Before we jump into the good stuff, first of all, what is it you do here?

“I’m an Account Consultant in the rail sector, so my day-to-day is spent servicing the clients we already have, focusing on 4 or 5 main clients for now. I pick up other bits and bobs too depending on what the team has going on.”

It sounds like you have your hands full! What did you do before ARM?

“I’ve done a mix of recruitment over the years, mainly in engineering, but I’ve done mechanical and rail highways too. I left recruitment to work in software sales for a while and went back to recruitment when I ended up in a secondment with a highly reputable engineering company.”

I sort of fell into recruitment after university, after managing a pub I worked at and started applying for graduate jobs. The first agency I worked for only hired graduates and I realised I was quite good at recruitment, so I looked for a different company to work at.”

Wow! So a range of experience too then. How did you end up back here?

“In recruitment, it’s easy to look at other companies (because there are so many!) and think ‘they must do it better than here’ but that wasn’t the case with ARM. Adam (Director of Rail, Defence and Automotive) reached out on LinkedIn and asked me to go for a coffee and catch up, and here I am! It always pays to leave wherever you are on good terms because you never know when you might want to come back!”

So you were convinced over a Costa?

“Well yeah, there were a lot of reasons to come back here too. It’s comfortable, it gave me the opportunity to work with the client I went on secondment with and I know the systems and company.”

Is there anything else you like about ARM?

“I like the independence here, you’re trusted to get on with what you need to do, but at the same time, I know where people are if I need support. Everyone is readily available and we are all able to access them. Like Derek, our dedicated learning and development manager, I’ve not seen that anywhere else I’ve been.

The recruiters here are friendly, they’re not like the ‘typical’ recruiters- which I suppose every company could say, but it’s true here. The culture here is very different to what I’ve seen in other places.”

Do you have any aspirations career-wise?

“I think I’d like to go down the management route, it matches my personality well. I’m naturally inclined to support people, and I think that’s important as a manager. As one of the more experienced people in my team now, people ask me questions and for support, I like that.”

Well, we are so glad you’re back, Sam!

“Me too! Thank you.”