For May, we would like to congratulate Peter Bateson as TalentVine’s Recruiter of the Month!
Agency: Halcyon Knights
Location: Sydney
Specialised Industry: Information Technology
Employer Rating: 9/10
Roles Placed in 2021:
Solution Designer
DevOps Engineer x2
Senior DevOps Engineer
Tell us about your journey as a recruiter
I started in recruitment in 2001 after graduating from University. My first role was based in London recruiting tech staff for the Dutch market within the International Division at Progressive Recruitment (part of the S3 Group). This was a baptism of fire as I joined in the week that the Twin Towers collapsed, triggering a global recession, exacerbated by the mis-trust in the tech scene at the time due to the Y2K fiasco and the dot-com bust! Not the best timing to start my career in Recruitment! But I learned some great lessons during that time.
I then moved to Sydney and joined Robert Walters in 2004 as a Consultant in their tech division. Long story short, I was at Robert Walters for 15 and a half years and progressed during that time from a Consultant through to Director of IT for NSW (taking in another GFC in 2009!) and then Director of the Chatswood office. I grew the tech team from 3 in 2005 to 30 in 2012 which was an achievement I am particularly proud of, and I was awarded the inaugural RCSA ‘Young Recruiter of the Year’ Award in 2011 as a result. After leaving Robert Walters, I joined Halcyon Knights, a mid-sized tech recruitment firm, to establish their Sydney office in November 2019 as employee number 1 in NSW. We’ve since grown to 19 despite the pandemic and recession (Great timing yet again!), and we plan to continue that growth.
Having been in the industry for 20 years now, I still enjoy what I do and as I still recruit select roles in a hands-on capacity, I get a great sense of satisfaction from placing a candidate and progressing their careers, and solving a client’s problem at the same time.
What changes do you see happening in the recruitment industry in the next 12 months?
The current recruitment market is the craziest that I’ve seen it in my 20 years. Crazy in the sense that the market has completely flipped 180 degrees from having very few jobs in June of last year due to COVID and companies being on a hiring freeze or down-sizing, to the point where everyone is now hiring! Companies are hiring now for a number of reasons: Projects that were put on hold are now underway.
Digital transformations have accelerated as the population increasingly moves online. Companies let a lot of people go and now need to re-hire. Tie this in with a smaller pool of candidates to choose from due to a lack of immigration and candidates with short term visas leaving the shores, and you have a perfect storm! The buoyant market means that most candidates have multiple offers and counter-offers are rife which is pushing up salaries in return.
What's one piece of advice you'd give to employers?
In this current market, act quickly in every step of the recruitment process and prepare to meet the market in terms of salary. It also pays to be flexible in your requirements and expectations if the salaries are spiralling beyond current budgets.
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Did you like this article? You can also read about other superstars who have previously been nominated as Recruiter of the Month here.
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