Recruitment in America is so easy it’s now a profitable side hustle (allegedly)

A sure sign the recruitment market has tipped into something akin to gold rush fever is when articles such as Why you should consider starting a recruiting agency in 2022: The sky is the limit if you’re prepared to put the work in appear on reputable news sites such as Fast Company which published the aforementioned article last week.

The article’s author, Ben Nader, is a 30-something “recruiter vlogger entrepreneur” based in Seattle, Washington.

Nader’s article is little more than a plug for his recruitment platform Recruiter Empire.

“Recruiter Empire is the largest growth network for recruiting and staffing entrepreneurs online. The empire has several info product programs to help entrepreneurs build and scale recruiting empires. The rise of the talent acquisition industry and recruitment overall is massive and we want to empower the individual entrepreneur to get into this space!”

Nader’s business is so 21^st Century it doesn’t appear to have a website. The links provided are for a Facebook page (5,957 followers) and a YouTube channel.

Nader wears a hoddie, a backwards-facing cap, and has the enthusiasm and patter of a late-night infomercial spruiker.

The YouTube channel is updated daily and is chock full of videos with titles such as “5 Steps to Start Recruiting Right Now”, “Making Your First $1 mm”, “You’ll Never Get Rich Working for Somebody Else”, “The Secrets to getting Candidates Hired”, you get the idea. Despite the channel’s 18.8 k subscribers, most videos have between 500 and 1500 views.

Nader’s business model is for people to join his platform to learn how to become a self-employed recruitment consultant as a side hustle. Yes, you read that right – it appears most of the people participating in the program are currently employees working a full-time job.

The credibility for Nader’s entrepreneurial zeal in recruitment appears to be his six years as Founder and President of Seattle Search Solutions which has the most content-free website of any recruitment business I have come across.

The company’s home page’s promise of “We aim to please.  We are here to serve clients of Seattle and the greater PNW. We work with large and small companies and candidates of various industries” is possibly the most uninspiring and generic recruitment agency tag line in history.

A LinkedIn search indicates Seattle Search Solutions has one other employee.

Nader’s LinkedIn profile has a five-year gap between his graduation in 2011 and the first job listed on his profile; Account Relationship Manager – Microsoft (July 2017 – January 2018).

Impressively Nader’s has accumulated 50 LinkedIn Recommendations, all positively glowing in highlighting Nader’s mentoring skills, passion, caring and the results his programs and mentoring have provided.

Anyway, back to Nader’s article in Fast Company. Here are the three reasons he is urging people to start their own recruitment agency:

1. It’s a Growing Industry: “The sector is in the middle of a revolution. No longer is the field led by only huge recruitment companies; smaller agencies and independent recruiters are now in the mix. If you can capitalize on this, huge profits could await you.”
2. There’s a Labour Shortage: “It’s not exactly a secret that 2021 massively shifted the balance of power in recruiting. Many organizations are increasing salaries and perks to attract the limited labor supply. By providing your recruiting services, you can help companies that are in desperate need of attracting workers.”
3. The Business Model is Simple: “I’ve found recruitment to be one of the more straightforward business models. There’s no need to rent a physical office; you won’t need any employees until you decide to scale your business, and there are practically no overheads. You’ll require a desk, a computer, Internet access, and a LinkedIn subscription—but once you have all of these, you’re pretty much sorted.”

Nader’s confidence that being a self-employed recruiter is a step almost anybody could take is summarised thus:

“Unlike many other sectors, it doesn’t require any specific experience or knowledge. Your job is to build professional and personal relationships with your clients, listen to their needs, and deliver on what they’re looking for.”

According to Nader a person not only requires zero specific experience or knowledge there are only three basic competencies necessary to succeed as a recruiter:

“…three of the most ideal skills for someone moving into the recruiting game are time management, organization, and sales experience. If you have all three, along with motivation, there’s no reason you shouldn’t succeed.”

As for where to start pitching your services as a newly-minted recruiter, well, anywhere seems good, according to Nader:

“I tell people to step into three or four spaces and reach out to decision-makers at companies, via LinkedIn or cold email, to get their foot in the door. If you swing the bat enough times, you’ll hit a home run sooner rather than later.”

Good old U.S. of A. – the land of opportunity and the spirit of “fake it ‘til you make it” is still very much alive and well.

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