Recruitment Is A Get Rich Slowly Industry

Something I keep seeing, without fail, in the most successful recruitment companies I meet: they are completely and unapologetically themselves.

They are clear on what they stand for, what their standards are, and what they will not accept. And they protect that inwardly and outwardly every single day.

The companies that struggle? They sit somewhere in the middle. Trying to be something they think they should be. Softening their edges when someone pushes back. Drifting from what made them good.

This week's podcast episode with Joe and John-Joe from Metric was the perfect reminder of why that clarity is everything.

You Peak In Recruitment Later Than You Think

A few people have said this to me recently. Experienced recruiters, leaders, people who have been in this industry long enough to know. And every time I hear it, I think the same thing: more people need to hear this.

You peak in recruitment at five-plus years.

You may have had a manager say this to you at some point. If you have, they were right. If nobody has ever told you, I'm telling you now.

Here's the thing about our industry. We are very good at selling the short game. First-year earnings potential. The £100k year one. Fast progression, quick wins, what you can achieve before you're 25. And those things are real. They happen. They matter.

But the recruiters who truly understand how powerful this career can be know something different. It isn't about what you do in year one. It's about what you do in year five and beyond. That's where the best numbers come from. That's where the real compounding kicks in.

The perfect analogy is the S&P 500.

If you had invested £10,000 ten years ago and left it alone, that investment would be worth around £30,000 today. You didn't have to do anything clever. You just had to stay in. And that decade included a pandemic crash and a year where the market dropped nearly 20%.

The people who pulled out in those moments locked in their losses and missed everything that followed. The people who stayed the course tripled their money.

Your recruitment career works exactly the same way.

Every year you commit to your market is a deposit. Every relationship you build, every placement you make, every conversation with a client who says no this time, it all goes in.

The returns aren't always visible in the moment. But they are compounding underneath the surface, whether you can see them or not.

In years one and two, you're learning. Getting rejected. Figuring out what good looks like. The effort feels disproportionate to the return, and sometimes it is. But you're building something.

By years three and four, the network starts to pay back quietly. Candidates you placed come back as hiring managers. Clients who said no the first time say yes because you stayed consistent and kept showing up. The calls get easier.

By year five, six, seven? Your name means something in your market.

You don't have to chase the same business you used to chase. The ecosystem works for you in a way that took years to build and cannot be replicated quickly by someone starting out today. That's when the best billers hit their best numbers. Not because they got lucky. Because they stayed long enough for the compounding to do its work.

And yet the industry has a retention problem nobody talks about honestly. Recruiters hit a hard quarter. They lose a deal they should have won. The effort stops feeling proportional to the return. And they leave. They never find out what they were building towards.

A hard quarter in recruitment is the 2022 market downturn. It feels like the reason to get out. It's actually just part of the cycle.

That is why this message matters. And it is probably one of the most important things any manager will ever say to someone who joins this industry.

If you are genuinely committed to the craft of recruitment, consistently striving to get better, avoiding complacency, stay in the game. Keep depositing. The compounding will build whether you can see it or not. And that payoff at year five, seven, eight? It's real. 

The best in this industry know it. That's exactly why they stayed.

Don't quit before the compounding kicks in.

This week, I sat down with Joe Jani and John-Joe from Metric, a business that went from a startup in 2019 to a $100 million valuation in six years. 

What stood out for me most in this conversation wasn't the numbers. It was how intentional they were from day one. Clear on their market, clear on their standards, clear on who they wanted to be. 

If the compounding idea in today's edition resonated with you, this episode is the proof of what it looks like when you stay the course and build something properly. Well worth your time.

This week's takeaway is simple but powerful: go and gather the evidence.

If you are in your first five years, go and ask the most experienced recruiters around you when they believe they peaked in their career. 

When did the billings get easier?

When did the relationships compound?

When did it all start to click?

What year did they earn the most ££? 

You will hear the same answer over and over again. Let that be your proof.

What are you building right now that year-seven you will be grateful for?

Keep smashing it & honing your craft!

Hishem x

Know a recruiter who needs to hear this? Send it their way.

P.S. We have a sold-out live podcast event tonight - thank you, and I will see a number of you this evening!