More and more, the recruitment industry experts say that you need to specialize on an industry in order to survive in the current recruiting marketplace. I agree that it helps to have a specialty rather than being exclusively a generalist. But for those that are moving from a generalist recruitment business to a specialty niche it might be best to target a hot recruiting niche and keep yourself open to generalist jobs that have made you what you are.
In 2013, our network of more than 400 recruitment firms found “chemical process” and “process engineering” jobs to be one of the hot recruiting niches. Nearly 25% of all the splits done by NPA member firms were done in the “process” specialty niche. The manufacturing specialty niche was a close second in terms of placement results for 2013. So if you are moving from a generalist recruitment business and beginning to specialize, pick one of the best niches for recruitment rather than a specialty niche that might underperform in the year ahead. Generalist recruiters have to have strong skills in order to survive. If you use those skills to focus on a hot recruiting niche, you are likely to excel once you get some industry/niche experience. As a generalist, you can make a decision to focus on particular specialty niches on a regular basis, depending on what might be the hot specialty niches for recruiters in the months and years ahead.
I’m interested to learn of recruiters that have moved from a generalist business and added a specialty niche in the last 12 months. What do you see as hot specialty niches for recruiters in the year ahead?
