The Competition!

I was on a conference call a few weeks ago and I have to say, I’ve been really lucky with the amount I’ve done in Lockdown, possibly 1 or 2 a week whereas I know some people have lived in Team  or Zoom meetings, death by meetings I say. Anyway, I was chatting to some fellow recruiters who in all honesty, my little network have kept me sane during this. But there was one thing which literally stopped me in my tracks and it was when a fellow recruiter told me that another agency that I know of, was recruiting for one of my clients because “I’ve seen they’ve used the company logo on their website”. WTF???

Years ago, I was asked at interview stage who my competition was in terms of recruiting and in a very relaxed manner I said “I don’t know, and I don’t worry about them. As long as I am doing a good job, I do not waste time or worry about others” and I have always stuck by that. My day is full of recruiting, speaking to clients, chatting to candidates, reading CV’s, and now arranging video interviews which I’m LOVING, running a business and doing all the admin that goes with it, sending CV’s, arranging interviews, overpaying my VAT (not my finest hour last week) and then outside of work there’s a million & one things to do including, possibly most importantly, switching off from life and relaxing. That keeps me busy enough.

I have a portfolio of clients who I work with. For some clients, I am their only recruiter, for some I specialise in certain disciplines only and for others, I work alongside other agencies to find the right person for my client. That is just the way it works. Would I like all my clients to be exclusive? Not sure I would as there is only me in the business and the last job I advertised, I got over 800 CV’s in 10 days. It does not take a genius to do the Maths to work out that if every client of mine was recruiting all the time, I would age about 50 years overnight and lose my eyesight as well as my memory quite quickly!

In order for me to provide the service that I do, I concentrate on what I can do to help my clients and candidates. I spend a lot of my day listening to candidates tell me tales of bad experiences with recruiters and I am sure there are some people out there who have not rated me at times, nobody is perfect. But I only ever concentrate on me, my business, what my output is and what my clients & candidates think of me. And as the market is going to change, with 800 CV’s for 1 job, candidates are going to have to adapt, as are recruiters. Whatever steps you take, always always always stay true to who you are, what you do, do not worry about others, do not compare, do not waste time doing stuff that quite simply is not important. If 2020 has taught us one thing, it is that life is precious. So, do not waste a moment of it.

Email: jo@winhurstrecruitment.co.uk

Tel: 0115 975 6513

@winhurstrec