Strivin & Thrivin

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This week on Strivin & Thrivin, we speak with Mitch King, Head of Talent Acquisition at Linktree.

After leaving school, Mitch had no idea what he wanted to do, and went from dishwashing to admin. From there, he found recruitment and ended up recruiting in the marketing and advertising space. After 12 years though, it was time to move on.

“12 years was too long. I started there as a Junior Admin Consultant and left as essentially, the Managing Director for the last three months, which I didn't enjoy. I made the decision to do what I really wanted to do - I really liked the tech space. I really liked more of the hands-on recruitment side.”

Now, Mitch is at Linktree and has been for just over two years. But after a solid 14 years in the recruitment space we had to know what it was like working his way up from the bottom of the ladder.

“I would say I was a really typical junior consultant. It was just scraps thrown at me, I was trying to learn the ropes…I think one thing I learned from it was not to chase the greener pastures.”

After working his way up, being put in charge of the freelance desk to managing a couple of people, Mitch put his hand up to run his own office around the 8-9 year mark. But by year 12, there was no enjoyment left in the job.

“It affected my mental health quite badly towards the end and I made a decision that this has to change. This is the thing that's ruining my mental health, so I'm going to change this thing and then figure it out. It took a while to make the decision - we've got two kids, a mortgage, that sort of stuff, leaving a job without a job. But it’s probably the best decision that I've made career wise.”

Obviously, going from agency to an internal TA role is a bit of a step, so why did it interest Mitch?

“There's so much more diversity of thought, you get to speak to someone and go, "Hey, what do you think about this from a non-TA and non-recruitment perspective?," that in a recruitment agency you’re all just sitting around talking about the perspective of recruiters. So there were a few of those things that I was chasing - a combination of tech being inside the company and not being transactional.”

Now, if you can relate to imposter syndrome when it comes to your career, so can Mitch.

“Every day, my internal voice continually tells me how shit I am. And it's only at an older age that I've sort of learned to balance that with the facts…I spoke to some graduates at the start of the year or end of last year. And the piece of advice I gave them was, 99% of people are trying to figure it out on the fly.”

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This week on Strivin & Thrivin, we speak with Mitchell Parkins, founder and MD of Build Brand Equity.

Mitch has worked in wagering for pretty much his whole career, starting out at Centrebet, then hopping over to Sportsbet, then to GVC Group and is now the founder of Build Brand Equity.

As for his first role, Mitch says it found him.

“I was the type of kid that didn't want to go to uni. I deliberately chose to go to College because I was very independent, and I didn't feel like I had it in me at the time to do three or four years of study to work out what I wanted to do. I was like, "Mate, I love sport. I know that. Macleay are doing an advanced diploma in sports management and marketing." I was like, "That's me. I'll figure out the rest later.”

Like many of us, Mitch decided to do his own thing during the pandemic, and why not?!

“It is a gamble…it is addictive. Backing yourself in, taking risks. I don't think that's ever not going to be a part of my DNA. Sitting there at the start of that lockdown, just going, "What I'm doing now. I like it. It's good, but it's not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life."

We wanted to hear what lights Mitch up, and he told us about recently connecting with his Indigenous heritage.

“Obviously the Build Brand Equity piece. I am serving as drop-in GM and marketing roles. And helping essentially fill gaps in the market at the moment because there's literally a lot of them.

That's keeping me busy with the intention that in roughly 15 months' time... my wife and my son and myself will hit the road for a full year to connect with the Indigenous culture of Australia.

Without giving you an entire life story, because they're boring, I discovered my Indigenous heritage about three years ago....

I want to spend, I'm saying a year, because I think my wife needs an end date. An indefinite period of time travelling, eating, learning, listening, just immersing myself in the culture. And hopefully, just providing a bit of an insight into essentially what Australia at a macro level is missing. And how and why we need to start championing indigenous agriculture.”

As for mentoring, Mitch sees it as helping to get out of your bubble. For him, having spent a really long time in one category meant he felt he needed mentoring from outside the category to become a bit more rounded.

“You can get mentored from anyone if you're open to it.”

This week on Strivin & Thrivin, we speak with Mitchell Parkins, founder and MD of Build Brand Equity.

Mitch has worked in wagering for pretty much his whole career, starting out at Centrebet, then hopping over to Sportsbet, then to GVC Group and is now the founder of Build Brand Equity.

As for his first role, Mitch says it found him.

