A big Netsource shout out goes to our MD Nick Paul! Nick is celebrating his 21st work anniversary at Netsource this week. To mark the occasion we caught up with Nick to find out about starting out in recruitment at his glamorous office, what has changed and the future of recruitment.
Wow, 21 years since I launched Netsource, but this wasn’t the start of my career in IT & Telecoms. That takes me back to Spring 1988; pretty much ancient history! When you consider that a large proportion of people working in the industry were born since 1988 ancient history is probably an apt term. The question is, what’s changed in the last 29 years? Yes, technologies have moved on and IT is now ubiquitous and fully integrated into our lives. In ’88 computers were large, immovable objects with the processing power of a modern mobile phone and PCs were no more than toys and glorified typewriters (for those who can remember what a typewriter is). This was pre-internet, with fax machines just coming into common use.
So, everything has changed in the IT recruitment industry, and indeed the wider recruitment industry? My answer is a firm “no”. I cut my teeth in the industry in a less than glamourous office on Dean Street in London’s Soho. This was before Soho was gentrified, so we were surrounded by some less than salubrious establishments (seedy sex shops!) and traditional pubs and restaurants. To top it all, we had a special effects sound studio in the basement below our offices just to make candidate and client meetings even more interesting. It was buzzing, and we, as a young inexperienced team were highly energised and highly client focused. Yes, we have benefitted from the internet in terms of a medium for delivery of information to those clients, but the need for strong, healthy client relationships remains (you may feel that these are needed more than ever in such a fragmented world).
We search for talent for our clients now, just as we did in 1988. Skills are in high demand now, just as they were then. Clients had their “preferred suppliers” just as they do now, so we had to work very hard to turn their heads in our direction. No hard work to establish trust and credibility, then no clients. 1988 versus 2017, nothing has changed! Welcome to the recruitment industry!
-Nick Paul
Thank you for Nick, on your anniversary with the company, we want you to know what a pleasure it is to work with someone so driven and dedicated as you are. Thank you for being such a great boss!- Team Netsource
