Like many others in recruitment I never planned to make it a long term thing - I initially thought it would be a stop gap between teaching and something else.  Fortunately, I found I loved the competitive vibe and the adrenalin rush of making good placements within a business that encouraged me to work hard and spurred me on to be successful.  I can now say I've recruited for pretty much every role there is within education - and that stop gap has turned into an enjoyable 25 year career.

After finishing my degree in Business Studies in the early 90's, unsure what to do next, I did a TEFL course and then headed off to Barcelona to teach English.  

When I returned to the UK a year later I settled in Cambridge and decided to go back to college to embark on what would become a seven year journey studying Art that would take me from night school and foundation year to Chelsea School of Art in London to do a second degree, this time in Fine Art. Throughout those years, with no access to student finance, teaching kept me afloat and paid the bills!  

With more stints teaching abroad in Vienna and Copenhagen, when my studies were finally over at the grand old age of 30, I got a call from a teacher friend working in recruitment asking if I needed a job.  Just off the plane from Denmark, unsure what the future held... and skint, I agreed to meet.  I was offered my first job in education recruitment in London, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Recruitment is hard graft and not for the faint hearted - early starts, long hours, knock backs and the constant pressure to perform - but what has sustained me throughout the last 25 years is this: I find education fascinating and the commitment by teachers and teaching assistants who want to make a difference vital and inspiring.   This, and my belief that education transforms lives, has been the key driver in my continuing to want to support the education sector.