From sales and events to recruitment: Grace's Story

In all honesty, recruitment was never a role I considered when first leaving school and I don’t think many school leavers are aware of how great of a career path it can be. 

I graduated from secondary school and went into college with no idea of what I wanted to do, or where I could see myself pursuing a career and to be honest school was never something I enjoyed. I always knew University wasn’t for me, so just before the end of my first year in college, I decided to leave and start looking for a job. 

It was a long process and there were a lot of knockbacks and rejections but finally – after a good 3 months of searching and a lot of applications, my determination paid off and I was offered a permanent role within Sales in the Events and Hospitality industry. 

This opportunity allowed me to gain 8 months’ valuable experience of cold calling, generating leads, pitching to clients, and building some strong relationships with these clients. Within these 8 months I built up my confidence and got a feel for a commission earning environment, but most of all I developed a resilience within myself to keep going even when everything was going wrong.

During my time in this role, I loved communicating with people and building relationships, but just wanted a role that was more personable and a B2B role - I wanted a career where I felt like I could develop myself further and that I could see a future in, so after resigning from my position, I began looking into recruitment.

After resigning, I had no interviews on the go, no job to fall back on, just a lot of time to start my search. I was back to square one - in the same position as the year before, but now my CV had a good 8 months’ worth of valuable sales experience.

I put a lot of applications out for various agencies and from these only had one interview. It wasn’t for me, but then I had a call from Ambition. I was brought in for an interview and immediately knew it was an organisation I wanted to work for. The people and the culture really sold Ambition to me, as well as the opportunity to progress and make a real long-term career for yourself. 

After two interviews, I joined the Business Development, Marketing and Communications team as an Associate Consultant within two weeks of leaving my previous role.

My advice to anyone either leaving school, university or wanting a change in career, is to consider recruitment! It’s not a career that schools tell you much about, but it is such a great opportunity to gain some professional experience, there are so many long-term career paths for your future and it’s a fulfilling career. 

Everyone’s journey is different, but I hope reading through mine was somewhat helpful and if you would like to ask me any questions do feel free to contact me at grace.golton@ambition.co.uk.