In our latest episode of the Strivin & Thrivin podcast we talked with Samantha George, Principal Recruitment Consultant at The Drive Group, about how she went from having a passion for advertising to recruitment and her top tips for surviving the roles’ ups and downs.
An accidental fall into recruitment
It’s not often that we come across someone who accidentally falls into recruitment and then chooses to head back to agency work after making the move in-house.
Wanting to pursue a career in advertising after University, Samantha’s first job didn’t exactly turn out as she expected.
“I got there and they handed me a book full of numbers and names and a phone .. three, four days in I was like, when do we get to do the advertising? … it turned out that I’d actually joined an in-house recruitment team.”
Accidentally discovering a passion for recruitment, Samantha found herself enjoying the opportunity to work across a variety of fields, from healthcare to education, until she landed a sponsored job in Australia in design recruitment.
Sam’s love for agency life stems from her interest in exploring all different areas of work and her passion for helping people achieve their best.
“I find a good gem and I know they’re capable of doing really good things and I wanna help them and follow their journey. [In] internal recruitment .. if you don’t have a role, you kind of close the door on them.”
Keep it real
One of the many things we love about Sam is that she’s not your typical recruiter.
“I am not salesy in the slightest. I’m just very human. I take out the fluff and the jargon words. I’m not interested in trying to dissect what you are saying to me, let’s have a real conversation.
“What’s your problem? Do I have a solution and let’s try and work that out together … I am a natural empath. It’s my problem, I’ve gotta take it on and I’ll not rest until I’ve come up with [a solution].”
Champagne and razor blades
Sam’s advice for other recruiters out there – be resilient and get the hard jobs done first.
Resilience might feel like one of the most overused words in the field right now, but there’s a reason why the recruitment life is called champagne and razor blades.
“You definitely have to get up each day and go, okay, let’s go again. Some days are really hard and some days are like, ‘why’s everyone not in recruitment, this is so easy’.
So when things do get tough, how does Sam push through?
“I normally try to eat the frog, which means hard things first. Get it out the way. Otherwise I’ll just think about it all day long and I won’t actually get anything else done except worry until the time comes.
“I try and make everything into bite size achievements or accomplishments or tasks so that it’s not overwhelming.”
Unclip your wings
If Sam could go back in time to her 21-year-old self, what advice would she give?
“I would probably say you are able to be your authentic self in this role. You don’t have to have a big suit on or go into a corporate office and try and dissect a presentation … Everyone is different and you can own that.
“Not every organisation is going to understand that and they’re not always going to back you … finding somewhere that gives you that platform to really grow as a person and unclip your wings is worth fighting for.”
Want to hear the full episode or catch up on some of our other conversations? Click here to listen.
