Recruitment Relocation to The Big Cold City of London
I have recently relocated to join a UK based recruitment agency 7FiftyTwo. 7FiftyTwo is part of the larger ITHR Recruitment Group. 7FiftyTwo specialise in the financial services industries including global banking, Asset Managers, Hedge Funds and Start-ups.
The big move from living and working in the tropical climates of Singapore for the last 3 years was definitely daunting as there are lots of pros and cons as you can imagine, especially as I had nowhere to live! Starting your life in a new environment and culture on a professional/social situation can be difficult so long as you learn to adapt and fast. Oh, and also building out your own business for the firm as well as learning the market here.
I was brought up and raised in a very small town in the middle of nowhere in the Scottish Highlands, the environment compared to Singapore and London is very different already but surprisingly, so are Londoners and Scottish people!
My first few weeks on the job have taught me London and Singapore business is very different. On the client and candidate side, Singapore is a more direct and to the point approach. Only after that then a very good relationship is built unless they are expat hiring managers then it is slightly different whereas in London you really need to build the relationship right from the beginning. It really is about trust and of course, it helps if you also know a few senior people in the market!
Recruiters have always had a bad name but I have heard U.K is much worse (Singapore recruiters are licenced) which makes any good recruiters job even more difficult. I remember calling a mid-senior level candidate regarding a role and by the end of our conversation, he actually apologised for being so cold and rude at the beginning because of his previous experiences with bad recruiters.
I have noticed contracting is also high demand, and the permanent job market is more vacant here. Beginning of 2018 and I have noticed there is quite a few opportunities in the risk management and compliance space, senior hires are always few and far between. Finding good candidates and exceptional candidates is also much harder in the U.K. as Singaporeans are much more willing to have a chat about the market even if they are not interested, they just want to know what’s going on in the market so they happily upload their CV online, here, not so much. Old school headhunting at its best.
Amuay Lee - Risk Management and Compliance Consultant