Following an education in Law, Steve entered the IT recruitment industry at the age of 21 as an interim before continuing studying towards the LPC. Within his first six months however, he had decided that recruitment was the career for him. He quickly progressed with a leading record of delivery with a Manchester based IT agency, however during a successful managerial career he became frustrated by the general treatment of Recruitment Consultants across the industry. Alongside his former colleague Steve Taylor, and Circle’s financial investor (the MD of a global software organisation), Steve co-founded Circle in 2003 and realized his dream of growing and developing an agency with a very different ethos, an ethos that has led Circle from strength to strength.
Alongside his busy role as MD, and with the help of Key Account Manager Lucie Alker, he actively recruits for his clients which enables him to remain fully in touch with the day to day issues of working in recruitment, as the leaders of many agencies can quickly lose touch with the difficulties of the market. Steve works with some of the largest IT, finance and software companies in Europe, as well as many smaller niche players. He specializes in statistical and IT recruitment.
Alongside Steve Ricketts, Steve laid the groundwork for what is today recognised as one of the UK’s most dynamic and successful recruitment agencies.
After studying in Manchester, Steve worked for a global IT outsourcing organisation, working on technical solutions for a wide array of blue chip clients. The relationships, technical knowledge and skills gained during this period were to prove invaluable, and when Steve entered the IT recruitment industry in 2000, he was breaking sales records from his second month onwards. Here he worked with Steve Ricketts, and shared his views regarding the general culture of the UK IT recruitment industry, and in 2003 Circle was born.
Steve is responsible for the general running of the company, focusing on management of the company finances, and operational and technical developments. He also finds time to remain hands on and successfully recruits for many organisations, in particular public sector/health industry companies.
After an exemplary education culminating in graduation from Sheffield in Business and IT, Jon started his career in insurance. After two successful years, he moved into the recruitment industry, and joined an IT specialist recruitment consultancy in Manchester . He joined Circle during the company's early expansion, his frustrations with the industry mirroring those of the founding directors. He quickly established himself as not only a fantastic recruiter, but also a first class trainer and manager. Within his early career at Circle, Jon's performances and management prowess saw him promoted into the head of one of Circle's two Profit Centres , and his influence, talent and dedication for the company to manage and treat people well has helped Circle continue their outstanding success.
He specializes across the general IT, legal IT and engineering sectors. Having developed an excellent knowledge of the candidate base within his markets, Jon is able to identify the key skills that his clients demand, and in doing so has forged an ever increasing number of key client relationships across the UK . He is responsible for over half of the company's staff, and has developed his staff, often with no prior experience, to outstanding performance levels. Jon holds the record for Best Back to Back months, and was promoted to the board of directors as part of our 2006 AGM.
After graduating with a degree in Business Administration, Tariq spent two years working in the finance and communications industries before moving to a Sales & Marketing role in which his immense talent for winning business was realised . After working for one of the UK 's largest IT recruitment agencies, Tariq joined Circle in 2005. He works on the IT Security Recruitment marketplace, where his dedication to clients and candidates alike continue to thrust him into the very highest achievers echelon at Circle. He is an ever-present at the top of the board at Circle, and this, coupled with an engaging, dynamic personality and a natural ability to instill his passion for excellence into his team, led to official promotion to Circle's Management Team in early 2007, and he was promoted again to head up half of the company's staff a year later, and again to the board of directors in November 2008
Tariq has been instrumental in winning preferred supplier agreements with an eclectic client base including some extremely prestigious clients. Tariq's ability is almost legendary at Circle, and has led him to being the current holder of the following Circle Records: Best Month, Best Back to Back Months, Best Quarter, and Best Year. His consistent excellence has led him to hold several other Circle records at some point and he regularly breaks his own records.
After graduating in 2005 in Business Finance at Durham University , Matthew attended several interviews in both London and Manchester to pursue his chosen career in recruitment. Enthusiasm and natural flair attracted interest from several of the leading agencies in the country, and Matt chose Circle and joined in Summer 2005. After a strong start he was awarded with the prize of Best Junior at the company Christmas Awards of that year and was promoted shortly afterwards.
