Mistakes You Want to Avoid For Your Career Journey with Recruiters

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1	Before You Move to Australia Here Are Some TRUTHS!
2	Be Successful in 2025 with a FRESH Start!
3	Better Career Opportunities with Recruiters!
4	How an International Student Found Their Dream Career in Australia
5	How to Find your Purpose and Meaning in Life
6	How to Reshape Your Career Path for Success
7	7 Warning Signs To Quit Your Job
8	The Conversation with My Dad That Changed My Life After I Quit University
9	HARD CHOICES: Money? or Dream Career?
10	How to Network on LinkedIn Simplified Method! (No-Fluff Tutorial)

Top Episode

Before You Move to Australia Here Are Some TRUTHS!

Be Successful in 2025 with a FRESH Start!

Better Career Opportunities with Recruiters!

How an International Student Found Their Dream Career in Australia

How to Find your Purpose and Meaning in Life

How to Reshape Your Career Path for Success

7 Warning Signs To Quit Your Job

The Conversation with My Dad That Changed My Life After I Quit University

HARD CHOICES: Money? or Dream Career?

How to Network on LinkedIn Simplified Method! (No-Fluff Tutorial)

Discussion Overview

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Hiring isn’t just about skills—it’s about whether people align with the company’s values. When consultants come in and see the reputation and standards already set, they naturally want to be part of that culture. It’s less about forcing culture and more about selecting people who genuinely care about integrity and empathy.

Culture is built from the very first hire. By selecting “good humans” and reinforcing standards through training, values become embedded in daily actions—creating a workplace that thrives on trust and accountability.

Tools like Recruiter Insider provide real-time feedback from clients and candidates, ensuring consistency and holding recruiters accountable. This transparency builds long-term trust in the recruitment process.

Rushed decisions often lead to poor fits. If it’s not a “hell yes,” it’s probably a no. Ignoring gut instincts to fill a role quickly usually creates bigger problems down the road.

Mistakes highlight the importance of patience and alignment. Reflecting on missteps teaches recruiters to trust their instincts and prioritize long-term success over short-term pressure.

By focusing on empathy, candidate care, and relationships. Building genuine trust with clients and candidates ensures resilience in a changing industry.

Attitude, energy, and cultural fit often matter more than technical skills. Reading people well and identifying character traits creates stronger matches than resumes alone.

By maintaining consistent communication, providing guidance, and making candidates feel supported. Advocacy reduces stress and strengthens the recruiter–candidate relationship.

Proactively presenting strong candidates shows initiative and builds credibility. It positions the recruiter as a trusted advisor, not just someone reacting to open roles.

Humor reduces stress and builds psychological safety. A workplace where people can laugh together is one where they feel safe to stay and grow.

Prioritize candidate care calls, set clear expectations, and provide consistent updates. This support reassures candidates and helps them feel valued.

They showcase personality and creativity, but can also create bias and extra pressure. Used alongside traditional resumes, they can be effective, but they shouldn’t replace more objective methods.

