How to Become a Recruiter Without Experience: Salary and First 90 Days

How to become a recruiter with no experience: yes, it can be done

Many starters and career switchers wonder how to become a recruiter if they have no direct hands-on experience yet. The short answer is simple: many employers are open to people who want to learn the trade on the job. They often look less at a perfect CV and more at behaviour. You stand a better chance if you listen well, write clearly, keep to agreements and actively act on feedback. Recruitment is a profession you learn largely by doing. That is why someone with no experience can still make a strong start, as long as the fundamentals are right.

Which backgrounds tend to fit well

A background in HR, psychology, communication or sales can help, because in those fields you often already practise conversation skills, behaviour, planning or persuasive writing. Knowledge of a specific sector can also be useful. Someone from healthcare tends to grasp clinical roles faster, while someone from IT recognises technical terms more quickly. Still, these are not hard requirements. In practice, many employers would rather hire someone with motivation, structure and an open attitude to learning than someone with a matching qualification but no discipline.

Becoming a recruiter without a degree: what actually counts?

Becoming a recruiter without a degree is also possible. In that case, employers often pay extra attention to your work ethic, your learning speed and the way you communicate with candidates and colleagues. You need to be able to work precisely, plan well and stay calm when processes are delayed. Recruitment, after all, largely revolves around following up, calling back, taking notes and keeping an overview. That is why someone without a degree can be perfectly suited to the role, as long as they show they are reliable, eager to learn and thorough.

What you need to know before you want to become a recruiter

Before you apply, it helps to have an honest picture of the job. Many online stories mainly highlight the wins, while the day-to-day reality is a good deal broader. Search for what a recruiter actually does and you will often get a fairly generic answer, but the real job asks for more than just having good conversations. You work with vacancies, candidates, calendars, feedback and various systems. That makes the profession varied and full of learning, but sometimes also busy and repetitive.

What does a recruiter do on a normal working day?

A recruiter runs intake conversations about vacancies, sources candidates, sends the first messages, reviews CVs and schedules interviews. On top of that, you keep in touch with hiring managers, write notes in the system and report progress back to candidates. You also reject people and pick a search back up if there are not enough good matches. That last part happens more often than starters usually expect. That is why perseverance matters so much in this profession. A good recruiter keeps searching sharply, even when a vacancy is difficult to fill.

The LinkedIn picture is only partly accurate

On LinkedIn you often see successful placements, congratulations and new starts go by. That picture is real, but it only shows part of the job. Many hours go into searching, waiting, calling back, scheduling, aligning and trying again. That is why it helps to also look at real-world recruitment case studies. You will get a better sense of how contact, volume and follow-up come together in the actual process.

Targets, pressure and repetition come with the territory

In many teams you work towards goals. Those goals can focus on the number of messages sent, intake conversations held, proposals put to managers, or placements made. That gives direction, but it can also bring pressure. If a team steers purely on volume, quality usually suffers as a result. That is why a good working environment is essential. You want to learn how to combine pace with genuine attention, so you treat candidates carefully while vacancies keep moving forward at the same time.

Which route suits you if you want to become a recruiter?

The working environment largely determines how you learn and what you do day to day. That is why it is smart to first find out which recruitment environment suits you best. That way you can choose more deliberately between a staffing agency, a recruitment firm, an in-house team or a traineeship. Each route has its own advantages and things to watch out for. The right choice depends on your pace, your need for guidance and the type of pressure you handle well.

Starting at a staffing agency

A staffing agency is often a fast-paced school. You have a lot of contact, learn to switch quickly, and see directly how supply and demand move. This environment suits people who get energy from calling, arranging and adjusting on the fly. Target pressure here tends to run a bit higher, because speed and volume matter. You learn extremely quickly, but the work can also be fairly intense and involve plenty of repetition.

Starting at a recruitment firm

At a recruitment firm you often work on specialist roles or within a specific sector. There you learn to search more sharply, assess more carefully and clearly explain why someone fits a vacancy. Commercial pressure varies by firm. Some teams push hard on placements, while others leave more room for quality and relationship-building. This route is ideal for people who enjoy digging a bit deeper into profiles and vacancies.

Starting in an in-house recruitment team

In an in-house team you work for a single employer. As a result, you sit much closer to the organisation, its culture and its managers. You deal more often with internal alignment, promoting the employer story, process management and planning. The work can feel somewhat less commercial than at an agency, but strong stakeholder management is exactly what matters here. You need to manage expectations and clearly explain what is realistic given the current job market.

Starting via a traineeship

A traineeship can be an excellent choice if you need structure and clear guidance. You usually get training, coaching and a fixed build-up in your workload. The quality of this varies a lot by provider, though. So look critically at the content, the practical support and the expectations for the first few months. A traineeship is hugely valuable if you want to discover the profession step by step, but it is not automatically better than starting directly in a team with good, in-house coaching.

