My recruitment experience has predominantly been in the U.K, taking my first role with a small agency specialising in I.T.  I was given the usual spiel about how they are very focused on work/life balance and with the current boom in the market, how easy a job it was, it's just a case of placing candidates into jobs – easy!

Firstly, I didn't do my research on the company to see where they were placed in the market, I hadn't planned any specific questions to ask them either and knew nothing of their reputation.  Secondly, I didn't have a clear enough idea of their actual expectations and timeframes for these expectations or how I was to be measured in the role and what support I would receive.  I was just excited about being given the opportunity to join what I perceived to be a fun, successful and professional organisation.

Well the first thing I noticed on day one was how stressed and unhappy everyone appeared to be, nobody actually seemed comfortable with what they were doing and they were in the office from 7am to 7pm.  As my first week drew to an end I had picked up on a number of things that I really wasn't comfortable with.  In my second week I was give more guidance and focused on resourcing candidates for specific job requirements within the contract division.  I was mainly just calling candidates and finding out if they were available for work and what hourly rate they were seeking.  If I'm honest, looking back I really didn't get any satisfaction from this and I would certainly now question the candidate's perception of the service we were providing them with and our professionalism.

To cut a long story short, I moved quickly into the role of an end to end consultant due to a position arising within one of the teams.  I hadn't received any training, mentoring or guidance and had no idea what my targets were, so didn't know if I was performing to their required standard or not.  I requested on numerous occasions to sit down and discuss my concerns as I didn't want to fail. It became very clear that I just didn't fit into this particular organisation and that my views on recruitment were very different to theirs.  I left after 6 months with very little recruitment experience and no real success to speak of, but learned so much about what to look for in finding the right company to kick start my career in recruitment.

It is essential to research an organisation before applying for a job with them.If you progress to interview stage, be sure to ask exactly what the role entails, what their expectations are; targets, KPI's etc.

What training/mentoring do they provide?

Ask them to explain their culture/working environment.

Ask to meet the team before you join – maybe in an informal environment.

The good thing is that this experience didn't put me off recruitment, what it did was make me want to find an organisation that I was aligned with and who I could learn the fundamentals from to enable me to be a successful recruiter.

I joined a much larger organisation who was very well respected in the industry and who were also incredibly successful.  They offered fantastic training courses, the first being a 5 day residential course which you attended in your first week.  There was also ongoing training and mentoring as required, so you always had the necessary support to enable you to develop and grow with the business.  They explained very clearly what their targets were and also how their commissions worked and gave examples of some of their consultant's achievements.

After a fairly lengthy interview process I was offered a position as a temp consultant, running a fairly profitable desk.  I was under no illusions that there was still plenty of business development needed to build the business further and that unfortunately the reputation of that particular office wasn't great, so that would also need working on.

I met the team I was going to be working with; I completed my initial training and started work in a company who offered everything they said they would.  The training was exceptional, as was the support and I soon realised that I was in the right job with the right company and well on track to becoming a successful recruiter.

In a nutshell; I covered off everything that I learnt from my first bad experience and ensured history didn't repeat itself.

What did I learn from this?

You can never ask too many questions; after all you spend more hours at work than you do at home, so it has to be the right role and environment.  You have to be comfortable that you understand what is expected of you and confident that you can achieve this.  If you're not sure then you need to ensure you raise your concerns and work out if you have the tools and support available to assist you.

Having moved away from recruitment for a period of approximately 8 years to pursue a career in Office Management, I have now returned to the industry, a decision I didn't take lightly, as they couldn't be more different roles.  I am now working for Marker Consulting, an international Search and Selection Career Management Firm specialising in recruiting recruiters, I can honestly say I've found my new home, not only in immigrating to Perth, but also joining Marker Consulting.

So my advice to anyone looking at considering a career in recruitment, moving back into recruitment or simply changing companies would be; seek the advice of someone who specialises in the industry, namely Marker Consulting and you won't be disappointed!