Time	Transcript
00:05	So, how have you built a culture where your consultants serve both clients and
00:10	candidates with integrity and empathy? It's not necessarily a cultural thing.
00:14	It's more just like the way that we've hired and it comes from that initial
00:19	hiring. So, like we hire people that like align with our values and then they
00:24	come in and they see that reputation that we have in the market. they see
00:28	that the standards that we hold and then they genuinely want to be part of it.
00:32	So, it's not like something necessarily that we have to force. Um, in fact, it's
00:36	not something that we have to force at all. It's like we want like we want them
00:40	to come in and they we want them to want to be part of that culture. So, that's
00:44	definitely something that we kind of find comes naturally if we're hiring the
00:48	right people. And I know it's easier said than done like hiring the right
00:51	people, but I would say that I am a really good judge of character. I can
00:56	tell straight away. um whether or not someone's going to be right. I call it
01:00	my superpower. I don't know. But um we we do tend to to bring in good humans.
01:05	So yeah, that's kind of where we're at. And then from hiring, like it's embedded
01:09	in the training that we do with with people once they start as well. So like
01:13	you still have to teach a little bit like we we go through like the standards
01:17	that we have from the very like very beginning and that that's just kind of
01:21	passed down. And like I say, we do pay for that platform which is recruiter
01:25	insider that holds us all accountable for our service for our clients and our
01:30	candidates. Um, you know, it captures real time sort of insights um from the
01:35	processes that we're doing. It allows us to control hiring outcomes and the
01:40	overall experience that people get when they come in contact with us. So yeah, I
01:43	do just think the consistency that we have um the KPIs that we set which are
01:49	probably outside of the norm are you know how many candidate care calls you
01:53	need to do each week um it's not optional is part of our process.
01:56	That's great. Well obviously you have a really good induction process with that
02:00	training and all that but you know people uh tend to become their
02:06	environment. they sort of um what's word is it emulate or adapt or whatever it is
02:13	they morph into their environment. So usually um if there is you could have be
02:19	a really happy golucky person but when if you go into such a dreary negative
02:23	work environment eventually over time it beats you down and you become dreary or
02:27	demotivated and whatnot. So yeah it's you're getting the right people but
02:31	you're keeping that energy there for everyone to sort of absorb which I love.
02:36	I mean, yeah, you're you're the type of agency that I would want to work for and
02:40	with because it just gives me Sorry,
02:43	I'm looking for a job. Come on over. Well, I love recruit. I do love
02:47	recruitment. Um, like you're saying, it's your superpower to read people. I
02:51	feel the same, but I used to call it something else. I used to call it love
02:54	at first sight cuz I used to believe in love at first sight, but only in the
02:59	recruitment world because as soon as they come in, I'm like, I'd know. I'm
03:03	like, that's it. That they're the one. the one. That's the one. And I was
03:07	always right. A few times, I mean, got to be honest, a few times I have gotten
03:12	it wrong. Oh, yeah. You don't always get it right.
03:14	Most of the time, I was able to like read the room really well and understand
03:19	that person and connect with them. But yeah, when I got it wrong, I was just
03:24	I think the times that um it's maybe gone wrong in the past when I've
03:27	reflected on it would be like I've been time poor
03:31	and I've gone, "Oh, I need to find someone for this role." like, you know,
03:34	this person's um going to be gone in a few weeks and I really need to find
03:38	someone and I've met someone and I've known in my gut deep deep deep down that
03:42	it's probably not right. But I'm like, no, it'll it'll be fine. It'll be fine.
03:45	It'll be fine. Cuz I'm like, I don't have time to find.
03:49	Don't you? Yeah. You're and you just know from the
03:51	be. You kind of know and then you learn even more from it cuz like the next time
03:55	you meet someone and like they are the perfect person and then you're working
03:59	with them, you're like, "Oh my goodness, this is night and day." And so, yeah,
04:02	like I said, you don't always get it right, but I think you can usually go
04:06	back to I think in recruitment, it's like if it's not a hell yes, especially
04:12	when you're recruiting for your agency, you need to understand that it's
04:15	probably not going to be right. Yeah. No, you're right.
04:18	We all learn as we go. Yeah. It's those bums on seats where you
04:22	have no choice but to hire a lot in a short period of time and that's the KPI,
04:26	right? That's when I started getting it wrong. But I remember this one time I've
04:30	interviewed someone. They interviewed really well, like really well. And I
04:34	really like as I was saying, people are unpredictable, but actually had really
04:38	good rapport. I thought they were great. And I put them forward to meet with um
04:43	the operations manager and he was going to make that final sort of decision. And
04:48	he came back to me and he's like, "Something seems off." He goes, "I think
04:53	that I smelt a lot of alcohol on him. I had also smelt like something." And I
04:57	was like, "No, no, I think that's the cologne. I think it's just really cheap
