How Much Does A Recruitment Consultant Earn?
Discussion
K50 DEL said:
KimmyM said:
Yep me too actually rung him but unable to help
Speaking of e-mails Kimmy, I mailed you through your profile but have yet to receive a reply - am out of the country at the moment but on e-mail.Going back to the team vs. individual commission structure debate of earlier.
I've worked at two extremes of the recruitment market. One was a big office in London, individual recruitment, targets and sell sell sell. Where I work now in Wellington, New Zealand is the other end of the scale. Account Management model with a team commission structure. Much more laid back, relationship orientated, lots of emphasis on coffees and lunches, and keeping in touch.
Both have their good points and bad points. To be honest I much prefered the London way. I'm the kind of person who hates spending an hour having a coffee with someone when I could make 20 phone calls and get new business in the same time.
Conversely it has taught me the value of spending that hour to cement the relationship, and ideally get your next 4 roles exclusive, plus having so much better an understanding of what that person will be doing and what kind of skills both technical and soft skills, they need to work well there.
I'm glad I've worked in both, but as it's coming towards my time to move on from this role, and from New Zealand, I will look to hit the balance somewhere closer to the individual end than the team end for my next role.
One thing worth noting is that despite the first role being individual commission and very salesy, it was still a professional environment with some very good consultants and some great characters, and of course lots of eating and drinking thrown in. Typically mid-late 20s, single. The office I'm in now also has some great people, very good consultants, mostly early-mid 30s with young families.
The burn out comes in a few ways, but in my role in London, over about an 18 month stay there, I saw probably 20 consultants come and go for one reason or another. The classic case goes something like
Months 1-3: Smash all training targets, everyone likes you. Get moved on from Resourcer to Consultant ahead of schedule
Months 3-6: Work hard start billing.
Month 6: Get bored, get complacent, stop calling people, start second guessing what your clients and candidates want.
Month 7: Start telling clients and candidates what they want.
Month 8: Money takes a dive, hate this company, our website is rubbish, we don't do enough advertising
Boredom, complacency and arrogance stifled more good consultants than stress or burn out in my opinion. It is a relatively boring job in that you never reach an end, you have a great month, go and get pissed all weekend, then come back Monday morning to a blank board and have to do it all again.
As for how much you can earn. As a consultant, most people in my old office his a bit of a ceiling at around GBP 50K. This came off billings of 15K a month to give some idea of commission structure. After that you'd need to go into management to boost your earnings. Not entirely sure how much people earn here but seems to also reach a top out point of billing about NZ$40K a month, which is roughly GBP15K
I've worked at two extremes of the recruitment market. One was a big office in London, individual recruitment, targets and sell sell sell. Where I work now in Wellington, New Zealand is the other end of the scale. Account Management model with a team commission structure. Much more laid back, relationship orientated, lots of emphasis on coffees and lunches, and keeping in touch.
Both have their good points and bad points. To be honest I much prefered the London way. I'm the kind of person who hates spending an hour having a coffee with someone when I could make 20 phone calls and get new business in the same time.
Conversely it has taught me the value of spending that hour to cement the relationship, and ideally get your next 4 roles exclusive, plus having so much better an understanding of what that person will be doing and what kind of skills both technical and soft skills, they need to work well there.
I'm glad I've worked in both, but as it's coming towards my time to move on from this role, and from New Zealand, I will look to hit the balance somewhere closer to the individual end than the team end for my next role.
One thing worth noting is that despite the first role being individual commission and very salesy, it was still a professional environment with some very good consultants and some great characters, and of course lots of eating and drinking thrown in. Typically mid-late 20s, single. The office I'm in now also has some great people, very good consultants, mostly early-mid 30s with young families.
The burn out comes in a few ways, but in my role in London, over about an 18 month stay there, I saw probably 20 consultants come and go for one reason or another. The classic case goes something like
Months 1-3: Smash all training targets, everyone likes you. Get moved on from Resourcer to Consultant ahead of schedule
Months 3-6: Work hard start billing.
Month 6: Get bored, get complacent, stop calling people, start second guessing what your clients and candidates want.
Month 7: Start telling clients and candidates what they want.
Month 8: Money takes a dive, hate this company, our website is rubbish, we don't do enough advertising
Boredom, complacency and arrogance stifled more good consultants than stress or burn out in my opinion. It is a relatively boring job in that you never reach an end, you have a great month, go and get pissed all weekend, then come back Monday morning to a blank board and have to do it all again.
