Graduate consultant, George Collier, joined Cast UK 6 months ago on our Logistics team, recruiting for Logistics, Transport and Warehousing roles in the East Midlands. George began his career in recruitment after graduating from the University of Manchester with a degree in Politics and International Relations, here is how he’s finding it so far:
1. What attracted you most about a career in recruitment?
What really attracted me the most about a career in recruitment is that it gave me the opportunity to be my own boss. The way that things work at Cast UK is that you’re given an area and a postcode region to be responsible for, so I deal with recruitment for Logistics and Transport positions in the East Midlands. I quite liked the idea that I was in charge of getting my name out, managing the clients and sourcing the candidates too, so it was like being self-employed without all of the negatives of being self-employed.
2. How would you describe the beginning of your career in recruitment? What did you do in your first few weeks?
That’s a really tough question! I learned a huge amount; obviously coming straight from university I didn’t know a great deal about recruitment and I didn’t know anything about the areas that I was recruiting in. So, there was a lot of learning and a lot of listening and paying attention to the people in my team; there was a great deal of knowledge available from the people within my team.
3. What has been your biggest success in recruitment so far?
That’s another tough question! I think my biggest success has been on a one off occasion when I recruited for a role that was from outside of the specialism that I work with. It was actually for a sales role, and the reason why I was proud of that is because it showed that I had learnt a lot about the actual recruitment process as a whole from the people on my team. So I discovered that it’s not just about learning your industries, it’s about knowing how to recruit effectively as well.
4. How would you describe your working environment?
It’s really good fun here. I feel like everyone gets on with each other really well and it’s very relaxed. For example, at lunch time today I was sat with Wayne, our Managing Director, just having a conversation and eating lunch together. There’s no ivory towers or anything like that so it’s a really positive place to work.
5. What do you think makes a good recruitment consultant?
The ability to handle rejection well and also the ability to persevere. It took me about 4 months to make my first placement and there were times that I felt a bit down and felt that I wasn’t quite keeping up with the other people that I started with. I think that the things that have helped me to become more successful is maintaining that things will get better and making sure that you keep your head in the game.
6. What is the most rewarding aspect of the job?
It’s really nice to find someone a job that hasn’t been working for a long period of time. Somebody that I placed had been out of work a few weeks before Christmas and I managed to get them into a role just after Christmas. The candidate was obviously concerned about the financial implications of not having a job at the time, so that was really rewarding for me to have helped them.
7. What advice would you give to any graduate considering a career in recruitment?
To listen, first and foremost! Also to work very hard and to never give up; make sure that even though things might seem like a challenge and it’s very daunting, I think this is the same for any graduate going into a job. Especially with recruitment though, there’s a lot to learn and I don’t think there is any other career quite like it. So just be prepared to learn and to put in a lot of hard work.
8. Finally, what do you enjoy the most about working at Cast UK?
It’s got to be the people to be honest. It’s a really nice working environment; if I was going to do recruitment anywhere it would certainly be here. Cast UK are looking to double the size of our team in 2016. So if you are considering a career in recruitment and would like to be a part of a company committed to your development, then find out more about our opportunities
here or contact Rachel today on
0161 413 6902 or email
rachelwilliams@castuk.com.
