I have to admit HR or Recruitment wasn’t the career path I had planned. Now I’m a director of an HR recruitment business! So what happened? Well after a first degree in Philosophy and a Masters in HR the plan was a life of academia. But as I gained my CIPD I thought it prudent to work in HR and see the “Ulrich and 3 legged stools” outside of a text book. Now, back then, to start a career in HR meant Admin and lots of it. Whereas recruitment of HR professionals meant more talking than paperwork. A better fit for all concerned.
From here, the practical seemed more exciting than the theory and recruitment within HR gave me a chance to not just understand how one HR dept functioned but several, every week. And for the past 16 years – with the exception of a couple of years travelling and a year in South America – I’m still as passionate as when I started. I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of changes within HR as a profession: from the early days of a mainly transactional function through to being a serious business partner to an organisation.
Having held management positions in FTSE 100 recruitment companies and run specialist agencies the key to success is to offer a transparent and honest service and possess a depth of experience to understand both a clients business and candidate’s motivations. And at Stangate HR (previously Stangate Hollis) I can guarantee a truly customer centric long term approach as opposed to a sales or KPI driven environment.
My interest in Recruitment evolved from the completion of a BA(Hons) in Industrial Relations and HRM. After entering the recruitment industry in 2000, initially specialising in technology and professional services, I was fortunate enough to be able to combine my academic study with my growing experience of the recruitment sector.
In 2005 I joined a Specialist HR Recruitment company and have enjoyed spending the last 13 years working with HR professionals either helping them to recruit for their own teams or providing support in their career development activities.
After 5 years working within a large corporate environment, I made the decision to venture out on my own and provide HR Recruitment Services across East Anglia and London/South East. During this time, I have experience working with a wide range of businesses, however have had particular success within the Technology, FS/Professional Service and Knowledge based sectors. I also spent several years living within the DACH region and worked on a number of assignments across Central Europe.
In 2018, I joined Stangate HR with a focus on developing HR Recruitment activities from our new office in Cambridge.
This is now my 20th year in the recruitment sector and I still love what I do! Having relocated to St Albans from a small town in Scotland to find my fortune as they say I purely fell into recruitment by chance. I was offered the opportunity to work for the recruitment agency I had approached to find me a job when I moved to St Albans. I quickly progressed through the ranks of this FTSE 100 organisation working across Hertfordshire specialising in Office Support recruitment.
I moved back to back to Scotland in 2008 and worked for a small boutique agency until 2016 when I decided to venture out and establish my own agency specialising in Office Support and Hospitality recruitment across the East of Scotland, whilst juggling a busy life as a mum of two boys. My approach was simple…I enjoyed what I did and was able to offer an efficient and honest approach to both candidates and clients alike.
Most recently I have worked as the Talent Acquisition Advisor for one of the top Hotel and Golf resorts in Scotland, working as part of an established HR team providing direct recruitment support to a number of stakeholders within the Hotel. This role has allowed me to understand how a busy internal HR function works and compliment my journey to become a better recruitment professional.
I have joined Stangate HR with a focus on developing a personal and long term approach to the relationships I look to make with both clients and candidates whilst offering a tenacious yet honest approach to recruitment .