I had a few questions to ask Jared Cave, principal consultant in the UK and he shared his advice for someone just getting into the industry, his number one secret to success and how he keeps a work-life balance.
1. How did you get into recruitment?
I had a friend who worked in recruitment while I was working as a Personal Trainer. She didn’t love it but whenever we spoke about it I thought it sounded interesting. When she was approached by an agency to join their equivalent of an Associate Consultant pod, she rejected their offer but sent them in my direction.
2. What is your advice for someone just getting into recruitment?
Get comfortable feeling uncomfortable. We all tend to do more of the things that we find easy and avoid the hard tasks. When starting out, it’s all about learning. A good agency will give you leeway to make mistakes and support you in your development areas but, you must be willing to get stuck in.
3. What is it about recruitment that has kept you in the industry?
The meritocracy. The better I get, the more I make.
4. What is the proudest moment in your career to date?
Being promoted from Senior Consultant to Principal Consultant. I felt I had to step my game up and add a few new strings to my bow so I felt really proud when I reached this milestone.
5. What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your career so far and how have you overcome that?
Managing my own expectations has been the biggest challenge. I think most people who work in recruitment are optimistic but sometimes it means we get ahead of ourselves. For me, what’s really helped is planning, understanding what I need to do to get where I want to be, falling in love with the process and most importantly, only worrying about what I can affect.
6. What is your number 1 secret to success?
Find your own style. The best recruiters I’ve met and worked with have always been authentic. I think you’ll enjoy what you do and do it better when you can be yourself.
7. What’s the best career advice you’ve ever been given?
Plan your weeks. There are so many plates to spin and it’s easy to overestimate what you can do in a day and underestimate what you can do in a week.
8. What are you driven by and how do you stay motivated?
The challenge keeps me motivated. I want to be the best I can be, and recruitment gives me the opportunity to continually set myself new challenges and work on cultivating new skills. The commission doesn’t hurt either 😉.
9. How do you keep a work-life balance?
I set personal goals and plan my weeks, so I know what I’m trying to achieve outside of work and when I’m going to do it. For some people, I imagine this might take the fun out of their hobbies, but it helps me place the same impetus on my life outside of work.
10. Why Eames?
There are so many reasons why I love Eames but as corny as it sounds, the people are the real clincher. There are plenty of great role models at Eames and so many people who are willing to help. It matters to me that the people I work with practise what they preach. I can confidently say that everyone who works at Eames takes their job seriously.