“I was the type of kid that didn't want to go to uni. I deliberately chose to go to College because I was very independent, and I didn't feel like I had it in me at the time to do three or four years of study to work out what I wanted to do. I was like, "Mate, I love sport. I know that. Macleay are doing an advanced diploma in sports management and marketing." I was like, "That's me. I'll figure out the rest later.”

Like many of us, Mitch decided to do his own thing during the pandemic, and why not?!

“It is a gamble…it is addictive. Backing yourself in, taking risks. I don't think that's ever not going to be a part of my DNA. Sitting there at the start of that lockdown, just going, "What I'm doing now. I like it. It's good, but it's not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life."

We wanted to hear what lights Mitch up, and he told us about recently connecting with his Indigenous heritage.

“Obviously the Build Brand Equity piece. I am serving as drop-in GM and marketing roles. And helping essentially fill gaps in the market at the moment because there's literally a lot of them.

That's keeping me busy with the intention that in roughly 15 months' time... my wife and my son and myself will hit the road for a full year to connect with the Indigenous culture of Australia.

Without giving you an entire life story, because they're boring, I discovered my Indigenous heritage about three years ago....

I want to spend, I'm saying a year, because I think my wife needs an end date. An indefinite period of time travelling, eating, learning, listening, just immersing myself in the culture. And hopefully, just providing a bit of an insight into essentially what Australia at a macro level is missing. And how and why we need to start championing indigenous agriculture.”

As for mentoring, Mitch sees it as helping to get out of your bubble. For him, having spent a really long time in one category meant he felt he needed mentoring from outside the category to become a bit more rounded.

“You can get mentored from anyone if you're open to it.”

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This week on Strivin & Thrivin, we speak with Joel Broughton, Talent Solutions Manager at Paxus.

Joel whole career has been in the people space so we wanted to know what it is about recruitment & TA that Joel loves so much! And he had the perfect answer for us.

“I think the best part about my job and the best part about any recruiter's job in my view is the opportunity to impact someone's life. So you're either impacting their life by providing them with the opportunity to be promoted, to earn more money, put more food on a table, buy a nicer car, buy a better house, move to a better suburb, basically impact their life that way.”

Joel also shared what skills are needed to be a good recruiter, and one of them is active listening.

“Active listening is really important and being able to interpret what's being said and to reflect that back in a way that is doable and workable. Every hiring manager, every client has their wishlist.”

Now, when it comes to what we can do better collectively to make sure people stick around in recruitment and HR roles, Joel says it’s all about networking and learning development.

“I think if organisations had those established career paths with some learning development milestones along the way, like invest back in that learning and development piece in their own people. They'll not only hang on to people a lot longer, but the people that are there are going to be better and the whole industry will be better as a result. We'll have better recruiters. The industry will have a much, much better reputation and it's just going to be better all around because again, you get back to that impacting lives space.”

For anyone in the TA and HR space, we found out how Joel stays up-to-date on what’s happening in the industry.

“For me, it's all about networking. It really is. Well, there's a couple of things. So it's not just all. So when I say it's all about networking, it's not all about networking, but that's really important. So I'm a huge proponent of lifelong learning. So I was looking at my formal education. Kind of every 10 years or so I've gone back and upgraded and upgraded and upgraded. So that's been really important to me and that's something that I'm really, really proud of.”

This week on Strivin & Thrivin, we speak with Joel Broughton, Talent Solutions Manager at Paxus.

Joel whole career has been in the people space so we wanted to know what it is about recruitment & TA that Joel loves so much! And he had the perfect answer for us.

“I think the best part about my job and the best part about any recruiter's job in my view is the opportunity to impact someone's life. So you're either impacting their life by providing them with the opportunity to be promoted, to earn more money, put more food on a table, buy a nicer car, buy a better house, move to a better suburb, basically impact their life that way.”

Joel also shared what skills are needed to be a good recruiter, and one of them is active listening.

“Active listening is really important and being able to interpret what's being said and to reflect that back in a way that is doable and workable. Every hiring manager, every client has their wishlist.”

Now, when it comes to what we can do better collectively to make sure people stick around in recruitment and HR roles, Joel says it’s all about networking and learning development.

“I think if organisations had those established career paths with some learning development milestones along the way, like invest back in that learning and development piece in their own people. They'll not only hang on to people a lot longer, but the people that are there are going to be better and the whole industry will be better as a result. We'll have better recruiters. The industry will have a much, much better reputation and it's just going to be better all around because again, you get back to that impacting lives space.”

