I had a few questions to ask David Miles, director of the New York office at Eames Consulting, and he shared the challenges he's faced, his number one secret to success, and why Eames.
1. How did you get into recruitment?
As the cliché goes, I fell into it. As an ex-accountant, I was approached as an industry expert to recruit the finance and accounting desk.
2. What is your advice for someone just getting into recruitment?
Don’t take yourself too seriously, leave the ego at the door and be prepared to work hard. You get out what you put in.
3. What is it about recruitment that has kept you in the industry?
The people and relationships; changing jobs can be one of the most stressful things for people, so being the person to guide candidates through the process as well as helping clients successfully hire the right talent is extremely rewarding.
4. What is your proudest moment in your career to date?
Right now. Setting up Eames USA; in less than a year in, we've built out a terrific team that works hard, motivates each other, and has fun too! As with building a new business and team, there are challenges and massive opportunities; I'm excited to see what 2023 brings and looking forward to continuing the momentum, growing the business, and watching the team grow.
5. What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your career so far, and how have you overcome that?
The initial period of the pandemic. The isolation of working from home and not seeing colleagues and clients in real life was challenging in the early phases. Adjusting to new ways of working, economic uncertainty and clients adapting to the changes impacted business. As a leader in the business, it was important to take a step back and reassess our approach while ensuring the team was doing OK personally themselves. We took a client-first approach, letting them know we were still here and reassuring candidates that options are still there. It worked! My team grew, and I believe it helped develop their skill sets even more so working in such a challenging environment.
6. What is your number 1 secret to success?
That you are your biggest competitor. Beating yesterday’s version of me is enough. I don’t focus on other people’s success unless I’m able to learn from it.
7. What’s the best career advice you’ve ever been given?
Trust your instincts and work for the job you want, not the job you have. This and the importance of being true to your word.
8. What are you driven by, and how do you stay motivated?
Progress and curiosity. I’ve got a relentless drive for progress, and I’m quite analytical by nature, so I’m always looking at ways to improve, be it process, technology, or simply how we are operating.
9. How do you keep a work/life balance?
I prepare my day the night before, I am laser-focused during the day, and I hit the goals I set for myself. Recruitment never ends, there is always another job, client or candidate to call, but I, fortunately, have realized a few years back that David on 10% battery is far less enjoyable to be around and far worse at his job than the fully charged version!
10. Why Eames?
We put people first, whether you are a client, candidate or Eames employee. Our business is, in essence, people, and it’s no surprise that our internal operations team, from finance to onboarding and L&D, are award-winning. Because the people are truly the lifeblood of our business, and we spend a lot of time focusing on getting that right.