied and challenging one. In the space of one day you can be negotiating an offer, ‘merchandising’ candidates to clients, training candidates on interview techniques, advising clients of market rates for roles, mentoring other team members, writing job adverts and descriptions and doing general administration. It’s a challenging career which keeps you on your toes. It’s a very competitive market so recruiters need to establish themselves in a very large industry. It is also very satisfying and rewarding when you make someone’s day with the phone call to say “they would like to offer you the job”.

So, here is a typical week in the life of me – Accountancy and Finance recruitment specialist at Vanilla…

Monday

I start by reviewing my to-do-list for the day and then scan through my emails and my on-line job boards to review applications from the weekend. This is followed by ‘check in’ calls for permanent candidates on their first day in their new job. I then make new business calls to speak to clients about great candidates I have. Followed by candidate catch-up calls during lunch, to ensure that I am up-to-date with their requirements and availability.

The afternoon is often spent completing pricing agreements for new clients, followed by salary surveys for existing clients – great way to ensure that they are paying market rates for their prospective employees. Then I will be sourcing candidates via LinkedIn and using various job boards, followed by candidate registrations at our office.

Tuesday

I start by contacting my candidates and clients first thing to ensure that Vanilla are top of mind and to keep them up to date with our vacancies etc. I’m often then taking on new jobs with visits to the client’s offices to meet with them face to face to get a feel for their culture. I then spend time writing the job adverts for the new roles. I’ll always have interview pre-briefs with candidates to complete to ensure they are comfortable, confident and prepared for their interviews later in the week.

At the end of the day I sort out all my administration to make sure my database is up-to-date with bookings, telephone calls and emails, and that everything is logged and tracked.

Wednesday

Wednesday morning is sales meeting morning at Vanilla. Then most weeks I try and get in a client service review meeting completed. This is a 6-monthly review with a client where we have had placements – not forgetting to take them some Vanilla branded cupcakes as a treat.

Then I’m normally off to meet another client for lunch and a catch up on their company growth plans, before returning to the office. I sometimes get clients popping into the office as well with new roles to take on.

Finally, I work from home in the evening to complete skype registrations – it’s often more convenient for candidates to chat in the evening but they can’t always make it over to see us in person.

Thursday

I’ll be registering candidates in the morning and writing profiles on them to send to clients, as well as completing interview pre-briefs. I also use this time for sourcing candidates for my jobs on our extensive database, LinkedIn and other on-line sites.

I will then head to Leicester to attend the monthly Bistro Live, networking event. This is a great opportunity to meet existing clients and forge new relationships in a friendly and relaxed environment.

Then I’m back to the office and onto the phone with some of my clients to chat about my newly registered candidates. I then catch up with all my candidates who have been attending interviews that week. We debrief and then I call to my clients to see how they felt the interviews went. I pass the feedback back and forth so everyone is in the loop.

I sometimes get temporary bookings phoned through for the following week for roles like payroll/accounts administrators etc. So I then get on the phone to speak to my bank of temporary candidates to fill the booking.

Friday

Usually it’s ‘Sausage Baps’ (Friday bangers) first thing – it’s a Vanilla ritual that the whole office partakes in. Then onto the phones to check in any temporary candidates and to complete some business development calls. Friday tends to be offer day, so I’ll be speaking to candidates and negotiating. I’ll have registrations in the office followed by my end of week calls to clients to see how candidates got in in their first week at work along with re-books for temporary staff. We have an end of week meeting to review how things have gone and then set ourselves out for the new week with our task list.

No two days are the same but the variety is what makes this a very challenging yet reward role to have.

Kate

Do you think you’ve got what it takes to be an Accountancy and Finance recruitment consultant at Vanilla? Check out our dedicated ‘Work For Us’ page