How the Sales Aspect of Recruitment Helps Ambitious Grads to Start Their Careers Strong
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When you are in the formative first few years of your career, you quickly realise that you have a lot to learn.
In most graduate sales positions, you start near the bottom and learn from those above you, doing “your time” sorting out the admin and feeling your way into corporate life. You follow a tried-and-tested path of progression and if you keep your nose clean, you might be a Director by your mid-thirties.
There is nothing wrong with this, but for a grad with a fire in their belly, boredom is a risk.
They are ambitious, they want to be outside their comfort zone, and they do not want to be limited in their progression. Of course, they know that they will need, but they want to grow without shackles or training wheels. They want to work in an environment where they can express themselves creatively, where they can ask a question and have the freedom to find their own answer rather than read it in a manual somewhere.
Most of all, they want to face tests and challenges that will teach them lessons that will stay with them for the rest of their careers, no matter what they might end up doing.
There are few more testing environments for a grad than information technology recruitment.
The sales-led nature of the recruitment industry means that you have no choice but to earn your success. If someone is making £100k+ after two years in our Next Step Academy (it has happened many times), you can be sure that achievement is uniquely hard won. Our industry-leading mentoring programme may have coaxed them in the right direction, and our deeply-personalised development plans will have supported them, but the majority of the work is down to their tenacity, resilience and determination.
Sales is unforgiving, but in recruitment, there is the added aspect of human unpredictability. When people are your product, there are so many factors that might complicate a transaction. The “people” lessons that young recruiters learn on the way to smoothing out these transactions will stay with them for whatever a relationship challenge pops up in their future career.
Maybe that is why the Next Step Academy is so popular and has been so successful for Next Ventures and its trainees?
The most difficult lesson for a young grad to learn is how to influence and shape the opinions of others. When you are making fifty calls a day, hopping from client meeting to client meeting, and closing deals that will change your candidates’ lives, you tend to learn that lesson pretty quickly. Actually, you don’t just learn it, you master it.
Starting out learning the (limitless) sales lessons of an early-stage recruitment career can set someone up for success in so many industries. Yes, they may well choose to earn a tonne of money with us and have fun doing it, but if not, they can be certain that they will go on to flourish in any industry where people skills are required.
Of course, the jaw-dropping incentive trips, fun and inclusive office atmosphere, industry-leading reward scheme, and super-supportive colleagues go a long way to making it the most enjoyable start to a career too. We take our responsibility as an early-stage employer extremely seriously and we understand that if a young professional has not got a smile on their faces, then they are never going to make the most of their potential.
We are going to be looking for our next “class” of Next Step students soon.
If you are an ambitious young grad who wants to supercharge their people skills, make a real difference and build a solid foundation for your career, then you might want to consider joining us at Next Ventures. Oh, yes, and you can earn a lot of money too.
