From Consulting to Internal
Have you ever heard someone say: “one year in recruitment feels like ten years in other jobs”? Not sure if you’ve ever felt like that, but I do sometimes!
In 2018 after I finished my degree in International Relations, I had no clue what I was going to do for a living! I was about to start my Masters in Human Resources when I started to have a look at some Job Ads for Recruitment;
I went for an interview and in the blink of an eye I started my first ever job as an IT Recruiter. I must confess that at the time, I didn’t even know the difference between Java and JavaScript (but that’s a story for another time).
I took part in a couple of different work experiences which taught me a lot about the Recruitment World and after this I had the opportunity to start working at Damia Group Portugal. For those who don’t know us yet, we are a tech recruitment agency and we’re on a mission to make people happy by providing them with a better work experience. One of our solutions is RPO (short for Recruitment Process Outsourcing), something that I only learnt about here.
At the beginning of this year, after almost a year of working from home, living at home, having a glass of wine at home, doing pretty much everything at home (kudos to the Pandemic), I was offered the opportunity to work at OLX Group as part of an RPO.
Like I said at the beginning, sometimes recruitment can be demanding, so a new challenge from time to time is very refreshing, don’t you think? Luckily at Damia that’s possible! Although it’s still Recruitment, you can face new cultures, different environments, as well as new ways of working.
I’m not going to lie, I was very excited, but on the other hand I couldn’t stop thinking of all the things that could go wrong. I had only worked for consulting companies before, and now I was going to start a one-year project at a big Product Company, completely different from anything I had done so far.
I used to feel that I didn’t have what it takes to recruit in a big Product Company, and I think this might be quite a common feeling due to the market making you believe this. So, part of me was completely afraid to accept this challenge. It is still recruitment, but in a totally different way. After considering all my pros and cons, I thought “Well, I’ve been working in consulting for two years (and we all know how hard it can be), this can’t be worse right?”.
I’m going to be completely honest. Recruitment IS challenging everywhere you go.
Sure, recruiting at a product company has a lot of advantages: you have the chance to be involved with the candidates throughout the whole process; give them their feedback promptly (because client-side you actually know what is happening); you’re able to answer all the questions the candidate may have and if you don’t know, you can always ask the technical team or the Hiring Manager within seconds; you have the privilege of knowing everything about the company, the project you’re recruiting for and get to know people in all different departments. — That is a big plus!
My understanding of the recruitment industry has increased a lot since working at Damia, but since having the chance to work for OLX Group, my knowledge has grown even more.
Working closely with the Hiring Managers and the technical team teaches you so much — you’ll truly understand what you’re recruiting for, what the project is, how you can sell it to the candidates and find out all the information you may need to complete a positive and efficient recruitment process. RPO doesn’t have to be just recruitment — working within the client and in their department, you’ll also be able to help to improve the process: what is working and what is not? What can you do differently?
I can’t say that recruiting for a product company is easier, but you’ll certainly have many more tools to do your work properly and give the best candidate experience possible. On the other hand, I believe that working for a consulting company will prepare you so much more for all the challenges and setbacks that working in recruitment can bring you.
From my experience I would say that working for an agency taught me:
- The importance of fast processes
- How to understand tech profiles
- How to teach myself (searching on the internet about different technologies and reading as much as possible)
- How to defend my candidates and their potential
- Organizational skills (organize and document my work properly)
- The most important part: to always be resilient (never give up and just keep trying).
Working for a Product Company taught me:
- How to focus on priorities and be more aware of the candidate’s experience and the company’s needs
- How to understand the details of the project and how to explain this in a better way to the candidates
- How to discuss technical subjects with the team
- How to guide the candidates through all the stages and be transparent with them
- How to have assertive communication with the candidates and explain to them in the best way possible the details about the project and the company itself
- Finally, how to manage different stakeholders.
This article was purely based on my experience, of course there are a lot of consulting and product companies and you’ll have different experiences in all of them. This is mine so far and I’m having a blast!
I can say that I am a more “complete” recruiter after having the chance to work in both sides! I’ve learnt a lot and I am sure that I will need to keep learning, because being a recruiter is pretty much that — you must be flexible and adapt to any situation that may come up.
At the end of the day, if you work in IT recruitment you’ll always have a lot of challenges, whether you’re in a consulting company or in an internal role. The most important thing here is for you to keep challenging yourself, keep learning! Don’t be afraid to communicate with your stakeholders, it doesn’t matter if they are different clients, team members or Hiring Managers, you’ll learn a lot from each other!
For me, an RPO is an incredible service that a recruitment agency can offer! Not only is it a great advantage to the client, but for us as recruiters it allows us to understand what’s out there, get a better insight into how companies really work and understand the market better.
I hope you enjoyed reading my article! I wanted to give you my point of view and experience as a tech recruiter in an increasingly competitive market. I hope that if by any chance you are afraid or insecure about working as an RPO, or perhaps having second thoughts in embracing a new job, that this article helps you. Sometimes, you just have to take a leap of faith!
Check out our RPO Service: www.damiagroup.pt/rpo-service
Wrote by Inês Silvestre:
We could write another medium article just to describe Inês Silvestre and how fantastic she is, however this is not that article, we needed to put this short and simple:
With only 24 years old with three years of experience in the industry, she has nonetheless taken to the recruitment market like a star in the making!
Always in a good mood, this Damia tech recruiter has a “curious” attitude to the industry and a great desire to always help her colleagues; she’s a transparent, dynamic and playful person 😂 Don’t be shy — connect to her on LinkedIn!
About Damia Portugal:
We are an international innovative IT recruitment company with over 25 years of experience working across all levels, from support right up to executive board level, with our HQ based on the UK.
We came to Portugal with the promise to shake up the market and redefine how one engages with clients. Our core goal is to develop relationships across the market, offer a disruptive (but positive!) approach with both clients and candidates, always based on open and transparent communication.
We take the stresses out of recruitment and engage the right professionals who will excel in your organization.
We use out-of-the-box sourcing techniques.
We are innovative, disruptive, transparent and relaxed.
We came to the market to do it different and we love it!
