“Consistency and persistence is key to success in this business."
I had a few questions to ask Robin Muir, partner and associate director on the Technology team, and he had some great advice for people starting out in the recruitment industry.
1. How did you get into recruitment?
My Uncle got me an interview at his firm he was working for at the time, and it all went on from there.
2. What is your advice for someone just getting into recruitment?
Consistency and persistence is key to success in this business. Be a sponge, work closely with your colleagues and soak up as much information as possible. No question is a stupid question when you are just starting out. If you feel silly asking it, you are working with the wrong people!
3. What is it about recruitment that has kept you in the industry?
Technology and the industry I work in is the exciting part of my role; constantly seeing change in the industry drives some exciting conversations and engaging with some really interesting people doing some incredible things; the YoY growth in technology and innovation tells its own story!
4. What is your proudest moment in your career to date?
Being awarded my Partnership and promotion to Associate Director are equally proud moments of mine.
5. What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your career so far and how have you overcome that?
Being without a manager for most of 2018 was a big challenge for me. It was someone who taught me basically everything I know, a good friend as well as a boss to me, but that gave me the opportunity to step up, challenge myself and implement everything I had learnt on my own and make it a success.
6. What’s the best career advice you’ve ever been given?
“If this job was easy, everyone would do it. As long as you are given the right tools to succeed, partnered with the right attitude, this job can easily be one of the best and most rewarding out there!”
7. What are you driven by and how do you stay motivated?
Everyone has aspirations to have better things, like being able to buy a nice house or a new car as a product of their achievements, but my true motivations come from being able to help people and the buzz I get after a positive response from placing a candidate or helping a client.
8. What do you think you would have been had you not gone into recruitment?
I was really into my music, as I studied it through GCSE, A-Level and for my Degree, so definitely would have been doing something musical; my main interests would have been working on sound FX/Foley Art for TV/films.
9. How do you keep a work/life balance?
I make sure I use my lunch breaks or before work to go to the gym as I feel it's really good for my mental health and well-being. It is nice to have a hybrid working arrangement, so I can be there to do things with my son as well.
10. What’s your most overused recruitment word/phrase?
‘Persistence beats resistance’