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Celebrating her 6-year 'work-versary' at 33 Talent, KJ Green shares her experience as a senior recruiter in Singapore and why she's never bored at 33 Talent.
I've always been interested in people and connecting with others. I hailed from Hays Recruitment in the UK before my move to Singapore, and now I've been at 33 Talent for 6 years. 6 years! It's the longest I've ever worked at a company, but I'm still continuously learning and growing.
Since our inception in 2012, 33 Talent has set out to disrupt. Our innovative culture is driven by curiosity and a growth mindset that envisions holistic solutions for our clients... like the fact that contingent recruitment isn't the only way! Honestly, the last 6 years have not always been a smooth journey, but that's because we're always trying new things and implementing improvements. What matters most is that I've been encouraged to learn from my mistakes and been given the right tools to succeed in my own career.
Run us through a day in a life as a Recruitment Consultant...
The most interesting thing about what I do is the variety of it all. A typical day could include running a 'Recruitment Masterclass' for a regional HR team, organising our regular PR Presence event (which we've done virtually since covid), or meeting with the rest of the 33 Talent leadership team to do a SWOT analysis, catch-up, and discuss how to improve our own business. Oh yeah, and spending lots of time every day talking recruitment with companies and candidates in the PR and Communications community!
When we aren’t working hard, we make sure to play hard (sorry, so cliche)! But remember that time when we created a band?
What is the 33 Talent culture like?
I've never worked with anyone for this long before (our leadership team has worked together for 5 years!) 33 Talent feels like a family now, the kind that you genuinely look forward to seeing when you're on holiday. Maintaining friendships with coworkers, even while from a distance, is crucial to building company culture and morale. I have developed genuine friendships with my fellow 33ers, and outside of 'organised fun', there's always someone around for a spur-of-the-moment glass of vino when things get a little too intense.
In this pandemic reality, we do physically see each other a lot less, but teamwork has been more important than ever. We're more than a recruitment agency, so we were able to focus more on our HR and Coaching offers in the past year and support our clients through the tricky months. We've also embarked on some unique projects that saw a lot of cross-departmental collaboration, like Google's Skills Ignition SG. Now that things are slowly returning to 'normal,' we can pick up where we left off with the recruitment #grind.
What keeps your job exciting?
I mentioned that I love the variety of being a consultant at 33 Talent - connecting with people around the world and finding solutions to their challenges. I've also simply never been bored with my office. Over the last 6 years, I've done my job in Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, UK, Australia, Japan and more.
It's not too good to be true. Everyone at 33 Talent works under a Results Only Working Environment (ROWE), meaning our job isn't defined by clocking in a 9 to 5, but getting measurable results anywhere and any time is best for us.
Everyone operates differently and has different priorities (like picking up the kids in the afternoon or hopping away for the weekend to Bali... or right now, a hotel in Singapore), but being encouraged to take advantage of the flexible working environment allows me to achieve the best possible results at work and at home.
Now that we're not travelling at all, I still have access to the network of WeWork offices we're members of in Singapore. So if I'm getting a little distracted sitting too close to my fridge, I can go to one of the thirteen locations across Singapore.
In the last 6 years, we have matured like a fine wine (that’s right - before, we were wine, now we’re fine wine!) and as I embark on my 7th year at 33 Talent, I continue to feel empowered to thrive.