Will they get cake?

March 5, 2014

A day in the life at Spinnaker Consulting

The clink of cups of tea being made accompanies the ring of phones and the tap-tap-tap of the consultants on an early shift at our Leigh-on-Sea office, emailing away to their contacts in the Far East. It’s 4pm Singapore time, and by the time our UK working day is underway, those important contacts will probably be asleep.

The door buzzer goes, and in walk more consultants, bright-eyed and clutching coffees, ready to answer their phones, respond to their emails, and kick-start their busy day. The office is buzzing: there are conference calls with international clients; there’s the ping of emails firing into people’s inboxes; candidates are calling us to say they’re looking for a new job - a soundtrack of voices and calls from 40 members of staff. These are our recruitment consultants; they get paid to find people their dream job – and get commission for doing so.

Our business is the shipping industry – people who work for the major shipping lines whose ships you’ll no doubt have seen slicing through the Thames Estuary. You might have seen the bright, Lego-like containers stacked high, or heard the slow chug of their passing from Tilbury, all the way to Rotterdam, carrying anything from fruit in refrigerated containers to car parts, clothing, and iPads.

90% of the world’s trade is carried by sea, which is a mind-boggling statistic for even the non-shipping geek. Everybody we find a job for is based on shore; they’ll have probably sailed on ships across the world for a few years, but grew tired of the isolation, the separation from their families, and want to earn their living on land, not sea.

These jobs range from shipping lawyers, marine engineers and port captains, to the naval architects who work in the design, construction, and maintenance of ships. And where do they work? Well, the range is broad: law jobs in the biggest cities in the world, managing a port in Angola, designing ships in Aberdeen or managing a team for an oil major in Singapore.

Our consultants diligently work to source people for the right jobs, and jobs for the right people. Sometimes, their day might include travelling to a careers fair in Scotland, letting shipping graduates know we’re here to help them find a job. They might be jetting off to Dubai to meet with their clients, and find out what new jobs need filling. They’ll also be speaking to our many contacts – 20,000 people alone are signed up to our newsletter – no matter what location they’re in; hearing about their current work, what they’re looking for, and what jobs we have available. When it all comes together, and someone is successfully placed in a job they love, all the hard work pays off.

But it’s not all about work. On Monday nights, some of the staff descend in sportswear to the subsidised Fit Club, and every month there’s a social event, paid for by the company. There are weekly competitions rewarded in cakes, film screenings, and regular meals out for all staff.

By the time 5.30pm rolls around (1.30am Singapore time!), the consultants shut down their computers and head out the door, happy in the knowledge that they might have made a placement that day, or that there’s a cold beer waiting for them at the staff drinks, or simply that tomorrow they’ll smash their target and there will almost definitely be cake…

www.workforspinnaker.com