Interview: Emily Bruce from Send Resourcing

To continue our series of recruiter stories, we spoke to Emily Bruce, Associate Director at Send Resourcing.

How did you get into recruitment?

Having worked in internal recruitment during my summers at uni, and then having temped through various great agencies, I’m a typical recruiter who after seven ski seasons fell neatly into recruitment as a second career.

How long have you been in recruitment?

Having started in recruitment before I graduated, I’ve been in the game, on and off, since 2001, so 15 years.

Where do you currently work?

I’m currently Associate Director with a cutting edge new recruitment business, Send Resourcing. We are a cooperative of independent and self-employed recruitment consultants who benefit from pooling all the best tools and collaborating with like-minded peers from across the industry.

What do you love about the job?

I LOVE working in recruitment because we change people lives! There is no better feeling than matching a candidate with a job that you know that they will absolutely love, or knowing that you’ve perfectly answered that hiring manager’s prayers in a way that will transform their team. What a buzz!

I LOVE working for Send because I still get to experience all of the above, at the same time as having complete professional freedom. I work when, where and how I want, set my own fees and don’t have to worry about invoicing, credit control, marketing or any of the hassle of running a recruitment business. If I want to go to the gym for two hours in the middle of the day or move my office to the south of France for a week then I do it. I honestly feel like I’m living the dream!

How did you find our CertRP qualification?

Back in my agency days I had the good fortune to work for Tate, and they paid for me to gain CertRP status. Studying for the qualification itself has given me confidence that comes from knowing that I’m doing the right, legal and compliant thing. I always recommend both the REC and IRP to junior consultants looking to get ahead as well as consultants looking to go the entrepreneurial route.

Would you recommend that job seekers consider recruitment a career of choice?

To anyone considering recruitment as a career I would advise them to consider their passions and aptitudes – what do they enjoy doing and what are they naturally good at?

I’ve always been a natural on the phone - polite, articulate and persuasive which is a key skill in most recruitment roles. And I’m motivated by achieving tangible results. Which, when all goes well in recruitment, you most certainly do! Recruitment is a roller coaster though, make no mistake! So if you’re able to roll with the punches and use the set-backs to motivate you rather than discourage you, you will be a roaring success.

If a job seeker can honestly appraise their personal interests and abilities and see that they’re a match then 100% - recruitment will be the best job in the world for them!

What keeps you in the industry?

Being at a point in my career where I have gained great work/life balance, real professional freedom and a deep level of industry expertise I’d be crazy to consider a change.

Given your time again would you do anything differently starting out?

Wow! It’s the first time I’ve been asked that and I’m delighted to find that no, I don’t think I have any professional regrets. My path has not been straight but as Sheryl Sandberg suggests in her book, 'Lean In: Women, Work, and The Will to Lead', it’s better to think in terms of a career jungle gym than a career ladder.

Can you give us one #positiveplacement story?

I placed a candidate last year into a senior role with my largest client and she said to me that after two weeks in the role her children said to her “Mummy why are you so different now, you’re happy all the time?”. Previously she’d been in quite a chauvinistic male dominated environment that didn’t allow any flexible working and in her new role it was a lot more democratic, and she had complete freedom to manage her own time and work from home as she saw fit.

That was one of the more rewarding placements that I’ve made and illustrates the point that by facilitating the right career move it’s possible to empower people to fundamentally change their lives.

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