Good communication skills are critical to a role as a recruitment consultant. Much of a recruitment consultant's work involves utilizing advanced interpersonal skills to build rapport separately with organizations and candidates, understand the needs and personality traits of both in order to determine whether there is a good match and then facilitate an interview process.

Recruitment consultants assist recruiters to identify, select and recruit staff for their vacancies, and help individuals find and gain appropriate employment. Great marketing, sales and persuasion skills are critical to a job as a recruitment consultant.

Recruitment consultants are also responsible for:

• interviewing and assessing prospective applicants and matching them with vacancies
• screening candidates and drawing up shortlists of candidates for clients to interview
• coordinating interviews
• creating and placing advertisements
• helping prepare applicants for interviews
• building relationships with clients
• negotiating employment contracts
• headhunting

The background and experience of recruitment consultants is varied with personal characteristics such as interpersonal skills, communication skills, confidence and initiative being the more common traits. For graduates, a degree in any discipline is acceptable for entry into the profession, although a qualification in a relevant subject such as human resources, marketing, psychology, business studies or management is beneficial. For specialist recruitment consultants, qualifications in IT, accountancy or engineering may be required. Key skills for recruitment consultants include:

• Verbal and written communication
• Good sales skills
• Drive   Determination
• Commercial awareness
• Advanced organizational skills