It was the desire for a “new adventure” that motivated Linda Norris to leave Cork, Ireland and move to London. Norris, 25, who has a degree in English and sociology as well as a master’s in management and marketing, wanted a change of direction after working for a year as a retail manager.
She joined recruitment firm Higher The Talent as associate consultant – effectively a trainee role – in March 2014, just a month after the business had launched. Rapidly promoted to consultant and then senior consultant, she is now a team manager.
Founder and managing director John Langley, who nominated Norris for the Guardian Small Business Showcase Rising Star award, says she has demonstrated “outstanding ability” as a recruiter. She’s already generated more than £150,000, nearly half of the firm’s total revenue.
“The fact that she has been with the business since its second month makes her success story all the sweeter, and her achievement all the greater,” says Langley. “She has significantly contributed to the successful establishment of the business in a very competitive market. As the owner and managing director, I could not be more grateful to her.”
Norris loves the variety the role brings: “It involves placing graduates into recruitment roles in London, so it’s bringing on the clients, bringing on the candidates, providing adverts, doing different kinds of job specs, spending a lot of time on the phone doing offer negotiation and closing the deal – everything.”
She also enjoys being part of a small and rapidly growing business: “I feel like I have a lot of say in what I do and where the business is going.” Norris puts her achievements down to her reliability and straight-dealing approach. She says: “I do what I say I’m going to do. So if I say I’m going to call someone at a certain time, I do it. If I don’t have a candidate to send to a client, I’m honest about it and I tell them why. And I think people respect that.”
Langley particularly admires her focus and tenacity: “When required, she puts in the extra hours. It’s one of those jobs where the volume of work needs to be done on a certain day, because if you leave it to the next day, one of your competitors will have probably found that person and put their CV forward for a job that you were going to put them forward for. So you’ve got to really put in the work.”
Norris relishes being part of a fast-expanding business – Higher The Talent is itself recruiting more people and is expected to double its revenue this year. Since becoming a team leader, part of her role has involved mentoring a new team member, helping her to bring on clients, attending client meetings with her and creating a personal development plan. “She is doing really well, so I want to see her progress and build up a team herself,” she says.
Longer-term, Langley says Norris has the ability to rise to associate director, senior manager and even potentially director level. And her greatest achievement to date? “In the first year that we were in business, we won a new client at the end of March – Linda’s first month – and by the end of that year, we had become that company’s number one supplier for graduates into their London office,” says Langley.
Linda Norris was shortlisted in the Small Business Showcase competition’s Rising Star category. Find out more about the competition here
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