The honest truth about starting out in recruitment
1. An OTE between £22K-£35K
Starting out, anything more than that is incredibly rare.
2. A tough work life balance
In most cases, to be really successful, you’ll find yourself working 10-hour days.
3. Constant rejection
You'll experience a consistent feeling of being let down by receiving an endless amount of rejections from what’ll feel like everyone you speak to on the daily.
4. A training plan that throws you in the deep end
After the first 1-3 months, you'll be set KPI’s that seem pretty unattainable.
5. Alcohol
Take it from me, after dealing with the previous 4 points you’re going to need to blow off steam.
By now you should (I hope) be getting the impression that your first year in recruitment may suck a little...
You'll also be asking “well Reece, why are you still in recruitment if the job is that shitty?”. Luckily, I have some good news for you! Recruitment gets better. Way better, in fact.
"Recruitment is an endurance game"
Like most careers, when you start out it’s really tough. But, and this is a big but (and I cannot lie – sorry I couldn’t resist), if you can get through the first year of serious graft and deal with the emotional lows that you never thought existed, then this job actually gets pretty damn good.
The reason I pursued this career was that I wanted to
- Earn a tonne of money
- Work in a meritocratic industry where I could get out from it what I put in.
In other words, I didn’t want to be stuck on an average graduate salary and not be in control of how much I could earn. Recruitment is, without a doubt, one of the best jobs for this.
I’ve now been in recruitment since 2016 and in the past year alone I’ve had multiple monthly pay cheques over £10,000, 3 all-expenses-paid-holidays and I’ve met some of the best (and smartest) people I’ll ever meet in my life. Now, don’t get me wrong, recruitment can still suck some days/weeks, but you’ve got to take the highs with the lows and just get through it with a level head.
So, what am I trying to say with this ridiculously long article?
Put simply: recruitment can be the best job one day and the worst job the next day so, if you’re like me (and you have no clue what to do with your life after uni), all I’d suggest is that you do your own research and, for the love of God, please don’t believe that this job isn’t one of the hardest things you’ll do.
After all, why would we be able to earn a tonne of uncapped cash if this job wasn’t incredibly bloody difficult?
If you still think recruitment is for you, then pick somewhere that will give you an environment with great people and have some awesome experiences. These are critical in making it as easy as possible to get through the shit!
- Reece Warren
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