I took some time to decide which career path to follow…
After finishing university in 2016, I wasn’t sure what career I wanted to pursue – I just knew I wanted to travel. I took a job at a recruitment agency and saved up enough money to get myself to the other side of the globe. I’ve been lucky enough to work in some amazing countries including New Zealand, Thailand and Malaysia. I filmed my travels for YouTube and found my love of creating content and marketing. When I returned to the UK in 2019 I went back to my old job in recruitment, but I continued to develop my marketing skills by taking on freelance work in content writing.
Hastings Direct offered an opportunity to combine my experience and passion…
In April 2020 I saw an advert for an internal recruitment role at Hastings Direct. I was impressed that they were hiring during lockdown and liked what I saw on their careers website about company culture and career development, so I applied. It was actually a different job I ended up taking at Hastings; I became the Recruitment Marketing and Events Executive. I’m really glad that I was offered this role instead because it plays to my experience in recruitment and my passion for marketing.
I joined during lockdown but feel very connected to my team and the business…
The whole of the interview process was done remotely, but I didn’t feel nervous about starting a new role from home. The team had already made me feel really welcome by inviting me to meet them all virtually before I started. My manager, Jacqueline, also set up lots of calls with people from other departments so I could get to know them. I feel very connected to my team and the wider business and sometimes forget I haven’t actually met anyone in person yet! Jacqueline helped the transition go smoothly and reassured me, despite everything that was going on with Covid-19. The rest of the recruitment team have helped me settle in, especially Jess, whose role I took over and who gave me the most thorough handover you could wish for.
I’m excited about my career opportunities at Hastings…
I only joined Hastings in May, but have already been given the opportunity to work on some interesting projects, including looking at how we can host virtual events, which is a whole new landscape that I’m enjoying navigating, as well as growing our corporate social channels. There are some great opportunities to develop your career at Hastings. I’ve been encouraged to think about different departments I would like to shadow once I am more comfortable in my role, which will give me an insight into what my career next step might be. There are lots of learning and development tools that I’ve already started utilising and my manager and colleagues are always there to answer any questions, no matter how big or small.
Embracing wellbeing, diversity and inclusion…
The thing I love the most about Hastings is the constant improvement within areas that are really important to me, such as wellbeing, environment and diversity and inclusion. Last year, Hastings smashed their target of making 33% of executive leaders female, we’ve just got a new wellbeing app which is helping me deal with stress and mental health problems and the company is looking to become carbon neutral. They are also improving disability access and support colleagues who are active in the Black Lives Matter movement.
A positive environment…
Finally, the environment at Hastings is very positive and encourages celebrating success. We recently had our departmental 4Cs awards, where colleagues are congratulated for doing their best for their colleagues, customers, company and the community. I was nominated for best newcomer and it felt great to be recognised! Hastings is somewhere I can see myself growing and I’m really glad I joined.
To see a list of our current vacancies, click here.
Date added: 27th August 2020