Top 5 reasons why being a recruiter is one of the

We help people every day with some of the toughest decisions in adult life.
I have recently become a dad for the first time and also changed roles & employers this year, so admittedly I can testify that changing jobs was not the most challenging period of my adult life but it was a close second! However, in a professional sense for many people, changing employers and role is one of the most difficult decisions and toughest periods of your career. Although recruiters are commercial business professionals, every day we facilitate this process and help guide people through these decisions by building trust and strong relationships with our candidates and clients. The satisfaction gained from helping grateful candidates and also clients through this process is extremely rewarding.
Know Your Own Value.
When I first started my career with a large US management consultancy firm, I was often frustrated by working on fragmented aspects of long term projects that I never saw come to fruition or even saw started before moving onto the next role or client. I was never able to see my value to either my own organisation or the clients and I became disillusioned and left. For the vast majority of recruitment hires outside of executive level roles, the recruitment cycle is typically between 1-3 months, so in recruitment, you can quickly see the value you bring both to candidates and clients. If you are a fast paced and target driven individual then closing a recruitment deal can be an incredibly satisfying experience and is highly addictive!
Get a Job Anywhere & Anytime
Regardless of market conditions, quality recruiters are in demand and this has never been truer than today where talent is in short supply. I have been through multiple economic cycles in my career and no matter what market conditions or emerging technologies that appear on the market and purport to reduce the need for human interaction, recruitment, in essence, is a people business and there will always be a requirement for high quality recruiters to source, screen, qualify and present quality talent. This means that if you have a track record of success as a recruiter there will always be employers seeking to hire you whether in Hong Kong or abroad. In fact, if your goal is to work overseas in your career, for experienced recruiters with a track record of success there are a wealth of international opportunities. Within Ambition, we actively promote international opportunities and our consultants have transferred from the UK to Singapore, Singapore to Malaysia, Hong Kong to UK & Australia and UK to Australia!
It’s Tough!
I`m sure you think ‘wait a second’ as this doesn’t sound like a reason why it’s one of the best jobs in Hong Kong but in fact, I strongly believe that this is exactly why it is! I do not want to go to work and go through the motions of the same old routine, constantly work within my comfort zone without being challenged or learn anything new. There is no doubt that recruitment is a tough job. It is highly competitive, you can suffer unforeseen setbacks and every single mandate you work on is different. Even now, 15 years into my career there are still surprises that come up in any recruitment process. Perseverance is critical to be successful, but if it was easy then I wouldn’t have enjoyed it so much! Let’s be honest - achievements mean a great deal more when you pay for them with hard work!
Financial Reward:
In recruitment quite simply you get out what you put in. Whether you are an experienced veteran or just starting out, running a recruitment desk is effectively the same as running your own business and if you work hard, maintain a positive attitude and have some of the natural attributes to be a recruiter then I believe you will earn what you deserve to earn. I have seen many recruiters often complain about bad luck or blame their market or clients or candidates for their lack of success. Experience has told me that luck is what happens when hard work, preparation and opportunity coincide.

The most successful recruiters I know in our business earn exactly what they deserve to earn which for those at the top of their game can be highly attractive financial rewards. On the other side of this argument, I have also seen many people outside of recruitment comment about the perceived large fees & commissions that recruiters can earn. All I can say is in the modern workplace as per my point above, recruitment is an incredibly tough and highly competitive job. A large proportion of the work that recruiters carry out, especially for those working on a contingent basis goes un-rewarded and although to the untrained eye it may appear to be that the best recruiters do very little to earn his or her commission, the truth is that a huge amount of hard-earned expertise, hard work, and perseverance has enabled them to reach that point!

Obviously as well as the above, choosing the right recruitment firm in which to build your career is critical to ensuring that you are successful and enjoy being a recruiter. In my experience what sets the best recruiters apart is determination, resilience, positive attitude, organisation, a passion to exceed expectations coupled with exceptional empathy and communication skills. I am delighted to be working with a team of recruiters at Ambition that epitomises all of these. Our Ambition team cares about one another, their candidates and clients. This makes it very easy to say I work in one of the best jobs in Hong Kong!