Allicia Birch

First of all spend time focussing on yourself - go to the gym, build a good routine, build your confidence and get yourself to a point where you're happy internally before throwing yourself into your next opportunity. Once you feel ready, try connecting with industry experts and key individuals that could facilitate your next opportunity. Make sure you're spending this time updating your CV, building a personal brand on linkedin and enjoying the time off you have - you may never have that time again!!

Really understanding your client is key to finding the best candidate. Getting to know them inside and out to ensure that when you come across someone who has ‘that thing’ that they look for - you just know! Similarly, really understanding your candidates needs works in the same way. When a client has that niche role that a candidate wants they will always be interested as it’s what THEY WANT!

One thing I did was become really familiar with the market I chose. I just got out there and met everyone I physically could who was relevant. If you don’t love your market or have a genuine interest in it, that’s fine but you’ve got to have a genuine interest in the people you’re speaking to. Recruitment isn’t an ‘easy career’ and takes ALOT of work to get it to a point where it feels easy. Just put the work in at the start and it will pay off later.

One thing I have found helpful is categorising my emails and sorting them into folders. Not every one is urgent and needs action therefore being able to put it on the backburner to focus on higher priority tasks, whilst not losing it in the inbox.

In my experience, the best way for you to utilise software to better relationships is to have constant contact. Whether that be email marketing, personalised spec's, automated video booking etc. Being able to utilise software so you can consistently keep in touch with clients and make the whole engagement as easy to follow and seamless as possible is the key!

It's not just experience and knowledge that is important to identify, core values and morals are key in ensuring you're bringing the right person into that environment. If the environment is chaotic and unorganised, it needs someone with a level head who is able to understand Rome wasn't built in a day.