05:02	cologne." Then he put a lot of cologne on us. You think? I was like, "Yeah, I
05:05	think." And so we end up hiring him and it was a
05:09	big mistake because he would come to work with black eye. He'll come to work
05:12	hung over, he come to work drunk, then he stopped coming to work. It's like
05:16	maybe that wasn't cologne. And I just didn't pick that up because we had such
05:20	a good rapport. I did smell something, but I genuinely thought it was his
05:24	cologne. You're blindsided.
05:26	Uh yeah. So that was a mistake that I couldn't believe that I didn't notice.
05:32	Yeah. But at the same time, I felt a lot of
05:35	pressure to get someone in. Yeah. Exactly.
05:38	In anywhere. But um yeah, I hadn't made that mistake
05:43	again. Yeah.
05:44	That much. But recruiters like we can hire for anyone,
05:47	but when it comes to then hiring for our own organization, it becomes like a
05:51	chore. You know, you're like, "Oh no, I'm gonna have to find someone for this,
05:54	right?" And then you kind of think to yourself, right, what am I looking for?
05:57	And like you don't give yourself the proper job brief sometimes, you know,
06:01	because emotion starts to get involved as well and all the things.
06:05	So yeah, always learning from recruiting for ourselves for sure.
06:09	Yeah. So looking into the future, what changes
06:12	would you love to see in the industry? So over the next 5 10 years, both like
06:16	you know, culturally, operationally, or just any changes at all? I I yeah I kind
06:21	of touched on it a little bit um above like I would really love and it's a it's
06:25	a pipe dream because look we've we've worked for with some clients for years
06:29	and and we love working with them and we have a trust with them. So honestly
06:32	whether we worked conting contingently with them or retained with them it
06:36	wouldn't make any difference to us because they're loyal to us and you know
06:40	if they give us a brief and we take it and we put our heart and soul into it
06:43	and we ask them the straight up questions are you working with anyone
06:46	else at the moment they say no cool let's just go ahead that's fine but for
06:52	other sort of areas moving from a contingency only model to retained
06:56	shared risk model that would be the dream um I I think eliminate sort of
07:04	transactional CB pushing type recruiters. Those recruiters that you
07:10	know they're speaking to a candidate, their eyes glaze over, they're not even
07:13	listening. They're completely hyperactive thinking about something
07:17	else. You don't want to be working with those types of people. I think
07:20	preserving the sort of human element as AI and tech starts to take over like as
07:26	that advances like still remembering that AI is not going to be able to have
07:31	that deep meaningful conversation that you need to have with your candidates
07:34	post and before interviews you know prior to getting roles. So this is
07:38	probably an area that I feel quite passionate about. So I've got a few
07:41	more. I think what I would love to see more than anything is agencies as a
07:46	whole sort of collectively maintaining their value, knowing what
07:51	their sort of value is, knowing what their rates are rather than this sort of
07:55	racing to the bottom and then clients sort of meeting us in the middle and not
07:59	and sort of actively avoiding these lowquality,
08:03	low rate transactional recruiters. Um because if we don't sort of look to to
08:10	um you know r raise the standard or keep a good standard then the quality of of
08:16	work that recruiters do is just going to get less and less and it's going to
08:19	continue having that sort of um reputation that some recruitment
08:23	agencies have. Um because we shouldn't be expected to drop our rates to compete
08:30	to get jobs on because we know our value and our worth and we hold strong on the
08:35	service that we provide for both our clients and our candidates. So it's more
08:39	about seeing like agencies genuinely knowing their value and holding that
08:44	value um that they can provide to other businesses. Like you just want to make
08:48	sure that um we're keeping that industry standard. and you see um yeah some crazy
08:53	rates and things out there and you just think like you know working at 8% is not
08:58	going to be showing the true value of your work.
09:02	Definitely not. So it's Yeah. low.Yeah. I mean that just plucked that out
09:06	of thin air but you know what I mean. Oh but there are there are agents.
09:09	Yeah. I mean there are yeah there definitely are.
09:11	It is very low. Um especially in this time where everything is so expensive.
09:17	On the flip side like if if the if you are going to be providing the service of
09:23	8% then continue on our platform.
09:31	I was a client I wouldn't be working with with that but people
09:36	just like bring that standard up and then maintain the standard. Yeah, I
09:40	think that's a great vision to have for the future
09:44	because I feel like especially the larger recruitment agencies, I feel it's
09:48	more so where it's about the money, the bottom dollar, it's not about the
09:52	quality of work. And I find that what I've heard in any case, I've not worked
09:57	for large agencies, so I can't really tell you, but what I've heard from
10:02	others who have worked in there or who've dealt with recruiters from large
10:06	companies that it's about them getting that sale, getting the client, but not
10:11	really caring about the candidate. It's they left.
10:16	It's volume. It's it's grabby. it's taking um on 12 roles at once, not
10:21	really knowing that you're going to provide a good service for any of them.
10:24	And for us, like we actively encourage our consultants to only take on work
