Q1) What gets you out of bed in the morning (and why)?
Professionally, the deep desire to provide a truly unrivalled level of service to my clients and candidates gets me going very easily each morning. Creating and maintaining a reputation for quality drives me, yet it also keeps me up at night. The fear of not delivering and/or letting someone down often drives me more than it should! I find this to be one of life’s great challenges – remaining razor sharp, conscientious and driven, whilst not letting it turn into too much stress/burden/worry. At any time I typically handle between five to eight live projects and these can all be at different stages, requiring a great deal of flexibility, both physically and emotionally.
Q2) Do you have any habits or routines you follow …and what benefit do these bring for you?
My friends and family laugh at how structured and routine oriented I am. I simply need a high level of routine to feel comfortable otherwise I don’t work at my best. It all starts the night before, ensuring that my running kit is looked out, breakfast prepared, bags packed for work, and to-do lists written. I like to wake early, any time between 5am and 5:45am. Every day starts with a morning coffee whilst watching something I find interesting on YouTube, such as a Ted Talk. I then meditate, write a brief journal, and head out for a run, all before our son wakes around 7am. I’m not always this good, but from experience I find that avoiding social media and the depressing news cycle sets me up far better for the day. I’m also pretty rigid about how I manage my calendar at work. The older I get, the more I say no, as I won’t do anything that will impinge on family time. Later each day, Becca and I have a rule that between 5pm and 7pm is family time, even if we are very busy with Vero. We pick up our son, play with him then go through the dinner, bath and bed routine. Evenings are often spent in our home office working, but we always try to finish by 9pm. During the week I schedule time in my work calendar for exercise and that’s always a mix of running and gym work. I treat these appointments in my diary like I would an important meeting. I also try to carve out some time away from screens where I can nip out for a short walk to get some natural light. I think for a lot of people they would really struggle with my routine and discipline, but for me it’s essential to feel in control.
Q3) Are there any quotes or mantras that you love &/or live by…and why?
When I’m finding things hard I often come back to the quote “I GET to do this” instead of “I HAVE to do this”. The one word change completely reframes the mind. For instance, I’ve now completed several marathons and in the last few miles it’s easy for negative self talk to take over. Instead of thinking that you ‘have’ to run a few more miles, I tell myself on a very deep level how lucky I am to ‘get’ the opportunity to do it. This exercise can be used in all walks of life, from business to family. I first got into meditation around eight years ago. I practice regularly and the biggest teaching it has bestowed upon me is living in the present. There isn’t much that you can’t deal with or overcome when you simply slow down and realise that the voices in your head are not always telling the truth!
Q4) Is there a specific skillset or personal attribute you have that you can say has contributed to your own success to date?
I would have to say persistence and resilience. My ability to keep on keeping on, when most others throw in the towel, and I see that both in business and personally. Also, my consistency in everything that I do is a major strength.
Q5) Are you currently learning any new skills or working on improving anything about yourself and why?
I love nothing more than learning and I do this either by reading or from listening to podcasts. When I analyse what I’m drawn to a common theme emerges, and it typically centres on (and bear with me as its deep!) happiness and meaning. Through reading biographies, psychology, history and philosophy I think I’m always searching for why we’re here and how to live a happy life. Now, I would call myself a generally happy person, but I’m really drawn to other lives well lived, and ultimately what makes us happy. I’ve found that you can have all the material possessions that you need, the big job title, a well paid career, but if you aren’t satisfied with your work, your relationships, where you live, or even your daily routine, then its easy to feel unsatisfied. I think I’m always searching…
Q6) Looking back – can you pick out any achievement to date that you are the proudest of and why?
I’ve worked in recruitment for 16 years and although the job is about helping people with their careers, and helping companies to hire into their finance teams, the financials are obviously always important. It can be very competitive between fellow colleagues and competitors, so I’d say my biggest achievement over the years is that I’ve always been one of the top two performers in any firm I’ve worked for. This has resulted in fast track promotion and a wide range of incentives/prizes such as Caribbean holidays and European breaks.
Q7) Again, looking back, have you experienced adversity (or faced discrimination/prejudice) in your life and how has that shaped who you are today?
I guess I count myself fortunate that I’ve never faced discrimination or any real adversity. However. within two years of me starting in recruitment, and following a promotion, I took a step up to recruit more experienced accountants. This typically meant dealing with clients and candidates who were far older than me. I immediately realised that to gain their trust and respect that I really had to know my stuff. I ensured that I educated myself so that I could talk the talk and walk the walk. Doing this was probably key to how the next 10 years of my career worked out.
Q8) What is one key piece of advice you would pass onto someone/ to your younger self and why? or have you ever been given a piece of advice that has served you well?
I think I’ll need to circle back to resilience and determination. I fear that when the going gets tough, through no fault of their own, the younger generations could be more likely to throw in the towel. I believe there is an expectation gap between reality and how tough it actually is to be a success. Social media and YouTuber’s have a lot to answer for!! To be serious though, what most people don’t see is the hours of work and the grind that goes on behind the scenes. When friends and peers would be clocking off at 5pm, I’d be at home on my laptop late into the night and working all weekend too. However, that does take me onto my next point. For the first five years of my career my primary focus was on attainment, and this meant work work work. However, if I was to give my son the same advice now, I’d tell him to try to find something that you genuinely enjoy. That’s absolutely key and is far more important than money or status.
