NAVIGATION
It’s big boss Gemma’s 18th year in Recruitment! How things have changed from 2001 to now…
Published: 17th January 2019 | Author: Kate Howes
So, I’ve recently reached a bit of a career milestone… I have been working in the recruitment industry 18 Years. Not sure exactly how it’s been 18 years! When I start thinking about this period of time, so much has happened and so much has changed too…
I have been very lucky on my journey in recruitment. After jobs in retail and the postal service, I ended up doing some temporary work for Adecco back in 2001. Soon after, I applied for a role at their Cambridge branch where I started as a Resourcer, helping consultants to fill temporary bookings as well as finding candidates for permanent roles too. Surrounded by a brilliant team of supportive people I very quickly realised that I had found my thing. To this day, I absolutely love it and I cannot imagine there will be a time when I will do anything else. I often joke that I’ll have to be wheeled out the door one day!
cH – cH – cH – cH – cHANGES….
Having worked in our industry for such a long time, I’ve witnessed great change in the quality of service offered to the people we work with, thankfully for the better. Like many other service and sales based professions, recruiters have gained a bad rep over the years. Some perhaps deservedly so! Thinking back, there has been a noticeable change in the professional conduct of recruiters, which is so wonderful to see.
Having worked for a huge corporate as well as some smaller agencies I really have seen a lot! We are lucky to now be working in a time where due diligence has to come into play and how we conduct ourselves as recruiters too. GDPR although a huge amount of work initially, has been a really good thing for our industry and I am so pleased as it will only help in raising standards of professionalism and a more people-focused service in our world.
Recruitment can be a brilliantly rewarding industry to work in. Over the years, I’ve learnt to ignore the side steps and shuffles away from me on those occasions when you’re asked what you do! As soon as the ‘I’m a Rec…’ slips from my mouth off they’d go…shuffling! It used to bother me greatly; I felt an overwhelming urge to cry “no, I’m not like that!” Not any more, I am very proud of what I do, indeed what we all do at Horizon. Although it’s a bit cheesy, we do place a lot of belief in the fact that jobs can and do transform people’s lives.
nO REST FOR ME JUST YET…
I make no bones; it is a bloody hard job to do on a daily basis. The extreme highs and lows mean you must learn to be resilient. At times you are working under extreme pressure to meet deadlines and manage expectations whilst trying to remain as fair as possible to everyone; it’s a never ending plate-spinning contest but it’s so worth it. Being able to make connections between people, helping to shape peoples careers and build or enhance our clients businesses is just amazing.
As well as a Consultant, I am also running our operation too. This is something you cannot do without the support of so many people and a little bit of luck thrown in too! When I decided to go it alone in 2011, I decided I didn’t do so entirely. I know many who have left the confines of working for a company and set up on their own. Although the financial benefits of doing this can be very rewarding, there are down sides to this too and I knew it wasn’t for me. I wanted to build a company. I wanted to have a work space where I could come together with like-minded people so we could work as a team to build our company. This is how Horizon has been built and the success of the business is in no way just down to me. It’s down to all who work here. Kate, who like me, literally fell into recruitment is soon to celebrate her 8th Horizon Birthday and has been here almost since the beginning. Now a Director too, it’s Kates vision and skill that has made the Horizon brand what it is today as well as being a super skilled recruiter too. Also we now have the brilliant Ruth who is so amazing at finding candidates for our roles. Her compassion and unwillingness to be “beaten” by a tricky role really complement our little team perfectly. It’s so lovely to see how much Ruth has grown in confidence and knowledge in such a short time it makes me very excited for our future. Thank you ladies, I could not have done it without you.
We come together and all of our ideas and beliefs are what make Horizon what it is today. Not in a race for world domination (!), we are happy to take small steps and make sure we have a business we can all be proud of, and a service that genuinely adds value to people’s lives and businesses.
SPECIAL THANKS TO…
So thank you Kate, Ruth and all of our clients and our candidates oh and the suppliers that have to put up with me and my silly questions! It’s thanks to you all that I am still here, 18 years later loving what I do.