How Did I End Up In Recruitment?

I didn't go to University, I didn't really know what I wanted to do after finishing my A-Levels but I knew University wasn't for me.

Working a local part-time position, a customer asked what I wanted to do career wise and I couldn't give them a confidant answer. She mentioned a company that offers GCSE and A-Levels students an opportunity to complete a 6-week course which then led to apprenticeship opportunities in and around London. With no set plans - I decided to give it a go. The interviews for these apprentices started between weeks 4-6, groups of 'candidates' applying for the same position so there was a lot of competition.

I was given the opportunity to interview for a recruitment company based in the city, which was a popular opportunity for a number of the people trying to obtain an apprenticeship as a high percentage of the roles were on the outskirts of London. The role wasn't to work in recruitment, but to work as their Administrator/Receptionist as an apprentice. I ended up being successful in the process and was offered the 12 month apprenticeship - I guess that is where it started!

Working at a recruitment company and watching the kind of day a Consultant had was interesting - seeing candidates come and go, watching deals come in from every angle. It's an environment where you can see why people love it and why people may only do it for a few months... I was offered the opportunity to stay at this company and move into an 'Assistant Consultant' position - a position I never even considered until working at the company, then moving into a fully fledged Recruitment Consultant.

It was a difficult transition, from assisting Consultants and resourcing a range of different candidates - to managing my own desk and dealing with some of the best law firms in the world. I'd like to say I took it in my stride, however, there was always going to be small bumps in the road (as that's recruitment...).

Then came COVID - a shock to the entire recruitment industry and a number of other industries. Working on a temporary recruitment desk where your bookings are typically last minute and in-office, meant there was a dramatic decrease in workload. Similar to a lot of recruiters, furlough saved the day for a period of time until it came down to making difficult decisions. After just over five years, my time at the company came to an end but I still cannot thank them enough for bringing me into the weird and wonderful world of legal recruitment.

Job hunting... it was strange to be on the opposite end of recruitment calls after a number of years but at least I knew which questions to ask! Securing a position shortly during COVID, after only being out of work for a few months, I was lucky. It was in a completely different sector but it was still recruitment and at the time, all that mattered was that it was a job and a job I knew how to do.

A short stint at that agency and then a call from a Senior Consultant at Career Legal - an agency I'd known of for a long time. I was back within legal recruitment, looking forward to working with top law firms and top Consultants again and that is exactly what happened!

Since joining Career Legal I have watched the market rejuvenate itself following COVID. Things have only got busier and busier, where I’m consistently working with great Paralegal and Risk & Compliance candidates on a daily basis, dealing with responsive and professional law firms and successfully finding my niche... Data Protection.

After being with Career Legal for over 2.5 years, I moved into a Senior Recruitment Consultant, specialising in Data Protection – I wouldn’t have been able to get to this point without the company having faith in me to deliver, as well as having a fantastic close-knit team who I can bounce ideas and advice off.

I would have never thought that of all things, Data Protection would end up being the area I enjoy most. The technical aspects, the jargon and phrases you need to learn and remember, doing my own research to liaise better with candidates and attending conferences/webinars - it's different to the typical recruitment I have been doing for almost 10 years.

As mentioned at the start, recruitment was never something I thought of doing when leaving sixth form - however, I now cannot see myself doing anything else ever!