As for how much you can earn. As a consultant, most people in my old office his a bit of a ceiling at around GBP 50K. This came off billings of 15K a month to give some idea of commission structure. After that you'd need to go into management to boost your earnings. Not entirely sure how much people earn here but seems to also reach a top out point of billing about NZ$40K a month, which is roughly GBP15K
Hello Everyone,
I intrested followed this topic about recruitment agencies.
I am about considering making a career move into the recruitment sector (Benelux) but am trying to figure out if I would start doing this with my own compay or by joining forces with an existing one.
I have more than 9 years experience working as an SAP consultant, and as such very well know the market; the consultancy companies and pretty much of the end-customers.
So I only would want to focus on SAP (temp/perm) recruitment..
As freelance SAP consultant I also know most of the recruitment agencies operating in the UK and the Benelux....but was wondering which ones would be best to considering working for or collaborating with.
The problem is I actually prefer to build up a company of my own, but this still can be in cooperation with an existing one....if they were shareholder...
If not possible, than do you think working for a smaller company is better? or to have a steep learning curve in recruitment itself would be better at a larger one?
One thing that is bothering me at some recruitment agencies is the fact that they are only intrested in hard selling instead of also building up solid and long term relationships with both end-customers and/or contractors. That would not really be my methodology. I would rather approach it using Key Account Management style and have a personalized and efficient relationship with customers to come to preferred supplier status.
Reactions are welcome.
my linked-in profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pelssersdavy
I intrested followed this topic about recruitment agencies.
I am about considering making a career move into the recruitment sector (Benelux) but am trying to figure out if I would start doing this with my own compay or by joining forces with an existing one.
I have more than 9 years experience working as an SAP consultant, and as such very well know the market; the consultancy companies and pretty much of the end-customers.
So I only would want to focus on SAP (temp/perm) recruitment..
As freelance SAP consultant I also know most of the recruitment agencies operating in the UK and the Benelux....but was wondering which ones would be best to considering working for or collaborating with.
The problem is I actually prefer to build up a company of my own, but this still can be in cooperation with an existing one....if they were shareholder...
If not possible, than do you think working for a smaller company is better? or to have a steep learning curve in recruitment itself would be better at a larger one?
One thing that is bothering me at some recruitment agencies is the fact that they are only intrested in hard selling instead of also building up solid and long term relationships with both end-customers and/or contractors. That would not really be my methodology. I would rather approach it using Key Account Management style and have a personalized and efficient relationship with customers to come to preferred supplier status.
Reactions are welcome.
my linked-in profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pelssersdavy
You know the market and you know the companies you like, so I'd speak to the guys you think are best first. They might snap you up, they might not, but they should at least provide some better insight.
Don't mention that you want to start your own business though. I think every recruiter thinks this at some point, usually 6-12 months in when you see your billings, look at what you're actually getting out of the company in terms of equipment (phone and a computer) advertising (if you're lucky, kinda) and strategic business development (nothing special in any of the places I've worked!), and you think, I could do that!
Of course it's not quite that easy, but many people make a success of it, and they usually pinch at least a couple of clients from their employer. It happens in all businesses, but you don't say so in your interview!
More importantly, learn the business and pick your market. It isn't rocket science but there are quite a few things which can go wrong, and some of them can be avoided by having someone with a bit of recruitment experience on board. In my experience, recruitment businesses started by people with no recruitment experience nearly always go wrong.
What might be worth a shot is looking out for a recruitment consultant interested in starting his own business but from a different market. Sounds like your contacts and knowledge of the market would be very useful if combined with a good recruitment background.
Don't mention that you want to start your own business though. I think every recruiter thinks this at some point, usually 6-12 months in when you see your billings, look at what you're actually getting out of the company in terms of equipment (phone and a computer) advertising (if you're lucky, kinda) and strategic business development (nothing special in any of the places I've worked!), and you think, I could do that!
Of course it's not quite that easy, but many people make a success of it, and they usually pinch at least a couple of clients from their employer. It happens in all businesses, but you don't say so in your interview!
More importantly, learn the business and pick your market. It isn't rocket science but there are quite a few things which can go wrong, and some of them can be avoided by having someone with a bit of recruitment experience on board. In my experience, recruitment businesses started by people with no recruitment experience nearly always go wrong.
What might be worth a shot is looking out for a recruitment consultant interested in starting his own business but from a different market. Sounds like your contacts and knowledge of the market would be very useful if combined with a good recruitment background.
Edited by AJS- on Tuesday 31st March 17:38
dragoroda said:
Hello Everyone,
I intrested followed this topic about recruitment agencies.
