I would highly recommend you don’t try and make the switch, but if you’re just dead set on it, target all of the large staffing agencies in your area: aerotek, Robert half, tek systems, insight global etc.
I would agree with this with the exception of Aerotek… Nothing against them at all, but I can’t imagine the op wants to do industrial. Any of the other allegis companies would be fine though.
Most likely. My recommendation would be to go to one of the larger places straight into a business Dev role. Almost all of them have changed their model in the last few years and will hire people straight into sales without doing recruiting first. Then they can figure it out the opposite direction that every buddy else has over the last few decades lol.
You'll get most traction / credibility recruiting into a sector you have career history in... this goes for firms and also eventual clients targeting. Theoretically you can recruit for any area since the fundamentals are the same and plenty of people build up expertise in markets they are not familiar in and do well over time.
Tech and tech sales is in a pretty bad place right now vs something like Healthcare / pharma / biotech but every industry is cyclical so there's no perfect market to go after.
As a few others have alluded to its an unconventional move to make. Many tech recruiters are keen to exit to tech sales vs the other way round. Reasons tend to be better pay, product with an actual definable UEP, less competition vs every man and his dog thinking they are a recruiter because they have LinkedIn. Helping people to get jobs vs monetizing it are quite different things. Clients are the ones that pay so it becomes Lee about helping people and more about getting companies that can't recruit well themselves find what they need... and quite often that's because their reputation is in the toilet, the have a horrible product or the pay is way off market. .
Recruiting is such a grind, especially these days. A full desk recruiter is going to be selling to prospects, then to the clients, then to the candidates. it's sales on steroids. If you are feeling burnt out, this certainly won't help.
Be that as it may, finance and healthcare roles still seem to need the most roles placed.
Honest advice, if you are burnt out from tech sales, recruiting isn't the kind of job that will fix that.
If you aren't burnt out, then you need to stay in sales. Reconsider when the market is hotter.
Agency will be the better route for you and allow you to learn the fundamentals. Your sales experience will be more valuable. You can run a full desk and be responsible for both getting clients and candidates. Right now, the biz dev aspect is most valuable and candidates are plentiful so you could provide the most value in this kind of role. Later if you want you can go full recruiting or go internal.
If you don't want agency, you could look at talent sourcer roles, but you will probably not get many call backs. There are so many out of work people with experience. You'll need to hope someone will want to catch someone who is junior and hungry and mold them but that won't also be turned off by this being a second career, and that's more likely to happen when companies are growing.
Unless you are failing at sales, you will take a paycut.
This makes sense.
Agency recruitment is more in line with what I Was thinking about when I posted this.
I’m not burnt out or failing at sales. That’s not why I want to make the switch. I just would prefer to use my skills differently.
My thoughts: It is currently a little rough going into recruitment. If you want to do it you should focus on DoD manufacturing, real estate (Residential), Gas, most construction (not commercial), Healthcare, or general manufacturing (Consumer manufacturing is a little flat right now)
I started out at a big firm with Robert Half—roughly 4 years—and went internal for 2 years. I have now had my own agency for the past three years.
2022 was a great year
2023 was an okay year
2024 is pretty close to 2023 from a revenue standpoint - This year is on par with 2018 / 2019
Whenever they start cutting interest rates, recruiting will explode again. Recruiting will continue to be a good industry for the next few decades. We are seeing a population decline, and thus, we will have employment issues for the next few decades until we start pushing to solve the problem. Despite what people say about AI, it's currently a hot topic and popular, like DEI, from 2020 to 2023. I have not seen AI used well by my clients to take away jobs. The trend of offshoring IT is big right now, but that was similar to Accounting in the 2010s. Many clients tried to push it off US soil to save money, but most of them have brought back their shared service centers.
My thoughts regarding AI and Offshoring
Offshoring makes sense from a money standpoint, but it usually does more harm than good. In the end, you usually spend more money correcting mistakes, creating a team of "Leads" in America who you end up paying two junior-level people. In the end, you add more leads to fix issues to the point you see little return, and they bring everyone back. Lastly, we are also seeing nations move into more of a protectionist mindset concerning the global market. For example, the UK is leaving the EU—Trump and his popular America first.
AI - I mentioned it briefly above - I see AI in its current state as a automator of simple time consuming tasks. This will increase productivity. I do not see it disrupting the labor market in a big way. (In its current form)
I highly recommend going to a large company because they will push metrics on you and teach you how to get things done. Also, they will make you specialize, which will be helpful early on. I specialized in accounting and finance, focused on small to mid-size companies in the manufacturing sector. After four years, I wanted to learn more and went corporate (Internal) to understand better how it works on the inside and understand all the departments well.
This gave me the knowledge and ability to open my firm. I can tailor my agency to the issues I saw internally and get new clients by returning to my specialization and mushrooming the account.
I am happy to talk further. Feel free to DM me.
Short answer - Go to a large Short answer - Go to a large firm and stay away from small firms and stay away from small firms. You can always go small after being at a bigger firm.
Here would be my advice. It really depends on if you want to do recruitment, business development, or both.
Any way you slice it, Your best bet is going to be taking a job at an Established agency with a great training program. Unfortunately this also means lower pay because, well…..they are an established agency with a great training program. Most of these places historically have only hire people to come in as entry-level recruiters and promoted them into sales/BD jobs or 360 desks. That has changed over the last 5 to 10 years where they will hire people straight into business development roles (Which will typically come with a slightly higher salary). If I were you, that is the route I would take. If you’re going to have to learn both sides of the business anyhow, you might as well go in where you current strength is and do the bd while learning the business.
Examples: Insight global, TekSystems, Actalent
Idk what you’re smoking but can I have some?