Becoming a recruiter with the right skills and learning goals

Many people wrongly assume this profession is mainly about being a smooth talker. In reality, your behaviour and basic skills weigh far more heavily. Recruitment suits people who work precisely, ask critical questions and keep going when a process stalls. That is exactly where the difference between superficial work and real quality lies. If becoming a recruiter is a serious ambition for you, it is smart to look at your working style, not just your interest in people.

The recruiter skills that genuinely make the difference

The most important skills for a recruiter are usually good listening, clear writing, critical questioning, tight planning and setting priorities. You need to translate the information in a vacancy seamlessly into a concrete search. You also need to understand what a candidate means, even when they have not yet put it perfectly into words. It also helps enormously if you can handle rejection and silence well. Many messages go unanswered and processes sometimes stall completely. That is why perseverance is an absolute core skill for every junior recruiter.

Empathy and results-driven work at the same time

A recruiter guides both people and vacancies at the same time. Candidates can hesitate, wait or become disappointed, while managers often want speed and clarity. That is why you need to stay engaged while also being able to make decisions. You listen carefully, but keep an eye on progress at the same time. That combination makes the profession hugely engaging, though it does take practice. In a good starting environment you learn to stay human and clear without losing the overview.

The tools a junior recruiter needs to master quickly

A junior recruiter usually works with a range of systems and terminology fairly quickly. An ATS is the system where all candidates, notes and progress are recorded. Sourcing simply means actively searching for candidates. A funnel is the visual representation of every step, from the very first contact through to the interview or offer. Time-to-fill stands for the time it takes to successfully fill a vacancy. You will also usually pick up a quick pace of working with LinkedIn, calendars, search logic, privacy rules and reporting. Search logic helps you search more cleverly on job titles, skills, location and exclusions. Privacy rules are essential, since you work with personal data every day. If this vocabulary is still new to you, you can find extra explanation in our recruitment glossary for beginners.

Learning to use AI sourcing as a recruiter

AI can help you find candidates much faster and make an initial, rough selection, but human judgement remains essential. You still need to understand yourself why someone is or isn't a good fit for a role. That is why it is wise to see learning to use AI sourcing as a recruiter mainly as support for your work. Good tooling speeds up the search process considerably, but you remain the one who checks the content, the context and the tone of a message.

If you want to see how searching, selecting and approaching candidates come together today, you can also try modern recruitment tooling. This gives you a much faster feel for the way many successful teams work today.

Becoming a recruiter: qualifications and salary, realistically

Many readers considering becoming a recruiter look for the required qualifications or the average starting salary, because that information helps make the step concrete. The honest answer is that there is no compulsory standard path. Employers differ widely in what they value. One organisation looks primarily at academic level, while another mainly weighs your attitude, customer-contact experience or sector-specific knowledge. That is why becoming a recruiter is often more accessible than many people assume beforehand.

Becoming a recruiter: what qualifications do employers usually ask for?

Employers often ask for a certain academic or vocational level for this role, depending on the exact position and working environment. Relevant fields of study include HR, psychology, communication, commercial economics, or a course geared specifically towards the sector. Even so, the exact field of study is rarely decisive. Some teams simply look for people with solid customer-contact experience. Other employers pay close attention to writing skills, accuracy or subject-matter affinity instead. So do not fixate on the perfect course title, and think instead about what a team expects from you in those first months.

Starting salary as a recruiter: what range is typical?

In the Netherlands, a broad public indication for starters often sits somewhere between €2,500 and €3,200 gross a month. This amount differs by region, type of employer, sector and any bonus scheme. Treat this as a market indication, not as a fixed rule. According to public salary data from sources including the Nationale Beroepengids and Indeed Netherlands, checked in September 2026, most junior roles fall within or close to this range. The exact amount always depends on context, your level and the rest of the employment package.

Look beyond gross salary alone

Always judge a new job more broadly than just the amount that lands in your account each month. Also look at, for example, the pension scheme, travel allowance, mobility budget, a good laptop, options to work from home, training budgets and progression opportunities. A slightly lower starting salary can end up being a much smarter choice if it comes with excellent coaching and a clear growth path in return. Especially if you want to start a career in recruitment with no experience, a strong learning environment often makes more difference than a small difference in starting salary.

The first 90 days in recruitment are often underestimated

The first few months largely determine how quickly you get a grip on the profession. Many starters think they need to perform at the top level straight away, but a good start is, first and foremost, about understanding, practising and improving. That is why a clear plan for your first 90 days as a recruiter is so valuable. Step by step, you build essential knowledge about the systems, the target audience, the conversations you have, and the daily working rhythm.

Days 1 to 30: systems, target audience and shadowing

During your very first month you mainly learn the basics. You get thoroughly acquainted with the ATS, learn how new vacancies are processed, and try to understand the target audience for each role. You shadow plenty of intake conversations and pay close attention to the questions experienced recruiters ask. You also study job adverts with a critical eye, so you learn to tell the difference between hard requirements and preferences that carry less weight. Finally, you learn how to keep notes organised, how calendars get aligned, and what careful follow-up actually looks like day to day.

