What exactly can a specialist recruiter do for you?

People frequently assume that working in recruitment and filling roles and placing candidates is a fairly straightforward process. A role comes up, a candidate fills it.
Ha! If only it were that easy!
In order for you to better understand exactly what it is I do, I thought I’d give you a little insight into a time where my knowledge and experience in the industry turned around a potentially disastrous situation.
A global business had contacted me for help filling a position they’d unsuccessfully been trying to fill for a few months. Thanks to my awesome pool of candidates, 3 solid potentials immediately came to mind. All a great fit for the role, all with a diverse mix of backgrounds and all with 3+ years in Pharmaceuticals Sales Rep positions or FMCG. Plus, they also had spent significant time as veterinary nurses so they had a great understanding of how a veterinary hospital ran. Something that made this role a little tricky was the slightly lower salary on offer but each of these candidates came in within those parameters. While none of them had veterinary or animal health direct sales experience, each candidate was extremely passionate about the industry and genuinely excited about securing a role like this.
After phone screening and interviews with my client, their decision landed on the candidate with probably the least amount of experience but some of the highest recommendations. The CEO of one of Australia’s largest banks had awarded this person the award for #1 in Customer Service nationally. An award they won when they were only 19! All my dealings with this candidate were indicative of how professional they were and I found that they were consistently articulate and passionate. In my opinion, we had a budding Animal Health Industry Super Star who also had a good understanding of business. This process could not be going any better!
Now, if my job was just find role, fill role, this is where my story would end. We had an incredible candidate who was excited about her new position. She’d landed her dream role with her dream company in the perfect location and with a pay increase. Then there was my client, they’d been searching for months without any luck and then here I was able to secure this gem. They were happy, she was happy, it was a match made in heaven.
A week out from my candidate’s start date, I received an email from her explaining that she was no longer able to accept the position. What the, WHAT?!
She’d just found out she was 11 weeks pregnant and believed the right thing to do would be to turn down the role. The client and the candidate were both really disappointed but agreed there’d be another person in a better position to accept this role. Having set the bar so high with this candidate, my client now wanted to see who else was out there. We were back to square one.
Now, this is where my years of experience and knowledge of the industry comes in to play. Despite the disappointment of the situation, I was able to confidently tell my client, “You know, I actually think I have someone even better for you.”
This next candidate had actually worked for another Animal Health Sales role and came highly recommended by both their previous and their current manager. She had lasted the longest of anyone in that position and was very highly respected by anyone who knew of her. She already had dealings with customers she’d be working with in the new role, she lived on territory and this new role would also be a pay increase. The boxes were swiftly being ticked.
The interview process happened within a 48 hour turnaround and this new candidate was hired within 4 days. Unsurprisingly, she’s kicking all kinds of huge goals in her role and the client is extremely happy with how it all turned out.
I understand that from the perspective of the client, when you deal with a recruiter, all you see is a CV in your inbox and you may be inclined to think you’ve just received a very expensive resumé. I hope this story helps you to see there’s so much more to it. I have been at this for over 14 years and in that time I’ve spoken to, seen, met and interviewed several thousands of candidates nationally and globally. I’m specialised in this industry and make it my business to stay in touch with all my candidates earning a good reputation for what I do. I enjoy the challenge of finding the needle in a haystack, ably assisted by my great network of candidates and impressive database of only the best talent.
If you’re struggling with a hard-to-fill role and are looking for speed to market with top-tier talent, I’m your guy! Get in touch to find out how I can help you achieve your recruitment goals or to hear many more stories, similar to this, where I’ve helped my clients find their happy ever after.

Shannon Wood, Managing Director S8 Expert Recruitment Solutions. I have over 14 years recruitment experience specialising in the animal health industry across the ANZ region. Areas of expertise include sales and marketing, technical roles (Quality Assurance, Quality Control & Regulatory Affairs) and operational & financial positions. I work extensively in the veterinary, ruminant, monogastric, aquaculture and the pet specialty industries and I look forward to the next 14 years.