Joining Phaidon International allows you to you to take advantage of exceptional career opportunities. Whether that’s receiving over 100 hours of training as a graduate or relocating across continents to one of our 15 offices worldwide, you’re fully supported to the very top of your career at Phaidon International and our six specialist brands, whichever unique path you choose to take.
Toby Mugford, Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist at Phaidon International’s London office, joined the business as a recruitment consultant for DSJ Global in 2020. Following a successful two and a half years sourcing top professionals for supply chain organizations, he sought a career change to better suit the changes in his personal life. Thanks to the array of development and career options available at Phaidon International, he was able to transition internally into the Talent Acquisition (TA) team in January 2023.
“You don’t have to change a company to change roles,” Toby says. “Since I moved into TA six months ago, I’ve seen colleagues move within specialisms, relocate to other offices, and transition from TA to Learning & Development. There are so many opportunities to either specialize or make a change.”
From sourcing to strategy
Before joining Phaidon International, Toby had an unconventional career journey. After finishing university and becoming a secondary school maths teacher, he realized that while he enjoyed his job, his salary and progression opportunities were limited. He moved to London and ran pub quizzes in between bar work, but wanted a long-term career where he could better utilize his communication skills. Recruitment came up in a Google search, and after realizing this really interested him, Phaidon International was the company that caught his attention.
Toby’s recruitment career grew from strength to strength at Phaidon International, but he reached a point where his motivations changed:
“Coming into this job, I’d just moved to London and wanted to experience the city to the fullest, as well as save up for a mortgage. At the point where I thought about changing functions, my priorities had shifted - I'd bought a house, got engaged, and adopted a dog. I was searching for other meaningful ways to positively impact the company instead.”
Toby talked with colleagues throughout the business and discovered that the Talent Acquisition team needed some extra help at a senior level, as the business was growing faster than ever before.
“A light bulb flicked on in my head and I instantly knew that was the opportunity I wanted to go for, because it's the same as identifying great candidates in sales. The idea of bringing people into the company that gave me that opportunity to achieve financial stability, buy myself a house, and really set up my life within two years just sounded so appealing.”
A seamless transition
Toby’s new role in TA focuses on hiring graduates or people without recruitment experience, and nurturing them throughout Phaidon International’s Learning and Development Academy.
“I'm basically looking for people who are motivated, driven, who want progression and a good salary, and who can hold a great conversation. That's basically my job - speaking to people on the phone all day and seeing who's going to be a good fit for Phaidon International.”
His previous experience and skills in sales ensured a perfectly smooth transition into his new operations role:
“I 100% use the same fundamental skills talking on the phone to a graduate about the opportunities at Phaidon International and understanding their skills, as when I worked in sales talking to a 50-year-old German supply chain professional to understand the candidate he's looking for. It's just refining and retuning to work within a different market, and working with different people.
“Other than these transferrable skills, another benefit of moving over from sales is that I'm now hiring into people's teams who I've known for the last two years; people who I've started with, made friends with, and gone on lunch clubs with. As well as being able to sell the opportunity that I personally went through, it allowed me to start with a real good leg up to be able to come into the role and just run with it.”
Six months in, Toby is finding his new role more and more rewarding:
“It's been really amazing to see these people who I've hired be brought on board and doing well, having fun, and hitting their goals. I’m now excited to see them get their promotions and be able to hire into their own teams in the future.”
The key to recruitment success
As someone who has built a successful career in recruitment themselves and now supports new hires at Phaidon International, Toby has a wealth of advice for anyone looking to start a career in recruitment:
“Recruitment isn't a job for everyone. It's tough, it's very competitive, and you'll deal with a lot of rejection. However, if you want quick progression, recruitment is the place to go and grab that opportunity. Within Phaidon International, you have that support network to help you achieve your career goals, even beyond what you think is possible.”
In the world of recruitment, Phaidon International is uniquely positioned to offer fast progression and varied career opportunities, because as Toby states, “we are an international company with 15 offices worldwide and over 1600 people, but we maintain the growth and the creativity of boutique firms by working within separate brands and specialized teams.
“You get that feel of being part of a team which gives you a real community, and while you’ll also find that with a smaller company, you won’t also get to be part of a brand, an office, and a multinational corporation. This gives you the backing of name recognition, an amazing legal team who write up our terms, and a marketing team that really sets us apart, while still retaining that youthful and inspiring energy of growth, improvement, and striving to do more.”
Define your own career at Phaidon International
Are you ready to launch your career in recruitment and explore the training, development, and progression opportunities at Phaidon International? With energy, drive, and determination, your possibilities are limitless.
Start your career search at Phaidon International, or register to start applying for roles.
