On-Site again

I am on-site again, working in the office of The Client. This time I have some proper responsibilities and I do not feel like a minion. I am in direct contact with the TLs and the management, I can arrange the interviews myself and I can talk to the decision makers about the candidates and get direct feedback from them. So, I am taking a 2-week 'holiday' not as a Researcher but as a Corporate Recruiter. I even have my own room, which is a little accident, but still, I have a nice and small room next to the interview rooms, I have an enormous window and the sun shines in every morning. It's nice.

Most Recruiters who work for agencies have a dream of becoming a Corporate Recruiter one day. I might have this dream in a couple of years, who knows, but I don't think people really see what a struggle this is. I mean, I think it is more difficult and quite stressful to work for an agency, because your success is evaluated based on the amount of money you generate for the agency, amongst other things, but this being most important. There is lots of pressure on being good at what you are doing, handling key accounts, making candidates happy, collaborating with other Consultants, etc. But as long as you perform and most stakeholders are happy, you have relative freedom. And in the case of mission impossible types of assignment, it's great if you solve them, but you are protected if you don't. You get sh*t from clients at times, but that can be handled. And you choose which clients and which positions to focus on. If you are good, it's valued.

When you work for a corporate giant, escalations come into the picture. That's a bitch. After a while, even God knows that you cannot fill a position and everybody is looking for what you are doing wrong. Then, you have to chase TLs and managers for feedback on the interviews, they disappear for hours, you leave messages, then they don't answer etc. That sucks. If you fill a position, it's not appreciated, it's just how things should go. But if you don't fill one... well, you better fill them all.

The bottom line is that in corporates, Recruiters are just support staff who make sure that there are always enough people (and hopefully the right ones) on board. They are like other back office employees, like colleagues in the finance or administration departments. But in agencies, we do core business. The success of the firm is our success, or maybe the other way around. And in some way, I take pride in that.