During 2007 Matthew progressed and began to secure first class supply arrangements with several blue chip organizations, enabling him to become Circle's highest performing Consultant and win the Circle Best Quarter record. Matthew's continued progression earned him promotion to Senior Consultant in January 2008, and to Managing Consultant later that year, duringwhich he will also head up Circle's new Leeds office. Matthew's high levels of intelligence and ability to diversify allow him to deliver recruitment solutions to his clients across not just one, but several of our markets – he specializes in General IT, Online Marketing Recruitment and also in Statistics.
After graduating in Economics from the University of Manchester in 2004, Fahim worked for two years for the British Red Cross. During his studies, he had already gained strong skills in Customer Service through work as an advisor for a major banking organization, and he put these skills to use at the British Red Cross, working closely with internal and external people to assist with the fantastic work of the society.
At the start of 2006, Fahim entered the IT recruitment industry, joining one of the largest companies in the European marketplace. Here he performed extremely well, his ethical approach and dedication to both the needs of clients and candidates ensuring that he achieved high, winning the Most Improved Consultant award in his first year. His skills developed further, and in his last month he achieved a personal best before seeking to progress his career in May 2007. Fahim's talent, dedication and ambition was clearly apparent, and he received offers of employment from each and every recruitment agency he interviewed with, and chose Circle primarily to develop his personal talents without frustration with our increased freedom and flexibility, and also for career progression and remuneration. Fahim concentrates on the UK IT contract recruitment marketplace and has made an outstanding contribution to Circle's contract services offering. As of February 2008, he was the proud holder of ALL of Circle's contract-related records, and such excellence saw him promoted to Senior Consultant that year.
Gillian's studies focussed around the hospitality and legal industries, following which she worked in the advertising sales industry in the charity sector before moving to a team lead position in another B2B sales role. Gillian's passion for people and ability to meet customer needs let her towards the recruitment industry, which she joined in 2001 working for a European leading IT specialist agency.
Here, Gillian started as a trainee and quickly established herself as a top performer, earning two promotions and becoming responsible for a team of consultants. In 2008, Gillian decide to move to a more boutique agency where she could focus on delivering a fuller range of recruitment services to her clients. Here she also performed well, and joined Circle in Summer 2009 to continue to provide a first class service to her growing clientele.Gillian focuses mainly on permanent IT recruitment.
James has a highly successful eight years experience within the IT recruitment sector. Following a successful career in sales management, which included setting up a new division for a global internet organization, James joined a niche IT specialist agency in Manchester in 2003, and very quickly progressed to outstanding levels of achievement. His customer satisfaction levels were exemplary and so the agency promoted him to become a Training Manager, to enable new Trainee Consultants to develop with the same positive traits as James. James also continued to provide recruitment services to his clients alongside this role.
In 2006, James moved to a new employer as Senior Consultant and by the time he left to join Circle at the start of 2011, he was one of the leading performers within the organisation, and indeed the leading consultant that worked without a dedicated Resourcer alongside them. James delivers first class services to his clients and specialises primarily in contract recruitment services within the IT sector.
After studying Business Information Technology in Manchester, Scott began his career in the retail sector, working for a national clothing retailer. Here he developed solid customer relationship skills, and he progressed exceptionally with four promotions in two years from 2005 to 2007. He soon became manager of his department.
Scott's developing business acumen and passion for working with people led him to the recruitment industry in 2007. As he had studied an IT related degree, Scott joined an agency that specialized in placing IT candidates. Scott's main speciality was working with software/web development vacancies, ranging from graduate roles to Programme Manager and CTO level positions.
Scott was consistently a top performer and developed an eclectic client base, and his work earned him Consultant of the Month on three different occasions. Scott decided to join Circle for career progression reasons in Autumn 2009, where he continues to service this sector as well as handling his client's vacancies in all other areas of IT.