For anyone in the TA and HR space, we found out how Joel stays up-to-date on what’s happening in the industry.

“For me, it's all about networking. It really is. Well, there's a couple of things. So it's not just all. So when I say it's all about networking, it's not all about networking, but that's really important. So I'm a huge proponent of lifelong learning. So I was looking at my formal education. Kind of every 10 years or so I've gone back and upgraded and upgraded and upgraded. So that's been really important to me and that's something that I'm really, really proud of.”

This week on Strivin & Thrivin, we speak with Matt Woodard, TA Leader. 

Matt’s has been with Slalom Build for two years when we recorded the podcast and has been in recruitment for 15, starting his career in a small boutique agency in Wellington, New Zealand after immigrating from the UK.

In his own words, Matt revealed he’s always been someone who really likes people and has seen it as one of his biggest strengths since his first job at 18-years-old. He’s also admitted that the ability to relate and engage people is half the battle with recruitment. At Slalom, he’s identified other key areas that are imperative when introducing yourself to a market who doesn’t know you.

“I think resilience and hard work are the other key things. And as much as I love dealing with people, sometimes that adds huge levels of complexity and challenge. So, I think the ability to sort of grin and bear things sometimes is a pretty important element as well.”

Matt’s had some experience at some large companies getting in on a ground level and building them up. So, we wanted to know what it is about that build piece that he loves so much.

“I can find myself getting bored easily in roles, so I think the fact that I can get challenges that are longer-term, the fact there is a chance to actually help build and create and influence, and positively direct the future home for a company, I think is a big risk responsibility, but it's also a fantastic challenge.”

Now, if you’re looking at moving from agency to in-house, Matt shared some advice for you.

“I would say if there's a desire to do it, I think it's a great career move, but I think it's just understanding what it is, why it is you're wanting to do that…it's really important that you continue to bring your best, then that you are delivering the best kind of quality candidates.”

Finally, we asked how Matt switches off and unplugs from a job where there’s a huge amount of growth going on.

“I think it's making sure that you sort of draw a line under it at the end of the day, that you switch off. When my kids get home, right about six o'clock, now, that's it. Work's done for the day, and whatever's left, depending how urgent it is, can get done later or can get done tomorrow. There's a line you have to draw. And I think making sure that you are disciplined, and you set time for yourself, for breaks, for your mental health, that you keep yourself balanced, you keep yourself healthy, I think are the key things. It's easy to fall into a trap of just continuing to work because it's there and because it's right next to you at home.”

This week on Strivin & Thrivin, we speak with John Dawson, Global Director of Talent Intelligence at Ceredian.

John has worked in recruitment agencies, corporate recruitment and he's led talent acquisition teams. He says his first role in recruitment was the same story as everybody: falling into it backwards.

“Nobody grows up and says, ''I really want to be a recruiter”, but it’s an awesome industry. It’s an awesome space and you get to impact people every single day and hear amazing stories. So it is an amazing opportunity.”

A friend of John’s was doing exceptionally well working at one of the big agencies, and he dove into it! After that, he went to a boutique agency in hope to have an impact in intimate relationships with customers. But decided it wasn’t for him after a while.

“It doesn’t work in today's market anymore. And so I think I felt the ripples of that early on and saw that if I really wanted to be successful in recruiting and actually build a profile in talent acquisition, I was going to need to understand the mechanics, not only behind how to find candidates, but how do organisations actually decide when to hire who to hire and what process to put them through? And so when I was given the opportunity to leave agency and go lead talent acquisition at a mid-size company, I jumped at it because I didn't know what was behind the scenes.”

John oozes confidence, and it’s something we wanted to know more about - where does it come from and is it something we can try to adopt ourselves?

“I always like to fail forward. So, you know, I'm not falling back on something. I'm failing, I'm tripping. I've fallen on my face a million times and made more mistakes than I would ever admit to. But through each of those comes a learning, right? And so from that learning, I just learned not to do it again.”

With someone so deep in the recruiting game, how does he switch off?!

“I definitely set time apart or aside for things like friends, family, socialisation. I love spending time trying new foods, restaurants, you know, part of being in this social world that we live in, especially from a startup space and having travelled the globe, is the experiences I gain, right? And so I love going and trying new foods or reminding me of times I was in different countries because it grounds me, right? I think we work in a global workforce, and then too many people are too siloed.”