What Being the Youngest Person in the Room Taught Me About Listening

My recruitment career didn’t start with a manual, a structured training plan, or a gentle introduction to the industry. It started with Alicia.

On day one, my manager threw me into the deep end and taught me to swim on the fly. Alicia has an energetic, fast-moving approach to just about everything, which meant that if I wasn’t paying close attention, I’d miss something important. So, I listened. Really listened.
What I didn’t realise at the time was that this would become the most valuable habit I’d develop in my first few months.

Why listening became a skill, not a workaround

As I started working alongside different people in the office, I noticed that every person operated differently, communicated differently, and prioritised different things. I had no experience to fall back on, no instinct built from years in the industry, so listening wasn’t just helpful, it was survival. And somewhere along the way, it stopped feeling like a workaround for being new and started feeling like an actual skill.

What I learned from the people around me

One of the most valuable things about being new is that you get to learn from everyone around you, and I’ve tried to take something from each person I work with and make it my own. From Alicia, I picked up the importance of building genuine rapport with candidates, whether that’s asking about their weekend or just taking a moment to have a real conversation before getting down to business. From Ben, I learned the value of keeping yourself accountable and making sure you’re always doing things the right way, not just the fast way. And from Brad, I took on the habit of consistent check-ins, making sure candidates and clients never feel like they’ve been left in the dark. None of these things came from a textbook. They came from paying attention to the people around me and quietly borrowing the best bits of how they work.

Learning to listen the hard way

Of course, listening is something you have to learn the hard way too. Early on I rushed through the processes of getting the details of a role or from a candidate and had to go back to them because I hadn’t taken it all in the first time. It’s a small thing, but those moments taught me that listening isn’t just a people skill. It’s about slowing down and making sure you actually absorb what’s in front of you before moving on.

How listening shapes the way I recruit

That lesson has directly shaped how I approach my work now. I make a point of taking time during the initial phone screen with a candidate to really understand who they are and whether they’re the right fit for a role, rather than just running through a checklist. Those conversations are where you pick up the details that a CV will never show you.
There’s a lot I’m still figuring out. But I’ve come to think that being new, with no assumptions or ingrained habits to fall back on, isn’t purely a disadvantage. It keeps you attentive. And in recruitment, where every candidate and client is different, that might just be the most useful thing you can bring to the table.