Specialise, or leave the profession.

2020 has sounded a death-knell to generalist recruiters.

From now on, it’s not about finding good candidates, it’s about finding rare ones, there’s a subtle but important difference. And while we’re thinking about who we want to work with, let’s not forget, it’s not big companies we want to work with, it’s fast growing ones. They need our help more and are unlikely to have such hard-baked purchasing rules.

Finding them is an artform. You’ll need to build a discrete community of these specialists that trust you. From technology, through engineering or healthcare, it doesn’t matter which sector you are working in and you don’t need that many of them either. A revolving couple of hundred candidates at the very most. If you position yourself correctly, both clients and candidates will answer your call and close the door when you ring them.

So what’s the key to transforming your status to expert?

Content. And it won’t take long – you’ll need to be committed to publish weekly news items that benefit the community you are serving on multiple websites, as well as your own, and of course the ubiquitous LinkedIn.

It’s worth making the effort to produce surveys, thought leadership pieces, industry news, gossip, niche specific salary guides, networking events, breakfast talks, sponsoring awards and so on. It needn’t make your working week longer, it’s just a different way of working. It’s more varied and a lot more enjoyable too.

Perception is everything. The first time you work a role, you’re a rookie, an inexperienced novice, a numpty. When you’ve filled three or more, you’re someone who understands the market and when you’re regularly pumping out content, you’re an industry spokesperson, then in a few short months, voila you’ve become “The irresistible first choice” recruiter in your niche.

It’s not the early bird who gets the worm anymore – it’s the content writer.