Why your perception of recruitment is wrong - My first 3 months at Stopgap.

12 Jun 2019

Our marketing manager Tom, talks about his first 3 months at Stopgap and how it's changed his perception of the recruitment industry.

 
I think it’s fair to say that I never thought I would work in the recruitment industry. Like a lot of people, my perception of recruitment over the years has not always been an overly positive one. And yet, last week marked my first three months in my role as Marketing Manager at Stopgap.

 

And I can safely say that my three months so far have not only been hugely enjoyable and rewarding but that Stopgap as a business have helped me look at the recruitment industry with completely fresh eyes.

 

My first interaction with Stopgap - Marketing and Digital Recruitment Agency, was actually as a candidate when I had decided to relocate to London last Christmas. Immediately my experience was a positive one with the consultants I worked with being extremely personable, genuinely taking an interest in me as a person, my experience and what I was looking for. And it sounds like a given, but after an initial conversation, they actually called me regularly with potential opportunities and didn’t just disappear off the face of the earth!

 

Then an opportunity came up with Stopgap themselves and I thought why not? I already had a good perception of them as a candidate and I thought it was an opportunity worth exploring. Three months on and I couldn’t be happier with my decision.

 

I’ve had an even greater insight into the world of recruitment in the last three months and I think there are certainly elements of it that warrant the negative reputation that it has. But it really is important to not tar all recruiters with the same brush. I was lucky enough to work with a fantastic recruitment agency during my 4 years working in Bristol and Bath before my move to London.

 

The good guys are out there and Stopgap is certainly one of them. There is no doubt that the recruitment industry is still populated by a lot of aggressive sales attitudes, no knowledge of the sector in which they operate and a lack of understanding of the candidates or clients’ needs. But what I have seen from my colleagues here at Stopgap really does set them apart from the stereotype.

 

    It is genuinely a lovely environment, everyone cares about each other and it’s a lot of fun. I’ve felt completely supported by both my management and colleagues.

 

    We’re not commission based and completely collaborative. There isn’t some awful Wolf of Wall Street type sales environment here. Our teams share candidates, knowledge and advice.

 

    We’re diverse. When people think of recruitment I think they usually have visions of the worst kind of candidate on the apprentice. But at Stopgap we’re different. We’re predominantly women; we have a huge range of ages and

backgrounds and we celebrate people’s different interests, personalities and characters.

 

    We know marketing. The majority of our consultants have a background in marketing and the sectors for which they recruit. They understand what it means to be both a candidate in the marketing sector and a client. We are constantly keeping on top of market trends and insight.

 

    We care – a lot of businesses make this claim, but often it’s a hollow one. Not at Stopgap. I’ve seen first-hand how much my colleagues here care about each other, their candidates and their clients.

 

So I’m very much looking forward to my future with Stopgap and next time you make a sweeping assumption about the recruitment sector, remember that we’re not all the same.