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Written by Matt Gibbs, Senior Consultant - Interim Internal and Change Communications 

Joining VMA GROUP was a new experience for me as I had never worked in recruitment before. Since graduating in 2013, I decided to try my hand at a few different careers such as marketing and sales but nothing quite felt right for one reason or another. Although I'd done my research, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into, so for all those budding recruiters out there, I’ve written ‘a day in the life’ blog about what you could expect on an interim recruiter desk here at VMA GROUP.

08:00 – 08:45     Breakfast meeting with a contractor who has recently started and is having problems with their project.

08:45 – 09:00     Team meeting. Each morning we get together to discuss candidates we’ve met the previous day, roles we’re struggling to fill, potential companies we can explore building a relationship with and our general plan of action for the day.

09:00 – 09:30     Catching up with emails/messages. This could be dealing with anything from a candidate withdrawing from an interview process to a client emailing with a new job brief. The key requirements of an interim recruiter is to be fast-paced and resilient so you’re able to deal with changing scenarios quickly.

09:30 – 11:00     Sourcing candidates. This is of course one of the most important aspects to the role and the one where you’ll be spending most of your time, particularly as a new recruiter where you’re predominantly dealing candidate-side. As part of the sourcing stage you’ll be writing job adverts, reviewing advert responses and using our brand new CRM system and other tools to source the right people for our clients.

11:00 – 12:00     Candidate meeting. Each consultant tends to meet around five –ten candidates a week. This could be people that are considering contracting for the first time or it could be a career interim who has worked for the last 20 years in the industry and has been placed by VMA GROUP multiple times before. We only send candidates to clients that we’ve either met in person or via Skype/FaceTime so we can build a strong rapport and we have a thorough understanding of their key skills.

12:00 – 12:30     Interview prep/feedback. We check in with candidates that are interviewing to make sure they have all the information they need and are well prepared! We also like to call candidates that have interviewed that day to hear how they think it went and gage their interest before we go back to the client.

12:30 – 13:30     Contractor Lunch. I always meet with contractors mid-contract to find out how they’re getting on and see if there’s anything I can do to support them. It may be their first contract so I want to make sure they’re happy in their decision to go down the contracting route. 

13:30 – 14:30     Catch-up calls. We like to keep on top of our network by having regular contact with candidates, whether they’ve recently registered with us or we’ve known them for years. We often get lucky and contact someone just at the right time when they’re looking for the next role so we can arrange a meeting and keep them in mind for any new roles we’re working on.  

14:30 – 15:00     Event/extra marketing support. One of VMA GROUP’s USPs is that we run a series of events throughout the year, at both our head office in Bedford Square and at external venues. This helps us keep our finger on the pulse and also keep in touch with the best communications professionals in the market. The events also give communicators market knowledge and a good base to network. We sit down with the marketing team to discuss event ideas and think of the best ways of promoting them.

15:00 – 16:00     Developing new business. The best recruiters are the most proactive ones who are able to build good relationships with new clients to make sure they always have a good job flow. We’ll look at companies we haven’t worked with for a while or companies we’ve never worked with before and get in touch to show how we can help.

16:00 – 17:00     Client briefing. As with meeting candidates face to face, we also find meeting our clients face to face to take job briefs is really beneficial. It helps us get a feel for the culture of an organisation and the team that we’re recruiting into. We’ll often sit down with a client to discuss why the role has arisen and the key skillset of the candidate they’re looking for.

17:00 – 17:30     Review the day! At the end of the day it’s good to sit down and review everything from the initial morning’s list and see if there’s anything outstanding. ‘How many candidates did I manage to source for the IC Manager role’; ‘what’s the full brief for the new Corp Comms Exec position’; ‘how did the interviews go at so and so earlier today’ and ‘how is the new contractor getting on in her contract’ should hopefully all be answered now!

If you work in marketing, communications or a sales-based role and you’d be interested in hearing more about the current opportunities at VMAGROUP, please contact us or click here to find out more about what it would be like to work at VMA GROUP. 

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