At the end of 2007, I said that no year would ever go as quickly, how wrong I was! I can't believe we are already in March 2009 and I have now been at fishtank for 4 and a half  years!

So, what has been happening in the world of marketing recruitment and fishtank?

Well, we have moved offices 4 times due to team expansion most recently leaving our sister company, Ashton Consulting who we had grown with since inception at the end of 2003 behind in our Colston Street offices, expanded into the Thames Valley and Hampshire regions back in 2006, run eye-catching, creative, branding advertising, grown the team to exploit the expansion and opportunities in a busy market over 05/06/07, relaunched the website with better functionality and search facilities resulting in some great feedback, and now restored ourselves to a small solid team to continue servicing our key clients, building effective relationships with new clients and preserving our strong position in the marketplace in a challenging climate. We have built a great team in the tank and depite some movement in the team over the years, we are pleased to be able to say that only one tanker has left to continue in recruitment elsewhere all the other tankers have moved on to fresh pastures in new careers, travel the world or relocate to places including Wales and Australia!

Above all, we as a company and individuals always take pride in focusing on communication, providing a consultative, high quality of service and building exceptional relationships with our clients and candidates, which I am proud to say are very much reflected in the testimonials and feedback we receive.

I believe that the marketing sector has become more and more specialist and this calls for specialist Consultants who are credible, consultative and take time to not only understand, but also genuinely have an interest in the requirements of both candidates and clients to ensure the right match. The market is tough right now, but we remain active and optimistic!  

When I joined fishtank as a Trainee Recruitment Consultant, I believe I brought with me some strong commercial experience and training from my Business Management degree, previous role as Business Development Executive with Diageo GB, and my placement year working in recruitment for GEC-Marconi which gave me a good grounding in understanding a company's recruitment process and also what people don't want from a Recruitment Consultant! I have thrived on my time at fishtank so far, benefited from some great training, developed solid skills and experience in recruitment and really enjoyed playing a part in the growth of the fishtank brand and business. Building partnerships with clients over a number of years and having candidates coming back to you looking for their next challenge 3 or 4 years after you placed them in their perfect role is really rewarding. I have never experienced a candidate leaving within their rebate period and I believe this is because I have always been confident and happy that it is the right match for both candidate and client. In addition, I believe that consistency is a true USP in recruitment and am pleased that I have managed to build some great relationships with clients and candidates.

Here at fishtank, 3 years service is rewarded with a month's sabbatical and I am finally getting around to taking mine! I'm not sure that there is ever really a good time to leave your job for a month but now seems like the best time for me to take a break and refresh myself! If 4 and a half  years can go that quickly, then I know 4 and a half weeks will go in a flash but I intend to make the most of it, and am looking forward to taking advantage of the best snow for hundreds of years, and hopefully some mountain sunshine, by spending a few weeks in the French Alps!

Please don't make my inbox too chaotic for my return and I look forward to catching up when I'm back!

In my absence, please contact one of my colleagues on the same number who will be happy to help.

 Julia Rees - julia@fishtank.cc