Recruitment Consultant CV Example (UK)

A Recruitment Consultant CV in the UK is read by a branch manager or a director who has read thousands of them and will judge yours as a sample of your work. They want the desk you ran, the sectors and roles you filled, your billings and whether they came from temp margin or permanent fees, and the clients you won rather than inherited. A consultant who cannot put a number on their own desk will struggle to sell a candidate to a client.

The Sample CV below is for a Recruitment Consultant with six years on IT and healthcare desks at two Midlands agencies, running a 360 desk and holding the REC Certificate in Recruitment Practice. Each bullet gives a billing figure, a placement count or a client won, and the method behind it: a built candidate pool, a redesigned temp booking process, a structured client visit.

Tailor it to the agency's model. A specialist perm desk wants fees and new business; a high-volume temp desk wants fill rates and compliance; an in-house talent acquisition team wants hiring manager relationships and time to hire. The US counterpart of this page is the recruiter resume example, written for American employers on Letter paper. The Prime template suits a consultant's CV without looking like a candidate pack.

Updated . The person and employers in this Sample CV are fictional. Written for applicants in the UK; the page for applicants in the US is the recruiter resume example.

Recruitment Consultant sample CV

Drawn at A4 proportions, the paper a UK CV is printed on.

Danielle Fairbrother

Recruitment Consultant, 360 desk, IT and Healthcare, CertRP

Birmingham, B3danielle.fairbrother@example.com07700 900734

Summary

Recruitment Consultant with six years on IT contract and healthcare temp desks in the Midlands, running a 360 desk from business development to offer. Billed £312,000 in the last financial year against a target of £240,000, with 41 permanent placements and a contract book of 18 running contractors. Wins clients by visiting them, keeps candidates by calling them back, and writes job adverts that people actually apply to.

Experience

Senior Recruitment Consultant, IT Contract and Permanent, Midlands Technical Resourcing

– Present

Birmingham

  • Billed £312,000 in the last financial year on a 360 IT desk against a target of £240,000, from 41 permanent placements and a running contract book of 18 developers and testers.
  • Won eleven new client accounts, including two NHS trusts and a Midlands building society, through site visits and a monthly salary report that clients now forward to their hiring managers.
  • Cut average time from brief to shortlist from nine working days to four by building talent pools for recurring roles and holding a weekly call with every active client.
  • Took over a cold desk in my first quarter and rebuilt it to the branch's top-billing desk within eighteen months.
Recruitment Consultant, Healthcare Temp Desk, Bridgewater Care Recruitment

–

Coventry

  • Ran a temp desk of 60 to 80 healthcare assistants and support workers a week across twelve care homes and two hospices, with weekly gross margin of about £6,500 at peak.
  • Redesigned the shift booking and compliance process so every worker had an in-date DBS, right-to-work check and training record before a first shift; the agency passed two client audits with no findings.
  • Grew the desk by five new care homes in a year through referrals from existing clients and a Saturday cover service no competitor offered.

Education

BA (Hons) Business and Marketing, 2:1

Heart of England University, Coventry

Skills

  • 360 recruitment
  • Business development and client visits
  • Candidate sourcing and headhunting
  • Boolean search and job boards
  • Contract and permanent placements
  • Temp margin and compliance
  • Bullhorn
  • Offer negotiation and counter-offers
  • Agency Workers Regulations and IR35 awareness
  • Writing job adverts

Certifications

  • Certificate in Recruitment Practice (CertRP), Level 3, Recruitment and Employment Confederation,

Start yours from this example

Opens this sample in the editor, in one of the templates below. Swap in your details, then tailor it to each vacancy in about two minutes.

Use this example

How a UK CV differs

A UK Recruitment Consultant CV is a different document from the American recruiter's resume because the job is different. Most UK consultants work for an agency on a 360 desk with a billing target and a commission scheme, and the CV is read for billings, fees and margin before anything else. The regulator is the REC and its Code of Professional Practice; the compliance vocabulary is right-to-work, the Agency Workers Regulations, IR35 and the Conduct Regulations; and the qualification is the REC Certificate rather than an HR degree.

For a recruitment consultant in the UK

  1. Billings, not hires

    Give annual billings against target, the split between temp margin and perm fees, and placement counts. Write them in pounds with the financial year, so a director can compare you with their own consultants in one glance.

  2. Desk, sector and model

    Say what desk you ran: 360 or delivery only, temp, contract or perm, which sector and which roles. A healthcare temp desk and an IT contract desk are hired differently, and the branch manager needs to know which you can walk into.

  3. Clients won, not just served

    UK agencies pay for business development. Count the accounts you opened yourself, name the kind of client, and keep inherited accounts separate so the number is believed.

  4. REC, compliance and the Conduct Regulations

    List the CertRP or REC Level 3 with the year, and show you ran a compliant desk: right-to-work and DBS checks before a first shift, Agency Workers Regulations after twelve weeks, IR35 status on contract roles.

  5. Agency to in-house

    If you are applying to an in-house talent acquisition team, move hiring manager relationships, time to hire and candidate experience above billings. In-house teams in the UK rarely care about fees and often distrust a CV that leads with them.

Every CV in the UK

A4 paper
Set the page to A4, 210 by 297 millimetres. A Letter-sized PDF prints with odd margins on A4 and reads as imported from the US.
Two pages is normal
Most UK CVs run to two pages. One page suits a first job; three is rare and only for senior roles with a lot to show.
No photo, no date of birth
UK employers do not expect a photo, a date of birth, marital status or nationality on a CV, and most prefer not to see them.
Dates as DD/MM/YYYY
Day first where a full date appears, and month and year for each role: "Mar 2022 – Present". Never the US month-first order.
British English
Organise, programme, centre, licence, specialise. A CV in American spelling reads as written for somewhere else.
Town and postcode area, not a street address
A line such as "Manchester, M4" is enough. A full postal address, and the US-style "City, ST 12345" line, are not expected.

