David Mace - Lead Consultant - Marine

What does the day in the life of a highly successful recruitment consultant in the Americas region look like?

We caught up with David Mace, Lead Recruitment Consultant in Marine, at Faststream Recruitment to get an insight into his varied and busy day in recruitment.

Before work: Every single day, I start my day with a walk on the beach with my wife, no matter the weather. We can choose from two beaches that are both within a 2-mile radius. Along the way, we can stop at some of the excellent coffee places. In exceptionally good weather, I use every excuse I can find to go for a ride on my Vespa Scooter.

8 am: The first thing I do is usually deal with the emails that came in the previous day. Most of those emails are from my candidates, and they are usually responses to the questions I asked them the day before. I work on two to-do lists: a call list and a task list with items such as sending out terms, speaking to candidates, finalising offers, etc.

11 am: I start talking to candidates who either had an interview before or had an interview on that day. I like to do the pre-interview preparation with them on the day of their interview.

12 pm: In the afternoon, I send emails and make calls. This involves contacting my clients and my candidates. When I am not doing that, I am busy searching for new candidates for new roles. Communication is crucial to me – I never want people waiting on me for communication. A significant part of my day can be spent on Teams videos or telephone calls with my clients and candidates. I often put aside some time in the day to talk with one of my ‘go-to’ sources in the industry to get the latest insights on who is hiring or who is moving jobs etc.

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1 pm: I am currently in business development mode, so my focus right now is not only on delivery but also on contacting new clients and building on those existing relationships. My goal in the USA is always to try to grow the business. I target those clients specifically and try to arrange either a video conference or a phone call with them. I prefer a video call because we are moving towards having video calls with our clients all the time to help build the relationship.

3 pm: I usually take a 45-minute break around this time. My clients often call me at noon, which sometimes delays my lunch. I use this break to eat something. I like to get away from my desk and I do this regularly, every hour for a few minutes. Working remotely is unique because I am alone the majority of the time and do not have the usual office chat, so I always make sure to talk to someone in the UK office on video to feel connected to everyone.

3:45 pm: After my break, I am doing more candidate calls, more client calls, and more CV preparation. I am also preparing campaigns for high-potential candidates to send to my key clients. I do take a lot of time to add keywords to the resumes to help improve their chances. I will roughly do these tasks up until just before finishing work.

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4:30 pm: I usually start preparing my action lists for the next day and check my calendar for upcoming meetings. I carry over things I have not completed from today’s list to tomorrow’s list and add new tasks.

5 pm: This is usually around the time I am wrapping up for the day and reflecting on my progress and delivery.

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