For new recruiters, here's a two-part recipe for successPosted almost 3 years ago by Nick Boulton

What breeds success in recruitment? With Client Server welcoming a new cohort of trainees this week, Director Nick Boulton thinks about the two most important ingredients for success in this industry.

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I was speaking with a recruit of our trainee programme, and they asked me what the key is to be successful in recruitment.

"Is there one type of personality that makes a good consultant?"

It's a good question and one I know I'll run the gauntlet of public opinion over. But it's pretty simple.

Human beings tend to overcomplicate things. We add hurdles and layers of complexity to everything we do (to say nothing of how we're so 'in touch' with our feelings that we sprinkle a dash of emotion onto everything too).

So, let's keep it simple.

• Success = Learn how to do the job right, then keep doing it.
• Personality type(s) = intensely competitive people will succeed.

[mic drop]

I feel it would be remiss of me to leave my explanation there, as tempting as it is.

Success = Learn how to do the job right, then keep doing it.

There are two parts to this, and you need to do both.

Part 1 – Learn how to do the job.

This idea applies to any industry or environment. It doesn't matter how smart you think you are, what degree you have or what you 'believe' the job involves; you need to learn how to do the job correctly. Listening to and following the best people in the business is a great starting point.

Even if you have experience in successfully performing in your chosen field, if you close your mind to learning how to be better, you'll struggle to be consistently successful. Never be too arrogant to learn from others.

Part 2 – Then keep doing it

Lack of consistency is where 90% of people fail. It doesn't matter if your job is vocational, your passion, or you do it to make money. Unless you have the focus, discipline and ability to keep performing your position at the highest level, you will never be successful. The vast majority of people work in small bursts, so performance varies, and success is limited. Consistency and repetition are key.

Personality type(s) = intensely competitive people will succeed.

Whenever you use the term "intensely competitive", people automatically think of sports or the military and conjure up an ugly vision of overly competitive dads running in the school sports day, only to snap that hamstring just before the finish line. (Yup, guilty.)

But that's not the case and not what I mean - In my view, being intensely competitive starts with being competitive with yourself, having the ability to want to get better every single day. It doesn't matter if you have a degree, don't have a degree, even don't have higher education. What you need is that inner drive to want to win and want to make yourself better. People who don't let themselves of the hook or make excuses are the types of people who are the most successful.

I think 'we' have allowed it to be more acceptable to do an average job. The onus is on employers to offer all the right benefits and extras, rather than the potential employee earning them!

I think we as a society have allowed this to happen; we have allowed people to start a job thinking, "What's in this for me?" rather than, "What can I offer the business?" And hey, presto, we have a plethora of uninterested, unengaged, unmotivated snowflakes!

I get that businesses should pay market rates and offer good benefits, but call me old fashioned; with unemployment figures set to sore this year, employees will need to up their game and prove their worth to a business.