What happens when someone swaps corporate red tape for trust, autonomy and the opportunity to build something of their own? In this edition of Getting to Know the Team, Katie shares how finding the right environment transformed her career, why authentic relationships are at the heart of great recruitment, and what makes Financial Planning the best profession to recruit for.
“Sometimes, all it takes is the right environment for someone to realise what they’re truly capable of.”
When I sat down with Katie, I quickly realised her story isn’t just about building a successful career in recruitment; it’s about finding a workplace that recognised her potential long before she fully recognised it herself.
Having spent the last eight years at Recruit UK, Katie has become one of the business’s most experienced and respected consultants, but her journey into recruitment wasn’t something she’d carefully planned.
In fact, she almost stumbled into it.
After leaving college without the qualifications she’d originally hoped for, recruitment gave Katie the opportunity to build a career around something that had always come naturally to her: connecting with people.
“I’ve always been a people person.”
Growing up between the UK and Bulgaria meant constantly adapting to new surroundings, meeting new people and stepping outside of her comfort zone from a young age.
Looking back, she believes those experiences shaped the recruiter she is today.
“I was always having to build new relationships and adapt to different environments. I didn’t realise it at the time, but those are skills I use every single day now.”
Before joining Recruit UK, Katie worked for a much larger corporate recruitment business. While she enjoyed recruitment itself, the environment never quite suited her.
“There was a lot of red tape. Everything felt really regimented.”
The freedom to think differently or build something new simply wasn’t there. Then Recruit UK came calling!
After a few conversations and hearing stories about the relaxed office culture. “A friend interviewed at Recruit UK and said to me it was completely my vibe. A friendly team, reggae music playing in the background and a colourful Bristol mural stretching across one of the walls.” Katie decided to take a look for herself.
It wasn’t just the atmosphere that stood out to Katie; it was the opportunity itself.
Rather than asking her to fit into an existing desk, Recruit UK’s Directors handed Katie an untapped region that she could build from the ground up. A challenge that Katie accepted and excelled at.
“I wasn’t given a desk to maintain, I was trusted to build something from scratch.”
That trust made all the difference.
Over the following years, Katie established Recruit UK’s presence across the East and West Midlands before progressing into Team Leader and later Regional Manager, leading a team of six consultants covering the Midlands and the North.
It’s a journey she’s incredibly proud of, not just because of the promotions, but because they came at a time when others had questioned whether she was ready.
“I’d previously been told I was too young to manage people.”
At Recruit UK, nobody focused on her age, they focused on her ability.
“Within a year, I was leading a team.”
“Recruit UK saw capability, not age.”
After taking a sabbatical, Katie returned to Recruit UK as a Principal Consultant, choosing not to step back into management and instead returning to the role that made her fall in love with recruitment in the first place – the sales side. Building relationships and having that as her main focus, as well as occasionally assisting with training the team on various elements. For Katie, it was a conscious decision about what she wanted from the next stage of her career, and one she was able to make because she’d always been given the freedom to shape her career around her strengths.
When asked about her biggest achievements, one standout moment was being named not only Top Biller but also Employee of the Year in 2022. But for Katie, success isn’t the only reason she’s stayed. The company culture has played an equally important role. Having previously experienced a much more competitive recruitment environment, Katie values the collaborative culture at Recruit UK, where colleagues are happy to share ideas, support one another and celebrate each other’s successes.
“Recruitment can be very dog-eat-dog, but that’s never really been my experience here. We’re much more collaborative, and I really enjoy that.”
That same people-focused approach is something Katie brings to her work in Financial Planning, an industry she’s genuinely passionate about. For her, it’s rewarding to recruit into a profession that has a purpose beyond simply earning a living.
“Financial Planning has a real purpose. You’re recruiting people into a profession that can genuinely make a difference.”
As we spoke, it was great to see how much respect Katie has for the Financial Planning profession. “No two conversations are ever the same because with financial planning, everyone has come from all different walks of life. Maybe that’s another reason I enjoy it so much – because I can resonate with that”.
“Good financial advice doesn’t just impact one person. It can change the future of an entire family.”
One of the things Katie is most proud of is a client relationship that started around five years ago, when she was brought in to help them grow their Financial Planning team. Since then, she’s become their sole recruitment partner, taking the time to really understand the business, its culture and, perhaps most importantly, the type of people who thrive there.
Over the years, Katie has introduced candidate after candidate to the business, and today, when she looks around the team, she can see her own work reflected back at her. A large proportion of the people sitting around that table are people Katie introduced to the firm years earlier.
What’s particularly rewarding is seeing what has happened since those initial placements. People she first met as candidates have progressed through the business, taken on more senior roles and built careers that they’re genuinely enjoying.
“That’s probably the bit I love most. I can look at that team now and think, ‘I’ve placed almost all of these people.’ You see someone come in, watch them progress and then years later they’re still there, they’re doing really well and they’ve become such an important part of the business. It’s really gratifying to know that I played a small part in making that happen.”
For Katie, it’s a relationship that goes far beyond filling individual vacancies. She’s had the opportunity to watch a business grow, while seeing the people she’s helped bring into it grow alongside it. That’s something she takes a huge amount of pride in.
It’s a testament not only to what makes Katie such a fantastic recruitment consultant, but also to the person she is. The ability to understand a team so well, recognise the right people for it and genuinely care about what happens to them afterwards is something we’re incredibly lucky to have within our own team at Recruit UK.
Based in the West-Midlands and want to work with Katie? Click here