Days 31 to 60: sourcing on your own and running your first conversations

In this second phase you take on more and more of your own work. You start actively sourcing, meaning searching specifically for candidates for a given vacancy. You send your first messages, run phone intakes independently, and learn to actively seek feedback from colleagues or managers. This is often the point where you notice where the difficulties lie. You might search too broadly at first, write messages that are too generic, or not yet dare to probe deeply enough in conversations. That is completely normal. It is precisely in these weeks that the quality of your work jumps up, as long as you practise deliberately and keep refining your own approach.

Days 61 to 90: running your own funnel and keeping the overview

After about two months you usually get considerably more ownership. You work on your own vacancy, or you become responsible for a specific part of the vacancy flow. You closely track progress for each candidate and keep a sharp overview of your entire funnel. You learn to recognise where processes risk stalling, and how to adjust your search strategy or manage the manager's expectations at that point. Sometimes you are already working towards your very first placement target during this period. That said, a first placement really does not always have to happen within that magic 90-day window. It says far less about your talent than you might think, since factors such as timing, the quality of the vacancy and how tight the job market is also have a huge influence.

How to start your recruitment career smartly

If you are seriously considering getting into the recruitment world, it helps to be critical during your job applications. You are not just choosing a new job, after all, but also the place where you are going to learn the profession. A safe and professional environment makes it so much easier to discuss mistakes openly, receive constructive feedback and become steadily more independent, step by step. It is therefore absolutely worth looking beyond just the job title on your contract.

Questions you should ask yourself in interviews

Feel free to ask exactly what the onboarding period looks like, what concrete goals apply in the first three months, and how much guidance you can expect. Also ask which software and tools the team uses day to day, how feedback is given, and how your success is ultimately measured. Get a clear picture of whether there is enough room to shadow colleagues, discuss mistakes and review difficult conversations. That way you avoid accidentally stepping into an environment that expects huge output from you straight away, without offering any clear explanation for it beforehand.

Signs that a working environment suits you well

A healthy working environment for starters is characterised by clear processes, realistic goals and colleagues who genuinely take the time to explain things clearly. You often notice fairly quickly whether a team follows a consistent structure for intake, follow-up and final feedback. Positive signs include clear expectations, scheduled feedback moments and transparency about overall workload. Red flags, on the other hand, are vague goals, a lack of structured guidance, and a cold culture where hitting numbers matters more than the quality of the work.

A practical first step for readers who are still unsure

If, after reading this, you are still unsure whether this job really suits you, try placing a few recruitment vacancies side by side. Look closely at which tasks keep coming up, and honestly ask yourself whether you get energy from searching, calling, following up and scheduling. Then write down for yourself which transferable skills you already have, such as experience with customer contact, admin work, calendar management, fluent writing or various conversation techniques. That way, you make it much clearer for yourself, and for your future employer, why becoming a recruiter can be a thoroughly logical step for you.

Frequently asked questions about becoming a recruiter

Can you become a recruiter with no experience?

Yes, definitely. Many employers are happy to hire starters or career switchers, provided they show enough potential in communication, discipline, ability to learn and candidate contact. The exact requirements naturally vary by team and by type of employer.

How do you become a recruiter if you're coming from a different field?

In that case, highlight your transferable experience, such as your background in customer contact, building tight schedules, having difficult conversations, writing for a target audience, commercial work, or your in-depth knowledge of a specific sector. Make it clear in your application that you understand what the recruitment profession demands day to day, and why this particular move makes so much sense for you.

Do you need a degree to become a recruiter?

No, not always. Becoming a recruiter without a degree is absolutely possible, although in that case employers will look much more closely at your work ethic, your working pace, your communication skills and your overall ability to learn. A degree can be a helpful stepping stone in some cases, but it is certainly not a hard requirement for every role.

What exactly does a recruiter do?

In short, a recruiter proactively searches for candidates, runs the first conversations, schedules interviews, aligns everything with the hiring managers, gives clear feedback and continuously monitors progress across all open vacancies. A very large part of the job effectively revolves around searching, maintaining relationships, tight follow-up and keeping careful records.

Is junior recruiter a good starter role?

Yes, in most cases it is. A junior recruiter role is specifically designed to teach you the finer points of the profession directly on the job. Good, personal coaching, crystal-clear goals and enough safe space for feedback ultimately make the biggest difference here.

What does a starter in recruitment typically earn?

In the Netherlands, a broad and common indication for a starter is often around €2,500 to €3,200 gross a month. Note that this amount varies by region, the chosen sector, the type of employer and the rest of the terms. So for a fair picture, always also look at any bonus, your pension scheme, mobility budget and the available training budget.

Does recruitment suit me?

Recruitment is often a fantastic match if you get a lot of energy from helping people move forward, bringing structure, asking critical questions and persevering. The profession suits you a lot less well, on the other hand, if you get demotivated quickly by repetitive work, frequent rejection or a lot of administrative follow-up. That is precisely why an honest, realistic picture of the day-to-day reality is the best test for yourself.