Recruitment Consultant Review

I enjoyed every step of the journey with Hays, from the welcoming first day to getting my desk up and running with a close knit team. There is a steep learning curve and plenty of struggles along the way, Hays challenge your existing knowledge to develop your skills for the future and I appreciated the challenges.

My day to day colleagues and management quickly became my good friends, there were a lot of laughs in the office and I spent a lot of time socializing whether it was on a Friday night, the Christmas party, or out on an incentive celebration. They were supportive day to day and generally the numerous other members of staff I met were friendly and likeminded.

My manager frequently provided 1 to 1 training within my first 12 weeks and then monthly sales plan meetings going forwards. These provided lots of guidance and support and lots of time was invested in my training. This support was there whenever I needed and although I tend to get on with things by myself, it was good to know the help was there when needed.

Once completing my initial few weeks training, I quickly established my presence in the local market and was very busy on a daily basis. Both inbound and outbound activity levels were high, and I also drove to around 15 meetings each month. There were different levels of priority to different responsibilities I ad but there was always lots to do.

During my placement I was given as much responsibility as the consultants in my office and by the time I was 3 months in to the year it was forgotten I was an intern. I managed a temporary office support business for the whole of Surrey and North Hampshire and by the end of the year was covering an even larger area. I also got involved with interviews and training of new members of the team.

The key skill developed to help me in my studies is time management and how that relates to working hours. I worked long hours and quickly realized that this was because there was so much to do, I quickly realized that in order to get everything done it is important to manage your time correctly. Going back to my studies I will keep this skills with me and apply it to all work in the future.

Our office was very hardworking and were managed quite firmly at times, but this led us to great results and ultimately resulted in us spending lots of time out of the office celebrating. As a team we achieved lots of incentive celebration targets, one of the best being an all expenses paid for evening at the races.

In quite a small office, my team were not that familiar with the placement process. I really liked this as it meant I was given the same amount of responsibility and training as my colleagues. Having spoken with interns in larger offices, it's clear that the work placement is very well structured and a lot of time has gone in to developing it.

In terms of personal training and development, Hays invested everything in me. I travelled to many different regional offices to meet with senior management for training, and was given all the support I needed. The travel for this training was paid for, and if I felt I needed any extra training this was organized without any problems.

I am welcome to stay on with Hays in my final year of University or return after graduation, so employment prospects with this organization look very positive. I have had meetings with my manager to discuss potential fast track options and my progression path for the future, this was achievable and realistic.

The social scene amongst colleagues was excellent and we spent a lot of time out having parties, they quickly became my good friends. In terms of other work placement students, they were based in other offices and I did not see them much. When I did meet them they seemed to be enjoying their time and happy with their placement.

Working in Guildford the cost of living was extremely high as was the cost of socializing. This is probably one of the only issues I had during the year and is a general issue for the Surrey area generally. An upside was that almost all of my socializing was paid for by managers and the company.

The nightlife where I worked was okay, but being with such a good team made it excellent. There were plenty of bars we went to frequently and sometimes ended up in the clubs. These places ranged from high end to budget venues but we had just as much fun anywhere we went.

Most of what we got involved in outside of work was going to pub and bars, but we did organize the occasional game of football as well. It worked well that we had certain days we would go out and celebrate as often people worked long hours and were busy other evenings of the week.