10:29	that we absolutely know we can fill and that we will fill. Um because again, we
10:34	provide stats on our fill rate. And our fill rate is significantly higher than
10:38	market um average because I feel like now these companies,
10:41	they're just hiring salespeople, not recruiters. And you need that that human
10:47	element that you keep talking about that is so vital and I really what I would
10:52	like to see is yes the AI thing it has its place and it can be side by side
10:58	could be helpful to filter through or whatnot but I wouldn't rely on it. I
11:02	would also like to see that you say you provide training to the people that work
11:08	with you, your recruiters. That's what I would like to see that training, you
11:12	know, there's no training. There's no what makes a good recruiter. Like if a
11:17	person comes in with no experience, but they're good at sales and they can get
11:20	the client, they can sell the dream to the client, but then they can't fulfill
11:24	that dream because their emotional, not just the emotional intelligence, but
11:28	they don't know what they're looking for. they don't know really what like to
11:33	focus on. So on paper they may be good. They might the candidate might sell a
11:39	beautiful story but they can't read between the lines. And I think a really
11:44	good recruiter is one who can read between the lines. So I feel like when
11:48	it comes to hiring good recruiters is hiring people with that emotional
11:52	intelligence. Cuz what I found is with recruiters and people in the HR
11:57	industry, we're very similar and it's kind of we're likeminded people and we
12:03	get passionate about the same things and we read people the same way. And anyone
12:08	that I've found that were successful in the role were also very personable and
12:14	bubbly and happy and and and saw the bigger picture and, you know, looked at
12:19	the gray as opposed to just the, you know, black and white. You got this, got
12:23	that? Great. You're in. Before we get into the nitty-gritty of this topic, we
12:27	just wanted to check in and say that if you believe that you need some
12:31	assistance and that we could help you, reach out to us today. Check out our
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12:54	If someone was listening today only remembers one thing about working with
12:59	recruiters, what should it be? If it was a candidate sort of looking to
13:02	work with the recruiter, I would just always remember that they are there to
13:06	advocate for you. So, if your recruiter that you're working with is not
13:10	advocating for you in the right way and you know in your gut that they're not
13:14	there to help you with your process, then they're probably not the right
13:17	recruiter for you. They're there to negotiate. They're there to ask the
13:21	hard-hitting questions. Um, if someone doesn't, you know, take the time to get
13:25	to know you in depth, then they're probably not going to be able to
13:28	advocate for you. And yeah, working with a recruiter is, yeah, a chance for you
13:33	to to have someone to speak about your experience in depth. A chance you don't
13:38	you, you know, you don't often get just by applying for roles directly.
13:41	Do you recommend that a recruiter just calls your agency to have a chat with
13:45	you, not wait to see a job ad pop up? if they're actively looking for roles in
13:50	the market and they're ready to go, um we would really recommend sending their
13:54	CV through and then they'll get a call. Um just calling then leads to can you
13:59	send me your CV and then it's just an extra step. So if they just actually
14:03	send their CV directly to our agency, one thing that we we absolutely do at
14:09	Lotus People, which is um you some other agencies might think this is a bit
14:13	crazy, is absolutely everybody that comes in contact with us gets a
14:18	response. So in saying that then uh where can job
14:21	seekers or potential clients go to connect with Lotus people?
14:25	Well, we've just had a jazzy new website. So um our ops team have been
14:30	working on that. So, we've got a new website, obviously, just lotus people.
14:34	Um, for us, we absolutely love LinkedIn. So, please connect with us on LinkedIn.
14:40	Um, obviously you can send me a message um on LinkedIn as well. Obviously, my
14:45	name's Iona Calville. Um, and we've just started doing Tik Toks. Um, two of the
14:50	team um in the temporary division, they're absolutely loving it. And so, we
14:54	just let them run free with that. They've had uh me on a couple of them as
14:58	well. So yeah, we'll see if that takes off, but um yeah, you can find us um
15:02	across these platforms. And then just the last question, when
15:05	people look back on the work you're doing now with Lotus people, what do you
15:11	hope they remember the most? I think it's probably that we always
15:14	lead with or like I always try and lead, but like as an organization like we we
15:19	really try and lead with integrity. Just putting ourselves in other people's
15:23	shoes. Like how does something make someone feel? Like I always just think
15:27	like are we leading in a way that's like makes sense to other people? You know,
15:32	are we doing the best thing that we can by other people? And so for that reason
15:36	and like with internally like I just like to think that my team always know
15:40	that like I've got their best interests at heart. Like I'm always looking at
15:43	ways that we can help them develop both personally um you know and
15:48	professionally. For us, recruitment's not just about doing things for the sake
15:52	of a transaction or for the sake of a sale. Nobody should be ever left
