For those of us who think that a recruiter’s job is mere cakewalk, there’s more to it than meets the eye. A lot of sweet and toil goes into finding the ‘right candidate’ and matching the skills with the job in hand. It takes not only analytical skills but also tremendous emotional intelligence to really understand the candidate and fit him/her in the most suitable job. And you thought that recruiters only have to go through a sheet of paper that just mirrors some facts about the candidate?!

Anu Parthasarthy, founder and CEO, Global Executive Talent agrees, “A good recruiter needs to understand the client business well which implies a lot of reading to be updated on the new technology trends, consumer market trends, government regulations(local and international)etc.” She further adds, “It also involves tracking competition specifically with respect to current clients.”

A typical search assignment involves a lot of ground work in researching the potential candidate landscape and broadcasting the search across multiple media to get to the right candidates. This calls for a great team effort with the recruiter being supported by researchers.

The day for a recruiter begins with a great planning and more often than not ends up in chaos as many unplanned activities take place. “A typical day starts with a meeting/call with the team to analyze the research, pool knowledge about available candidates and plan for next steps,” shares Parthasarthy.

“Then the day will have a couple of scheduled meetings/calls with clients and candidates. There will also be calls with other people to get references, candidate leads etc which can help further in closing the assignments,” she adds. Besides this, some part of the day is also spent in preparing dossiers on candidates being presented, status reports for clients and in-house administrative work.

And then of course there is the joy of contributing to a person’s life by getting him the job s/he so relentlessly worked towards day in and day out. “It feels great when your candidates tell you that you impacted their professional life positively,” shares Parthasarthy. “I have had situations where candidates came back after 7-8 years and shared the progress they made within the company. It gives a tremendous feeling of fulfillment,” she concludes.