Trainee Recruitment Consultant in Clerkenwell

Launch your recruitment career. Build a profession, not just a job. Principal Education is looking for our next Trainee Recruitment Consultant to join our growing team. This is an opportunity to join one of the UK's fastest-growing independent education recruitment agencies. From day one, you'll receive structured training, work alongside experienced consultants and learn the skills needed to build a successful career in recruitment.

About Principal: Principal Education was founded to bring genuine innovation to the education recruitment sector. We’ve invested heavily in technology, structured processes and operational excellence that allow our consultants to perform at a higher level. Our platform creates a direct connection between schools and education professionals 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, resulting in a faster, fairer and more efficient recruitment experience for both our candidates and our schools.

Your Training: Recruitment isn’t something you learn overnight. From your first day, you’ll work alongside one of our experienced Lead Consultants, learning the role through real experience rather than sitting in a classroom. During your first six months, you’ll receive structured coaching, daily support and regular feedback as you build your own desk and develop the skills needed to become a successful Recruitment Consultant. By the end of your probation, you’ll have a solid understanding of:

• Candidate sourcing and interviewing
• Business development
• Client relationship management
• Sales and negotiation
• Recruitment legislation and compliance
• Market analysis
• Time management
• Organisation
• Commercial awareness

We’re not looking for finished recruiters. We’re looking for people with the potential to become exceptional ones.

What You’ll Be Doing: Your responsibilities will include:

• Interviewing and registering education professionals
• Supporting candidates through our safeguarding and compliance process
• Speaking with schools to understand their recruitment needs
• Business development and introducing Principal to prospective clients
• Attending school visits and client meetings
• Creating professional candidate profiles and polished CVs
• Matching candidates to vacancies
• Keeping candidates informed throughout their assignments
• Chasing timesheets ready for payroll
• Working closely with your Lead Consultant to learn every aspect of the recruitment industry

Recruitment is simple to explain. We help great people find great jobs. Doing it exceptionally well requires resilience, organisation, communication skills, commercial awareness and determination. One thing we want to be completely transparent about is the amount of time you’ll spend on the phone. Our consultants typically make 200+ outbound calls every day and spend several hours speaking to candidates and clients. If you genuinely enjoy speaking to people, building relationships and solving problems, you’ll love this career. If the thought of spending most of your day communicating with people sounds exhausting, this probably isn’t the role for you. The rewards, however, can be exceptional.

Working Hours: This is a full-time office-based position. Working hours are: Monday to Friday 7:30am - 5:30pm.

Salary & Commission: Starting Salary £22,600 - £26,500. Your starting salary will depend on your experience and the skills you bring to the role. During your six-month probation, you’ll focus on learning the business, developing your desk and building the foundations of a successful recruitment career. Following the successful completion of your probation, you’ll become eligible to earn commission in addition to your salary. From that point onwards, your earnings are entirely driven by your performance.

Career Progression: At Principal, promotions are earned through achievement, not time served. Everyone follows the same clearly defined career pathway. As your knowledge, performance and responsibilities increase, so do your earnings. Typical On Target Earnings:

• Trainee Recruitment Consultant £28,000
• Junior Consultant £36,000
• Associate Consultant £51,000
• Senior Consultant £76,000
• Executive Consultant £100,000
• Managing Consultant £125,000
• Principal Consultant £150,000
• Partner £240,000+

What Makes Someone Successful? Recruitment isn’t easy. The people who succeed here generally possess:

• Resilience and mental toughness
• Excellent organisation
• Outstanding communication skills
• Confidence speaking to people from all backgrounds
• A competitive mindset
• Self-discipline
• Curiosity
• A willingness to learn
• High personal standards
• Ambition to build a successful career

You don’t need recruitment experience. You do need the right attitude.

What It’s Like to Work Here: We’re ambitious, professional and genuinely enjoy what we do. The office has a real buzz. You’ll hear consultants celebrating placements, collaborating with one another and yes, there’s usually a DJ set playing quietly in the background. Recent team events have included Michelin-starred lunches, rooftop summer parties, Christmas celebrations, team socials, networking events and performance incentives. We work incredibly hard. We just don’t believe work has to be boring.

Location: Our office is based at St Katharine Docks, London, just a short walk from Tower Hill, Tower Gateway, Fenchurch Street and Tower Bridge.

The Recruitment Process: We’re looking for people with the potential to build exceptional careers, not simply fill a vacancy. Our recruitment process is more thorough than most. The first stage is a telephone screening interview. Candidates who impress at this stage will be invited to one of our Assessment Days, taking place during late August. Our Assessment Day is a full-day, competitive selection process designed to assess communication, resilience, problem-solving, teamwork and your potential to succeed in recruitment. Successful candidates will join Principal in mid-September.

Interested? You could simply submit your CV... Or you could do what great recruiters do. Pick up the phone. Introduce yourself. Make a great first impression. We look forward to hearing from you.