100 Days In Recruitment

Firstly, thank you for clicking to read my LinkedIn article, The first thing I’ve learned in my 100 Days in recruitment, people’s time is the most valuable commodity, So I really appreciate it.

I’m writing this blog from my hotel in Berlin at the moment (I’ve just eaten a McDonalds McRib & drinking a fully sugared fully delicious ‘Rockstar Green Apple’ Energy drink #boosugartax)

The day I’m publishing this, makes it officially “100 Days In Recruitment” & I’ve honestly never been happier. That’s not to say anything bad about my previous employer of 7+ years, if there is anyone from there reading this, thank you so much for that time/development/opportunity, as this article goes on, my experiences there, have allowed me to hit the ground running with Optimus Search.

For anyone interested, here is a highlight video of my time at Vanquis Bank for 7+ years - this post had over 5,000 views! #NotSoHumbleBrag

(If you are short of time) here are my personal top 3 highlights in the past 100 days of recruitment working for Optimus Search

1. Suplexing Saulge into the swimming pool at the Company Rewards Holiday (TOTALLY WORTH IT)
2. Visiting the Offices of LinkedIn - I learned so much, not only about the LinkedIn recruiter product, but also how Recruitment worked in general
3. Creating ‘Optimus Search’ Championship Belts! (as pictured above) - yep...real thing!

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Key things I've learned from my 100 days in recruitment

1) Never enough hours in a day

2) "Everybody lies"

3) LinkedIn Recruiter is (legitimately) the BEST software ever

4) Ed Hunter, Mitch Sullivan & Mike Winnet are my heroes

5) Wearing outrageous clothes seemed to garner me respect "Wow that guy MUST be confident if he looks that ridiculous"

If you do have time, here is the full story:

I have little to no experience in Recruitment, my background is Banking, Training & Wrestling (more on that later)

Right off the bat, I need to compliment Nigel, Neil, Raf, Richard, Rob & Daniel, as they were the people I interviewed with over two days & when I handed in my notice from my previous employer I kept being asked “Why Optimus Search?”, why go from a larger company of 1,600+ employees, with lots of benefits, very local, paid travel & various other brilliant perks – why leave that safety net & do something totally different? My answer often frustrated many people as my answer was “The Optimus People” – one moment specifically sticks out, when Mr Richard looked at my CV & saw I had written “Current West Ham Season Ticket Holder”, he looked down, looked back up at me & simply said “West Ham, how’s that working out for you?...” – SOLD, what seems like such an insignificant moment, that one question/comment had me sold. These were “people people”, they talked about their people being a USP of the business, like with most companies, but the fact that they asked questions “ACTUALLY about me” blew my mind. (it also helped they were interested...or baffled by my love/hobby of Professional Wrestling)

People think they are asking good interview questions, but quickly ask yourself, “Do I actually ask about the person, or am I just asking about processes around the person”

I vividly remember being given the job offer as the “Head of L&D”,

I was in fact preparing for a rather large presentation at the time (for roughly 45 people), I had an email “Are you available now to talk”, I immediately went into a meeting room, looking over the London skyline from the ‘Walkie Talkie’ building & hearing the words “We’d love to offer you the job”. I was instantly overjoyed. I immediately rang my wife to tell her the good (& bad news), good news, I’ve got the job I’ve wanted at the age of 31 (technically 30, my birthday was 2 days after the phone call), the bad news, I would be travelling into London everyday. (I predominately worked in the Chatham office, although would travel to London, Bradford & various other major cities for our Marketing Team) – Although I am a natural early bird.

Sadness, began to sink in, I was about to write an email to my manager who…all joking aside I admire for various reasons, too many to list here (Mr Gary Cloke) “With great sadness…Consider this email, my notice…”, I really wanted to do this in person, but that wasn’t possible (location/poor timing).

To slightly fast forward to my last day at Vanquis Bank, ‘we celebrated’ the successes (rather than dwell in the sadness)

I FINALLY after 7 years of saying “I’ll do it”, we ordered a “6 foot subway sandwich” & it was as glorious as it looks!

So, Recruitment.

I obviously understood the basics “people need jobs, we get them jobs” – simple right……oh how wrong I was.

My first week with Optimus Search was such an eventful week, it had been 10 weeks since the initial email saying “you’ve got the job”, when I boarded the High Speed train from Rainham (at 5:45….as I didn’t want to risk being late, for the record, I had been told to turn up at 9:30!!) I was thinking to myself “I hope I’ve made the right choice here” – *Spoilers* it was.

