I wanted to share my story and why you should consider working in recruitment marketing. Like most people who work within the recruitment industry, I fell into recruitment marketing. So, why work in recruitment marketing?

When I was at university, I have to be honest, my goal wasn’t to work in a recruitment agency. I had these visions of moving to London to market the latest trendy products in a really cool office with slides and sleep pods! 

Now I’m not saying I couldn’t have achieved my vision but an opportunity in my university placement year changed my mind-set. Why go for jobs that everyone wants when you will probably gain more experience and learn a lot more in a smaller company where you can make a real difference.

This is why, when I was approached by ASC, I leapt at the chance to move away from a big corporate culture into a ‘get stuck in’ and make a difference culture. Although this scared the living daylight out of me, I was looking forward to it.

Now I’ve given you an introduction to how I ended up working as a recruitment marketer, here are my reasons behind why work in recruitment marketing.

Every day is different

I can guarantee you will not work anywhere else where you have so many things going on at the same time. The job really is a ‘get stuck in and get your hands dirty’ type of role. I’m not saying it’s an easy ride. It’s a challenge but this makes it more interesting.

For example, a consultant may ask you to put together a presentation for a client pitch and they need it today. The next day you might be asked to monitor the phones because a member of staff is away. Yes, that’s right, you need to help out with areas of the business outside of marketing. However, this helps you integrate into the business a little more and get a deeper understanding of it.

As well as this, things change quickly in recruitment and you have to be able to adapt to this. Something I found hard when I first started, especially coming from a corporate background. However, once you get used to the momentum, it makes the job exciting.

Increased Marketing Skills

When I look back at the marketing teams I was in before, they were just that, teams with specialists that you could turn to for advice at any time.

Although, whilst this can be a good thing especially if you’re working on a project and need the expertise of say, a social media marketer, I feel it also hinders you. When you work in big teams, you get boxed into your area of marketing, you could be the content specialist, the e-marketing specialist, events specialist etc. It then limits your career progression opportunities.

When I started my role at ASC I’d had a brief introduction to email marketing, social media, design, and video creation. My previous role focussed a lot on event marketing and presenting. Despite this, two years on and I’ve developed a new brand for ASC and launched it, lead on the development of a new website, worked on various design projects and increased the social media presence for the company.

These projects have significantly developed SEO, data analytics and design skills and strengthened my communication skills. In addition, I’ve even crossed over into HR and operations with some of the projects I’ve worked on.

Marketing at Board Level

How to Build a Personal Brand

Above all building a personal brand will differentiate you from others. Below are the 4 key steps to help you get started.

1. What is your Personal Brand?

There are not many industry’s that hire one in house marketing person who will work alongside the board of directors and senior management to influence growth within the business. In other words, it helps you build on your persuasion and influencing skills to put a business case forward.

If you want an overview of the main areas you’ll work on as a recruitment marketer, take a look at this great article from Undercover Recruiter.

More autonomy

The recruitment industry is late to the marketing game and together with an increase in recruitment companies year on year, more will want to invest in marketing. In fact here are some stats and reasons why from Beamery.com.

However, the great part is, you can be as creative as you like, there are no restrictions. Moreover, you get to make the rules, shape the marketing goals and the strategies and tactics that will support achieving them. 

Yes, you will make mistakes but you will learn from these and you have to agree this is the best way to learn.

No other marketing like it!

I’m not kidding, you’ll be using and developing marketing skills such as internal communication, employer branding to attract people to the business, win clients, engage with existing and lapsed clients and nurture candidates through a funnel.

Not only this but within the client and candidate markets, you will without a doubt have a multitude of various audience personas to get your teeth stuck into. More than I have ever worked with before.

You’re the Marketing expert

As mentioned previously, when you work in this industry, unless you’re part of a big recruitment company, you’re likely to be on your own or part of a very small team. This means, you are the one in the know, you are the decision-maker when it comes to everything marketing and guess what? People come to you to ask for advice.

This was weird for me at first as I was so used to going to people for advice, not the other way around. Then I thought I can really help people gain a better understanding of marketing and how it can help business, so rather than worry about it, I embraced it.

Finally…

It’s a great career but it’s not for everyone. I’m not going to sugar-coat it, you need to be resilient, have the ability to work off your own initiative without much guidance and you’ve got to believe in yourself. If you don’t, no one is going to tell you you’re doing great, we’re in recruitment – a results-driven industry. 

But, if you’re all of this and you want to work in an exciting, fast-paced and ever-changing industry then open that door and let yourself in.

Hopefully, I’ve answered why work in recruitment marketing and if anyone would like any advice on working in recruitment marketing, please feel free to get in touch with me.

1. Or if ASC sounds like the kind of company you’d like to work for, check out our Work for Us pages and latest jobs.

Rebecca Crowther is a Marketing Executive for ASC Connections. Her love for writing started when she was young. In her current role, she loves creating content to support candidates on their career journey and help clients hire talented individuals.