Resourcer Review

I enjoyed my placement year at Randstad very much! It was a great opportunity where I was able to learn exactly what goes in to recruitment and put what I had learnt in my studies at University into practice. The working environment is very busy! So is great if you enjoy being hands on and having lots to get on with. It is also very target driven, so having the determination to meet your KPI’s is crucial. Nonetheless, my team were great and I was working in a very fun and rewarding environment!

I felt that I was a very valued member of the team. I was not viewed as a placement student, I was viewed as a colleague and was treated with the same respect as everyone else. Which was great and therefore allowed me to make the most out of my time there. My team and manager were both very welcoming and I was given a lot of responsibility to get on with my workload and use my initiative to problem solve.

From day one I was provided with a lot of guidance and support from my manager. I had several meetings where I was introduced to the company and was taught exactly what I was doing, how it needed to be done and also why it needed to be done in a certain way. I was also able to contact my manager at anytime and ask any questions to ask for guidance, which I found really good. Especially as I was always learning!

Every day is busy in recruitment, which I really enjoyed. There are always jobs to be filled and work to be done to ensure jobs continue to come in and have candidates ready to go to work. Despite this, the workload is manageable and there are plenty of people on the team that can help you to prioritise what needs to be done first. Although, it is very important to remember that you can only do so much and sometimes things are out of your control.

The more my placement progressed the more responsibility I was given. I started off just learning the basic steps of recruitment and by the end I had learnt the full cycle and was given the responsibility of taking on my own jobs from clients, sourcing candidates, successfully filling the job and providing aftercare to both the candidate and the client. I also had several daily tasks and spreadsheets to complete that were set by my manager, which was my responsibility to do.

The skills and experience that I have gained during this past year will help me with my studies and post-University employment a huge amount. I have learnt how to work in a professional environment, communicate both verbally and written to clients and candidates and how to be successful in recruitment from watching my peers and completing the work myself. I have also been able to develop essential skills including, negotiation, problem solving and time management. Therefore, proving crucial to my career development at such an early stage.

The atmosphere of the office was one of the main aspects which attracted me to wanting to work at Randstad. Our office was a combination of loud and fun with a lot of concentration and focus. Generally I found recruitment to be a lot of fun and the characters in the office certainly reflected that! However, when targets needed to be hit and work needed to be done it was a very hardworking environment that was very productive.

The position that I was put into was very well organised, I had a clear structure which was provided by my manager and I had objectives and targets set out which I needed to achieve by a certain time. However, our team did have a change of management, which did cause disruption, although, it did not interfere with my placement, but did mean I had to adapt to a different management style. Overall, the organisation of my placement was very good, where I was constantly given support and training in order to help me develop and make the most out of my time there.

In regards to personal training I had weekly meetings with my manager to discuss my progress and what I had done well and what needed to be improved. I also had to set quarterly targets of what I wanted to achieve within that time in reference to certain KPI’s, where my manager would sit down and talk me through it. In addition to this, I also attended training at the head office in Luton for placement students, where we were able to learn more about Randstad and recruitment.

Future employment prospects are very appealing at Randstad, where they offer great employment prospects where you are able to train and develop your skills to become a recruitment consultant by studying and taking exams. They have a learning and development team especially to help individuals do this and provide ongoing support when revising. My job title was a resourcer, but I would be very interested in developing this further and gaining the financial benefits that come with this!

My team was very small and there was only one other placement student in my office. However, the social scene was very good, where we would often go and get a drink after work on a Friday. We would also go on an incentive every quarter, but this was largely dependent on our performance as an office. The better we performed, the better the night out we would get. Whether this be money put behind the bar, cocktail making or a team activity. As well as this, Randstad have a yearly party called Conference where all the offices get together and celebrate what they have achieved!

I was very fortunate to be able to live at home and drive to work every day. However, the cost of living wasn’t too bad and we had several pubs near work that were very good value for money. We would often go to the pub for lunch on someone’s birthday and this was affordable on the wage which we were on. Although some of my colleagues that lived near by were able to effectively manage the cost of living.

The nightlife was very good! We had lots of bars and clubs near by which was great for when we went on our incentives. This was also beneficial on a Friday when we would go to the pub for a drink after work.

There were several opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. I was apart of a very friendly and welcoming team that involved me in social activities.