UNCONVENTIONAL ROUTES TO RECRUITMENT: MY CAREER CHANGE INTO RECRUITMENT

My name is Anthony and I’ve been working at Franklin Fitch for over 3 years. I’m currently a Senior Recruitment Consultant, but prior to taking a chance and embarking upon my recruitment career, I was a DJ in which I performed around the world.

I first started getting into music when I was 12 years old and whilst music was my passion, I didn’t earn money with it in the beginning, so I had to get myself a job. After my A-levels I started working in a law firm whilst listening to drum and bass, house, and techno music. I’ve learned a lot about property law and administration, but realised quickly that that’s not for me as it’s a very black and white world you live in. So, I invested more time into becoming a DJ, travelled from country to country for gigs, and played for a huge amount of people. I’d consider myself a people person as playing to the crowd and talking to people is part of my daily business.

In terms of my journey into recruitment, my first intention was to earn more money and have a regular salary and a structured full-time job. As soon as I’ve started the job, I realised that there are much more similarities to my previous career steps than I thought and the transferable skills, which I learned from performing, helped in my transition into recruitment. Recruitment and law for example both have clients you need to communicate with. So, in both working environments communication and confidence are key to be able to reach your targets.

Both of my prior employment taught me how to be a friendly and social person while remaining professional and appropriate at the same time. Being a DJ entails connecting with the crowd and responding to the music preferences of the listeners. When working with various types of clients on various types of issues, I've also learnt to be versatile. This capacity to adapt to diverse personalities now sets me apart from my co-workers.

Recruitment is a challenging job with a high variety of tasks, but less pressure than working in a law firm for example. Apart from the salary what I love most is that you learn from people about people, you communicate and collaborate. So, within recruitment, I found a job that brings out the social aspect as well as the routine that I was looking for. So don’t hesitate and decide to take a chance and make a change, maybe this is also going to be your future.