I am about considering making a career move into the recruitment sector (Benelux) but am trying to figure out if I would start doing this with my own compay or by joining forces with an existing one.
I have more than 9 years experience working as an SAP consultant, and as such very well know the market; the consultancy companies and pretty much of the end-customers.
So I only would want to focus on SAP (temp/perm) recruitment..
As freelance SAP consultant I also know most of the recruitment agencies operating in the UK and the Benelux....but was wondering which ones would be best to considering working for or collaborating with.
The problem is I actually prefer to build up a company of my own, but this still can be in cooperation with an existing one....if they were shareholder...
If not possible, than do you think working for a smaller company is better? or to have a steep learning curve in recruitment itself would be better at a larger one?
One thing that is bothering me at some recruitment agencies is the fact that they are only intrested in hard selling instead of also building up solid and long term relationships with both end-customers and/or contractors. That would not really be my methodology. I would rather approach it using Key Account Management style and have a personalized and efficient relationship with customers to come to preferred supplier status.
Reactions are welcome.
my linked-in profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pelssersdavy
Umm Interesting dilemma. Starting up on your own is not as easy as easy as you may think even with the contacts that you have, especially if you are learning the recruitment business at the same time. If you can build a business on your own then this will obviously give you the greatest return, although the risks are also much greater. It is a very lonely at the start and depending on how well funded you are, you may need to live on fresh air for a while. I sold my house to finance my business and didn’t take a penny out for 12 months – are you prepared to live with that kind of risk?I intrested followed this topic about recruitment agencies.
I am about considering making a career move into the recruitment sector (Benelux) but am trying to figure out if I would start doing this with my own compay or by joining forces with an existing one.
I have more than 9 years experience working as an SAP consultant, and as such very well know the market; the consultancy companies and pretty much of the end-customers.
So I only would want to focus on SAP (temp/perm) recruitment..
As freelance SAP consultant I also know most of the recruitment agencies operating in the UK and the Benelux....but was wondering which ones would be best to considering working for or collaborating with.
The problem is I actually prefer to build up a company of my own, but this still can be in cooperation with an existing one....if they were shareholder...
If not possible, than do you think working for a smaller company is better? or to have a steep learning curve in recruitment itself would be better at a larger one?
One thing that is bothering me at some recruitment agencies is the fact that they are only intrested in hard selling instead of also building up solid and long term relationships with both end-customers and/or contractors. That would not really be my methodology. I would rather approach it using Key Account Management style and have a personalized and efficient relationship with customers to come to preferred supplier status.
Reactions are welcome.
my linked-in profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pelssersdavy
Partnering with an existing organisation makes a lot of sense, they can leverage your SAP network and you can leverage their infrastructure and knowledge. Contrary to popular belief and certain rantings on PH, not every agent is hard sell. It's like anything in life, it depends on who you deal with.
Admittedly, there are quite a few aggressive sales people in the recruitment industry, but I put that down to the relative low barriers to market entry, which is a shame.
I started up for myself 5 years ago using a relationship based model. From a standing start to turning over in excess of £30 million last year, so I do know something about it. If you want to chat them PM me – happy to have a phone conversation.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
Jason
PS As much as I agree with some of the stuff AJS says in his post, I do disagree with the lack of integrity of pretending to companies that you don’t want to start something or trying to steal their clients – be honest, that’s how relationships are formed. It’s a small world out there and if you shaft someone, you never know when it will come back to bite you. Yes, I believe in Karma!
Jason,
I wasn't really suggesting lying about this to get in and steal clients, rather I was saying that in a job interview, saying that you want to start your own business in 6-12 months is probably not the best idea. Better to state that you want to learn to be a recruitment consultant and develop your career in that direction. Fine to mention working for yourself as a long term goal as it shows ambition, but surely most employers would want a longer term commitment than that?
I wasn't really suggesting lying about this to get in and steal clients, rather I was saying that in a job interview, saying that you want to start your own business in 6-12 months is probably not the best idea. Better to state that you want to learn to be a recruitment consultant and develop your career in that direction. Fine to mention working for yourself as a long term goal as it shows ambition, but surely most employers would want a longer term commitment than that?
hi guys, i start my job as recruitment consultant for a fast growing IT specialist agency in my hometown... they pay 10% on monthly gross profit of £10k...12.5% on 12.5k (on the whole 12.5k, not just after the first 10k) and so on and so forth. i have also been offered a basic of 16k, a car allowance of £400 if i generate £36000 in any consecutive 3 month period and £150 for every candidate i source that another consultant places. what would you say are my realistic earnings over the first 12 months? two of the guys who have been there six months have told me they are looking at 30k in their first 12 months. was good to read all the info. thanks.
