Exciting Times

August 2025

When I left Sellick Partnership, I thought maybe that was it.

Two decades at the coalface. Plenty of ups and downs — thankfully, more ups.
A business built from nothing, with a team I’ll always be proud of.

And then came something rare: the luxury of time to reflect.

To think. To unlearn. To reconsider.

And eventually… a kind of itch.
Not to go back. But to build again.

I started looking at what was happening across recruitment.
On platforms like this, I saw the rise of 'rec-tech' — often pitched as progress.
But more often than not, it felt like noise, not clarity. Unfulfilling for everyone.

So I’ve spent the last year listening. Properly.

To candidates. Hiring managers. Founders.
People inside the recruitment industry — and just as importantly, outside it.

I’ve asked a lot of questions:
What are we getting wrong?
What do people really need?
What could a better experience actually feel like?

I’ve sat down with candidates, employers, psychologists. Judged brilliant entries through APSCo's #AwardsForExcellence
Even picked the brains of policymakers like Viscount Camrose.

I’m not a tech guy.
I still scribble to-do lists on paper.

But I’ve seen enough to know we can’t keep hiring the same way. The best recruitment is about relationships, trust, building career journeys, not fleeting transactional moments.

I’ve no interest in tearing down the approach and successes that got me here. I'm a firm believer in so much of it - in fact we need to go back to some of those basics before bad tech took over. Hence the photo of me as young man - we need to capture some of the human elements of that pre-Internet age.

But I am drawn — strongly — to help build what comes next.

Slowly. Carefully. With the right people.

I’ll share more soon.

MJS Partnership