When I first registered with Michael Page as a candidate, I was an operations manager for a finance conference and events company. A consultant asked if I would consider joining Michael Page in recruitment and my first response was 'no', as it was a sales job. I had friends in recruitment who played hard but who moaned about their targets.
The consultant at the time suggested I do some research into PageGroup and its competitors. Every competitor I interviewed with was proud that they used to work at Page and talked about how great the training was. After receiving four offers, including one from Page, it was a no brainer. Initially, I thought I would work at Page for a year and move on, but I stayed for seven years and have continued to progress my career.
Tell us about your PageGroup career so far...
The job I was offered was in St Albans, a new office for Michael Page Sales. After 18 months in this office, I moved to Michael Page Sales in London, working within FMCG and consumer sectors, where I helped build up the team. In 2006, I became a manager.
In October 2008, I decided to leave Michael Page and try something completely different. I started a nail polish brand. The polishes sold in Selfridges and Debenhams plus we had a chain of four nail bars.
After a move from London to Brighton, now married and with a child at nursery, it was proposed I return to Page in a part-time role. I re-joined Michael Page in the finance team in Guildford, recruiting qualified interim accountants across the county.
In 2015, I went on maternity leave for the 2nd time and returned in 2016 as business manager to work in the public sector team in Brighton. Focusing on NHS recruitment across Sussex, Hampshire, Surrey, and Kent. In July 2019, I was promoted to senior business manager and in 2020 to business director for public sector.
What is your next career goal?
To develop my role as director and to continue to grow the NHS business. I plan to develop the senior candidate market within the NHS sector through a variety of new networking events.
What do you find most rewarding about the role?
I really like that no day is the same in my role. I enjoy the pace and talking to a variety of candidates and clients. Everyone has an opinion on how the NHS can save money, so, speaking to those who are the true strategic heads is extremely interesting and never boring; it beats the school run for me. I also appreciate the flexibility it gives me juggling family and work.
What would your advice be to anyone looking to join us?
Working at Michael Page is great fun and extremely sociable. However, recruitment is full of ups and downs.
Make sure you have a mentor - an official and an unofficial one - to run ideas by and discuss any frustrations.
Let your managers and directors know what motivates you; there is nothing worse than having incentives that you are not interested in like tickets to the rugby or golf tickets if you do not enjoy sports.
And finally, embrace your KPIs - they can be your best friend when light on revenue.
