I've had a great time so far at GC. I've been here 10 years, so I think I must be doing something well.
I’ve seen that people believe in you once you show a spark of interest and demonstrate what you can do. They help to mould you, give you advice and push you towards new opportunities. That's what's happened to me through my career at GC.
I’m originally from Wolverhampton where I worked as a credit controller/settlements provider. My wife is from Manchester, and when she got a job at Salford Royal Hospital in 2014, I spoke to a recruitment agency and got an interview for a Credit Controller role here in GC’s Group Finance team. Only half of my current role was credit control, so I went into the interview a bit apprehensively, but GC put their faith in me, and I was offered the job.
By mid-2015, I was doing credit control for Aspire Recruitment, and they had a job opportunity for a Trainee Recruitment and Placement Consultant, recruiting for very similar jobs to what I was looking to progress into.
I thought credit control and a related qualification was my career route, but I didn’t want to be working with spreadsheets day-in, day-out long-term, so I applied for, and got the position at Aspire and I was with them for the next 12 months. There, I began to understand how the wider GC group worked, because I was recruiting for many of our own vacancies.
I recruited for GC Employment’s ‘Working Well’ health programmes. They were looking for many roles, including job coaches. When speaking to the recruiting manager, it turned out that what they we’re looking for was very similar to what I was currently doing at Aspire – and I mentioned that I'd really like to be a part of their programme.
I had an interview and was offered a job at GC Employment as a Job Coach in the summer of 2016. It was a fantastic team and I loved the client journey side of the role. When the contract was coming to an end, I started looking for other opportunities within GC.
There was a Business Advisor role within Business Growth Hub’s Enquiry team. I had a great network of contacts within GC Finance, Aspire and GC Employment, plus I knew how GC and our programmes worked together – so I was already at an advantage even before I interviewed, these contacts and organisational knowledge would strengthen the team, so I applied, got it and started the job in March 2017.
Over the next 6 years I progressed within BGH and became a Leadership and Workforce Advisor, and in 2019 became an Account Manager – looking at the stakeholder relationships and speaking to the local authorities about the Hub’s services.
When I was working with Wigan council to find them apprentices, I sent lots of referrals over to our Education & Skills team. I realised that I really enjoyed recruitment, especially the customer journey.
In May 2023, the Head of Sales role at GC Education & Skills came up. That was the perfect next step for me, and my focus is on employability, apprenticeship recruitment and bootcamp recruitment.
The thing I’ve appreciated most about GC is the guidance you get around your career prospects, not just from your managers – but from people you work with. There have been many managers along the way who’ve helped and shaped me.
When I recruit people from outside of GC, I always say to them that I came in as a Credit Controller, and I’m now Head of Sales – and that’s a great achievement. I tell them that GC’s great at helping people look at different opportunities within the group.