What Is a Recruiting Generalist? How to Become One, Salary, Skills.

Recruiting generalists are the jack-of-all-trades among recruiters. Here’s what to know about a recruiting generalist’s salary, needed skills and how to become one.

What Is a Recruiting Generalist?

Unlike technical recruiters and other specialized roles, recruiting generalists have a wide array of candidates in their network. They can tap into this extensive pool of professionals to fulfill both technical and non-technical roles within various parts of the organization.

What Do Recruiting Generalists Do?

A recruiting generalist recruits for a variety of roles depending on company needs.

Recruiting Generalist Responsibilities

• With their knowledge of the different departments within a company and how they work together, recruiting generalists can provide a holistic view of the company to candidates.
• Recruiting generalists tend to be more versatile than specialists and can easily change their approach to sourcing and screening depending on the role for which they’re recruiting.

Recruiting Generalists Within a Company

Recruiting generalists are comfortable with recruiting for multiple job openings from different departments simultaneously. This ability to recruit for professionals with varying technical and non-technical backgrounds provides companies and hiring managers the flexibility to assign open roles to a single recruiter.

Importance of Recruiting Generalists

Companies, especially ones with small recruiting teams, can benefit from having recruiting generalists who support diverse recruiting needs. Recruiting generalists are comfortable with recruiting for multiple job openings from different departments simultaneously. This ability to recruit for professionals with varying technical and non-technical backgrounds provides companies and hiring managers the flexibility to assign open roles to a single recruiter.

What Skills Are Needed to Be a Recruiting Generalist?

Qualifications to Be a Recruiting Generalist

• Ability to recruit for professionals with varying technical and non-technical backgrounds.
• Comfortable with recruiting for multiple job openings from different departments.
• Able to match their skill sets to a wide range of companies and industries.
• Have a wide array of candidates in their network.

How to Become a Recruiting Generalist

Recruiting Generalist Education and Experience

For people without recruiting experience, it’s important to become familiar with the responsibilities of a recruiting generalist. You can do this by taking courses and certifications. In fact, online learning platforms like Built In Learning Lab offer courses on sourcing and recruiting. There are also companies that offer recruiting internships, which is a great way to get hands-on recruiting experience for people who are interested in a career as a recruiting generalist.

Recruiting Generalist Career Path

In order to transition to a recruiting generalist role, a recruiting specialist should try to gain experience recruiting for roles outside their specialization. A great start is to make sure your recruiting manager is aware of your career development goals. It’s also beneficial for recruiting specialists to build relationships with hiring managers they don’t typically work with in order to gain their trust in hopes of recruiting for their teams in the future.

Recruiting Generalist Salary and Job Outlook

Having experience as a recruiting generalist provides access to more career opportunities in the market. With experience recruiting for a variety of roles and industries, recruiting generalists are able to match their skill sets to a wide range of companies and industries.

The full compensation package for a recruiting generalist depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s experience and geographic location. See below for detailed information on the average recruiting generalist salary.