By Kelly McGrath
Starting a new job is like getting a haircut. You may stick to what you like – getting a trim and some safe caramel highlights - or go completely different a la Katy Perry and take the plunge from black to blonde! When you undertake a big change like this (as all fellow hair-dyers will know!) you have to risk having unsightly orange ‘bosco the clown’ hair momentarily until you get to your perfect blonde shade.
Coming from a radio/PR/media background, the step into recruitment was a pretty big career change. I was happily working in radio for the last few years in Dublin having just left university. Things were going well – I got some great experience researching and reporting for some brilliant radio stations and even met Jedward! *tumble weed* But after a while I decided it was time to move on. I always wanted to live in London and the impending cut backs in my last office gave me the push I needed to move on.
One of my best friends from home had just started a new job in recruitment and after meeting her for dinner one evening it got me thinking about looking into recruitment roles in London. Certain aspects of recruitment sounded pretty similar to my previous jobs – and I loved the thoughts of being in a sociable role where I got paid to chat and meet great candidates and clients!
I knew coming from a creative, fun, working environment that I wanted similar and wouldn’t suit a strict, formal office. One of the most important things for me in moving jobs was to work with nice people in a fun environment. I liked the look of Ecom’s site with their bright designs and little ‘cartoony egg’ people graphics (to use the...technical term!) – I’m like a magpie, shiny bright things catch my attention.
So that had me sold – I fired off my CV and cover letter. I flew over from Dublin for interviews at Ecom and quickly found out how expensive looking for another job is! I didn’t really want to hand in my notice without a solid offer of a job but knew if I didn’t get the job at Ecom that I would just have to come to London and hope for the best, as flying back and forth for interviews was not an option.
After meeting a few of the staff, the role at Ecom quickly became my first choice. At the second interview I was told that they’d let me know by the end of the day. I was flying back to Dublin at 5pm that day so knew it could go either way – either I would be very happy indeed... or I would be attempting to busk on the plane hoping to earn a few extra quid to fund my move to London as an unemployed person. Luckily I didn’t have to subject the cabin crew to my fantastic singing and spoon playing.
After that, things happened really quickly – I finished up my radio job, said goodbye to my friends, family and lovely dogs and off to London I went...with three massive suitcases!
I was so excited to move, and slightly terrified. I was going from working in an area I had studied in university and had worked in for years, to something completely different! I had the fear of permanently being stuck in the orange ‘bosco the clown’ hair phase (see my hair analogy does make sense...I think!). Luckily after my first day I knew I’d love Ecom – the people were lovely and I was allowed to play Jedward and 5ive on Spotify (with only a few complaints!).
I’ve been here three months now and have had to get used to living in a new country as well as starting a new job. As with any new job there’s a lot to take in, in the first month especially, and for a while I was even dreaming about Ecom! The most exciting thing so far was doing my first deal and placing a candidate in their dream job...and the work day out to Ascot was pretty amazing too – I won £23...then lost £18 of it on another bet! But hey that’s still a £5 profit!
I can honestly say that I look forward to going to work in the mornings – partly because breakfast is my favourite meal! – but also because I work with a great bunch of people in a fantastic city!
Good luck in London.
Posted by: Amber Leyn | 09/22/2011 at 12:22 PM