​After passing the 6-month mark with Mason Alexander, Ziggy our Resourcer, decided to sit down and reflect on the past year of Covid and his initial experience with a new company.

The below is a LinkedIn article that Ziggy wrote. You can read the original article here.

Ziggy’s first 6 months with us at Mason Alexander

When I offered to sit down and write on my first 6 months in my new company it made me reflect on not just the last six months but the last year that has brought me into the position that I am in now. Being honest, I had never planned to work in Mason Alexander nor had I really thought about recruitment as an industry to go into, it was this sort of mysterious buzzword and all I knew is that they send you lots of LinkedIn messages and push you into a job. I think I had just been talking to the wrong recruiters! 

A year ago I had my bag packed ready to set off to Australia before reading on Twitter the Thursday before I was meant to fly on Sunday that they would not be letting any non-citizens in. After a few weeks of feeling sorry for myself, I had to realise that I was back to the drawing board and looking for work again.

I happened to be on the MA LinkedIn page looking for jobs and saw they were advertising for an internship in their Marketing team and thought there would be no harm in applying as my days were mostly filled with sleeping in and scrolling on my phone. After a few calls and a coffee, I was offered the position and I was delighted to take it! 

I never really knew what to expect as it was only my second role within an office and after what can only be described as an interesting first experience in an office, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect this time around. It was during the Summer where I was able to go into the office and pick up my welcome pack. A brand new Mac laptop, a few bits for home and the offer to expense a desk and chair if I needed it, I already had a set up at home but the offer was a nice one to have. 

I met with Andrew Lynch the CEO on my first day, an intimidating idea for any intern starting in a new place but that quickly went away after sitting down with him for a few minutes. He knew my background in communications and social media from my previous job and immediately wanted to hatch out a plan going forward to where MA could improve. I don’t think many interns get asked on their first day where a company can better themselves, especially by the person running it. This was a sign of what the values are here, if you have a voice it will be listened to. 

As I grew in confidence, I was able to table more and more ideas and have been given the tools to implement them. Since arriving at Mason Alexander I have been trained up in Graphic Design and Video Editing which no doubt will stand to me in the future but also showed that as an intern I will be trusted to deliver on what is needed and not spend my time wasted staring at my phone all day. This has led to me being involved in company documents going to some of our biggest clients as well as creating and editing videos that I wanted to make, as well as what the company needed. 

I was happy to match the enthusiasm that was being shown to me, so when offered a position with the marketing team I was happy to do so. Continuing to work on the marketing team, I became more and more curious about the recruitment side of the business and had mentioned that to a few people. We hatched out the idea further and implemented the necessary plans for my transition into a more recruitment focused role. 

What I liked most about this moment was that they valued what I wanted to do, as well as having an honest conversation about what the best way to do it would be. Not just the best for the company but they acted with a genuine interest in bettering myself and how I could improve my career. 

It is a really exciting feeling being in a company where the buzz and energy can be felt through everything that people do. Obviously, it has been trickier to maintain that while we work remotely but you never come out of a conversation with someone in the team feeling deflated, new ideas are rife throughout the business and the talk of growth to new cities and countries show the ambition MA have. 

The culture created is one that people thrive in it seems, you are given full autonomy in your day to day and you are essentially your own boss. It is fully flexible and not just with a minute here or there, if you need to finish early or ant to start your day at 10 am there are no raised eyebrows. The work always gets done without work taking over our lives and MA live by the mantra of well-being first, workplace second. 

I feel very fortunate to be able to speak so highly of my first six months in a new company and I really hope this same feeling will continue with more time to come. When in the last year so many plans have been upended, it is nice to have been given an opportunity in an environment where I can grow and learn. Maybe it all has happened for a reason...

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