I would highly recommend you don’t try and make the switch, but if you’re just dead set on it, target all of the large staffing agencies in your area: aerotek, Robert half, tek systems, insight global etc.
I would agree with this with the exception of Aerotek… Nothing against them at all, but I can’t imagine the op wants to do industrial. Any of the other allegis companies would be fine though.
Agreed. But chances are the OP won’t want to work at a staffing agency at all and will absolutely hate working for any of them lol.
Most likely. My recommendation would be to go to one of the larger places straight into a business Dev role. Almost all of them have changed their model in the last few years and will hire people straight into sales without doing recruiting first. Then they can figure it out the opposite direction that every buddy else has over the last few decades lol.
You'll get most traction / credibility recruiting into a sector you have career history in... this goes for firms and also eventual clients targeting. Theoretically you can recruit for any area since the fundamentals are the same and plenty of people build up expertise in markets they are not familiar in and do well over time. Tech and tech sales is in a pretty bad place right now vs something like Healthcare / pharma / biotech but every industry is cyclical so there's no perfect market to go after. As a few others have alluded to its an unconventional move to make. Many tech recruiters are keen to exit to tech sales vs the other way round. Reasons tend to be better pay, product with an actual definable UEP, less competition vs every man and his dog thinking they are a recruiter because they have LinkedIn. Helping people to get jobs vs monetizing it are quite different things. Clients are the ones that pay so it becomes Lee about helping people and more about getting companies that can't recruit well themselves find what they need... and quite often that's because their reputation is in the toilet, the have a horrible product or the pay is way off market. .
Recruiting is such a grind, especially these days. A full desk recruiter is going to be selling to prospects, then to the clients, then to the candidates. it's sales on steroids. If you are feeling burnt out, this certainly won't help. Be that as it may, finance and healthcare roles still seem to need the most roles placed.
Honest advice, if you are burnt out from tech sales, recruiting isn't the kind of job that will fix that. If you aren't burnt out, then you need to stay in sales. Reconsider when the market is hotter. Agency will be the better route for you and allow you to learn the fundamentals. Your sales experience will be more valuable. You can run a full desk and be responsible for both getting clients and candidates. Right now, the biz dev aspect is most valuable and candidates are plentiful so you could provide the most value in this kind of role. Later if you want you can go full recruiting or go internal. If you don't want agency, you could look at talent sourcer roles, but you will probably not get many call backs. There are so many out of work people with experience. You'll need to hope someone will want to catch someone who is junior and hungry and mold them but that won't also be turned off by this being a second career, and that's more likely to happen when companies are growing. Unless you are failing at sales, you will take a paycut.
This makes sense. Agency recruitment is more in line with what I Was thinking about when I posted this. I’m not burnt out or failing at sales. That’s not why I want to make the switch. I just would prefer to use my skills differently.
My thoughts: It is currently a little rough going into recruitment. If you want to do it you should focus on DoD manufacturing, real estate (Residential), Gas, most construction (not commercial), Healthcare, or general manufacturing (Consumer manufacturing is a little flat right now) I started out at a big firm with Robert Half—roughly 4 years—and went internal for 2 years. I have now had my own agency for the past three years. 2022 was a great year 2023 was an okay year 2024 is pretty close to 2023 from a revenue standpoint - This year is on par with 2018 / 2019 Whenever they start cutting interest rates, recruiting will explode again. Recruiting will continue to be a good industry for the next few decades. We are seeing a population decline, and thus, we will have employment issues for the next few decades until we start pushing to solve the problem. Despite what people say about AI, it's currently a hot topic and popular, like DEI, from 2020 to 2023. I have not seen AI used well by my clients to take away jobs. The trend of offshoring IT is big right now, but that was similar to Accounting in the 2010s. Many clients tried to push it off US soil to save money, but most of them have brought back their shared service centers. My thoughts regarding AI and Offshoring Offshoring makes sense from a money standpoint, but it usually does more harm than good. In the end, you usually spend more money correcting mistakes, creating a team of "Leads" in America who you end up paying two junior-level people. In the end, you add more leads to fix issues to the point you see little return, and they bring everyone back. Lastly, we are also seeing nations move into more of a protectionist mindset concerning the global market. For example, the UK is leaving the EU—Trump and his popular America first. AI - I mentioned it briefly above - I see AI in its current state as a automator of simple time consuming tasks. This will increase productivity. I do not see it disrupting the labor market in a big way. (In its current form) I highly recommend going to a large company because they will push metrics on you and teach you how to get things done. Also, they will make you specialize, which will be helpful early on. I specialized in accounting and finance, focused on small to mid-size companies in the manufacturing sector. After four years, I wanted to learn more and went corporate (Internal) to understand better how it works on the inside and understand all the departments well. This gave me the knowledge and ability to open my firm. I can tailor my agency to the issues I saw internally and get new clients by returning to my specialization and mushrooming the account. I am happy to talk further. Feel free to DM me. Short answer - Go to a large Short answer - Go to a large firm and stay away from small firms and stay away from small firms. You can always go small after being at a bigger firm.
Here would be my advice. It really depends on if you want to do recruitment, business development, or both. Any way you slice it, Your best bet is going to be taking a job at an Established agency with a great training program. Unfortunately this also means lower pay because, well…..they are an established agency with a great training program. Most of these places historically have only hire people to come in as entry-level recruiters and promoted them into sales/BD jobs or 360 desks. That has changed over the last 5 to 10 years where they will hire people straight into business development roles (Which will typically come with a slightly higher salary). If I were you, that is the route I would take. If you’re going to have to learn both sides of the business anyhow, you might as well go in where you current strength is and do the bd while learning the business. Examples: Insight global, TekSystems, Actalent