How many people interview for a new job in the Sauna?

In early 2017, I was two and a half years into my role as Sales Manager at David Lloyd Clubs, I had built a high performing sales team in two different locations , delivered a strong performance year on year and loved every minute of it. I really wasn’t looking for a change or a new job.

That said, I had often wondered what Recruitment was all about. A few of my former colleagues had made the move and from what I had heard, hadn’t regretted it. To be honest, I knew nothing about it and had no reason to. They do say that the best candidates are the ones who aren’t active on the job market, I guess there is a compliment there somewhere…?

During my time as a Sales Manager, I was lucky enough to come into contact with many business owners, MD’s and CEO’s, some of whom gave me a business card and said if I ever needed any help with my future career, to give them a call. Something that I hadn’t even thought of doing, although I was always glad to build a network. That was until I met James Taylor or JT as I now know him. He told me that he had been with his business for coming up to 20 years and if I wanted a change and a new challenge, I should think about having a coffee with him. He started as a Trainee Consultant and had recently been appointed as MD. I’m all about career progression and having something to aim for at work - so I must admit, this sparked an interest for me.

When I got back into the office, I Googled Macildowie and had a quick look at the website, in all honesty, recruitment still didn’t make much sense to me - but then I wasn’t really looking seriously. A few months went by and I bumped into JT once or twice a week, each time stopping for a quick chat. I had thought about what he had said to me and one morning after a workout, I happened to go for a quick sauna, co-incidentally JT was already in there and we got talking again. Here we are 18 months later and I haven’t looked back!

The culture, working environment and values at Macildowie are very different to what I was used to (in a good way). I spent the first few months planning my diary and making sure everyone in my team knew where I was and if I wasn’t in the office, what time I would be back (something that culturally I had been used to in previous businesses) but there really was no need. You really are ‘the MD of your own desk’ and you have full control of what you need to do to be successful. 

In May 2017 when I joined the Finance team in the Nottingham office, it was the start of the financial year for Macs, so a perfect time to join. Within 2 weeks of starting I found myself at the famous New Year Kick Off. A whole day (and night) spent out of the office, sharing strategy, business plans and celebrating successes from the year gone by. This was my first chance to meet the rest of the business and the owners, all 3 of them knew who I was, they made a big effort to make an introduction and spent time talking to me, this straight away made me feel like an valued member of the business. 

During my first few weeks, I was sent a ‘Happy New Year’ card in the post, which told me what my Las Vegas and New York targets were for the year. During a 1:1 with 10 year+ Managing Consultant Greg Statham, he said he honestly believed that Las Vegas would be a big stretch for me in a first year (I agreed) but that kind of stuff just motivates me more, so I secretly thought ‘bring it on’!

Fast forward nearly 18 months and not only have I got engaged, I’ve won ‘Rookie of The Year’, I‘ve won my trips to both New York AND Las Vegas, and last week I got promoted to Senior Consultant too! Oh, and by the way… Greg was only too delighted to be proven wrong! 

If you’re thinking of getting into Recruitment or just want to know more, I seriously suggest you have an informal conversation with Macildowie. There are so many companies out there and honestly, if I hadn’t joined Macs, I wouldn’t have entered the world of recruitment at all. We’ve all heard the horror stories about recruitment businesses taking people on and within a few weeks letting them go again if they haven’t billed £x,000’s or made a million phone calls, I’ll admit, that scared me a little too - but Macs really isn’t like that. If you have the hunger, behaviors and desire to do well, they (I mean “WE”) will give you the tools you need to succeed I think to suceed in any sales related job, you need to have that little bit of nervousness in the back of your mind, that helps to keep you motivated and driven, but and if you stay focused, the sky is the limit.

I’m looking forward to what the next 18 months has to offer. If you want a realistic view on what your future looks like - reach out to me. I’m happy to have chat (there aren’t any silly questions) remember, I knew NOTHING about recruitment or Finance when I started and I will continue to learn for a long time yet.

In summary, I’m glad I chose to pop into the sauna that day!