The Retail Appointment September 2015 | Page 6

TRAP_September2015.qxp_The Retail Appointment 03/09/2015 08:58 Page 6 From retail to recruitment: a success story You might never have thought about a career in retail recruitment but through working in retail you already have all the skills that are required: ambition, drive, motivation and a determined, target-focused approach. The best part? You don’t need a recruitment background — excellent interpersonal skills, a love of sales and enthusiasm for the retail industry are all the essentials to making a high earning, rewarding career at the UK’s top retail recruitment consultancy, Retail Human Resources. We talked to Preeti Patel, Senior Account Manager, about how she went from a sales assistant at New Look to one of the top retail recruiters in the business. How long have you been working as a recruitment consultant? Coming up to 5 years in September. Where did you work before you joined RHR? I started out as a part time sales assistant with New Look whilst I was studying and moved to Next a year later, still working part time. I was promoted to weekend manager soon into my role and continued this whilst I was at university. After I finished studying, I was thrown into a manager’s role full time and moved to several different departments. I moved to London with the company and after a couple of years decided to look for a new role. What made you consider becoming a recruitment consultant? I wasn’t looking for recruitment in particular when I first started looking. I originally had set my eyes on HR, so I came to meet RHR. It was then that my consultant suggested looking into recruitment and gave me the low-down on working for RHR itself. After looking further into a career with RHR on its website, rhr.co.uk/workfor-rhr I decided that it looked like it could be the perfect career choice for me and ѡ