Why on earth would anyone want to be a recruitment consultant?

About a week ago I caught up with an old friend who asked me what I do for a living? "I find people new jobs and companies new employees" I said. "Uh, so you mean your work is to find other people work?" She replied, puzzled. "I thought you studied psychology?"

It wasn't until I sat looking across from her that I realsied what an oxymoron my job description seems to be. My work is finding other people work. It's funny really that nobody ever dreams about growing up to become a recruitment consultant. We dream of becoming doctors or vets, psychologists (as in my case) or hairdressers, teachers or architects, but never recruitment consultants.

And now that I am one, I can't imagine why I hadn't been dreaming of this for years. This has to be the most rewarding job in the world! When you consider that the average person spends 8 hours at work 5 days a week, and so much additional time is spent going to and from work, talking about work, planning for work, even dreaming about work, it becomes swiftly apparent to me that as a recruitment consultant I have the ability to improve peoples lives dramatically.

I'm not repairing hearts as a surgeon would, treating emotional issues as a psychologist would, or designing beauitul houses as an architect would. Instead I'm helping people find work that they love, helping to prevent the stress of being in a terrible working environment that could lead to heart issues and emotional problems, and helping people grow into positions where they will one day be able to employ that architect to design their dream house.

I'm helping to improve company productivity, and as I love to say, helping people to add 5 days to their week!