After two years in college, I started panicking just by looking at my resume. Do I have enough work experience that can enable me to find a stable job after I graduate? To be specific, a job that I enjoy and that strongly relates to what I have been studying. As a journalism and business double major, I have always wanted an internship in the social media and marketing field. But this summer, I landed an internship that involves barely any writing or promotion through marketing.
“Hello, good morning. My name is Kristie. I am calling from XXX Recruitment.” This is how my morning routine usually goes. Never have I imagined, I would step into a headhunting company, screening hundreds of resumes and making at least 30 candidate calls a day. Yes, it can be tedious and most importantly, boring as hell. To be honest, I never thought of pursuing a career in human resources and recruitment field. On the first day of work, I went through tons of training. I hated it. There is a database all consultants in my company can use to get access to all candidates that have applied through our agency to look for a job. The skill I can actually use what I have learnt in school and from previous work experiences is through writing job advertisement. For the first week, I have that negative thought that I will hate this internship, for that this is not what I want to do in the future, it is nothing near to working for a big newspaper.
However, gradually, I learned a lot from the senior consultant I am paired up with. There is a tradition at my company that whoever gets a deal will ring a bell in the office—one out of a few hundred candidates is no longer jobless. He or she has signed a contract with a company that best fits him or her. I sit in on quite a few client and candidate meetings while I look through their resumes and counting their work experiences. Each of them has a story behind and a reason they come to us and have high hope that we can assist them to land a job. I guess this is part of the reason why I want to learn and make the most out of this ‘mundane’ internship.
Indeed, people can be quite rude sometimes and hang up on you as soon as they know you are just recruiting. People who aren’t looking out just view you as someone who is advertising and they aren’t entirely wrong. Recruiting is a sales marketing job. Well, I guess this counts as something I want in a job—to market. In other words, to sell a job to a candidate who may or may not looking for a job opportunity. It is pretty funny that I actually get myself into a position that needs to help someone to find a job, instead of finding myself an actual job related to what I want to work.
And now, I am used to waking up pretty early and continuing with my daily routine. I still remember when I was first interviewed by one of the senior consultants. He first asked me, “Do you know what did you get yourself into?” He continued, “It is recruiting and that is not for everyone. Try to enjoy this roller coaster ride.”
I am not going to lie, it has only been three weeks as a professional consultant and there is always something new every day, no matter if it is about how poor a candidate is in presenting himself or how messy a resume is. The feeling after hearing a candidate say, “Thank you, Kristie. I will look into this opportunity,” after a phone call, is pretty nice. I am another step closer in helping a candidate in landing a job and getting a stable salary.