Following his education in Computer Programming, Paul's early career involved Events Management, and then later he became a Financial Advisor. Both of these roles enabled Paul to develop first class customer service skills, and, more importantly considering his future in recruitment, a first class ability to understand and deliver to the exact needs of his customers.
Paul joined the IT recruitment industry in 2006, working for one of Europe's largest players. Here he performed well for two years before pursuing his dream of travelling to Australia, where he was able to continue to develop his recruitment skills in one of Sidney's IT specialist agencies. Paul returned to the UK in 2010, where his skills were in much demand from the IT recruitment sector. Paul chose to further his career with Circle and here he provides predominantly permanent recruitment services.
Stephanie joined Circle in Spring 2011, and brought with her a solid background in the recruitment industry. In 2007, she joined a specialist digital marketing recruitment agency. Here, she developed first class customer relationship skills, with her engaging personality and natural desire to help people enabling her to develop a growing client list rapidly. Stephanie focused on SEO and PPC related positions across the digital media sector, and quickly became the company's top performer.
Stephanie was promoted to Senior Consultant and then to Team Leader, and remained top performer for the remainder of her time with the business. Stephanie then looked to join an employer with a greater focus on work/life balance, and had a brief period in the retail recruitment industry before quickly realizing that her passion is the IT sector. Stephanie chose Circle due to our ethos, culture and industry leading consultant packages. Stephanie provides permanent recruitment services nationwide across digital media and IT.
During her studies at Manchester University in Psychology, Sarah worked as a restaurant supervisor, where she oversaw all operational issues and managed several staff. She was also involved in the marketing of the restaurant. In summer 2010, after graduation, Sarah joined an IT specialist recruitment agency where her main role was resourcing candidates and managing key accounts.
Here, Sarah gained valuable recruitment experience however wanted to move to an agency with a more employee-focussed ethos, and greater career potential. Sarah joined Circle at the start of 2011, in capactity of Key Account Manager where she is responsible for ensuring pinnacle service delivery to several of Circle's key accounts. Sarah also enjoys continuing to develop Circle's client base, together with contractor care, CBI interviewing, performance of internal reporting audits, and the attraction/sourcing of candidates.
After completing her studies in Media and Communication, Daisy worked as for a solicitors organization, where she gained invaluable experience in dealing with people. In addition, Daisy began modeling at a young age following her success in a television model competition, and she continues to do so, enjoying contracts with house street names in the cosmetics industry.
In 2010, Daisy entered the recruitment industry and joined an IT specialist agency in Manchester. Here, she focused mainly on infrastructure professionals and performed excellently, surpassing expectations and developing a loyal client base. After considering her long term goals, Daisy began looking for a new employer within the IT recruitment sector and gained heavy interest from several leading Manchester agencies. Daisy chose Circle because of our career progression opportunities, relaxed culture and employee-friendly policies, and joined in Autumn 2011, where she focuses on delivering permanent recruitment solutions across the whole spectrum of IT nationwide.
Tania developed a passion for the recruitment industry very early in her career. After her studies, she worked in a Recruitment Support role for a training organization that specialized on helping school leavers find work. Following this, she gained valuable customer service skills whilst employed by a major high street bank, before moving into the IT industry and joining a digital media agency. Here, Tania would promote the company’s solutions, such as PPC, paid search, digital strategy and web development.
The job satisfaction that Tania experienced in her first role, coupled with her interest in and knowledge of the IT and digital media industries, drew her to Circle in 2010. Tania focusses on permanent recruitment.
Fergal joined Circle in Autumn 2011. Initially mocked as another of Steve Taylor's foolish purchases, Fergal quickly made an impression upon our team and as such remains in the office at all times. The giant, helium filled remote control shark is often flown around at random times by Steve Taylor, much to both the amusement and annoyance of the team.
Fergal is no stranger to receiving lots of attention. Prior to joining Circle, he starred in several films: Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws 3, Jaws 4, and also made a cameo appearance in Finding Nemo.
If you are interested in finding out more about working for Circle, please click here.