Q9) Looking at the arts, are there any specific films, songs, pieces of art, plays, books or podcasts that you have enjoyed/resonate with you, that you in turn, would recommend?
Books and podcasts tend to be my thing. It all kicked off when I bought my first e-reader in 2011, and Amazon Kindle. I don’t have any favourite authors but anything non-fiction such as biographies, psychology, and wellness then I’m sold. In terms of podcasts my go-to listens tend to be: • The Rich Roll Podcast – Rich Roll • Feel Better Live More – Rangan Chatterjee • Eat Sleep Work Repeat – Bruce Daisley • The Doctors Pharmacy – Mark Hyman
Q10) Bucket list / Travel. Can you recall your best holiday & what made it so? I.e. Is there anything/anywhere you have experienced that you highly recommend and anything/anywhere on your list you have still to do/go and visit?
For me, holiday perfection is somewhere in the Mediterranean. Somewhere with a good atmosphere that mixes old and new, traditional culture with great places to eat and to relax. Over more recent years it’s typically been Spain or Italy. Becca and I got married in Italy in 2013 and spent some time on the Amalfi Coast; the towns, the people, the weather and the food – what more can I say. Perfection. My bucket list would have to include the South of France, Corsica, Sardinia and perhaps some Greek island hopping.
Q11) Your last supper. What dish are you eating (and why?)? & who are having it with (and why)? (Other than your immediate family, can be a person dead or alive or a fictional character)
That’s a tough one as I love most food, from Far Eastern to Mexican and everything in between. Ok, let’s go for a traditional Sunday roast. Tons of baked vegetables, chicken, garlic, and gravy. For pudding it has to be Sticky Toffee Pudding with ice cream, simply delicious! As for who would be there, leaving out immediate (and still living family of course!)
• My late grandad – its such a shame that we don’t ask all the questions we should while they are still with us
• Chris Evans – my (only) favourite celebrity. I love his radio show on Virgin
• Rich Roll – favourite podcast host who speaks so much sense
• Tiger Woods – my sporting hearing growing up when I was golf obsessed
Q12) What is your own definition of success / Your own vision of happiness / What’s your NorthStar?
My own vision of success is to simply be happy with how you spend your time. Working in recruitment it saddens me how many of us sleep walk through our lives (at best), or actively dislike what we do for a living. Yes, work is work but you have to seek meaning and enjoyment out of most of it, otherwise it’s a life not well lived. Happiness to me is contentment. If you asked me when I was younger I would have said joy, adventure, a thrill. However, although these things are all very important to me, being content with my lot and not striving for things that ultimately don’t bring happiness are the most important. In terms of my North Star, my answer reflects how I feel about happiness and success (above). To be nice to people, to be a good father and husband, to be liked, and to enjoy how I spend my time. What more does someone really need?
Bonus Question) If I was to ask you, what you thought the meaning of life was to you? A big question I know, as it stands today – what would your answer be?
I often grapple with the meaning of life question. At times, it’s easy to latch on to the view that there must be a meaning, whilst on a different day I can feel very differently about it. I have to admit that I’m not so sure that there is an ultimate meaning, but that doesn’t have to stop us from striving or seeking!
Biography:
Andrew is a highly experienced recruitment professional operating in the accountancy and finance sector. In 2009, and within just three years of starting his recruitment career, Andrew helped to establish the professional services division of a leading national recruitment firm. Over the following seven years Andrew developed high performing accountancy, legal, commercial, HR and international divisions. He gained several promotions during this period which resulted in his appointment to board level Director in 2014, at the age of 31. In 2016, Andrew became a joint owner of a finance recruitment and resourcing consultancy. Over a period of nearly three years Andrew was instrumental in growing the firm’s client base, their service offering, and their market exposure. In partnership with his wife Becca, in 2019 Andrew established and launched Vero Recruitment to focus exclusively on the recruitment of experienced accountants across the North-East of Scotland. Andrew had a long-held belief that there was a real opportunity to significantly add value to a recruitment process, and through Vero’s exclusive partnership model and a holistic approach, Andrew created a service offering that is unrivalled in both the local and national markets. Since launch, Vero has gone from strength to strength, witnessing exponential growth and becoming known as a consultative, high quality, and morally and ethically exemplary recruitment firm. Andrew is one of the leading industry experts in his field and has an enviable network of contacts across the North East of Scotland. He has built his reputation on hard work, trust, transparency, and delivering on his promises. Andrew believes in building mutually beneficial long-term relationships with his clients and his candidates, and this is evidenced in the repeat business and exclusive nature of his work. Andrew is a positive, outgoing and enthusiastic individual who relishes the challenge of growing businesses, creating exceptional cultures, and delivering on financials. He has a deep passion for learning, being a voracious reader as well as a podcast consumer. In his spare time, Andrew enjoys spending as much time as possible with his young son. In addition, he is a keen sports enthusiast with running being his passion, as well as having a love for travel.