Recruitment consultant

[Idea86]

Hi all,
Are there any recruitment consultants out here? Particularly freelance/self employed?

I'm looking to start my own business in recruitment. I have previous admin and customer service experience, but have no experience in recruitment or idea of the processes nor paperwork I would require.

Is there anyone who can advise how difficult the position is? What the process is to actively engage clientele and applicants? What paperwork I would need?

I'm doing an online course, but it's a bit pants.

Any advise would be helpful, I look forward to responses.

Thanks :)

Wow the back end of recruitment (paperwork, contracts, invoicing, IR35 & GDPR compliance, and taxes) are extensive and very complicated if it's not something you have experience with.

All bigger companies prefer to work with recruiters they know (and often small companies as well) so it can be really tricky building up a customer base. Then you need to find a way of getting access to candidates, storing candidate details safely and a way to decide which candidates will be suitable.

Getting clients: cold calling, persistently, until you find someone willing to give you a try.
Getting candidates: LinkedIn searching, can buy access to CV databases, etc. Can advertise job and receive applicants. Need to be very careful of GDPR requirements.

You need to be able to confidently read and negotiate client contracts including payment terms and have an invoicing process in place. Word of warning most companies have terms 30 days from invoice and some up to 90 days from invoice.

I've worked in recruitment for over 8 years so feel free to ask if you have any more specific questions. It's not an easy industry to walk in on as very competitive and there are a lot of experienced recruiters out there. Also a lot of companies now have a PSL (preferred supplier list of recruiters) and they won't work with people not on this list.

All that said, if you have a great personality and good 'chat' you could do really we for yourself!

Hi OP

I Have worked in recruitment for over 7 years internal and external... I think you should gain experience in recruitment before setting up on your own, ideally in the sector you want to cover. You will also gain some contacts this way....

Just my opinion

Recruitment is a pretty hardcore sales job, you have to be very tenacious and not afraid of cold calling and facing the possibility of rejection.
Getting your paperwork etc Right is important but there won’t be any point if you have no clients. Also, it’s not necessarily family friendly, if you are chasing business you will need to work around potential clients because if you can’t someone else will. Once you are well established you can work more flexibly but it’s going to be hard work to get to that point.
I have friends in Recruitment and some who run their own businesses, I’ve been in Sales most of my career and it’s not something I would find easy so with no Sales experience and not much idea of what the job really entails I would be worried .
Who is the course with ? I doubt it’s very useful and probably just organised to make money from people like you OP (sorry to be harsh)
Maybe try and get a job in Recruitment first? You probably can as staff turnover is often high - largely because if you don’t hit targets consistently you will be out