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Associate Consultant Joel Tam shares with us his on-boarding story and journey with Morgan McKinley so far.

Interview Experience
Even though I come from a Chemical Engineering background, I have always had more of a passion for, and interest in, sales and identified as a salesperson; I really enjoy building those interpersonal relationships.

When I was applying for the role, I decided to take the initiative and call the number that was on the website. The person I was put in contact with was actually one of the Managing Directors - she asked me, what did I know about recruitment? I thought ‘how hard can it be? It’s about finding the jobs and finding the people to fill those jobs’. I was asked to go and do some research about recruitment, and to see if it really was for me. After doing so, I gained more of an interest in the role and got back in contact with her. She then put me in touch with some of the company directors and relevant team members, and the interview process went from here.
What I found here was that the experience was really personal - it felt more conversational rather than a formal interview, over the phone initially and then in person. That in itself helped me gain more interest in the role, and gave me a snapshot of the company culture and people I would soon be working with. 

On-boarding and relocating to Sydney
When I started the interview process I was based in Melbourne. Because recruitment is a very people facing job, towards the end of the interview process, I was brought into the office to have a face to face interview with the Managing Director (Vanessa), mentor and manager (John) and fellow colleague (Paul). Prior to that, I had only been in Sydney for three days on a short holiday. It was exciting for me to come to a new city, and it’s not a concept that’s new to me - I moved from Malaysia to Perth for high school, then to Melbourne for university, and now I work in Sydney. Although this wasn’t my first time moving interstate, it can still be very daunting when you move to a new environment. Luckily for me, the best part about Morgan McKinley is the culture - everyone has been very friendly and made the effort to make sure I felt welcomed, and I feel 100% at home right now.

Learning the world of recruitment
Coming from a direct sales background and working in that marketing space, there were a lot of transferable skills that I could bring across to recruitment, such as handling rejection, managing expectations, as well as building rapport and developing interpersonal relationships with people.

As I mentioned earlier, I come from an engineering background and I now recruit in Accounting and Finance within Commerce and Industry. Hence, the steepest learning curve at the beginning was learning all the technical jargon, and also the trends and nuances in the finance job market. I had to learn about the different levels of reporting and organisation structures within the companies that we deal with. 

That being said, Morgan McKinley’s training program has been so good - it has built up my knowledge and understanding of my industry from scratch, and I now feel like I am more than capable talking about this to any finance professional in my field. The cross-discipline training was particularly exceptional here - it gives you all the different pieces of the puzzle and provides a holistic understanding of how the corporate world works, and how Morgan McKinley can help set these businesses up for success in critical areas.

What is it like working at Morgan McKinley?
Summarising my experience at Morgan McKinley so far...working here is great! I believe that for someone to be happy and stay in any role, you need the three C’s - Cash, Culture and Career.  

• Cash: in recruitment you simply need to be really good at your job and the money will follow suit. Given the training structure, as well as the management and mentorship provided here at Morgan McKinley, you are given all the right tools you need to succeed.
• Culture: as mentioned earlier having moved here from Melbourne everyone has been so friendly and welcoming. My manager in particular has been like a big brother to me - we sometimes play sport together on the weekends with some other colleagues, and also train together at the gym after work.
• Career: the company sets out really clear targets and goals for you which are very much achievable. I believe that this is important because often, long-term goals can seem too daunting a task, which can then feel as though they’re unachievable. Having a clear action plan in place can really help to set a course for individuals to move and progress onto further roles within the company.

Morgan McKinley are currently on the lookout for driven individuals like Joel to join our friendly team in Sydney, across a number of our high performing teams. Whether you are looking to make the switch to a career in recruitment consulting, or if you are looking to further your recruitment journey, please reach out to Stephanie Newth, Talent Acquisition Specialist, on +61 (0)2 8986 3102 or snewth@morganmckinley.com.au.