Meet the Team: Josh, Our Commercial Director and Co-Founder

Meet the Team: Josh, Our Commercial Director and Co-Founder

Meet the Team: Josh, Our Commercial Director and Co-Founder

We spoke to Commercial Director and Co-Founder, Josh about his role at YourCode.

 

What is a Commercial Director? What do you do?

As Commercial Director, I oversee all of the sales, marketing and growth plans for the business including looking at go-to-market strategies for new countries and new industries, whilst helping to launch our new businesses in the group.

 

How did you come to be Commercial Director and Co-Founder at YourCode?

Seon and I worked together previously and we had a good relationship. I had a speaking contract to do public speaking so I couldn’t continue full-time work with my previous employer. We decided to set up YourCode. After a few months, we agreed that it was the route we wanted to take and I stopped doing as much public speaking while we aimed to grow the businesses out into different sectors and expand internationally.

 

I still do some public speaking now but not as much. My job was doing 1-2 gigs per week, speaking internationally, in football stadiums, prisons, schools, and businesses. It’s really fun but tiring and involves lots of travel away from home and family.

 

Public speaking helped me with my confidence and led to lots of connections. This is one of the reasons YourCode grew so quickly because business professionals from all over Europe came to speak to me during conferences and would ask about YourCode and what we were doing. We actually gained a few clients that way.

 

Are there any other experiences that shaped your career development other than qualifications and work experience?

My brother-in-law died when I was 16 and I was very motivated to provide for his son and make sure he had opportunities. I’ve always been driven though, and always had a vision of having my own business; even when I was younger, I did a lot of work independently, buying and selling for example.

 

What made you pursue recruitment?

I’ve always been a good communicator and I liked the fact that there were possibilities to grow at my own pace. In a lot of careers, it takes a long time to get to where you want to be whereas in the recruitment sector if you’re good and you work hard, you can get promoted quite quickly.

 

I liked the idea of moving to the tech sector because I’ve always been interested in tech. I took a course in college on emerging technology and that’s where my interest and knowledge grew.

 

What advice would you give to someone who has aspirations to set up their own business?

Make a plan but don’t overthink it too much. Make sure you’ve got enough funding to get you through tough times and expect the unexpected.

 

What advice would you give someone interested in a career in recruitment?

It’s one of the best careers that you can have at the start of your career because you gain skills in business, sales, marketing, customer relations, relationship management, finance, negotiations, and advertising to name a few. You also build a network of people around you that, providing you do a good job for them, will stay with you for a long time and can be really valuable in your future career.

 

What advice would you give someone interested in a career in tech?

Technology is probably the fastest growing sector. It’s very interesting and there are loads of possibilities. Everything is moving forward with tech, you won’t be short of a job. It’s a chance to be part of building the future.

 

How have you developed in the role?

I’ve developed international business skills that I didn’t have experience in before starting YourCode; I’ve gained an understanding of different businesses and business cultures. I’ve built an international team and driven a flexible working culture even before the pandemic hit.

 

What key skills are essential in your position?

Negotiation, relationship management, sales, marketing and creativity.

 

What makes YourConsultancy Group a great place to work? Why is it different?

YCG is a great place to work because we offer exceptional working environments including flexible working. There are huge opportunities for growth and expansion given the continued expansion of the business. We offer training and development programs including funded degrees and the ability to work remotely from any location in the world. If you work at YCG you will be working for a leadership team that genuinely cares about its people and wants the best for their careers.

 

Why is culture important to you?

Culture is important to me because I understand what it’s like to work in an environment where that culture isn’t there and people are working towards different goals. A good culture presents an opportunity to achieve together and build a great business.

 

What impresses you most about your employees?

Their ability to perform under pressure within an ever-growing and developing environment. Working as part of an ever-developing company is not easy, so I’m proud of our successes as a group.

 

Can you describe a typical day in the office?

My work day starts at home usually with calls to our customers in eastern Europe at around 7.30 am. Then I’ll go into the office and have a quick catch-up with commercial teams before embarking on strategic meetings to look at expansion and developing relationships with clients. During the afternoon, I typically have meetings with new customers. From 4 pm UK time, I’ll focus on business with the US, overseeing client development and a new go-to-market strategy for the west coast.

 

What projects are you most proud of?

I take great pride in all projects no matter how big and we treat all clients with integrity throughout the whole process.

 

A notable project, however, was an initial short-term piece for Dover Corporation, a $7 billion engineering company headquartered in North America who were expanding into Europe with its fueling devices. We partnered with them on a 3-month contract which ended up extending to over two and a half years to the stage that we have a continued relationship with the organisation. 

 

We performed a key role in the expansion of their offices in Krakow taking complete ownership of the technical recruitment of software developers, embedded engineers, automation engineers and front-end developers. Our work was so highly commended that we were then given the contract for Sweden, Belgium and parts of the UK. This was all within the first year of the company and it’s something that we’re very proud of.

 

What does the future hold for the world of tech recruitment?

Innovation, collaboration, and labour market challenges due to a shortage of tech talent vs demand.

 

What exciting things are on the horizon for YourCode?

Continued expansion into wider European markets; a new business unit launching in North America and new team members coming soon!