Career development; from recruitment consultant to senior manager
At Robert Walters you get the chance to quickly develop yourself. You will receive excellent support to develop both your professional and soft skills. Melissa Rutjes talks about how her career progressed since joining Robert Walters four years ago.
How was your start at Robert Walters?
The personal coaching and intensive training program at the start made me feel right at home at Robert Walters. From day one I received fantastic support, at my own level. This allowed me to quickly find my niche within the organization and focus on what really matters, building my client portfolio and strong candidate network.
What do you think are important qualities in order to be successful as a recruitment consultant?
It is important that you are flexible, entrepreneurial and willing to go the extra mile for your clients and candidates. Recruitment means working very hard. You have to be able to juggle multiple tasks at the same time and be able to adapt quickly. The combination of overseeing the process and being able to keep an eye on multiple deadlines is crucial. Sometimes a job will need your attention urgently, and you’ll need to stay in the office until late into the evening. You will often receive a no and run into disappointment, especially at the start of your career. You have to be able to persevere and step up when needed. As a recruiter you have to be a winner. That requires a tight schedule and good preparation, but above all you have to stand your ground and always assume that you will succeed. Recruitment is not for everyone, but if you have the right qualities, you will get loads of energy from the job. Every time I am able to mediate a candidate it gives me enormous satisfaction.
What is expected of a beginning recruitment consultant?
In the Recruitment Consultant role, you'll focus on subject matter and developing your soft skills. For example, you will learn exactly what a supply chain coordinator does, what a salary is for this position, and how to tell from the resume if someone is a suitable candidate. You will follow developments in the labor market closely, to have a good understanding of supply and demand for positions. This can aid you in identifying opportunities and ensures that you can provide your clients with the best possible advice.
What is the next step after Recruitment Consultant, and what do you need to do to get promoted?
From the role of Recruitment Consultant you can develop into a Senior Consultant. I obtained this promotion after a year and a half, however this varies tremendously from person to person. The more ambitious you are, the faster you will make progress. There are certain targets and objectives you need to meet before being able to obtain the promotion from consultant to senior consultant. This relates to the number of placements, your turnover, but also certain goals you set for yourself for example related to soft skills. Having clear targets is nice; since this provides clarity on what you’re working towards. As a Senior Consultant you will get management tasks for the first time, you will supervise the newcoming consultants in your team. While at the same working on expanding your own business – bringing in new clients and candidates.
What have you accomplished in this role?
As a Senior Consultant, I was able to build a new division within Robert Walters; Supply Chain. You make your own plan on how you want to set up your business and within what timeframe. In addition to entrepreneurship, you must have an absolute drive to want to excel in a commercial environment. Although we work closely together as a team, a competitive attitude is a must to succeed in recruitment. You must not only have the ambition to be successful, but you must also want to be the very best.
How can you progress after the senior consultant role?
From Senior Consultant you can advance to Managing Consultant. The promotion to Managing Consultant is the first step towards having your own team and with that the final responsibility for hiring, training and managing consultants. Equally important is to motivate newcoming consultants, to bring out the best in themselves. During this phase, the biggest challenge for me was to continue developing my own business while at the same time starting to guide a team of newcomers. The support of your manager is crucial during this phase. You are constantly being coached to help lift yourself and the team.
And the next step is becoming manager of your own team?
That's right! During my 3,5 years at Robert Walters I have had all the freedom to develop myself into Senior Manager of a successful team with 3 divisions, something I am really proud of. It is fascinating to look back on all the ups and downs and see your team members go through the same process. I will never forget the first successes I had with my team members, and there are still many goals I still want to pursue. My team has grown from 6 to 12 consultants in the past year, and I am currently looking for people to further expand my team.
Learn More
Want to learn more about recruitment? Have a look at our vacancies or contact our talent acquisition expert Rens van der Wacht via rens.vanderwacht@robertwalters.com or tel 020 - 644 46 55.
Thomas can put his experience as a top athlete to excellent use in his work as a recruitment consultant. And when playing sports with colleagues.
Charlotte is a mother of three young children. She explains how she combines her family with her job as a recruitment consultant: 'It's convenient that working from home at Robert Walters is not a problem.'
Mathijs was not looking to switch careers but this all changed when he was invited to the Rotterdam office. After his visit he was immediately sold. He was drawn to the personal approach and professionalism at Robert Walters.