13 Years in Construction Recruitment
It’s been that time of year again. When you log on to LinkedIn and you see a flood of “Congratulations” in your inbox, and you realise that you’ve completed another year with your employer without even realising.
Well for me, this year was the 13th year I’ve been at Maxim Recruitment and with all that is going on worldwide, probably the most bizarre!
It’s not quite a milestone year, but it’s still worthy of recognition and celebration in my eyes. 13 years is more than a third of my lifetime, and almost all of my working life. Not too bad in an industry known for its high staff turnover.
13 years seems like a very long time ago to me. I was 23 years old, I’d just bought my first home, I had no kids……………………… or even a girlfriend for that matter. Safe to say my priorities have had to change over the years.
The Journey So Far
I almost fell into recruitment by accident after a reasonably successful few years in sales. I had previously had quite a low opinion of recruiters, prior to becoming one myself. In fact, that opinion hasn’t completely changed. However, I quickly came to enjoy fast-paced nature of the role, and equally became passionate about the construction industry.
I started my time in 2007, working on the Dubai and Middle East market, focusing largely on Quantity Surveying jobs. It was a lucrative market and probably the opportunist time to get into construction recruitment. Myself and Maxim Recruitment helped many British expats find their first international roles in the Middle East during this time, and many are still there today.
However, despite reports to the contrary, the Middle East was not immune to the 2008 global recession and I had to weather the toughest 12 – 18 months of my recruitment career. I did this through strong client relationships and managing to secure exclusive work on a number of hardship postings in the heavy civils sectors in locations such as Sri Lanka, Lebanon and Jamaica.
As the markets returned to normality, Maxim had already identified Hong Kong as the next emerging international market for construction and had set up an office there. Despite the opportunity to work from this office, my family situation at the time did not allow me to relocate and I waved goodbye to a number of prominent staff members from our UK office, as they made the move to Hong Kong.
In the meantime, I was tasked with continuing our Middle East recruitment, based from the UK and growing a team who would focus more on domestic recruitment back here in the UK.
During this time, Maxim became a very prominent name in the construction claims and disputes sector. A market which has developed over the years for us and one that we can now confidently say we are one of the market leading recruitment agencies for construction dispute resolution jobs globally.
In addition to this, we’ve seen our Canada office in the last few years giving us our third office, and strategically placing to cover the Americas as well as our more established markets in the UK, Middle East and Asia & Australia.
Looking forward
I’ve particularly enjoyed my role since specialising in construction claims and disputes. I feel that by dedicating my time learning about the disputes market, I can offer a greater service than purely introducing candidates to clients in this sector. I hope that I am able to offer a genuine consultative service to clients and candidates alike.
With experience, I have come to appreciate the importance of networking. You will regularly see me at events (when COVID permits) hosted by the RICS, ICES, SCL and CIArb to increase my knowledge in claims and disputes, as well as build my network.
Summary
So 13 years! I’ve worked in 3 different offices during that time, I’ve worked with a number of very good recruiters who have contributed to Maxim’s success and moved on.
I don’t know how many people I’ve found work for, but it’s now a very healthy cricket score I’m sure. I’ve serviced clients in the UK, Middle East, Asia, Caribbean, Africa and many more locations.
I’ve managed to see a bit of the World in this job. I’ve had regular visits to the likes of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar over the years, as well as Hong Kong recently.
I’ve met and worked with some fantastic people, no less our Directors Steve Thomas and Richard Poulter who I’ve worked closely with throughout the years.
With all that is going on in the World currently and the unfortunate circumstances many are finding themselves in, I’m thankful for 13 years in any job; let alone one I enjoy so much!
A big thank you to all the candidates and clients that I have worked with over the years to date, as well as all my colleagues who have supported me and helped to mentor me along the way.
Stuatt Hackett