Trainee Recruitment Consultant

AT Talent - Rec2Rec; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 20,000 - 32,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Uncapped commission

Hybrid working

27 days annual leave

Birthday off

Free local gym membership

Quarterly incentive trips

Job summary

AT Talent - Rec2Rec in Manchester is seeking a motivated Trainee Recruitment Consultant to join a specialist technology recruitment business. You will work with experienced recruiters, learn the market, and develop consultative skills to match top tech talent with great opportunities.

You’ll balance sales activity with relationship building, candidate sourcing and market research, progressing through a structured development plan with transparent performance targets and supportive leadership.

Qualifications

• No previous recruitment experience required.
• Naturally competitive and motivated by achievement.
• Able to handle targets and learn quickly.

Responsibilities

• Building and developing relationships with candidates and clients within a specialist technology market.
• Identifying and engaging with high-quality technology professionals through proactive sourcing and networking.
• Understanding clients’ businesses, hiring requirements and wider challenges rather than simply taking job specifications.
• Conducting candidate interviews and assessing suitability for individual opportunities.
• Developing a strong understanding of a specialist technology market, including roles, skills, salaries and market trends.
• Winning new business through proactive business development and relationship building.

Skills

Attitude

Ambition

Resilience

Communication

Commercial awareness

Phone skills

Job description

An ambitious and commercially minded individual is being offered the opportunity to build a long-term career within specialist technology recruitment.

This is an opportunity for someone who is competitive, resilient and motivated by success, but who also understands the importance of building genuine relationships. The successful individual will join an established, growing recruitment business that has deliberately built its reputation around specialist market knowledge, honest communication and a consultative approach to recruitment.

Rather than operating as a high-volume recruitment agency, the business works within clearly defined technology markets, allowing its consultants to develop genuine expertise and become trusted advisers to both clients and candidates. Its approach is centred on understanding the bigger picture, asking the right questions and delivering the right people — not simply sending CVs.

The Role

As a Trainee Recruitment Consultant, the successful candidate will receive structured training and support to develop into a specialist recruitment consultant.

The role will combine sales, relationship management, market research and candidate sourcing, with responsibility increasing as knowledge, confidence and performance develop.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Building and developing relationships with candidates and clients within a specialist technology market.
• Identifying and engaging with high-quality technology professionals through proactive sourcing and networking.
• Understanding clients’ businesses, hiring requirements and wider challenges rather than simply taking job specifications.
• Conducting candidate interviews and assessing suitability for individual opportunities.
• Developing a strong understanding of a specialist technology market, including roles, skills, salaries and market trends.
• Winning new business through proactive business development and relationship building.
• Managing the recruitment process from initial conversation through to successful placement.
• Maintaining regular communication with candidates and clients throughout the process.
• Providing honest, commercially valuable advice and becoming a trusted recruitment partner.
• Working towards individual targets and taking ownership of personal performance.
• Contributing to the wider team’s success through collaboration, knowledge sharing and a positive attitude.

What Makes the Role Different?

The business believes recruitment should be based on clarity, context and relationships.

Its consultants become specialists in their markets rather than generalist recruiters. This means the successful candidate will have the opportunity to develop genuine expertise in an area of technology and build a reputation within that market.

The business has grown through strong client relationships and repeat business, with clients valuing its understanding of their organisations, market knowledge and quality of delivery. Its consultants are expected to become partners to their clients, not simply suppliers of candidates.

This creates a more consultative and commercially rewarding environment for someone who wants to build a career rather than simply work in recruitment.

Who They’re Looking For

Previous recruitment experience isn’t required. The most important qualities are attitude, ambition and potential.

The ideal candidate will be:

• Naturally competitive and motivated by achievement.
• Comfortable working towards targets and being accountable for results.
• Resilient and able to deal with setbacks without losing momentum.
• Confident communicating with a wide range of people.
• Curious and genuinely interested in learning.
• Commercially minded with an interest in sales and business.
• Organised and capable of managing multiple priorities.
• Proactive rather than waiting to be told what to do.
• Comfortable picking up the phone and having conversations with new people.
• Ambitious about developing a career and progressing within a growing business.
• A strong team player who enjoys contributing to a collaborative environment.

Experience in sales, retail, hospitality, customer service, account management or another target-driven environment would be beneficial, but personality, work ethic and potential are more important than a particular background.

Training & Development

The successful candidate will receive ongoing training and development from experienced recruiters and leaders who remain actively involved in the recruitment process themselves.

Training will cover areas including:

• Recruitment fundamentals.
• Candidate sourcing and headhunting.
• Sales and business development.
• Client relationship management.
• Interviewing and candidate assessment.
• Negotiation.
• Technology market knowledge.
• Desk management and personal performance.

The expectation is not that a trainee arrives knowing how to recruit. The expectation is that they arrive hungry to learn, willing to work hard and determined to become excellent at it.

Progression

The business has ambitious growth plans, creating genuine opportunities for career progression.

A transparent career pathway and clear performance-based promotion criteria mean progression is based on achievement rather than simply time served.

For an ambitious individual, the long-term opportunity could progress from trainee consultant to established specialist consultant, through to senior, lead and principal-level positions, with opportunities to take on greater responsibility and ultimately develop and lead others.

What They Offer

• Uncapped commission.
• Clear, transparent career progression.
• Structured training and ongoing development.
• Hybrid working — 3 days in the office and 2 from home.
• 27 days’ annual leave plus Christmas shutdown.
• Birthday off.
• Free local gym membership.
• Quarterly incentive trips and team events.
• 4pm finish every Friday.
• Opportunities to finish at 1pm through performance incentives.
• Last Friday of the month off for achieving 150% of target.
• A collaborative, supportive working environment.
• Direct access to experienced recruiters and directors who remain hands‑on in the business.

The Person

Ultimately, this role is suited to someone who wants to build something for themselves.

Someone who enjoys winning, wants to be rewarded for their performance and is prepared to put the work in. Someone who can handle rejection, learn from mistakes and keep pushing forward. But equally, someone who understands that the best recruitment careers are built on relationships, reputation and trust.

The business can teach recruitment.

What it can’t teach is ambition, resilience, personality and hunger to succeed.

For the right individual, this is an opportunity to enter a specialist sector with excellent earning potential, structured development and a genuine long-term career path.