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​What makes a brilliant recruiter? Part 1: Top five skills.

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Article posted by Cobalt - US

Ironically recruitment is a tough role to recruit for. Not because there is a shortage of opportunities for candidates or because you need a specialist degree, but because the skills needed to thrive in the role are a mixture of hard and soft skills that not everyone possesses.

If you’re considering a career or new role in recruitment, considering these observations of what skills and strengths brilliant recruiters tend to possess could be useful:

  1. Listening – In any sales role this is critical but in recruitment, it can mean the difference between success and failure. Miss a word, mishear a word, misconstrue a word and the whole context of your conversation can shift, and not always in the direction you need it to!

  2. Verbal communications – Clarity of voice, the confidence of tone and the ability to succinctly and authentically relay pertinent information is key. A lot of sales can be verbal jousting and being clear, concise and engaging your audience isn’t something everyone can do.

  3. Strong written skills – OK OK, we’re not looking for Shakespeare here but in today’s world, an email can sometimes be the first contact you have with a potential customer. Something well written, spell-checked and with good grammar may seem like a small thing, but it shows a level of intellect and, hopefully, gives a customer reason to engage. On top of this, writing something that excites the reader and encourages a call to action is key.

  4. Time Management – Everyone thinks they’re great at it, but recruitment can create busywork like no other role I’ve seen! If you’re task-oriented, ensure you have a set plan every day of what you want to achieve, then execute. If you’re always finishing early, do more. If you’re never completing your tasks, are you spending too much time on unnecessary items?

  5. Prospecting – Regardless of which company, team or desk you join, it’s important to always make time to prospect for business. Using a myriad of tools to create leads can often leave people not seeing the wood for the trees. Using colleagues’ insight to understand what the best leads look like, how to chase them and being disciplined in knowing when to walk away.

We’re always on the lookout for passionate and ambitious people to join our team.

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