Recruitment Expert Interview Preparation Guide

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Entry-level into Recruitment will be as a Resourcer/Researcher or as a Trainee Consultant. Training will vary between companies but all GGL clients have been picked because they offer excellent training programs. Many of our clients have achieved Investors in People status.

Most companies will initially give you a mix of on-the-job, internal and external training conducted by recruitment and industry specialists with the aim of arming you with the necessary tools and expertise to put you at the top of your game and ahead of your competitors.

Typically in the initial stages of your role, you will be more candidate focused and your role will be to generate candidates until you learn and become more comfortable in your sector. This is where your natural persuasion skills will come into play as you gain the candidates trust and exclusivity to use the services of yourself and your company only.

With this question, your interviewer is trying to find out whether you can focus on the needs of the employer without humiliating the candidate. You don't want to send the employer candidates who are clearly unsuitable, but you want to try to preserve the applicant's confidence, too. One way to answer that question is something like this: "I know this company pretty well, and I just don't think you'd be a good fit for each other. I'll look through all of our other open positions and see if there's a better match. In the meantime, you may want to consider doing X (something that provides either further credentials or additional experience)."

This is another question designed to learn more about both your technical competence and your overall suitability for the job. Do you know which questions to ask? Are you intimidated by interviewing someone for a job they already have? If you're nervous, how do you compensate? Your interviewer is looking for proof that you know the job, that you can think on your feet, and that you know how to handle yourself in high-pressure situations.

Recruitment is the process of identifying, screening and hiring the most suitable candidate for a job vacancy.
The candidate might be hired internally or from external sources
The process must be performed in timely and cost effective manner
It can also be termed as a process linking the employers and the employees

There can be various internal and external factors which affect the recruitment process.

Internal factors - The factors which are under the control of organization are called internal factors.

These could be -
i.) Recruitment policy of the organization
ii.) Human Resource Planning
iii.) Expansion plans
iv.) Cost of recruitment

External factors - These are the factors which are not under the control of the organization.

These could be -
i.) Availability of talent
ii.) Brand image of the organization
iii.) Politico-social environment
iv.) Legal conditions
v.) Economic condition of the market
vi.) Recruitment policy of the competitors

E-recruitment means using internet for the recruitment services.

Three main techniques used in e-recruitment are:
☛ Advertising on job portals
☛ Building a recruitment section on company's website.
☛ Screening the database of candidates on job portals

The advantages of e-recruitment are:
☛ Lower cost of advertising the job openings
☛ Helps in saving time
☛ Large pool of candidates to choose from
☛ Day in - day out access to the database
☛ Screening the database brings in only relevant candidates
☛ Paper less process - more organised

When there is a shortage of skills and talents at a particular geographical location, the company tries to hire people from other geographical locations. These people are called expats. Sometimes the companies require only expats for certain positions - depending on their recruitment strategy. While hiring expats it is important to judge following qualities in them:

☛ Professional qualifications and expertise
☛ Adaptability and Flexibility
☛ Cultural sensitivity
☛ Family conditions
☛ Open mindedness
☛ Any past international work experience
☛ Level of self-motivation

Recruitment Consultancy is a fantastically rewarding career both personally and financially but don't be under any illusion - it is not an easy ride!
You will get out as much as you put in and you will have a direct influence over your career progression and salary, not something a lot of industries can boast about, which will either excite or terrify you.

Recruitment is a targeted role. These targets may be daily, weekly and monthly and may consist of KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) and revenue generation targets (billings). These targets act as signposts to help you come to grips with the various tasks that make up your role and you will be monitored closely and given lots of support to ensure you achieve these. As you become more confident and have a better understanding of what the role entails, your targets will be more related to your Commission or Bonuses. Are you the sort of person who enjoys a challenge and will take advice from others on how to achieve your goals?

Days in Recruitment are long-the average consultant will work from 8.30am to 6.00/7ish depending on workload and determination to succeed. If you want to do well, you are likely to want to work long hours and put in the ground work for your success. It can be very satisfying working that little bit extra and seeing your pay packet grow as a result. Are you someone who really wants to make that commitment to your future career?

Managing the many components of the role can be demanding. There are a lot of areas to juggle with many things happening all at once. This in itself can be very stressful and tiring. Do you thrive on having many things to do at once?

There can be many ups and downs in the role. When things are going well and you are making placements and taking home good commission it can be the best job in the world. However, sometimes things will not go your way. Sometimes people may not take jobs at the last minute, or a client may decide not to recruit and you will feel frustrated. At times you may feel that you are not being successful when making New Business Sales call; you may speak to someone who is not receptive to what you had to say. You may feel at times that things are not going well. How resilient are you? Are you the sort of person who will look at how you could be better at your job, who will pick themselves up from being down and try even harder to get to where you want to be?

Other things to think about as you consider this Career Path are; How much do you enjoy persuading other people to do things you want them to? How confident are you? How do you get on with different groups of people? Are you happy talking at lots of different levels? Do you want to become an expert in a field of business? If so, what area?

This question is designed to test your suitability for the position. Your answer should focus on your desire to help both candidates and employers achieve success. You also want to illustrate your ability to sense which candidate would be a good fit for which employer. The wrong answer? "Well, I've been on a lot of interviews, so I thought I'd give it a try from the other side of the table."

The interviewer wants to see how self-aware you are. Don't use personal weaknesses such as 'I find it hard to get out of bed in the morning'. A weakness can also be a strength. Use a professional weakness such as lack of experience (training can always overcome that) or one that can be turned around into a strength such as 'I'm very focused on achieving targets at work, so sometimes people can think I'm ignoring them'.