An interview with Alyson Cane
What was your dream job growing up?
“For me I really really liked animals and horse riding, so I wanted to do something like a vet or someone that worked with horses. I started horse riding at around 5 or 6 and carried on up until I was about 20 and I really enjoyed that. I still ride occasionally but not so much now.”
What was your first job in recruitment and how did you get into it?
“I had been working within an IFA practice as a PA for 11 years – my first job after finishing education. I had started further training, and had completed some FS industry exams on the way to becoming a Financial Advisor – but unfortunately I was made redundant. This happened at the same time Jason started his job within recruitment – we had always wanted to work together as a long-term goal, so it just made sense to do so.
As discussed in the interview with Jason Cane, “Jason had just moved into an executive position within recruitment as a self-employed Consultant. As a couple, we really compliment and support each other – we both have previous relationship-building experience, and have a real passion for helping others to achieve their goals. With my redundancy, we decided to work together – which was a fantastic move for both of us!”
What is it you enjoy most about recruitment?
“It’s similar for both of us because, helping people and changing their lives for the better. We are always so happy when someone says you have literally changed my life because it is such a nice feeling.“ See our recent case study of how Team Cane have helped Theo ‘experience the best period of his life’
What would you consider to be the highlight of your career?
“When we decided to work together. That was the highlight when we decided to make the decision as our career in recruitment took off”.
How do you feel candidates benefit from working with Premier Jobs UK?
“We’ve got such a vast selection of Financial Services vacancies. We totally understand our clients. The service we give them as well and the fact we do the whole process from start to finish, we don’t just find candidates. From the point we introduce ourselves, understand their needs, preparing them for meetings, feedback right through to starting.“
How do you feel clients benefit from working with Premier Jobs UK?
“A big thing for us is understanding what it is they actually want because many recruiters send the wrong candidates through, who aren’t suited to the position. Whereas we do actually understand exactly what they require and we get good feedback that we do always hit the mark and deliver as collectively, Premier Jobs UK always sends through top quality people. For us, quality is a big thing which we often hear from client feedback. We are a very professional service and we have great market knowledge.”
If your colleagues were to describe you in 3 words, what would they say?
“Organised, fun and professional.”
Currently, what is your biggest challenge?
“Up until recently, it has been dealing with Brexit and the confusion about what’s happening. People not being sure whether they want to move however following the election, there seems to be a lot more confidence in the market. Self-employed vs employed is another challenge. Convincing people to go self-employed if they’ve got an employed mentality, that’s always a challenge however more and more people are having that leap of faith to go self-employed and reaping the rewards as a result.”
What is your proudest moment in recruitment?
“That’s a joint one for both of us. We were working together, and I think it was around 2007/08 and we were working with the banks quite heavily at this point. Jason and I as a joint team were the top introducers for Barclays and NatWest for Mortgage Advisers nationally. First year was Barclays and the 2nd year was NatWest. They had a number of different agencies and recruiters and we topped the lot in terms of numbers of people taken on.”
What is your signature dish?
“veggie Spaghetti Bolognese.”
What is your go to song on the karaoke machine?
“Well we’re not really karaoke people. However, we do love dancing. More recently, we have been doing ball room, Latin and anything like that really. So, if we were to pick our favourite dance, it would be the Cha-cha.”
Do you have any tips to stay focused?
“The big thing for us is to have a balance. A burst for a couple hours of focused work and then we will have a walk or a break. We aim to have at least 1 walk a day to break it up. My big thing is always having a to do list. I’m the organised one who creates the list of everything which needs doing to set ourselves up for that day.”
