Starting a new job is always going to be scary but it’s also exciting. The unpredictability, the new people, the new office space and culture, the new challenges.
For me, a serial over-thinker, I’m forever trying to predict everything that could possibly happen and failing miserably, obviously. When I started working in recruitment it was different.
Working in recruitment
I had done some recruiting in a previous role, so I had an interest in it but working in Cpl was my first time being part of a recruitment agency.
Just prior to Christmas, I joined the Cpl group in the Cork office. I felt more excitement than fear, which had never happened before when starting a new role. Which led me to know I’d made the right choice. I was excited to start my role as a recruiter, to get into the office and start a new year with a new job.
As a recruiter, my day to day work now includes:
- Sourcing suitable candidates for IT roles
- Screening candidates
- Building relationships with candidate and clients
- Answering an abundance of calls and emails
If you’re thinking of becoming a recruitment consultant, you’ll need a great deal of patience, resilience, time-management skills, multi-tasking skills and the ability to prioritise. I can happily report that these are all things that I can feel myself getting better at.
The challenges and opportunities of working as a recruiter
I’m currently working on the IT recruitment team in Cork. With no IT background, I knew from day one that it would be a challenge. Terminology was being flung at me from left, right and centre.
Kubernetes this, devops that, at times it seemed as though the people around me were speaking a different language. The first week, I thought I would never fully wrap my head around IT.
Like every person, I felt overwhelmed and I wondered how long it would take me to fully master IT terminology and logic. In week one I learned the most important lesson. I was told to remember, ‘you’re always learning in IT, we all learn something new every day.’
This was as daunting as it was reassuring. I’m the type of person who will put tremendous pressure on myself to master things within a short period of time, so you can imagine how at ease this made me.
I’ve been very lucky with the team around me in Cork. I had a lot to learn – new systems, the new lingo and most importantly, how to be a good recruiter. The team have been nothing short of incredible. Everyone has been helpful, welcoming and have been open to any questions I’ve had, and trust me I had a lot of questions!
I’ve had the highs of meeting great candidates and placing them in jobs they love and the lows of failed interviews and losing candidates to other roles, but it hasn’t put me off. It’s made me want to do better.
Cpl have already invested a lot in me and I’m keen to repay the faith. I’m only at the beginning of the journey in recruitment, but I can say, with the utmost confidence, it’s been a fun start and I’m looking forward to more of the same.
Interested in joining the Cpl group?
We have offices in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Belfast. For more information get in touch with our specialist internal recruiter Jennifer Roche – [email protected]