You have to be competitive to succeed as a recruiter, according to Aquent international CEO, Greg Savage. He says this is a core attribute all recruiters must have. Savage doesn't mean competitiveness in an aggressive, "chest-thumping" or sporting context, because he says some of the best recruiters he knows are quiet and understated, but still "intensely competitive". He says: "They hate losing, and they love winning. A great recruiter - if they've lost a job or a candidate - you will not see them leaning back in the chair and saying, 'oh well, win some lose some'. "They take every loss personally and enter the day with the belief that they will fill every job and will place every candidate. They know intellectually that that's not going to happen, but that's their intention. I think that is an attribute of people who are great at this job. They personalise it, they think, 'if I lost that job, that means a person within 100 yards of me' - probably, our competitors are within a square kilometre - 'is celebrating at my expense', and they don't like that. "I think that kind of focussed, robust, intention to win - in the best interests of your candidate and client - makes for a great recruiter. If you don't have that, you can't be successful in the long term because there are too many disappointments in this industry not to absolutely thrive on the feeling of success."

You've gotta be tough, too

Savage says great recruiters also have to have what he calls "ego strength".

"That means perseverance, toughness. This job has many, many frustrations; often you'll feel undervalued, clients let you down, candidates let you down... you can do everything right and still not make the deal. It's very frustrating. And some people might have all the other attributes of a great recruiter but when they've had a bad week or month, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They'll even say things like, 'I've got this great candidate, but the month I'm having, she'll probably turn the offer down.' That becomes self fulfilling."

Savage says even the best recruiters become frustrated, but they manage to turn the situation around.

"What a great recruiter will do is pick up the phone the next time, and straight after a disappointment they will be upbeat and straight into the next conversation, because they realise that the next interaction - with a client or candidate or a colleague - mustn't be affected by the previous interaction and that takes great mental strength to do that.

"So I think toughness is an attribute that great recruiters must have."

Keep growing to avoid "burn out"

Savage says the hardest part of being a recruiter is to avoid what he calls a plateau effect.

"A lot of people come into this industry and at the beginning, they get some training - hopefully - but they also learn a lot on the job, and their learning curve is very steep. Then they start to get some success, and then what happens is they get into pattern of repeating the same things, and it brings them a limited amount of success.

"Often in most companies when people are vaguely successful they get left alone so that they keep producing. And then they plateau and then what happens is people become stale - and mostly when people don't feel that they're growing, that's when they feel dissatisfied.

"So the major challenge is to continue learning, continue developing, continue honing your skills, continue working on the things you're not good at."

It's common for people to focus on the things they're good at and ignore the problem areas, he says, but "that is a recipe for failure".

"If someone has been tremendously successful, you don't get those people walking into your office saying 'I'm burned out'. The people who say that are the ones beginning to fail, and that's because they've stopped learning.

"It's an obligation of both recruiters and the managers and owners of businesses to provide an environment where people never stop growing." (At Aquent, for example, some of the company's top performers are being flown to Bangkok for a few days for a seminar on how to hone their skills, and how to "reignite their enthusiasm" for the job.)

Savage "fell into" recruiting

Savage has worked for only four companies in his 27 years in the industry, starting out when the firm he applied for a job through - after completing a degree in psychology - offered him a position with it instead.

He worked for what was then Accountancy & Personnel in the UK before returning to Australia to open one of its branches, and left the business when it was acquired by Hays in 1986. Together with three colleagues, he set up Recruitment Solutions, which had grown to a $60 million company by the time it listed on the ASX in 1998.

Savage stayed with the company for another two years before taking a break from work, and in 2000 joined Aquent. In the five years since he started, the company's revenue has grown from $10 million to $100 million in the region, and Savage is responsible for offices in 14 countries throughout Europe and Asia Pacific.

Listen to why he loves recruitment. (0.97MB .wav file, best with broadband)

Savage says his best experience in the industry was the day Recruitment Solutions listed on the stock exchange.

"Not for the financial implications, but because we started with $15,000 each - we had nothing, no candidates, no clients - and 10 years later to be a publicly listed company, with the recognition of having developed such a strong business, that was the most satisfying thing I've ever done."