Suzanne Elsdon
Jul 28, 2017
Hotseat: Charlie Lambert on her career in recruitment
Blog
Charlie is part of our Retail team, recruiting Buying, Merchandising and Design professionals across London and the South East. Charlie has been with us for 5 months now but prior to this she has 5 years’ experience in retail. Her previous roles include working for the Arcadia group, fashion design roles within the non-profit sector and multi-product design roles, specialising in womenswear.
We sat down with Charlie for a chat about why she chose a career in recruitment and what she thinks of the role so far. What attracted you most to a career in recruitment? Err…money! No seriously, I think the thing that attracted me the most was how fast paced it all is. I liked the idea that you’re always on the go in this role, it’s quite similar to what I’ve come from in the fashion industry. Then I came for my interview here and the team was really friendly and great which sold it to me. How would you describe the beginning of your career in recruitment? What did you do in the first few weeks? The first couple of weeks was training, obviously my background wasn’t in recruitment at all but everyone was really welcoming and very accepting of the fact that I’d not had any experience in this industry. So, after the first 2 weeks of training we were straight in practise what we’d learnt and develop that over the next month or so. Everyone was really helpful, it’s a such a nice team to get started with. What has been your biggest success in recruitment so far? I think my biggest success so far has been bringing on new clients of my own and building out my own portfolio. We’re now working with some really great clients in the retail sector that Cast UK hadn’t worked with previously, so that’s been quite rewarding for me. How would you describe the Cast UK culture? Fun! Very fun, everyone loves going out for a drink with each other on Friday night; it’s quite a family culture within the team. If somebody has done really well then everyone celebrates their achievements with them which makes a really fun to be in. What do you think makes a good recruitment consultant? The ability to be able to speak to anyone and feel comfortable doing it too. As long as you can talk to people and make friends with people, as a recruitment consultant then you’re flying. What is your favourite thing about the job? The people that I get to work with and the team here at Cast UK. It’s a really friendly team internally and people do make this job what it is. Also, getting an offer for one of your candidates; it’s great to ring them up to tell them they’ve got the job and hear that they're really excited about it! What is the toughest aspect of the job? I would say the toughest part is managing your candidates and client at the same time. For example, if you’re waiting for your client to make an offer, it’s all about keeping your candidate interest and engaged during that time. Getting a good balance from either side, I would say that’s the main challenge. What advice would you give to anyone considering a career in recruitment? Come to Cast UK...! Seriously though, my advice would be to really research into the market that you want to be recruiting in. You need to be serious about that before you start searching for companies to work for, especially if you’d like to work for a specialist. To watch Charlie's full video interview, click here.
