Recruiting for Recruiters: Which College Degrees are Best?

Recruiting for recruiters is not as easy as one might think.  Sure, you can always hire for experience, but that doesn’t always guarantee a great recruiter.

If you are considering hiring college grads, there are several degrees that you can focus on in your candidate search.

Communications

When hiring for my recruiting teams in the past, I found that new grads with college degrees in communications were often successful in recruiting.

Plain and simple, recruiting is all about communicating and building relationships with people – clients and candidates.  A good recruiter enjoys communicating with people and will have the ability to get people to open up to him or her in conversation.

Most of the time, I found that grads with degrees concentrated in communication had good communication skills and enjoyed speaking with others.  This is key for a successful recruiter.

Business / Sales

Recruiting is sales – no if’s, and’s or but’s about it.  If you have a recruiter who is unable to close the deal, you have a recruiter who will rarely make a placement.

Grads who have specialized in business sales related degrees typically have the drive and desire that a good recruiter needs in order to close the deal.  Not only will these grads understand how business works, but they will also understand the foundation of sales and what is needed in order to make deals happen.

Marketing

Recruiting is marketing.  Not only is a recruiter responsible for marketing job opportunities to potential candidates, but he or she is also responsible for marketing candidates to their clients.

A grad who has the knowledge and understanding of marketing strategies will know how to best present their jobs and candidates.  This is a valuable skill for any recruiter and will give them the ability to attract even those tough to find candidates.

While marketing is not necessarily a guarantee that a person will be a successful recruiter, it is a worthy skill to have in order to be successful.

HR

While recruiting is a part of HR, I have always been very careful when considering grads with degrees solely in HR.  Based on my experience, many of these grads are more interested in the behind the scenes part of hiring such as employee relations, benefits, etc.

A good recruiter should be fearless when it comes to calling on passive candidates and persistently following up with candidates and clients.  He or she will boldly make themself visible on social media platforms as well as at networking events in order to find the top talent that their clients so desperately need.

While HR knowledge is definitely a great skill to have in a recruiter, it is not the most important skill starting out in order to be successful in the industry.

What has your experience been when hiring college grads as recruiters? What degrees have you had the best luck with?

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