Celebrating Ten Years at i4 Recruitment

Last week we were celebrating ten years at i4 Recruitment for Mr Dale King, royal by name, recruiter by nature. In my first week within the company it was great to see how the team’s efforts and success are celebrated. So here are ten questions, one for each year of Dale’s time being a key part of i4 Recruitment.

Ten years is a good stretch. Plenty of team days out with drinking commencing at lunch. Hopefully you haven’t forgotten your first impressions of i4 Recruitment. If not, please share.

First impressions were that this was a team of people who knew what they were doing. Very consultative and fully prepared to support the newcomer …

Recruitment is a fast paced but rewarding industry to be, but not everyone is cut out for it. What were you doing before and why did you take a career change?

I was working for a compliance based E-Learning provider as a Production Manager, running their coursework development team. We were based in Norwich, reporting into Milton Keynes head office. A decision was made to close the Norwich office and move it to Milton Keynes, something which I was unable to commit to. I made the decision to move into recruitment because I knew that my commercial experience and skills gave me a sound understanding as to how businesses functioned and more importantly I used to recruit staff for my previous employers and found this area very interesting indeed.

In every career we face challenges, aside from playing Dave at pool, what others have you faced and how did you overcome them?

One big challenge early on in my career was that a well-established client of mine decided they would look to use internal recommendations rather than use agency assistance. This was a huge blow but they only way out of it was by hard work and determination to find similar roles with new clients. I did and I am still going strong.

With every business there are differences between people, who in i4 Recruitment can handle their drink the best and who can’t?

To be honest, we are all more than capable of holding our ale, although there are a few at i4 Recruitment who hit the shots far too early …

On my first week I noticed that hard work is rewarded, happy to share details or pics of what you received for you 10^th year celebration?

Yes, I have no issue with this … I will send the pics over

The platters we had last Friday were pretty chunky. Reckon you could finish one solo? (rice included)

I would be more than happy to have a go, although the rice would get you in the end …

Clearly a fan of The Walking Dead, who is your favourite character and why?

Has to be Rick Grimes, leader, bad ass and definitely and advocate of what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Negan a close second BTW

Back to the business temporarily. The company seems to have a great work/play balance. As an integral part of the team, how do you manage this and what effects does it have on the business?

Knowing when to let off steam is essential. Recruitment is a hard taskmaster and bad news can really affect your performance. You need to put things to bed in your own mind as quickly as possible, and more importantly plan for all outcomes. Personally, throwing a few darts is a good way of getting the tension out …

The next ten years, will they be with i4 Recruitment or have you secretly bought a yacht and plan to leave us all behind?

I have no plans to move on, I want to help grow the business as much as I can and be part of a successful future.

Finally I’ll take the opportunity to grab some advice from a seasoned recruiter. What would you recommend to anybody looking to start a career in recruitment?

Realise that this is an industry that is over saturated at present but if you believe in hard work and determination you can be successful. Strive to be different than others, don’t judge your performance on meeting KPI’s but on building great relationships with candidates and clients alike.