There comes a time when you are stuck in a stuffy office on a summers day, looking out of the window at the new office building across the road thinking, there must be something better than this. We have all done it. The pitfall that many of us stumble into is the preconception that seeking new employment is like taking on another fulltime job.



This does not have to be the case as there are thousands of accessible organisations that make money from finding you employment. The recruitment industry is a 26.673 billion pound industry and this article will inform you how to make them earn their money, making them work for you.

Many larger companies have an HR department who traditionally would be responsible for recruiting however as in most companies many duties are being outsourced as it is cheaper to pay a one off fee, than to incur the cost of annual salaries. This is where the majority of the recruitment industries revenue comes from.

The recruitment industry offers human resourcing solutions ranging from temporary unskilled labour to specialist contract work. They make their money by placing you in employment and either charging a marked-up hourly rate for temporary positions or a one off fee for permanent which will be a percentage of the annual salary.

The job of a permanent recruitment consultant is to pool together the best candidates for the job and then send them to interview. They are not responsible for selecting the successful candidate whatever they may think so the focus you should have is pressing the consultant to get you that interview.

Recruitment consultants need to be managed closely and if they have expressed an interest in you then you should follow it up and be proactive in getting definitive dates to call back to get progress reports. Do not be possessive of your CV as many consultants are experts seeing sometimes hundreds a week, let them edit your CV to the match clients requirements.

Build a relationship with the consultant, sell yourself to them and instil confidence by delivering information and calling when you say you will. The recruitment consultant only makes money if you stay in the job as they generally have a refund structure running over the course of a year so make it clear that you want to stay in the position long term.

With over 8000 REC registered recruitment agencies it is a formidable task to find the right one. A time efficient solution is to resister with online recruitment websites which are monitored by recruitment professionals. Some of these sites have 100 000 plus jobs on and can provide you with your own profile to post your CV.

You can also search an industry sector or a specific position then examine the employer who is posting the job which is regularly a specialist recruitment agency. Even if the particular application does not bare fruit then contact the specialist agency and ask them to circulate your CV. This is an effective way to find the right consultancy for you.

Online recruitment websites offer free registration which can be done in short amounts of time of an evening. It is advisable not to do it at your current employment unless they are aware of your situation and allow it under their internet code of conduct. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation are the trade organisation for the industry and more information is available from their website.