Recruitment Consultant Review

I really enjoyed my placement year. It was extremely varied and it made you get involved in every aspect of recruitment. Recruitment was always something I'd been aware of but never considered as a career option and I was surprised how many different aspects it has; customer services, business development, administration, compliance and audit. Hays has been brilliant both in terms of my training in these areas, but also my continued support.

My office is quite a close-knit team and they were always on hand should I require any help or had any questions about processes. Equally there was always feedback if I wanted to know how I could improve etc. They were very friendly and when I first started, I was made to feel welcome straight away.

I had both my line manager and office manager on hand to give me advice should I need it. When I first started, they were very good at taking me through processes and the internal system as well as advising me about clients and candidates. There is also two lots of training available as well as refresher lunch time sessions should I need or want them. If I ever had a query I could usually get an immediate response.

There is a lot involved in recruitment with many different aspects. There are always things to do whether resourcing candidates, calling or emailing clients and candidates or searching for available jobs. Time management is key with this and you can always be busier if you wanted to be. There are peaks and troughs with jobs in and how busy you are actually filling a vacancy, however when things are quiet in that regard, you can focus more attention on developing business in other areas.

The internship program normally focusses on your first three months revolving around the candidate side of things, then after that getting the opportunity to speak with clients and actively develop business. This is not always the case however, as I was speaking with clients very soon after starting. This responsibility allows you to manage the whole process from start to finish and so you really can't get more responsibility than that. There are also lots of opportunities to get involved in things internally, such as recruiting the interns for next year, organising business development days etc.

As there are a lot of things going on with recruitment, there are lots of skills you can take from the year, such as customer services, client liaison, time management and business development as well as knowledge about legal processes and compliance. This has provided a much more practical take on my course at University and are also definitely things that I can take onto my future career. These skills are all transferable to a range of careers.

It was generally quite a good atmosphere. My colleagues have mostly been working with each other for a long period of time so there were lots of jokes. This is alongside the professionalism of the office and so it was quite a nice balance in the grand scheme of things. The office had a very relaxed feel as long as you were on top of your work.

The placement from the beginning was very organised. The application process was extremely quick and by the time I was invited to assessment centres by other companies, I had already been offered by Hays. There were two structured training courses as well as constant ongoing training. There were also clear management review meetings which were organised which meant I could review progress and have any questions answered that I needed answering.

My first few days were spent being trained up on the processes for work, and also the internal system. As well as this there was training on legal topics to do with recruitment and also compliance. In addition, there were two structured training courses in London which consisted of two days both 3 months and 6 months into my placement on both candidate management and business development. These were very interesting with good feedback. There were also opportunities to get involved in other things like the Intern newsletter.

I believe to join as a graduate you have to go through the normal application process, however there are good prospects, with a structured promotion plan where you can specialise in either business development or people management. There is also a good commission structure alongside your basic salary which is good for people who are motivated by results. It is a meritocratic organisation which is great for those go-getters.

There aren't any other interns in my office, however I had the opportunity to meet other interns on the training courses, as well as meet them at both the Christmas party and an associate conference which was held in Leeds. With my colleagues in the office, we sometimes go for drinks after work, and there is also a young professionals networking group in the area which I go to with some colleagues.

Lincoln is an extremely cheap area to live and work. There are lots of housing options available across a range of prices so can accommodate any person's budget. Socialising is also cheap as there are lots of pubs and bars around.

There are only a couple of clubs however there is also a University in Lincoln so these can often be quite busy. There are a couple of student nights, but there are also lots of bars, pubs and restaurants around.

I personally do a lot of sport and there are quite a few teams around and also lots of sports to choose from. There are also other things organised by other companies and done through Hays such as sponsored walks, treks and also the London Marathon. As mentioned before, we also attended Young Professionals events which were things like pub quizzes, speed networking etc.