Interview with the Founder: Brian Hannaford

Thinking about a career in recruitment? Ever wondered what it’s like on the front line of the IT industry? We sat down with Motion Recruitment founder Brian Hannaford to chat about placing jobs, balancing priorities and getting the most of the business.

• What do you love about recruitment?

Recruitment allows you to manage your own desk and you get out what you put in. The success and failure of your desk is up to you – there’s a lot of satisfaction in that. If you want to have a direct influence on your earning then recruitment is great. It gives you the experience of running your own business whilst working for someone else and having that security and network around you!

• How would you sum up the Motion philosophy? Why does that make it a good place to work?

We foster a culture of hard work and rewards. We want our staff to achieve the professional and financial goals while they’re also enjoying themselves.

• Take us through some of the challenges and opportunities of an ordinary day… 

Balancing your day’s activities and ensuring you’re working on things that will actually result in you placing someone in a job. You always need to be on the ball – balancing meeting candidates, meeting clients, recruiting roles and developing new business. It’s amazing how quickly a week can go by.

• Any advice for someone considering recruitment as a career? 

You need to be resilient in recruitment. The sense of satisfaction when you’re regularly filling jobs and hitting your targets is great and you’ll be rewarded with great commissions. But on the flip side the margin between a successful placement and an offer rejected can be agonisingly slim. Trust that the hard work you’re doing will pay off and ensure that you’re that you’re learning from each success or failure.

• What are the skills you think make a good recruiter?

There are many skills that you need. The obvious ones are being hard working, focused, organised and with an ability to build relationships and influence people. But an integral and maybe lesser known trait is to be commercially orientated. You need to be able to recognise business opportunities and devise a strategy to take advantage of them.

• What’s the best part of being a recruiter? 

You’re able to set and manage your own day. Also, every phone call you make has the chance to reveal a new business relationship that could be worth thousands of dollars. That sense of opportunity is really great and it’s very rewarding.

Think you might be a recruiter in waiting? Looking for a new opportunity? Reach out to the Motion Recruitment team for a confidential chat.