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Job description: Account Manager
Happy people make for good business. As an Account Manager in recruitment, you'd be making sure the employers were well looked after, catering for their needs and bringing them the best staff you can find.
Knowing the needs or your clients would be an important part of your role. You'd be keeping excellent relationships with employers, whilst helping them find the best employees for their business. This would mean overlooking the whole recruitment process from job descriptions to making sure Recruitment Consultants were choosing the correct candidates.
Daily you'd be talking with the businesses to understand what it is they must have and advising them on what they may require. You'd also be interviewing potential employees, overlooking teams of consultants, deal with a number of recruitment enquiries.
Social relations would play a large part of your job also. You'd have to promote your organisation, often looking for new clients to build a larger contacts list to expand the business, whilst taking care of existing employers.
Hours/Environment
In most cases you'd be working from nine until six, Monday to Friday, although extra hours could be expected on some occasions.
For most of the time you'd be based in an office building, often with your own separate room. Due to frequent meetings with clients, travel would come with the job. For this reason, a driving license would be handy.
Skills and interests
To be a good Account Manager, you must:
- have excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
- be tactful and articulate
- be analytical and methodical in your approach to problems
- be an excellent judge of character
- be motivated and results driven
- be able to act quickly and decisively
- have good IT skills
- have a good eye for detail
- have excellent organisational skills
Entry
Academic qualifications won't be necessary to become a Account Manager, but having GCSEs/S grades would give you an advantage. More and more employers that deal with executive placements are now taking on graduates.
If working in a specific sector then a detailed knowledge and experience of the field would be extremely important and help stand you in good stead.
Experience would be a great advantage to you, as this is how many people enter the role. This can include work in personnel, sales or office work. And there is no upper age limit for entry. Personal qualities would also be greatly important, particularly 'people skills' and your judge of character. You'd particularly need to demonstrate leadership skills, strong initiative and ,in some cases, experience in a supervisory position.
Training
If you join a large agency it is likely to run in-house training programmes lasting up to 12 weeks. These programmes will include on-the-job training and courses run by the agencies' own staff. Other agencies could send you on external courses run by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).
The REC offers two awards, available through distance learning:
- The Foundation Award in Recruitment Practice. This would be appropriate in your first two years in the industry, or if you wish to refresh basic knowledge and skills. If you want to embark on a career in recruitment or set up your own agency, you could also take the Award.
- The Certificate in Recruitment Practice. With at least one years' experience, this would be useful for you, or if you have less experience, but have studied for A levels/H grades, a degree or equivalent.
Also offered is a Diploma in Recruitment Practice, which would usually apply to you if you have a year or more experience in recruitment consultancy.
The REC also offers a range of professional development short courses covering subjects such as sales, interview techniques, employment law, finance and management.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development offers the Certificate in Recruitment and Selection, available through distance learning, plus a range of professional development short courses in interviewing techniques, employment law and psychometric testing.
NVQ/SVQ Level 3 is available in Recruitment Consultancy.
Opportunities
There are thousands of recruitment agencies in the United Kingdom. Most deal with office workers, but if your interests or expertise lie in a specific area, there are many specialist agencies also. If you work in a general agency, it is possible to transfer your skills over into a specialist placement.
With experience, larger companies with a defined promotion structure may offer opportunities to move into branch management and then even onto a regional management position. Alternatively, you could choose to set up your own agency.
Annual income
As an Account Manager, your standard salary would range between £25,000 and £30,000. As much of the work is commission based, your earnings would increase depending on how well you reach your targets. With high levels of achievement, your On Target Earnings (OTE) can be between £35,000 and £60,000.
Salaries will depend on the type and size of consultancy and organisations in London are likely to pay higher. Some of the top OTEs can range up to £100,000.
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