How did you end up in recruitment?

It’s likely you “fell” into recruitment by chance, according to a popular poll on LinkedIn that was started by Claire Barrow. Two out of three respondents fell into recruitment and only 13% choose it as a career.

Does this figures surprise you? It didn’t suprise me because I speak to Recruiters every day and this is typical about our profession. Almost nobody plans to do this job. They start, like it, and keep doing it for years. Also people who choose to study Human Resource Management don’t want to end up in Recruitment. But that may also be the fault of our education system. In The Netherlands these students spend, if they are lucky, one recruitment course during their 4 years HRM study. Moreover the main topic during this class is interviewing, not Employer Branding or (Strategic) Recruiting. I was schocked the first time I heard this. I always thought that Recruitment is one of the three pillars of HRM, the other two being training/assessment and rewarding of employees…

I didn’t plan a career in Recruitment, I studied Electrical Engineering, until I was approached to talk about a career as Recruitment Consultant when I was still studying. The following saying applies to me; “the first job you take, the second job/career you choose”. And I never regretted this decision ever since! How about you?