I’d just spent ￡500 for a monthly train ticket, I was already ￡500 down on my new job, when I arrived on Great Portland Street, looking at the office door, turning around then looking up at the BT Tower, Nerves started to creep in “Have I made the right choice, Do they even remember me, Am I good enough for this job?” I opened my phone & I had over 20 messages from people wishing me luck (some very kind words were said, so thanks)

As I walk into the office building, Neil & Nigel were also on the way in & Nigel said (I’m slightly paraphrasing) “Here’s the legend, Neil, have you seen what this guy does, not only is he a wrestler, he had a giant 6 foot subway sandwich…I’m so happy your with us now” – then literally all of my nerves, reservation & concerns disappeared.

I then began to meet the whole business, many people looking baffled “Who is this man?” “What!? he’s not a recruiter?”

No word of a lie, each day I learned something new that blew my mind, as I joked earlier, I thought ‘Recruitment’ was fairly simple, get jobs, get people = job done.

With each day, I grew confidence “riiiight, it’s a sales role” “riiiiight, its managing people” “riiiiiiiiiiiight, its similar to a call centre” “riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight, this is recruitment” With that confidence, it allowed me to show more & more of my personality (outrageous shirts....more on that later)

*Quick Side Story* ^ I got compared to the Cheshire cat...unfair I feel

The day the penny dropped for me, was when I was able to visit the LinkedIn offices, I got to attend a “LinkedIn Champions Day” (thoroughly recommend that to ANYONE/EVERYONE in recruitment) - I'd been working in recruitment approx 1 month at this point.

The reason why the penny dropped, I got to meet many people from other recruitment agencies, Now, lets clarify at this stage, I’m just “The L&D Guy”, a lot of Recruitment agencies don’t have one, usually training is done by their top billers. Well after my trip I FULLY appreciated why Optimus wanted/needed/invested an L&D Guy. (that's a LinkedIn article of its own) - A top biller may be good at what they do, but some may be unable to communicate effectively what makes a top biller. E.G. L&D Guy!

During the day we learned lots of ‘tricks’ & ‘best practice’ of how to use LinkedIn Recruiter (I loved EVERY minute of it….I’m a nerd & as I had no pre-conceptions, everything made sense), however, other recruiters….weeeellllllllllll lets just say “they were a little old school” and couldn’t seem to understand ‘working smart’ rather than ‘working hard’ – side note - my new philosophy for all of my training modules at Optimus “Work Hard AND Smart” (why can’t you do both?)

I left the session with a sense of purpose – I now have a tool in the toolkit I can train not only new people who join Optimus, but I can now add value to people already working at Optimus.

I'm getting this:

Looking back now, I must have been frustrating to work with (still am), As I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

I started putting in the hours (like recruiters), sitting & talking with as many people as I could (quick shout outs to Ves, Joe, Louis, Aaron, Pavan, Saulge, Matthew, Sailajan & Tyler) asking “why do you do that?” “what’s the logic of that question?” & “what do you want to learn?”…That last question is something I feel the L&D world often forgets to ask, its all well & good doing various analysis on trends, but what do people ACTUALLY want to learn, “I want to get past gatekeepers” “I want to ask better questions” “Is there a way to use technology to help me?” “I want to send better emails” “I want to sound better on the phone”

To give the game away, something that seemed like a win:win:win:win:win situation were weekly call listening sessions. Where team by Team I would host a 1 hour session listening to each person’s call “publicly” allowing people to hear themselves. This stems back from my background in call centres (& also being a sales rep on the phone). The power of Self-Reflection is a huge asset, just listening to your own call...even with no feedback is a huge learning tool. Then you add the carefully constructed feedback from myself & peers, we are all onto a winner - side note, this process we do for all the teams in London, not only would the teams learn, I too, quickly learned how the business as whole was performing, where their performance was, who was good at what type of calls, why things worked, great phrases/terms to use & when. So in fact Call Listening, is the secret to any success i'm currently having (you'll notice I've stuck that *secret* into the body of my article, so only those who have made the actual effort to read this will get that valuable piece of knowledge)

Thats right! 80,000+ follows (& growing)

Other Key Highlights,

Well, the company wide trip to Summerset trip was a huge win for me, not only just the trip in itself (lovely perk), but actually it allowed me & the rest of Optimus to get to know each other. I was able to display the (for lack of a better word) 'creative' side of me - hence the Hawaiian outfit. - Highlights of which you can see below.

Oddly after the trip I really felt apart of the Optimus Search Team, A noticeable difference in people approaching me & asking for my contributions.

