What does it take to become a Recruitment Consultant?

[muser]

All,

I just had a conversation with an agency bloke which almost knocked me off my chair.

[after hello, formalities....]
Agency: Listen, my client require someone with insurance background. I see from your CV that your last contract is with ABC Insurance Ltd, Leeds.
Agency: Is it fair to say that ABC Insurance Ltd is an Insurance company?
Me: [speechless for a second....] Yes of course
[conversation continues...]
Agency: Ok. I 'll send you the job spec.

I'm quite interested to find out the skillset required to become a recruitment consultant.
Or have I stepped into a twilight zone?

PS. I have deliberately changed the sector, company name and location for obvious reasons.

[BrilloPad]

If you have any morals you need an ethical bypass.

[up4it]

I did research one recruitment consultant who contacted me recently and their previous job was as a Customer Services Assistant for a very large grocery supermarket!

To be fair to her she was more professional, personable and approachable than most agents. She may well have been a graduate and just filling in time at the supermarket information desk!

[formant]

It takes remarkably little. The few better ones (also often the better qualified ones) eventually move on to in-house recruiter roles or launch their own agencies. I worked with a lot of in-house recruiters not too long ago on a large software deployment project. They all started at agencies. Staff turnover is high apparently - anyone gets a shot, most people suck at it. Kind of like most sales environments.

[Liamxtype]

I did research one recruitment consultant who contacted me recently and their previous job was as a Customer Services Assistant for a very large grocery supermarket!

I applied for a role recently, never even got a call from the "Consultant" but got a LinkedIn connection request within an hour, according to LI, he was a double glazing salesman six months ago!

[BrilloPad]

I applied for a role recently, never even got a call from the "Consultant" but got a LinkedIn connection request within an hour, according to LI, he was a double glazing salesman six months ago!

So why did he take a step down?

[centurian]

He was a double glazing salesman six months ago!

Not a complete surprise though - there is a lot of skill crossover - thick skin, not taking 'no' for an answer, ignoring what the customer actually wants and selling them what you want them to have.