​Coming straight out of university, I always knew I wanted to get into recruitment because of the people-focused aspect as well as the entrepreneurial scope of it. I studied Behavioral Sciences, majoring in Organizational and Social Systems Development, which meant I learned quite a lot about organizational change, psychology and sociology. During my time in university, I did an internship for Estee Lauder Companies under the HR team and mainly focused on doing internal recruitment for the company, which eventually sparked my interest in joining recruitment. I started as an intern in Argyll Scott for roughly 2 months then moved to Associate level 6 months ago. My time here so far has been quite the roller coaster; I’ve had my share of ups and downs but it has helped me build character, be more confident and even resilient.

I first came in thinking recruitment would be a breeze but I was very wrong, and coming straight from university I thought my textbook knowledge on recruitment was more than enough. The number of times I fell short in my first few weeks were countless – I’d speak to candidates who were too senior, too junior, not relevant to my focus, or had no interest in speaking to me at all, but thankfully I work with a team who is patient and gave me advice on best practices. I remember speaking to someone over the phone 4-5 months ago and reconnected with them recently, it was nice to know that they still remembered me and even referred some people from their network – it was like talking to an old friend.

My first deal came in 3 months after joining as an Associate. I remember feeling a rush of emotions, first one was more of a relief because after working hard, it finally paid off. The next was excitement, then an eagerness to close in more deals as time went by. The candidate I placed was for a Securities firm and until today she thanks me for placing her in that role. It is things like that that remind me of why I enjoy what I do. From then on I started to treat every candidate phone call and meeting as a new opportunity – whether I could help them now or not, every new person I spoke to would be exciting to me as it meant I was growing my network and getting my name out there.

In the few months I’ve been here, I’ve learned so much about recruitment and about the Hong Kong workforce – now I know why they say starting in recruitment has a steep learning curve and that the first year is the most challenging. I know I still have a lot more to learn, but as my manager says “practice makes perfect” or “it takes ## days to build a habit”. I like being surrounded by people who work hard and are always willing to help when needed, it keeps me motivated to have people around me doing well. I’m also glad there is an associate for each team because Argyll Scott hosts monthly trainings and discussions led by a different team manager each month which I find very beneficial. We usually share best practices and talk about difficulties we’re facing, or even talk about wins that happened throughout the weeks. It’s nice to have a support system of peers with relatively the same amount of experience that I do.



I look forward to meeting more people and making more placements in the near future, there’s nothing better than having all your hard work pay off and generate positive results.