Career Journeys in Talent Acquisition: Nick Brough

Thanks for reading! This series is designed to shine a spotlight on Talent Acquisition professionals and highlight their career journeys and learnings so far. Today, we're joined by Nick Brough. If you'd like to be next, please reach out to a TTC Community Manager.

Introduce yourself:

Nick Brough has over 10 years in Tech Recruitment and Talent Acquisition, most recently as Chief of Hub Operations at AND Digital, he is now looking for his next leadership role within Talent Acquisition.

Can you walk us through the key milestones in your career in the talent acquisition space? What were some pivotal moments or decisions that shaped your journey?

My first step into TA was on the agency side with a tech and digital agency, Hanover Recruitment. Working at Hanover allowed me to really get to understand the tech space and as I wasn’t limited to work in a vertical like many agencies, I got to learn such a broad variety of roles and technologies, for which my understanding only deepened as I grew my career at Hanover.

After 5 amazing years at Hanover, I made the decision to move away from agency and move internally with AND Digital. Initially joining AND as a Senior Tech Recruiter before long I progressed to lead the Recruitment function in London where we helped the business grow from 500 to 2000 permanent heads with no agency usage.

My most recent move was to move into an exec leadership role at AND as Chief of Hub Operations in London, where I oversaw the enabling services teams including Talent Acquisition, Coaching and Development, Academy and Onboarding.

In this rapidly evolving industry, what strategies or practices have you adopted to continuously enhance your skills and stay ahead of the curve? Do you have any resources or learning methods you'd recommend to others?

Whilst there are a number of ways to always be developing, for me, first and foremost it’s important to always be developing a growth mindset. It sounds simple, but when the workload builds up, it can be easy to dismiss. I set time aside every week to focus on my own development, where I consult my personal development Kanban board to see where I can progress.

On the board I have a mixture of books, podcasts, courses and networking events. When it comes to learning and development, for me, the power of conversation is priceless. By attending industry events and speaking with other people in the space I learn and take on so much more.

Books are probably my second biggest source of development and whilst I read a number last year, the two that stand out for me are ‘Radical Candor’ by Kim Scott and ‘Quiet’ by Susan Cain - as a fairly natural extrovert, this book was so valuable in truly understanding the value of introverted people and how I can become a better leader.

What has been the most challenging aspect of your career in talent acquisition, especially when you were actively seeking work? How did you overcome it, and what advice would you offer to others facing similar hurdles?

The most challenging aspects of my career have been based around redundancy. Over the past couple of years there have been more than one redundancy periods in my most recent role where members of my team have had to go through that process. When you really care about becoming a good and genuine leader, these are moments that really hurt as these are colleagues, often friends, but most important fellow humans. Whilst I don’t think you truly ‘overcome’ these moments, what was important for me was to ensure that the process was as genuine and empathetic as I could possibly make it.

Most recently I have gone through redundancy myself and for me, what is really important is to focus on what is most important, for me that’s health, my friends/family, my wife and my beautiful puppy, Bella. I’m now in a space where I am truly excited about my next role within TA.

The recruiting world can be fast-paced and demanding. How do you strike a balance between your professional commitments and personal life? Are there specific routines or rituals you follow?

As a leader within TA, work life balance is top of the agenda for my team and I don’t feel you can talk the talk, if you don’t walk the walk. Part of this is getting to know what work life balance looks like for each team member and being flexible enough to make both elements work for them.

As a leader an example would be that if I send a slack/teams message after 5pm, whilst people are welcome to reply, a response isn’t expected that day. If someone needs to go to the dentist, doctors or other personal chores during the day, cool, I don’t need to know, just let me know you’ll be offline for a couple of hours. It’s all about trust.

My personal rituals are that I don’t check work emails/messages on a Saturday or a Sunday, I delete all my work apps when I’m away on holiday and I take no calls before 8am or after 8pm unless its an absolute necessity.

I love what I do, but when I’m on my deathbed, I won’t reminisce on my professional achievements, I’ll look back on the things that really matter, the people in my life.

As someone involved in talent acquisition, you've likely witnessed various technology and trend shifts. Which technologies or trends do you believe have had the most significant impact on the industry, and how have they influenced your role?

The most recent and without a doubt most impactful has been AI and Machine Learning. Whilst GenAI has impacted nearly all our lives in such a huge way, that I think it’ll be many years before we realise quite how big this current time period is for tech, it’s also dramatically impacted tech and the types of roles we hire for. No longer is it about just hiring Java Developers or Front End Developers, businesses often need their software engineers to have foundational knowledge of AI/ML, same for Data and Cloud Engineering.

For those entering the talent acquisition space or those looking to pivot within it, what's the one piece of practical advice you'd give to help them thrive, especially if they are actively job-seeking?

The first thing I’d say is, do it! So many of us fell into TA, I certainly did, but it’s given me countless experiences, opportunities to work with amazing people and have a hell of a lot of fun along the way.

When you are going through the job hunting process, remember what it feels like, remember how it feels to work with great recruiters and remember how it feels to be ghosted, rejected for no real reason and feel like just a number. Carry those experiences into your career and don’t let go of them. The recruiters that genuinely care, even when it’s easier not to, are in my experience the ones that go on to have the most success.

And when you are rejected for roles, keep going, bad moments pass, grit and determination stay with you.