Today’s post is from Russ Bray with Southern Recruiting Solutions in Tampa, Florida. Russ is a two-time member of the NPA Board of Directors, as well as a long-time member of the network. Southern Recruiting Solutions specializes in placing professionals in the chemical, oil/gas, and manufacturing industries throughout the U.S.
In 2012 I thought it was time to challenge the old axiom, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” I had been working in the information technology and aerospace / defense recruiting niche for over 25 years. I found myself worn out and not collecting a lot of fees. My clients seemed uncooperative and the jobs seemed stale. Same old, same old. I decided it was time to change my recruiting niche.
I looked closely at all of the sectors that my international split placement network was involved in. That included finance, sales, healthcare, manufacturing and chemical process. I was looking for good job descriptions and clients that really needed help and would respond quickly. I also looked at the fees companies were willing to pay. Candidates are extremely hard to find these days and require a lot of recruiting work. As a contingent fee recruiter, you have to take advantage of that.
The job demand in the chemical / oil / gas industries clearly stood out. I had done engineering recruiting in aerospace and defense previously, so some of the job descriptions were not totally new for me. But I also found I had a lot to learn. For a while, I was constantly looking up terms on the web or asking candidates to explain some of the technologies they were working on.
I was very fortunate that my split placement recruiting partners needed lots of candidates for their jobs. They were extremely helpful and patient as well. So I jumped in with both feet, floundered a bit but am finally starting finding the right candidates for a few jobs. For the most part I have totally turned my back on my old recruiting niche, but now I know I can make a change again if it becomes necessary.
Changing my recruiting niche has helped my attitude tremendously and now I am having some fun again in the recruiting industry. And 2013 is going to be my best year revenue-wise in quite a few years.
