Advice on succeeding in recruitment from someone who certainly has

Advice on succeeding in recruitment from someone who certainly has

Posted November 18, 2020

Over the last ten (almost eleven!) years, we’ve become proud of our ability to not only retain staff in an industry often characterised by a revolving door of employees but also to accelerate the careers of junior professionals. Many of our staff come in with limited experience in recruitment and manage to establish themselves as high achievers with a wide breadth of relationships.

This is epitomised in Giles Ellison. He joined our team almost four years ago, he was 26, eager and fresh faced before becoming one of our biggest billers, most trusted employees and a senior leader within our team. All whilst as being a fantastic friend and father. Unfortunately for us, Giles and his wife have decided to move themselves back to the UK, Giles’ original home, although we will never be able to fill the exact space Giles has left, we’re hoping to find someone fantastic who can join our Qualified and Executive Accounting team.

We thought it was only right to share Giles’ amazing story and reams of experience with those who might be looking to get ahead in this profession.

On Training

‘On joining TwoScots my longest ever tenure within a job was fifteen months, my role at TwoScots lasted (with a couple of promotions) for almost four years and that is 100% down to how engaging and physically hands on the Directors are with the business. I think that specifically is really unique. When I first joined, I just wanted to prove myself or know what it would become but I could sense the potential.

I think the first thing I had to wrap my head around in my training as a recruiter, and I’m still learning more about this everyday, was the language and the terminology. Obviously it starts off very high level and you can drill that down into more detail in so many areas. So, not being afraid to admit you don’t know and ask questions is a huge part of just understanding exactly what is going on. From there you can produce your next question and develop ever more expertise through your inquisitive nature.

I was so fortunate throughout the entity of my career at TwoScots to work in the same team as our Director, Jason Sellyn. He has been the person to speak to if I’m in a rut, don’t know what to do or am struggling. He has always also had invaluable amounts of relationships and from that come insane amounts of work so you’ll never go hungry or be bored on this desk.

His strengths that I’ve tried to learn from are how he builds relationships, stays in touch and creates rapport – even down to remembering what whisky people like or how they did at golf the year before. My biggest training opportunity has been shadowing him and others in the business from whom I’ve cherry picked invaluable skills.’

On Development

‘From a development point of view, training as a recruiter starts out very candidate heavy as this is the best place to learn until you feel confident enough to talk to clients. When I begun speaking to clients myself there was one thing which was structured really well that I try to pass on to newer staff and that was the balance of a senior team member to lead the meeting whilst allowing you to become a valuable member of it and essentially letting you ‘have a go’.

I think that’s a really hard balance to get right because you can go with someone who’s really experienced and has a good relationship with that person but all you do is sit there and listen. But, crucially in order to develop you need to be able to have a say in those meetings; build your confidence, ask some questions and slowly start to take that control away from the senior consultant and then you can develop your own skills.

That’s the training which will step you up from being, Giles, the Resourcer to Giles, the Consultant and lead on the account. You’re not thrown into the deep end as a junior but you are able to absorb more and I think that’s probably where the most success comes from.’

On Success

‘As a starter on joining the TwoScots culture I’d say that it’s taken so seriously that if you’re hired by them, then you’re along the right lines. The rest is there for you to take hold of and build on your own. It is your responsibility to be open enough and outgoing enough to bed yourself further into the culture, learn more about the business and about your colleagues. But fundamentally, you’re only going to be successful if you work hard on it.

I would 100% say that your future is what you make it. That, the levels that you can get to are determined by how much you can absorb, how much you listen and how you return that back into your work. It’s not a case of getting in there and being the loudest or the flashiest. It’s really not that kind of culture at all, it’s a place where you have to build rapport with everyone around you and you should always look to go and approach someone on their lunch or go with someone for a walking coffee. Because it gives you more insight into what they do and into what their job is and from that all you’re doing is building a relationship – and afterall that’s what the job is.

I think wherever you can bring a lot of really good tenacity and a massive amount of resilience into the role. If you can blend all those together and learn from people like Kieran, like Jason, who for me have been invaluable. That’s where a lot of the focus needs to lie – learning, listening and putting back with a really good attitude at the same time.’

We’re currently recruiting to fill Giles’ busy desk on our Qualified and Executive Accounting team as well as looking at expanding our Payroll team.

If you’re keen to find out more about how you can join TwoScots and accelerate your career, get in touch with Jeremy Cowan at [email protected].