This month marks my 3 year anniversary working at ER Recruitment and the entire journey to date has been fun and exhilarating with each day providing a new lesson or take away. With a background in sales and account management, recruitment was a sector I could inject my transferrable skills from previous roles into and the challenge of helping an individual secure a new role or a client to fill a problematic vacancy is an aspect my competitive nature thrives within.
The last few years have been busy for me both personally and professionally. Whilst the majority of the world shut down their working spaces and adjusted to work from home, I myself was just getting ready to go onto maternity leave with my now nearly 2-year-old son. With many restrictions in place, we immersed ourselves into the world of virtual with an online work baby shower and my sons first time meeting the team taking place over Microsoft Teams. Although looking back now it all may have felt so different, at the time it was making the most out of incredibly unusual circumstances and those precious times at home were so special within my first year of motherhood.
As working mums, before returning to work we ask ourselves questions such as whether our child will adjust to childcare, whether we ourselves will adjust to the working routine now that we have a child to also consider and if in fact when we do return to work, we will even remember how to do our roles again in the same way as we did pre-baby brain. Of course, the answers to all of these questions turn out to be yes and whilst that doesn’t mean that every day is plain sailing, I am very fortunate to have the support of my partner Andy, meaning that for determined and independent individuals like myself we can maintain our identity of a successful professional alongside our newfound role as a mother.
Working in recruitment, we have seen a huge rise in the demand to work from home which is a result of many enjoying the lack of commuting, the flexibility, and the autonomy that they had throughout lockdown. For myself personally, the ability to come back physically into the office and be surrounded by my colleagues when adjusting back into work was invaluable. Team cohesion, the ability to share ideas and to also celebrate each other’s successes is an environment I thrive within, and it is something that the team at ER Recruitment do so naturally. Of course, whilst it’s certainly not for everybody I feel it enables me to divide my home life and work life so that I can be fully present in both environments and the office banter and treat perks are an added benefit too.
As a Recruitment Specialist, my role is to work closely with both candidates and clients to create the perfect match between a vacancy and a professional seeking a new role. Our team pride ourselves on the ability to become #PartOfYourDNA due to us partnering with businesses to fill their vacancies across the board as opposed to specialising within specific sectors. It is a rewarding role where our influence in the hiring process truly has an impact in an individual securing a new role or a business employing a new team member to join them which is what I love the most about it.
Outside of recruitment responsibilities, my role at ER Recruitment has given me exposure to many great opportunities such as attending events, supporting local initiatives and meeting likeminded individuals to name a few. Aside of this though, I do have my own set CSR and work event commitments such as sitting as a Committee Member for Network LE which is a local Leicestershire networking group and most recently as a young board member for Hope Against Cancer. Having the opportunity to be a part of these groups on behalf of ER Recruitment not only exposes my own professional profile and builds my network, but knowing that I am a part of the great work that these groups are doing is also immensely fulfilling.
I feel very fortunate for the 3 years I have experienced at ER Recruitment so far working alongside talented colleagues and a supportive MD. I’m really looking forward to what the next year has to hold which I hope will be more recruitment placements, more interaction in the business community and another year of continuing to be the best version of myself – both at work and as a Mummy.