One moment in particular though will stand out & as strange as it sounds, earlier I mentioned about the 'penny drop moment', this was the 'confirmed team-member moment', When we all arrived, everyone was rather excited (and borderline drunk already after a 2-3 hour coach trip), A huge flaw I have is, i'm rather introverted by nature, The logic I have is "I don't want to disturb anyone", so I was sitting on my own by the pond fountain (how posh) as everyone was by the pool thoroughly enjoying themselves. As I said earlier "I don't want to get in the way", well Mr Richard found me (I don't think he was looking for me), "Alex, are you alright?" I replied "Yes, i'm good here at the moment", well after a brief chat about how successful the trip had been so far Richard said "Well, you know where we all are...your presence is very much missed". I've done no justice to that short exchange, I'm not a drinker, I'm not a smoker & i'm definitely not a partyer. I'd started to honestly judge "Should I have come on this trip?...I haven't contributed to this trip...Why Am I Here?". In that one, very low key moment A huge weight was lifted which I didn't even know I had.

Other Highlights/Moments

I've had various meetings with many Recruitment related Vendors (Bullhorn, Cube 19, LinkedIn all come to mind instantly - & were all brilliant) Although, as i'm fairly new to this Recruitment lark, I thought i'd meet with a few recruitment training vendors (I won't name them...to save their embarrassment, I also like the idea of each of the 3 thinking i'm talking about them), a personal hilarious story was one of the vendors were clearly so desperate to sell their product...they sort of insulted me repeatedly "well you're not a recruiter...you need our materials, without them, your training must be rubbish....that'll be ￡3,000 per booklet" - BRILLIANT sales technique there.

I'm now (loosely) involved with our internal recruitment, which makes perfect sense to me, i'm the one training the new people...why wouldn't you get L&D involved with that process?

Doing an audit, As of today, I have delivered in my '100 days' of recruitment, 223 Hours of training delivery. Which includes 15 different modules & call listening sessions. (let alone any side by side by side coaching)

Also, while i'm at it, talking about time management, my official working hours are 8:30 - 5:30, it turns out some people in the office think i'm taking the pi**, as I arrive into the office around 8/8:05 & usually leave around 5:45. It turns out people just assume I work a 8-6 pattern (like them)

Oh yeah...BELTS! how can I forget the Optimus belts, I've already written a post around my logic around the title belts, just know...they're cool & people want to win & defend them.

I should also really thank some people specifically for making my 100 days thoroughly enjoyable (if they're reading this)

Maz - Your help has made my job much easier and more fun. I really appreciate your time and effort each & everyday - also, you're offensively funny. I can't think what my favorite quote of yours is, but what I do know is, I'm looking forward to all the future laughs.

Rich - WOW, this article just got 500% more handsome, I can't say enough good things, although I do think its dangerous (for everyone else) when we work together. Maybe one day i'll grow up & be just 5% as handsome as you

Raf - How you didn't sack me after 1 week, STILL impresses me. I must have annoyed you so much at the beginning, however everyday I feel like I learn something new. I really appreciate your time & efforts...and obscure wrestling references

Sasha - I've really enjoyed working with you and getting to know you, genuinely the nicest person I've ever met (& I've met a lot of nice people) & again, look forward to working with you with the Optimus expansion plans

Nigel & Neil - There are literally no words to describe the appreciation I have of you both, thanks for taking a chance on a non-recruiter, thanks for your daily catch-ups & thanks for your daily moments of motivation "Cheers Nige/Neil"

So what have I actually learned in those 100 Days?

Well, the first thing I've learned is, Recruitment is a hard business...obviously. Its essentially a sales job, where your product is people however its far more complicated than a simple "x stage process".

To be a successful recruiter, there isn't any 'one kind of person', more of a series traits that help you, so from my point of view a top 5 (but not limited to):

1) Time Management (and multi-tasking)

2) Relationship Building

3) Question/Listening Skills

4) Being Professionally Persistent

5) Sales/Marketing Skills

No surprises what training sessions i'm currently developing.

"there is more than one way to skin a cat"

So whats next?

Well, Optimus are expanding & will be moving to a new high end office (shhhh, the new location makes my commute much easier, i'm looking forward to potentially getting home 1 hour earlier). With this new office comes (in theory) a dedicated training room with a dedicated training/rookie area.

I'm just shy of the 500+ connections (come oooonnnn, lets connect, to appease my ego)

Probably be more involved with the HR side of things, i'm looking forward to being involved with the process more, especially now that (I feel) i understand recruitment better.

SURELY there's going to be some kind of Christmas party...and no doubt another oportunity for me to take (obviously) EXCELLENT photos. speaking of which, let me leave you with a few personal favorite snaps of our Company Trip.

Thank You Kindly Optimus