Interview with Elise Flett

My days are very varied, and every day is different. I coordinate the recruitment process so everything from the creating the job description to posting the jobs on the website, contacting agencies, gathering CVs, pre-screening candidates and arranging interviews. All this involves a lot of time management; I have to coordinate lots of other people’s diaries to make sure that managers and candidates are available for meetings and interviews.
 

Then I’ll often meet and greet candidates, provide feedback to agencies and complete invoices, so there’s a lot to the process.

People skills and being forward thinking are both really important in recruitment and so are organisation skills, multi-tasking and time management because there’s always a lot going on. But I also think resilience is an important attribute; recruitment is high pressured and not a job for the faint-hearted.

The most rewarding part is when you sell a job, and get it signed off by management. But it’s also really exciting when you get a candidate with loads of potential, someone who has all the requirements but is also very personable and you can see how they’ll be good at the job you place them in.

The challenging part of the role is always having to manage about 100 things at once; I have to prioritise the jobs I’m handling and decide which are the most urgent and need to be dealt with immediately.

I’ve actually worked for Page Personnel before so I was an internal candidate. I’ve always found with Page that the quality of candidates is a lot higher than with other agencies and this reflects in the quality of clients.

Fabulous – you guys are always great!

You definitely have to be a people person – don’t go into recruitment if you don’t want to deal with people all day, every day. You also have to be able to distinguish between a candidate that you think is nice and one that has the technical ability for the role you’re trying to fill, so don’t let your personal liking for someone get in the way.
 

I’d also point out that for recruitment (a market that is set to pick up), it’s really important to choose the right environment; choose a company whose culture fits you.

I’m currently reading The Hunger Games and watching Revenge and Call the Midwife.