15:57	wondering what's happening. We don't sacrifice the experience that we give
16:03	people um for the sake of like you said just like a client relationship like
16:07	it's got to be both parties leaving no stone unturned. So I feel
16:12	like I've kind of like waffled a bit there but there's just so much that
16:15	comes to mind when I'm thinking and yeah I think I think looking back I think
16:20	anyone that's worked with me will will say that I've always led with humor. I
16:24	think I mentioned that at the beginning like I've obviously had quite a serious
16:27	chat with you um today. This is probably the longest period of time that I've
16:31	been serious in my life. Um but that's I do I lead with humor. Like if something
16:37	goes wrong like we pick ourselves back up. We kind of go I cannot believe that
16:41	that just happened. Like that's probably the worst thing that could have happened
16:44	today. But we just get on with it. Um, I'm I'm a very level person. So, you
16:51	know, like if something does go wrong, like I always I'm I'm this this is me.
16:57	Like this is a secret. I wish that was me.
16:59	But it is who at I mean my partner might say different in my personal life, but
17:04	in at work like nothing, you know, throws me up or down. And I do believe
17:09	that creates a really safe space for my team to be able to really open up to me
17:14	straight away. If something's gone wrong, they don't they're not going to
17:16	be leader. They're not going to fear that I'm going
17:19	to turn around and be like, "Well, why did that happen? Like, what's going on
17:21	with that? Why would you why would you have like No.
17:24	One thing I have noticed about people who are scared at work, they don't do
17:32	their job because they're scared to make a decision. They're scared to put
17:36	something forward. So, that fear mobilizes them and they can't do
17:40	anything. So, scared to ask questions. The more that people feel comfortable to
17:46	try something new and all, that's when you get really great great work out of
17:50	them and great ideas. Not everything's going to work, but they're not afraid to
17:54	put something out there and you get the most out of that person back, which is
18:00	fantastic.Yeah. If something goes wrong, it's how
18:03	do we take action and how do we sort it? It's not we can learn about it later.
18:08	Yeah. Let's deal with it in the moment and not
18:10	get too worried about you deal with it and you learn from it.
18:13	the end of the day there's bigger things happening in the world you know so you
18:16	just have to go with that mindset and then nothing will um upset you too much
18:20	in your and it's good that you're humorous with
18:22	the candidate too because I think there's a lot of stress on their end and
18:26	a lot of pressure and I feel like if you come along and you're like everything's
18:31	okay and it's going to be okay you probably ease them and bring back some
18:35	hope and motivation to the whole process I think that it's not just what you're
18:39	doing for your team but what you're doing for others
18:43	who are looking for work and maybe nervous about it and you're making them
18:48	feel like it's okay. I want to sneak in one quick question which was not on the
18:53	the sheet but video resumes. What's your stance? Have you seen many come through?
18:58	Have you had clients that prefer them over word documents? What do you think?
19:04	So, at my old uh agency in New Zealand, um we're going back three and a half
19:12	years. Um well, that was when I left. We're probably going back like six or
19:15	seven years. We started using a platform called video my job. I don't know if
19:19	you've ever heard of it. And that was something that we actually were getting
19:22	every single candidate that we interviewed at the time. We would get
19:25	them to do a video my job and then we would be sending that video to the
19:28	client. And that was something that was they were really trying to take off at
19:32	that point. I think it was really good in like the temporary space as well
19:35	because quite often like we kind of don't really want them to interview
19:38	temps as such sometimes because it's got to be really quick so you can send over
19:42	that video. But it's it's a good reminder for me that I haven't done
19:47	anything like that here. Do I talk about it in in a in a day-to-day basis? No. Do
19:52	I like the fact you've asked me that? Yes. Because it's reminded me that it
19:56	was actually a really good tool. Um butI haven't had many conversations on it
20:01	recently. But it was good at the time. But it was something that you
20:05	facilitated and guided the candidate on it was.
20:08	Yeah. We just send them a link and they would do they would do it.
20:11	I think that's great for high turnover roles like temping and stuff like that.
20:14	That's a great idea. I think for big roles like if you were going to go for
20:19	say a CEO position. I don't think a recording is great, but I mean people
20:24	are talking about it more. It's not there yet. Like not everyone's doing it
20:28	yet, but I don't know. I don't know about it.
20:31	There can be look people will have opinions on it as well because it's like
20:35	are you opening up certain biases um with having it? It's like when you put
20:39	like photos on CVs like are you looking at the person's picture or are you
20:43	looking at their experience? So yeah, I mean like there's always going to be
20:47	nuances to everything. So um yeah, I think it is I think
20:51	amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for answering
20:53	that extra little question.

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