More on applying in the UK, with every CV example for it, on the UK page.

Templates for the recruitment consultant CV

All templates

Every template exports on A4. The previews are drawn on Letter; the editor sets the page size when you export.

How the CV changes with experience

The same recruitment consultant CV, written at three levels: a profile and three bullets for each.

Entry level

Zero to two years, or a first post in the title

Resourcer with a year of experience sourcing, screening and booking candidates for an engineering desk, ready for a trainee or associate consultant role with a target.

  • Sourced and screened candidates for 30 to 40 live engineering vacancies a month and booked the interviews.
  • Built the desk's first candidate pool for CNC machinists, which filled four roles without a job advert.
  • Rewrote the desk's job advert template, which brought more applications per advert within a month.

Mid level

Three to seven years, owns a process or a workload

Recruitment Consultant with four years on a permanent finance desk, billing consistently above target for an independent agency in Leeds.

  • Fill 35 to 45 permanent accountancy roles a year for practice and industry clients.
  • Won the agency's largest client, a regional accountancy practice, through a referral and a structured pitch.
  • Report monthly on pipeline, billings and conversion to the branch manager.

Senior

Eight years or more, leads people, budgets or programmes

Branch Manager with twelve years in recruitment, running a team of nine consultants across temp and perm desks with a branch budget of £2.1 million in annual billings.

  • Manage nine consultants and two resourcers with responsibility for targets, commission and hiring.
  • Opened a second branch that reached profit in its first year.
  • Hold the agency's REC audited status and oversee compliance for 300 temporary workers a week.

Skills to put on the recruitment consultant CV

Hard skills

360 recruitment
Most UK agency vacancies expect you to win the client, fill the role and manage the offer, and the breadth shows you can run a desk alone.
Business development
New clients are what turn a warm desk into a top-billing one, and directors ask how many accounts you opened rather than inherited.
Sourcing and headhunting
The best candidates are not applying, and a consultant who can find and approach them fills the roles nobody else can.
Temp compliance
Right-to-work checks, DBS, the Agency Workers Regulations and the Conduct Regulations are audited, and a clean record protects the agency's licence to supply.
A recruitment CRM such as Bullhorn or Vincere
Agencies name their system in the advert, and clean data in it is how a desk's pipeline is measured.
Offer management
Counter-offers and notice periods lose placements, and acceptance rate is one of the numbers you will be asked for at interview.

Soft skills

Resilience
A desk has bad months, and branch managers hire consultants who kept calling through one.
Relationship building
Repeat business from clients and referrals from placed candidates are what make a desk profitable over years.
Persuasion
Getting a strong candidate to consider a role, and a client to move quickly, is the difference between a shortlist and a fee.
Discretion
Consultants hold salaries, notice periods and personal circumstances in confidence, and clients need to trust you with them.

Mistakes that cost recruitment consultant interviews

  1. No billing figures

    A consultant CV without pounds on it reads as a desk that did not perform. Give billings against target for each year, the placement count and the temp margin, and let a weaker year sit there honestly next to the stronger ones.

  2. Describing the process

    Sourced candidates, screened CVs and arranged interviews describes every consultant in the country. Show what you improved: a shorter time to shortlist, a cold desk rebuilt, a client who moved all their roles to you.

  3. Claiming inherited accounts as wins

    Directors check. Separate the accounts you opened from the ones you were handed, and describe how you won each new one; a believable eleven beats an unbelievable forty.

  4. Hiding the sector

    Agencies hire for a desk, and a CV that does not say IT contract, healthcare temp or finance perm cannot be placed against one. Put the sector in the headline and the roles you filled in the bullets.

  5. A careless CV from someone who reads CVs

    Branch managers expect a consultant to know what a good CV looks like. One typo or a cluttered layout ends the application, so proofread it as you would a candidate's before sending it to a client.

Questions about the recruitment consultant CV

What figures should a Recruitment Consultant put on a CV?

Annual billings against target, the number of permanent placements, the size of the contract or temp book and its weekly margin, clients won, and time from brief to shortlist if you tracked it. Use the financial year the agency reported them in.

How do I move from agency recruitment to an in-house role?

Lead with the long client relationships, the hiring managers you trained or advised, candidate experience and repeat placements. In-house teams value partnership, process and employer brand over fees, so keep billings to one line.

Should I list the recruitment CRM I use?

Yes. Name Bullhorn, Vincere, JobAdder or whichever system you have run a desk on, and any job boards and sourcing tools you have licences for. Agencies often ask for a specific one in the advert.

Is the REC qualification worth having?

It helps, especially for temp desks and for agencies that are REC audited. The Certificate in Recruitment Practice shows you know the Conduct Regulations and the compliance a desk needs, and some agencies pay for it after probation.

How long should a Recruitment Consultant CV be?

Two sides of A4, with the current desk and its figures on the first side. A resourcer or trainee fits one side; a branch manager rarely needs more than two.

How do I tailor a Recruitment Consultant CV to a specific agency?

Match the desk in the advert: move the sector and model they want into the headline, put the matching billings first and cut the rest short. Paste the advert into Resume Master and it reorders the CV against it in about two minutes; check the figures are still the right ones for that desk.

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