Last time, we looked at the benefits of working for a boutique recruitment company. This time we focus on why working at a large corporate recruitment company is a good choice.
Training
Joining a large global recruitment firm will give you continuous ongoing training and development. Even as you move higher up in your organization, there is useful, recruitment specific training provided. We speak with senior people in these types of companies, and they sometimes tell us about the interesting training sessions they have been through. The training given to a recruiter in companies like En World, RGF, and Michael Page can give you an excellent grounding for your recruitment career here in Japan
Database
I spoke with someone who has recently moved from a mid sized company to a large recruitment firm, and he couldn’t believe how good the database was. In his previous role, his main issue was getting good candidates, so he has developed his headhunting skills to a very high level. In his new role, main issue is working out how to handle the flow of candidates.
A couple of years ago, we saw a lot of recruiters go from East West to IGS and have a lot of success because they successfully used the headhunting skills they had to have at EWC and merged them with the excellent database at IGS.
In the current candidate short recruitment market here in Japan, access to a lot of candidates is definitely a big plus
Career Path
Joining a large corporate recruitment company also gives you a clear career path.
Judging from my LinkedIn feed recently, July is promotion season at Hays, and Robert Walters seems to have promoted a lot of people recently. These companies have pretty clear guidelines for promotion and they can give you concrete examples of how recruiters have previously moved up the path. Larger corporates can also give you the option of becoming a non billing manager or moving into a training role.
Boutiques and mid sized firms are not usually able to carry non billing staff
Brand Recognition
On pretty much every second train or subway car in Tokyo, there is an advertisement for a recruitment company or job site. If like me, you watch a bit of rugby, you find a couple of the big corporates sponsoring teams or events.
When you call someone for the first time, they are more likely to know the name of your company if you work for a large corporate. This always makes for a good start.
On the client side, we have all had the issue of being told we cannot work with a company because of their PSL agreements. Working for a large corporate means your company will probably already have contracts in place with most of the players in the market.
Specialization
Being part of a large company and a large team allows you to go very niche as a recruiter. This gives you an opportunity in to become an expert in your space with in depth knowledge of the companies and the candidates in the field.
Some smaller companies use the account manager model, meaning the recruiter covers any role within their client. In this case, almost every search is a new search.
As a specialist recruiter, you only focus in one space and over time you end up with a strong network. The only downside of this is when your specialization disappears or is badly affected by economic or social changes
Global Reach
Especially at the senior level, hiring decisions and strategy in Japan can be driven by APAC. If your company has a good relationship with the client in Singapore or Hong Kong, you have much better chance of getting access to the juicy role.
There is also a good chance that there will be a global PSL in place.
Another benefit of working for a large corporate is that some companies offer you the chance to move to another country with your company. This varies from company to company and manager to manager as the Japan branch always wants to keep their good recruiters, but it is a legitimate option
Talk to us if you want to find out more about working in a large recruitment firm and which one may be suitable for you.