There are various roles in Recruitment. In almost every case, you would be expected to partner closely with the business, building relationships, to ensure that a recruitment strategy is aligned with department needs, involving managers in decisions relating to the recruitment of their prospective staff.

A recruiter will be involved in working with the business to identify their future needs, advising on the preferred sourcing approach and assisting where required, in short-listing and interviewing candidates. Once a successful candidate is identified, they are responsible for contacting them and offering them a role, which may involve entering protracted negotiations. They too are responsible for advising candidates if they have been unsuccessful, including providing appropriate feedback if requested.

One aspect of recruitment is sourcing key talent in the market place, to drive business performance, otherwise known as ‘headhunting’. Having identified this talent, you would play a proactive role in attracting them to your organisation, which is likely to require even more creative and adept negotiation ability. To ensure that your offers are competitive, it is likely that you would be involved in some degree of market research.

You may also be involved in targeting top talent from selected Universities and Business Schools, as well as driving strategies to acquire complementary (temporary or fixed term) workers across the organisation. Last, but not least, you might be involved in discussions to develop talent pools in anticipation of future business needs.

Entry into Recruitment can come either from a general HR qualification with a focus in this area and related experience, or in R&D from a scientific background where you might have gained experience of recruiting scientists.