A Day In The Life Of: A Recruitment Specialist

5:30 am: I no longer need an alarm clock to wake me up. My biological alarm clock is now regulated to 5:30 am every morning. I resent the fact that I still have to commute well over 1 hour to get to work every morning! (While my family is sleeping)

7:00 am: Walk down to the parking lot and get into my car. I battle my way through the traffic and it takes me exactly 85 minutes to get to the office.

9:00 am: I am late, and I hate being late. Try to avoid morning chats and head straight to my office. I can see the reflection of my face frowning at my screen while checking my e-mails (all of which are job seekers’ responses from the online ads I have posted last night: one for a software developer and the other for a software support professional). I segregate them to the appropriate outlook folders (yes, I do have good organizational skills) and head to the kitchen to get my morning coffee and loosen up a little.

10:00 am: My day has officially started. I allot one hour and a half every morning for jobseeker phone calls. I start calling candidates who have responded to the ads (but only those with convenient profiles). I talk them through the job description and company profile (however, I can not yet disclose the company’s name (this will come at a later stage, once a candidate has successfully gotten to the INTERVIEW phase)

11:30 am: I compile the list of potential recruits to be sent to my client along with the relevant resumes and I e-mail the rest of the applicants who did not meet the requirements and extend my apologies.

12:30 pm: Client Time: I call a big client I have sent a set of resumes to yesterday to check on which ones he particularly is interested in and when he would like to schedule for the interviews.

1:30 pm: It was a one hour conversation!! But luckily, he had enough time to give me his convenient dates and time for the candidates’ interviews. I will arrange for that with candidates respectively once I am back from lunch.

2:30 pm: Back in the office. Call all concerned candidates and the interview schedule is set. I e-mail it to my client by 4 o’clock

4:00 pm: Time for Facebook, TooStep and Linked-in! I know we’re not supposed to indulge in social activities at work, but I have 570 people on my list and believe it or not, I do use the sites to fill in specific positions for clients... (sometimes at least, to be honest ;) . . . . )

4:30 pm: Weekly meeting with recruitment manager. He’s in a rush today (he’s travelling for business early evening tonight), he briefs us about the new clients he’s trying to get hold of and gives us our weekly targets (yes, we’re way beyond monthly targets at our agency). I hand my KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for last week, and I have exceeded my target (while most of the recruitment team members have not). Call me heartless but I walk out . . . full of pride!

6:00 pm: Go over my e-mails again, segregate again and make a couple of phone calls.

6:30 pm: I post the ads I have received from clients today (around 6 ads) and get ready for the gym. It’s the best thing to do to avoid the traffic jam on the way back home at night.

9:00 pm: While I drive back home tonight, I am thinking of the positions I have to fill in this week. I have plenty of phone calls to make tomorrow. I might as well wake up an hour earlier to make sure I get to the office earlier than usual.

10:00 pm: Finally home. Have my dinner (The only time to have a little chat with my family, before they go to sleep!!), take a shower and head straight to bed. God, wasn’t that one a long day!