Ambidextrous said:
hi guys, i start my job as recruitment consultant for a fast growing IT specialist agency in my hometown... they pay 10% on monthly gross profit of £10k...12.5% on 12.5k (on the whole 12.5k, not just after the first 10k) and so on and so forth. i have also been offered a basic of 16k, a car allowance of £400 if i generate £36000 in any consecutive 3 month period and £150 for every candidate i source that another consultant places. what would you say are my realistic earnings over the first 12 months? two of the guys who have been there six months have told me they are looking at 30k in their first 12 months. was good to read all the info. thanks.
Obviously depends what you're billing. Something like £6k a month (1 or 2 placements) would be an OK target for the first couple of months. After that aim for at least £10k.
If you can bill £100k in your first year you will do well so aim for that.
Just been reading these posts. I've been in recruitment for 7 years, I don't work in the city but I have London clients. I bill around £300K per year I take a £40K base. If I bill £16K per month I get 10% between £16K and £20K I get 15% and above £20K per month I get 20%. I make about 1/3 of what I make the company which is a good business ratio.
I've been reading about levels of 50% commission, I can't see how a company that is run sensibly can pay a base salary and then 50% commission as well as all the over heads such as job boards, desk space, advertising, taxes etc and still make any margin.
If you work for yourself of course you could earn mega bucks and I'm aware specialists can earn serious money for placements especially in the city with 30% fees. In reality a decent consultant working for a well run company should earn between 25% and 33% of their total billings. If you bill £300K, you get £100K with base and commission, £100K is for overheads such as taxes, employers NI, job boards, adverts, rent etc, and £100K is the margin (profit) for your company.
I've been reading about levels of 50% commission, I can't see how a company that is run sensibly can pay a base salary and then 50% commission as well as all the over heads such as job boards, desk space, advertising, taxes etc and still make any margin.
If you work for yourself of course you could earn mega bucks and I'm aware specialists can earn serious money for placements especially in the city with 30% fees. In reality a decent consultant working for a well run company should earn between 25% and 33% of their total billings. If you bill £300K, you get £100K with base and commission, £100K is for overheads such as taxes, employers NI, job boards, adverts, rent etc, and £100K is the margin (profit) for your company.
Hi All,
Quite late into this discussion (2/3 years by look of it), but as many have said before me, I have got a couple
of interviews lined up this week (one tomorrow is phone interview) I have read a lot of bad press
about the role of a recruitment consultant. I am currently managing a store for a well known telecommunications
company. Been doing that a while and yeah its been good, now tho with a daughter getting closer to a year old
looking to go into something that can earn me some good moola/wonga/ cash lol.
I can work my t*t off no problem but should I be worried of the high staff turnover since Im pretty secure in current job.
Best store in the area for 3/4 quarters last year! Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
btw the two recruitment firms I have interviews for specialise in:- Finance and Education <- Any advice on which to pick is good two.
Quite late into this discussion (2/3 years by look of it), but as many have said before me, I have got a couple
of interviews lined up this week (one tomorrow is phone interview) I have read a lot of bad press
about the role of a recruitment consultant. I am currently managing a store for a well known telecommunications
company. Been doing that a while and yeah its been good, now tho with a daughter getting closer to a year old
looking to go into something that can earn me some good moola/wonga/ cash lol.
I can work my t*t off no problem but should I be worried of the high staff turnover since Im pretty secure in current job.
Best store in the area for 3/4 quarters last year! Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
btw the two recruitment firms I have interviews for specialise in:- Finance and Education <- Any advice on which to pick is good two.
did a 6mth stint in edu... AVOID!
in the current climate the schools just dont wanna know and hold onto their purse strings like its their own money.
their also a bunch of agency slags and will B.O.B you to save £1
also the new AWR is comming out which is going to make everyones life a nightmare
in the current climate the schools just dont wanna know and hold onto their purse strings like its their own money.
their also a bunch of agency slags and will B.O.B you to save £1
also the new AWR is comming out which is going to make everyones life a nightmare
ttersDoesn't seem to stack up, I was a recruitment consultant back in 2002to 2004, I was earning around 45 to 50k then, in Nottingham. Would have thought you could have tripled that in London? Thinking about it, I cannot believe the money I was making at such a young age (20-22)
AJS- said:
Going back to the team vs. individual commission structure debate of earlier.
