Antonio West wins the role with some solid investigation and being generally amazing
Antonio West has worked in the print and sign industry for about four weeks, and he was already in the podcast booth at The Print Show. He brought his teammates from M-TWO Search, Matt Hanley and Nathan McLauchlan-Welsh, to tell the other side of the story.
Antonio had just finished a degree in international business management and was working at Waitrose, with no clear career plan, when his sister sent him a job advert.
“I had no clue what I wanted to do in my career. My sister randomly sent me a job application, I applied, and I got the job pretty easily. Because I’m amazing,” says Antonio humbly.
The other side of the story
Matt couldn’t let him get away with that. Although he does admit that the in-person meeting went better than anyone expected. “He thought outside the box and rang us up to find out more about us ahead of the interview, which showed how inquisitive he was. Before we’d even sat down, he offered to buy us a drink. That’s normally my job, and the fact he thought about other people straight away made me think this kid’s got something about him. Back at the office he made a comment about my coffee making, so we made him one, and afterwards he took his mug to the sink and washed it up. You can’t teach that,” says Matt.
It turns out Antonio had done his homework. The M-TWO website has an About Me section for each member of the team, and Matt’s mentions coffee. “I had a quick read before my interview, just so I’d know a bit more,” admits Antonio.
He also took a photo of his coffee and sent it to his mum, which is a sure-fire way to win Matt over.
Print is everywhere
Antonio is a big football fan, despite being a Man Utd fan, and his first few weeks have changed how he looks at the game. “I knew about the names on shirts, but I didn’t know about all the changing room graphics and everything else. It’s very eye opening. Even driving in today, you see the lorries. It’s not until you’re in it that you notice how much print is everywhere,” he says.
He’s also been recruiting for a Zünd operator. And Matt pointed out that Antonio got very excited the first time he saw a Zünd in real life.
Always on the phone
Antonio’s main job is the first round of screening. He finds candidates, talks them through the opportunity and pre-qualifies them before they go to Nathan or Matt.
“The biggest thing is just the willingness to pick up the phone. Some people have their guard up at first, but once you’re on the phone it’s not too bad. I’m quite a talker and I like talking to people, so that definitely helps,” explains Antonio.
With three of them on the phone in one office, it does get noisy. “Sometimes we have to leave the office because we’re all on the phone at the same time. But Antonio’s putting himself out there, asking questions and finding out what moving jobs means to people. You can’t do that over WhatsApp or email. Candidates know our clients are taking it seriously, and clients know we’ve done our due diligence,” says Matt.
Hiring Antonio also means a step up for Nathan, who now manages and mentors him. “Antonio coming in makes us realise we need to be better ourselves. Everybody’s going up a level,” adds Matt.
Nathan joined M-TWO a little over a year ago after two years with another recruiter. He says Antonio has taken to the job like a duck to water. Nathan concludes, “The main thing for us is not forcing it. Moving jobs is up there with having a baby, getting married and buying a house, so it has to be right for everyone. Antonio understands that, and he’s finding me some really good people.”