Athletics and Recruitment- How the Two Intertwine.

I have always been a competitor. From a young age, whether it was competing against my brother, my teammates in sport or my friends at school.

Playing sport has taught me invaluable life lessons which are applicable, long after you have hung up the boots. From the start of my basketball career, I always had trouble adjusting to when things weren’t going my way. Whether that was having a bad game, getting into disputes with my teammates or simply things just not going my way, generally. Luckily, throughout my sporting career, I’ve had plenty of mentors who have taught me invaluable lessons in staying resilient and consistent in my approach to the game. We all have obstacles we have to overcome on a daily basis and being able to handle adversity in those situations is key, for us to succeed.

Much like recruitment, where we face daily challenges of rejection, disappointment and outcomes which do not go according to plan, the more persistent we are to pursue our goals and focus on the positives, the better the results we’ll get. For example, if I compare it to a game of basketball, you can start a game, missing your first 8 shots. However, if you stay confident and believe in yourself, I’ve had games where I’ve made my next 10. Similar to recruitment, you might be making business development calls and the first 5-6 might go terribly and then your next 5 will go really well. The ability to compete with yourself and stay focused is something that I consistently apply in recruitment. As I’ve found in my sporting career, this pays off in the long run.

This is just a brief snapshot of how I apply what I’ve learned in basketball to recruitment today. I could go on for paragraphs about what I’ve learned about working and being part of a successful team and the importance of knowing your role. Recruitment is a highly competitive industry, similar to sports, so I think the two are very much intertwined. I’ve found that applying my sporting experience to recruitment here at people2people, has helped me overcome moments of adversity and has given me the ability to continually develop my skill set.