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The Average Recruiter Lifespan

I wasn’t referring to how long recruiters can live.

It’s their career lifespan and after talking to ex-recruiters whom I know, it comes around 10 years.

Why should you care?

I care because it means the loss of time for recruiters who find themselves in a miserable state during and after 10 years. I want to help people do better.

So what happened?

In that 10 years, they were either hopping around agencies or moving into Talent Acquisition (TA) roles within corporates.

Either way, they gave up because it is a tough job and no one appreciated them for their efforts.

At agency, the client calls the shot unreasonably. “Give me more CVs”, “Lower your rates” (even after TOB is signed)

As for corporate, TAs have to manage a bunch of hiring managers with many of them unclear about what they need to hire for.

The salary sucks. That’s another big reason.

This post is for those planning to move into recruitment, either as your first job after graduation or you are planning a mid- or final- career pivot.

Service professionals such as recruiters do not get a high fixed salary. It is essentially a sales job and commission is the attraction.

So it is about how good you are at closing sales that will directly impact your take back income.

I did a 100K in a month while I was with an agency. Yes, that was my ATH (all time high) and most people don’t achieve that on a consistent basis or even at all.

That results in most recruiters having to contend with their basic salary.

This is not the biggest opportunity cost. What is grossly lacking in the recruitment industry is effective training leading to purposeful progression.

It is mostly OJT and that is why most people fizzle out since it is like a roll of the dice.

Even seasoned veterans cannot control the economic weather and if you have a team to “feed”, that only makes it tougher on your P&L.

That’s the reason why I decided that I would only work as an independent business owner (aka solo recruiter) and I think it would serve most recruiters well if they plan to launch their own agencies.

I’m going to do a series of training for recruiters. I would announce it in stages but it would be in video. The purpose is to help recruiters figure out the questions they should ask, the skills they should learn and the Whether they should continue or pivot to something else.

Don’t waste 10 years of your time.

p.s. If you are a recruiter or wannabe and keen to receive my updates, subscribe to this newsletter and I will ping you when the videos are available.

p.p.s. A warm welcome to everyone who subscribed The Solo Recruiter. You are now a part of this Spartan tribe that are committed to getting results. I call you Spartans because you mean BUSINESS. Ah-woo~!

Let’s connect on LinkedIn where I share tips for recruitment business. I’m also planning a Live Stream on FB to talk about being a solopreneur because of the overlapping skill sets it takes to be a great solo recruiter.

​About this newsletter: You are receiving this email because you subscribed to my weekly TSR (The Solo Recruiter) newsletter. Every other week, you learn the strategies that successful recruiters use to grow their businesses by doing the vital few. If you are interested to launch your own agency, drop me a DM.