Recruiters caught red-handed answering work phone on holiday…
When I automatically answered my phone whilst lounging around a pool in Singapore, I wasn’t to know it was the CEO of Wave Leisure, a leading Sussex health and wellbeing charity.
He’d called to give me the heads up on a new project to in finding maternity cover. It turned out they’d been so pleased with the Head of Marketing we’d helped them hire at the start of 2018, clockworkTalent’s recruiters were their first call upon learning of the pregnancy!
I was fortunate to still have time with the existing Head of Marketing, getting a full brief. She’d set up the team, the strategy and put in place the process and procedures. I already knew the basics of this company well. Our recruiters have successfully hired for them previously. You don’t normally get to take the recruitment brief from the incumbent, so this was quite a nice aspect of the project. But in the back of my mind, I knew Abby was going to be a tough act to follow.
You see, they’d been thrilled with the inroads Abby had made with the Trusts’ marketing. For this, we were going to need someone who could caretake what she’d put in place. Reinforce its solidity but also step it up a gear or two. Build upon the existing platform she’d put in place, making marketing integral to Wave’s business plan.
Do you ever get the feeling you already know the answer? I do. Especially in recruitment. I get the feeling that I already know who we should be hiring on a project. It’s a gut instinct which took me a couple of days to figure out. But it was then like someone turned on the light. I already knew who’d be perfect for this job!
“Working with clockworkTalent has been six years in the making. Natasha herself has tracked my career from a midweight at an SEO agency through to in-house strategic content and marketing leader…”
She was someone I’d been in touch with for what feels like most of her career. In fact, at the time of her last job change, we’d secured her a job offer which wasn’t quite the perfect move at the time, So it was great to be able to come back to her again.
“She never pushed and never proposed roles that she knew wouldn’t suit my goals or personal life and always stood back if I wasn’t actively in-market for a new role…”
She was good. Local. But her most recent job had been with an extremely different business. A large enterprise company, running a global Content team it involved London commutes, travel, distance from stakeholders and a lot of corporate complexities.
But my timing was right, although it did take a little nudge from my side. Perhaps an element of imposter syndrome, after all, women are less likely to apply to jobs than men.
Initially, I think it was the lure of better work-life balance, time with the family, big fish smaller pond and so many other cliché’s. To be honest, I almost gave up on the message sinking in.
But once in, I couldn’t stop her.
After the initial interview, she was virtually bursting with enthusiasm. From my side, I knew it’d be a great match but I hadn’t realised how great. That all being said, it’s not to say once she started there weren’t teething problems. How almost as soon as she started, she became so ill she had to call an ambulance out. But you’d never know, she’d composed herself and excused herself from the meeting with no one the wiser other than the call the next day excusing her from work. It took several days in the first week to get rid of that virus but she’s not looked back since. I think we’re almost at a stage where I can joke about this now! (Eek!).
“…taking time to understand me and my career goals, and sometimes just being a listening ear or career agony aunt. This set her and the team apart from the sea of recruiters on LinkedIn.”
-Kelly Sutherland, interim Head of Marketing, Wave Leisure Trust
We continue to check in with both Kelly and the Wave team and we’re delighted to report the nasty norovirus quickly left the team fit and well and that the Trust’s marketing is continuing on its wave of success under Kelly’s watch. This is music to our ears and means our recruiters delivered another great project with this Sussex charity.
If you’re great at your digital marketing job and are wondering what career options are out there for you, get in touch with our expert recruiters at clockworkTalent! If you need to get yourself ready first, you can book a free CV critique and if you’re interested in getting inspired with top job seeking tips and industry gossip, subscribe to our newsletter!
