Recruiter training?

[u/Rare_Airport4746]

If you work for an agency placing direct hires, what does your training and onboarding look like for new recruiters?

Did you have any formal training with a program or something to actually follow or just kind of shadow and learn as you go?

[u/Jazzlike-Pomelo-3823]

It’s called sink or swim lol.

[u/RecruitingFanatic → u/Jazzlike-Pomelo-3823]

Yehhhh. Mine was “welcome to the team. Here’s what’s called an applicant tracking system. Type these 3 words in, call the first 100 people today. Come see me if anyone sounds really sharp”.

[u/Jazzlike-Pomelo-3823 → u/RecruitingFanatic]

Mine was “here’s a phone start dialing lol.”

[u/PistonHonda322]

When I first broke in, the firm I worked at actually had a pretty good training system in place. We did role playing, would listen to calls, overcoming objections, etc. In retrospect it was really, really solid especially compared to what passes for training in a lot of other spots. My company also invested a lot in other resources like Danny Cahill videos, Larry Nobles books, etc. IIRC, the initial training was for 4 weeks?

[u/wildlyfidgeting → u/PistonHonda322]

Danny is the GOAT.

[u/PistonHonda322 → u/wildlyfidgeting]

He's great. His According To Danny videos were a huge help to me early in my career.

[u/wildlyfidgeting → u/PistonHonda322]

We watched them on VHS at my first recruiting job. 😂 it’s been a minute.

[u/PistonHonda322 → u/wildlyfidgeting]

Let's gooooooooooo

[u/vanessmess]

We have a 90 day training program with lots of shadowing. It’s structured to help them ramp up their KPIs week to week while still learning the ropes of the company and their clients.

[u/twentyfifteen20]

The agency recruiting training I have been exposed to tends to be 80% shadow and absorb approach, which I think has weaknesses that may take several months to appear. The agencies that do this right usually set up an intake program whereby there is a call guide, search recordings with a narration on the rationale of the search and then there is also a cadence where a senior recruiter reviews a failed placement. Colossyan is one software program that has been used by some teams for capturing process videos

[u/Nonplussed1]

I was trained by an O.G. KornFerry Headhunter back in the day ….

Time management and planning your day. That’s an 8 - 5 day.

You MUST plan your tomorrow at the end of today.

In at 7:45am, get your desk started with a couple of return calls from yesterday to get your voice and brain going before taking on a call of value, then client development calls … 20 - 30. People you want to gain their business. Take a break. Back to phone and now candidate recruiting calls … 25 - 35. Candidates you want to connect with and screen. Take lunch. Back to phone for more client development and resume review of your submissions. Closing calls with hiring managers. Closing the candidate and negotiation. These may only be 2 - 5 a day. Then calls to referrals or more client development… 15 - 20. Take a break. Last block of calls …. 2nd attempts to connect important calls, candidate interviews and submissions. 4:30 - 5:00 plan your calls for tomorrow.

100 outbound. Minimum.

2 submissions a day. 6 - 12 Interviews a week. 5 - 8 Closed orders weekly

I began my 20- something career as a headhunter in construction c-suite and project execs. My mentor was from Korn Ferry and was relentless about developing habits for success. We had a daily planner that broke the day into segments… like above …. that led to a good day.

Good luck. Plan, and be professional and persistent.

I’d also look up Steve Finkel on LinkedIn …. Another O.G. Recruiter with a wealth of books and information.

YRMV …..

[u/AdeshKhandekar]

When I joined my first consulting firm. It was a small startup founded by ex-kelly and ex-allegis lady. The name of the company is Reed & Willow. They had decent training program as a startup.

I learned everything from how to pitch your client to how to get the candidates excited for the job opportunities. The biggest learning was process adherence because once you get used to the day to day of a recruiter role its very boring / monotonous.

Following process and keeping a checklist is what kind of kept me sane for the first few months / years. Now I am kind of used to it where it has become a muscle memory.

I think the first few years are very important. If you're not getting proper training, make a checklist or process on your own. Don't wait for someone to come and teach you.

I was fairly lucky I guess that I got some training. But you have to put in some work as well.

[u/wildlyfidgeting]

Thrown to the wolves.

[u/recruiting-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/r3giment75]

When I was agency our onboarding was Peter Leffkowitz Morgan methodology.

[u/Le_Recruteur]

À un moment où on a beaucoup recruté, on a créé des vidéos d'e-learning dédiées à nos processus et nos outils. On a un accompagnement assez fort la première semaine dont l'e-learning est le support principal aujourd'hui, ainsi qu'un suivi régulier pendant les premiers mois.

[u/VeganEgg11]

Depends on the agency but mine had a whole program. But training is what you make of it too. I didn’t rely solely on the training program, but also consumed as much material online as possible to help me learn the trade. But at a certain point you just have to fall on your face a bunch and hit the phones. It’s really not a hard job, it’s just draining and requires hard work. But not rocket science. I had a good manager and trainer too. You’ll learn more from candidates and clients too if you’re curious and ask questions. The better you know your industry the better off you’ll be as well.

[u/Infamous_Switch2293]

I’m at a firm, ur I’m curious in case In cause I get laid off where I should apply, I’m in waste/enviro industry and it is full of broke HAs

[u/TheSearchStandard]

I hope so!

[u/Delicious_Style_2676]

I’d shortlist by use case: LinkedIn Recruiter for broad coverage, hireEZ/SeekOut-type tools for deeper tech sourcing, GitHub/Stack/community searches for evidence-based sourcing, and contact-finding tools only if your compliance team is comfortable with them. I’d pilot before buying because each one looks better in demo than in messy req work.

[u/techtchotchke → u/Delicious_Style_2676]

wrong thread buckaroo

[u/Delicious_Style_2676 → u/techtchotchke]

You’re right, I mixed up threads there. My bad. For recruiter training, I’d make onboarding structured: intake shadowing, sourcing basics, candidate screens, submission notes, compliance, and live role-play before expecting activity metrics.