Earlier this year we welcomed Grace in to our Chesterfield team.
She’s brought a whole load of experience with her which she tells us all about in this interview. We’re really excited to see where Grace’s future will take her!
What made you apply for the role at Essential Recruitment?
“Recruitment has always been an industry I have wanted to get in to, it has all the benefits I am looking for, there’s potential for a career and lots of money to be earned! I found it difficult to get into recruitment without having direct experience, and then out of the blue the lovely James called me and mentioned that Essential were hiring internally and invited me in for an interview!”
Tell us a bit about your current role. What are your main duties? What are you responsible for?
“I’m on my 5th week here at Essential and so far my main duties are screening candidates for different job vacancies, conducting interviews, attending inductions, making sales calls, assisting with the phones, completing training sessions and admin duties.”
Let’s talk about your past work experience. What did you do before joining Essential?
“I worked at my previous job for 5 years, it was in a call centre. I started back in 2019 as a Telesales Advisor, making cold call sales and up to 500+ calls a day. I then got my first promotion into the Quality and Compliance department, listening to the recordings of sales made throughout the business, marking these against a scorecard. I managed performance plans, delivered feedback, gave coaching and created incentives.
I was in this role for around 2 years when I got my 2nd promotion to team leader. I managed 25 staff members and 1 sales coach in the UK and this was split into 7 campaigns. My client then also took business over to the South Africa call centre and I managed 6 staff members over there with an additional 2 team leaders.
This was all related to the property market; my team were lead generators, sending potential sellers details over to estate agents. This was a varied position but my main responsibilities included coaching and supporting my team, meeting and/or presenting to my clients, and setting up and analysing campaigns. It was an extremely busy role but I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Would you recommend others to join Essential? If so, why? What parts of the job do you enjoy the most?
“Absolutely! It’s a great environment with tons of support and I instantly felt comfortable around my colleagues. Everyone is so friendly and approachable. The days at work are lots of fun and we spend so much time laughing together! As recruitment is brand new to me, they give me lots of guidance to make sure I am confident in any tasks set. I think Essential is a great company from a new starter’s point of view because you are not made to feel like the “new starter”.
What do you think you bring to the team?
“As I am a confident individual, I have been able to get stuck into sales calls to help bring new business into the branch. When a client has new bookings I support in screening candidates and booking them onto inductions.”
Tell us about about your personal life – what do you do for fun?
“I spend most of my evenings at the gym (although I wouldn’t call that fun!!). I have a gorgeous puppy Frankie, she is 8 months old so we go on plenty of dog walks and working on her training. I spend most of my weekends visiting family, seeing friends and spending time with my other half!”
If you want to learn more about Grace, you can find her Linkedin profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-pilkington-a2aa13245/
