Recruiter Stuck in a Rut

by Dan
(currently Hamburg, Germany)

Hi Carl,

I've been working in recruitment consultancy for about four years now and I feel like my career is stuck in a rut.

I graduated from college with a Master's in Strategic Studies (BA in History and German) and got into recruitment first as a researcher and then as an associate (execution resource).

I was previously working in London, England and when the economy there nose-dived I took a job with a German recruitment consultancy as a junior consultant. They originally hired me to help them build up their international business and promised to build me up to full consultant fairly quickly. However, it seems like all they are using me for is as a researcher to save money that would otherwise go to external resources.

I am bored, I miss the client contacts and quite frankly am beginning to feel like I'm completely stuck in a rut. My wife and I (she's from Michigan, I grew up in Ohio) have been thinking about going back to the States soon but I am not sure if I want to stay in executive search.

I was wondering if you could help me with some suggestions on what I would need to do, where to look and what qualifications to get (if more are needed) to find a job in corporate human resources or as a proper recruiter rather than just being the guy who does the dirty work for the partners in the firm (or any other careers that you think might be suitable-I speak three languages, love to travel and possess a great deal of intercultural skills and cultural literacy)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Yours truly, Dan

Response from Carl: Thanks for the email, Dan. You mention the possibility of becoming a corporate recruiter and that was one of the things I was going to suggest. Companies are still hiring and I suspect many have turned to their own internal recruiters to hire staff rather than paying more money to external contingency recruiters to do the same work.

If you are thinking about staying in recruitment you might also consider an account manager-type role where you get the client work you enjoy and strictly work with clients, and have other people do the actual recruiting and researching for you.

A final recruitment option is working for a company that actually specializes in hiring recruiters. I know of companies who recruit recruiters and given the economy I suspect it could be quite busy as corporations perhaps decide to beef up their internal hiring department to avoid using external recruiters.

Have you considered a career consultancy-type role? Given your international experiences and experience working as a recruiter, I'm sure you have learned many things that you have passed onto people during their job searches that have helped them take the next step in their career. Perhaps a role as a career consultant might be something you could consider.

The fact that you speak 3 languages is also a great benefit that you might utilize. Certainly, companies that are global in reach can benefit from someone like yourself who is multilingual. I'd suggest checking out some Internet job boards and specifically searching for positions that require the ability to speak the languages you speak and see what positions pops up. Again, some recruitment firms who recruit for international positions might require a bilingual candidate like yourself and often sales and government positions require the same.

I hope this helps!

Carl