JobHunting #CareerAdvice #BreakingIntoRecruiting
Not being able to break into a field despite your best efforts can be incredibly frustrating. You’ve put in the time, applied for numerous positions, and even made it to multiple interviews, but the job offer remains elusive. If you’re experiencing this in the recruiting industry, let’s unpack the situation together and explore how you can turn things around.
Understand the Motive Behind the Issue
You’ve been diligently trying to break into recruiting, as evidenced by your 75 applications and 12 interview processes. This shows dedication and a willingness to enter the field despite being ready to take a pay cut. 👏
Given your willingness to work in-office initially and later transition to remote work, it might seem that the remote work requirement could be a factor. However, let’s dive deeper into other potential issues and solutions.
Evaluate Your Application Strategy
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Tailor Each Application: Customize your resume and cover letter for each job. Highlight the specific skills and experiences that align with each job’s requirements. 🎯
- Leverage Transferable Skills: Clearly articulate how your previous roles have equipped you with skills relevant to recruiting. For example:
- Communication: Effective communication plays a critical role in both your past roles and recruiting.
- Relationship Building: Show how you’ve built relationships in your previous jobs.
Networking: The Unseen Job Market 😇
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LinkedIn Optimization: Make sure your LinkedIn profile showcases your transferable skills and signals your interest in recruiting. Use relevant keywords. Connect with recruiters and industry professionals.
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Informational Interviews: Reach out to professionals in the recruiting industry for informational interviews. These can be invaluable for insights and potential job leads.
- Attend Industry Events: Virtual or in-person industry events and webinars can help you connect with key players and learn about unadvertised openings.
Interview Performance
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Reflect and Improve: After each interview, objectively evaluate what went well and what didn’t. 🔍
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Seek Feedback: Don’t hesitate to ask for feedback from interviewers. It can provide valuable insights to help you improve.
- Mock Interviews: Conduct mock interviews with friends or mentors in the industry to practice and refine your responses.
Addressing the Remote Work Concern 🌍
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Flexibility: Clearly state your flexibility during the interview. Emphasize that while you prefer remote work, you are willing to compromise initially.
- Value Proposition: Make sure to convey how your skills, background, and enthusiasm make you an invaluable addition to the team, irrespective of the work arrangement.
Professional Development 📚
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Certifications: Obtain certifications related to recruiting, like those from SHRM or AIRS. These can boost your credibility.
- Online Courses: Platforms like Coursera and LinkedIn Learning offer courses on recruiting. Make sure to mention these in your resume and during interviews.
Stay Positive and Persistent 💪
Breaking into a new field, especially recruiting, can be challenging. Persistence and a positive attitude can make a big difference over time. Keep tweaking your strategy based on what you learn from each experience.
In essence, pivoting your strategy, leveraging your network, and continuously improving your skills and techniques can significantly enhance your chances of landing that coveted role in recruiting. Good luck, and remember, every ‘no’ brings you closer to a ‘yes’! 🚀
Staffing agencies will hire and train pretty much anyone with decent customer service skills and knows how to open a word document.
Are you telling them you need to be remote eventually? If so, that’s likely an issue.
If that is the issue you’ll probably need to do the agency thing on site for 1-3 years and then leave for a remote job.
If you’re not telling them about the remote thing then (and I mean this as respectfully as possible) maybe your skills aren’t as transferrable as you think?
Thank you. Ive been trying agencies. No internal. I apply for remote positions only and do make it clear thats what Im looking for. Im constantly getting the bullshit “ we found someone more qualified” response. Im linkedin and email inquiring to the companies directly and have gotten interviews with the owners of companies
Gonna be near impossible to find an entry level job at an agency that is fully remote
Your best bet would be to find an agency that is local to you or has an office local, and spend 6 months in the office getting to know their process and how they operate, then transition to remote.
It’s the timing. Even seasoned recruiters are applying to hundreds of jobs with no luck. The market is bad, but when it swings back, that will be your time.
75 applications is nothing. I applied to over 600+ roles last year in 4 months before I got an offer. You need to mass apply like crazy.
You don’t want a fully remote job as a recruiter with no experience. Trust me. You’ll want to be around your seasoned colleagues so you can listen to their phone conversations, learn to navigate difficult situations, strategize and bounce ideas off on another. You can get initial training but I’ve been doing this for almost 2 years (had zero experience coming in) and I’m still learning.
