Hello everyone! I’m Ali, the newest member of Sapio Consulting. 

I am starting my career in recruitment as Sapio’s very first Researcher, however my journey into the recruitment industry hasn’t been the most traditional route. In fact, after graduating from university, I’ve spent the last 5 years working as an equities/ indices trader. I fell into this career when my only knowledge of trading was The Wolf of Wall Street – I was obviously disappointed with the reality! That being said, I loved the world of finance and trading, but for me, trading wasn’t a long term career path and quite quickly became unfulfilling. I was craving a more collaborative, people focused environment and had been used to working in a competitive, target based job so the idea of recruitment started to make sense to me.

When I first met Richard & Sam and we began discussing the core values at Sapio: Curiosity; Entrepreneurship; and Considerate; I knew right away that Sapio would be the right fit for me (although it took the guys a couple more interviews to reach the same conclusion!). Working in a small, agile team and being part of the business at such an early stage is incredibly exciting.  I’m very grateful for the opportunity and looking forward to seeing how the venture unfolds.

Although I haven’t worked directly in the PR, Communications & Marketing world, it has always been something that has been interesting to me, as ultimately it is one of the fundamental facets of the business and consumer paradigm and we all consume PR & Marketing everyday whether we are aware of it or not. 

My first two weeks at Sapio have been jam packed and, with being part of a small team, I’ve really enjoyed throwing myself in at the deep end – from attending candidate and client meetings in week one to already setting them up in week two. Evolving, re-digitalising and tagging the business’s market and network maps, getting to grips with the myriad of tools, tech, CRMs and CMSes, exposure to incredible people, such as the Marketing Director of a FTSE 100, Head of Comms for a Series B HealthTech scale-up and the CEO and exec team of one of Europe’s fastest growing agencies – it’s been a whirlwind and just the absolute best way to learn an industry and how best to support and service the people within it.

I have already attended one Christmas party, with another next week (late November is the perfect time to start a role..!) and Sam & Richard were even so kind as to take me to Humble Crumble for my birthday last week. It’s safe to say I’m really enjoying my time at Sapio so far and cannot wait to see what’s next!