I've worked at two extremes of the recruitment market. One was a big office in London, individual recruitment, targets and sell sell sell. Where I work now in Wellington, New Zealand is the other end of the scale. Account Management model with a team commission structure. Much more laid back, relationship orientated, lots of emphasis on coffees and lunches, and keeping in touch.
Both have their good points and bad points. To be honest I much prefered the London way. I'm the kind of person who hates spending an hour having a coffee with someone when I could make 20 phone calls and get new business in the same time.
Conversely it has taught me the value of spending that hour to cement the relationship, and ideally get your next 4 roles exclusive, plus having so much better an understanding of what that person will be doing and what kind of skills both technical and soft skills, they need to work well there.
I'm glad I've worked in both, but as it's coming towards my time to move on from this role, and from New Zealand, I will look to hit the balance somewhere closer to the individual end than the team end for my next role.
One thing worth noting is that despite the first role being individual commission and very salesy, it was still a professional environment with some very good consultants and some great characters, and of course lots of eating and drinking thrown in. Typically mid-late 20s, single. The office I'm in now also has some great people, very good consultants, mostly early-mid 30s with young families.
The burn out comes in a few ways, but in my role in London, over about an 18 month stay there, I saw probably 20 consultants come and go for one reason or another. The classic case goes something like
Months 1-3: Smash all training targets, everyone likes you. Get moved on from Resourcer to Consultant ahead of schedule
Months 3-6: Work hard start billing.
Month 6: Get bored, get complacent, stop calling people, start second guessing what your clients and candidates want.
Month 7: Start telling clients and candidates what they want.
Month 8: Money takes a dive, hate this company, our website is rubbish, we don't do enough advertising
Boredom, complacency and arrogance stifled more good consultants than stress or burn out in my opinion. It is a relatively boring job in that you never reach an end, you have a great month, go and get pissed all weekend, then come back Monday morning to a blank board and have to do it all again.
As for how much you can earn. As a consultant, most people in my old office his a bit of a ceiling at around GBP 50K. This came off billings of 15K a month to give some idea of commission structure. After that you'd need to go into management to boost your earnings. Not entirely sure how much people earn here but seems to also reach a top out point of billing about NZ$40K a month, which is roughly GBP15K
I've worked at two extremes of the recruitment market. One was a big office in London, individual recruitment, targets and sell sell sell. Where I work now in Wellington, New Zealand is the other end of the scale. Account Management model with a team commission structure. Much more laid back, relationship orientated, lots of emphasis on coffees and lunches, and keeping in touch.
Both have their good points and bad points. To be honest I much prefered the London way. I'm the kind of person who hates spending an hour having a coffee with someone when I could make 20 phone calls and get new business in the same time.
Conversely it has taught me the value of spending that hour to cement the relationship, and ideally get your next 4 roles exclusive, plus having so much better an understanding of what that person will be doing and what kind of skills both technical and soft skills, they need to work well there.
I'm glad I've worked in both, but as it's coming towards my time to move on from this role, and from New Zealand, I will look to hit the balance somewhere closer to the individual end than the team end for my next role.
One thing worth noting is that despite the first role being individual commission and very salesy, it was still a professional environment with some very good consultants and some great characters, and of course lots of eating and drinking thrown in. Typically mid-late 20s, single. The office I'm in now also has some great people, very good consultants, mostly early-mid 30s with young families.
The burn out comes in a few ways, but in my role in London, over about an 18 month stay there, I saw probably 20 consultants come and go for one reason or another. The classic case goes something like
Months 1-3: Smash all training targets, everyone likes you. Get moved on from Resourcer to Consultant ahead of schedule
Months 3-6: Work hard start billing.
Month 6: Get bored, get complacent, stop calling people, start second guessing what your clients and candidates want.
Month 7: Start telling clients and candidates what they want.
Month 8: Money takes a dive, hate this company, our website is rubbish, we don't do enough advertising
Boredom, complacency and arrogance stifled more good consultants than stress or burn out in my opinion. It is a relatively boring job in that you never reach an end, you have a great month, go and get pissed all weekend, then come back Monday morning to a blank board and have to do it all again.
As for how much you can earn. As a consultant, most people in my old office his a bit of a ceiling at around GBP 50K. This came off billings of 15K a month to give some idea of commission structure. After that you'd need to go into management to boost your earnings. Not entirely sure how much people earn here but seems to also reach a top out point of billing about NZ$40K a month, which is roughly GBP15K
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