If you REALLY want to be a recruiter, make the sacrifice to be in the office. Get the experience, then go remote. I promise you’ll be thankful that you did.
I was in recruitment for three years while looking for a new job and sent in well over 1000 applications in the span of 3-4 months. Still got the “we found someone more experienced” reply. It is a tough market, but you still gotta send out those applications. Getting a remote job is harder than on site, so I recommend you applying to on site jobs as well.
Why are you so insistent on being remote? And what base are you looking for as a min?
Kforce seems to always be hiring, and they take people without experience.
Why do you ‘need’ fully remote?
If you have drawn a hard line on being fully remote from day 1, this is the issue. Agencies will hire anyone based on potential with absolutely zero experience.
Here’s the reality.
1. It’s super tough to find recruiting jobs period right now. Certain industries are not hiring at volume, and organizations in multiple silos have laid off very amazing and talented recruiters over the past 18-24 months. You’re competing against people more talented than you. And, because you want remote, you’re competing against talent all across the nation that is better than you.
2. You have no experience. Because so many proven recruiters are on the market, most companies aren’t going to give you a chance to come and learn. Margins are tight for external recruitment right now to keep lights on. Room for error is pretty low for most roles.
3. Recruiting training isn’t like a “spend two weeks and you got it”. It’s very much a situational learning curve of watching, listening, and hearing. It takes at least a year to get your footing, and there is always something new to learn. Removing yourself from that learning environment by insisting that you must work remotely is unlikely going to pass muster.
In part, the market is the reason you aren’t landing jobs. In part, your lack of experience is the reason you aren’t landing jobs. In part, your insistence on having a remote job is the reason you aren’t landing jobs.
You can either change your requirements for what you need in a job, take a more entry level role into the career field (recruiting coordinator, Jr recruiter, scheduling coordinator), or pick a different career path.
As harsh as that sounds, it is the reality right now.
A solid indicator of the overall health of the job market…are recruiters out of work? Are there a plethora of job postings looking to hire recruiters? If recruiters have jobs, there are jobs. Now is not the time to break in. With the number of candidates across most sectors FAR exceeding a need for them the BD alone will probably chew you up and spit you out. Wait until the market turns. You’ll know when you see company’s adding to their TA teams.
I’m a TA leader. Being fully honest, I would not hire a brand new recruiter to be remote. There is a lot of learning and absorbing that happens when you are surrounded by other recruiters that doesn’t happen remote. I’m remote first today but we do have a local office and if I hired an entry level person it would be hybrid in office.
If I were back at a true remote-only firm I just wouldn’t hire entry level at all.
This is market agnostic – I definitely don’t have to hire entry level today. I know too many recruiters I wish I had headcount for as is. But even in 2019 or 2022 when the market was hot, I wouldn’t have done full remote entry level.
You mentioned you have transferable skills – that may help, but you really are going to be better served in the long run by going on site hybrid a few days a week.
You mentioned before you are recovering from surgery and don’t want to go into Manhattan. I get that. I worked in the Greater NYC market for a time. There are tons of staffing agencies in White Plains, Stamford, Newark, etc that are likely closer to home – I would assume by that response that you are not within city limits. Agencies often prefer to put offices in the suburbs – cheaper locations, and then let AEs travel into the city for client visits as needed.
The British chop shops are still hiring entry level. You will get overworked but at least you get a foot in the door. I would practice your rebuttals more and learn how to process “no” better. You seem to be defensive with the honest feedback you are receiving in this thread. Recruiting is a mountain of no’s and pushback.
Days of full remote entry level for agencies recruiters are gone, unless you have good experience and know how to bill it ain’t happening
What is it that allows you to be so passionately interested in “breaking into recruiting” that prevents you from doing basic research and awareness to see that 75% of the industry has been laid off within the last 18mos and companies have no interest in hiring anyone, let alone a zero experience recruiter over taking their pick of hundreds that have multiple years of relevant industry experience?
When the market supply expands dramatically, it is basic nature for companies to tighten their screening filters to ludicrous standards, such that make their search even more difficult in spite of there being a tremendous supply of very talented recruiters that could be up to speed in under two weeks. That’s why you aren’t getting hired.