Jess Hitchcocks is a Senior Compliance Officer at Astute People.
For the latest Our People profile series, she spoke with Astute’s Head of People, Sam Bradshaw, about her career and some of her recent successes.
How did you get into recruitment?
I was approached on LinkedIn by our Internal Recruiter.
I wasn’t 100% sure if I wanted to get into recruitment as like many people, I hadn’t heard the best things about the industry, however, I was quickly converted and now I’ve been here for four years!
It proves that it’s always worth answering messages from Recruiters on LinkedIn!
How did you transfer from recruitment into your current role of Senior Compliance Officer?
I was brought in to be the middle man between our Recruitment Consultants and our contractors. I was completely trained up as a Delivery Consultant so I knew that side of the role, but then got stuck in as a Contractor Care Consultant, being the main point of contact for our contractors.
Then, when Covid hit, the back office department needed more support, so I was brought in to help! Since then I’ve been climbing the ranks and gaining knowledge in so many different areas.
Since joining back office, I’ve been promoted from Compliance Administrator, to Compliance Officer, to Senior Compliance Co-Ordinator all in the space of 4 years.
I’ve been at Astute 5 years now in total and the opportunities I’ve been given to progress are next to no other I’ve had in previous jobs.
What is your favourite thing about working as a Compliance Officer at Astute?
Definitely the people.
Even on their bad days (and everyone has them!) everyone is always willing to help with any issues you have.
Everyone is so approachable, even the Managers and Directors.
It makes it so much easier to do your job and voice any issues you have when you know you’re going to be listened to and respected.
What is the most exciting thing about your role as Compliance Officer?
It would be that no day is the same.
Sometimes you can get everything on your to-do list ticked off and it’ll be nice and calm, but 90% of the time, there’s always a spanner in the works that presents us with a challenge we have to overcome.
At the end of the day, you can almost guarantee it’s been busy, but at least you’ve learnt something new!
What advice would you give someone who is looking to join Astute?
If you’re umm-ing and ahh-ing about it, reach out to someone here!
We’ll all be more than willing to answer any questions you might have about the company or the industry as a whole.
To connect with Astute’s Compliance Officer Jess Hitchcocks on LinkedIn click here.
