Ten years ago when I graduated, my first job was as a recruitment consultant working for a small firm in York specialising in commercial roles within the medical devices sector. This ticked so many boxes for me, I was working in a dynamic environment and the role brought a lot of variety and autonomy.

Understanding what a business is looking for is a trickier undertaking than you would imagine; you need to get a ‘feel’ for the culture of the business as a whole but also what that particular hiring manager is looking for. You need to understand that company’s services so that you can explain it to potential candidates in an engaging, succinct way.

Once you’ve got this the hunt begins – one of the best parts, it feels like a treasure hunt and finding those candidates who are not on LinkedIn or a database – true networking – is extremely satisfying. After 3 years I was keen to experience the roles I had been recruiting for myself and made the leap into field sales, working for a blue-chip nutrition company and selling to the NHS. I later moved to the global leader in hearing aid technology which satisfied the nerd in me as I was dealing with a more technical product. This role was working in the private sector and took me back to my more commercial side where I enjoyed not just selling a product but adding value to the businesses I worked with.

This was probably when the seed of running my own business was planted but I moved up within the company to a national accounts role looking after our top accounts, this time back in the NHS. It was after doing this for a year that it was time to take stock; I had built a career in healthcare and 10 years had flown by.

With everything I had done it was time for something new, so, using my foundation of recruitment and the experiences I have had in both the NHS and private sectors I decided to set up my own recruitment company. I have always prided myself on my networking and communication abilities as well as holding firm the belief that good people are at the heart of every business and it is this belief that drives me every day to match outstanding talent with phenomenal opportunities.