Recruitment Associate

Stanley Cowton International; Basingstoke; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 45,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Mentorship from founders

Office in Basingstoke

Exposure to senior-level searches

Travel opportunities to US/Europe

Fully paid trips

Free coffee

Clear career path to Recruitment

Job summary

Stanley Cowton International in Basingstoke is seeking an entry level Talent & Business Development Associate. The role is phone-based, focused on engaging candidates and generating new business for live opportunities.

Expectations are KPI-driven with daily and weekly targets. You will work evenings to reach US time zones, with potential Europe shifts as the business grows. Mentorship from founders and a clear path to a 360 Recruitment Consultant role are offered.

Qualifications

• Not hiring on experience; mindset matters.
• Excellent phone confidence and rapport within the first 30 seconds.
• Relentless work ethic and personal accountability.
• Resilience to bounce back after a tough day on calls.
• Curiosity to learn a technical market and speak credibly with senior professionals.
• Strong organisational skills and IT proficiency with CRM, LinkedIn, and Microsoft 365.

Responsibilities

• Engage senior professionals by phone, capturing attention quickly and booking them with our consultants.
• Call hiring managers, open doors, and set up calls for live searches.
• Focus on US-based calls initially, with potential shift to Europe as the business grows.
• Maintain high performance on daily/weekly call targets and activity metrics.

Job description

Talent & Business Development Associate (Entry Level)

basic salary + commission

Regular evening working until 8pm for US calling

No recruitment experience required

This is not a safe hire.

This is not a 9 to 5.

This is not for everyone.

Stanley Cowton International is a small, founder-led search firm working across the GMP and Chemical sectors in Europe and North America. We work on complex, high-value, confidential searches, and we are growing quickly, but carefully.

We're looking for someone at the start of their recruitment career who wants more than a job. We want someone who wants to change their life through hard work, ownership, and results.

The role

This is a fully phone-based role, and it's the engine room of the business. You'll spend your day on the phone doing two things.

• Engaging candidates. You'll call senior professionals, get their attention quickly, hold an intelligent conversation, and book them in with one of our consultants about live opportunities.
• Generating business. You'll call hiring managers, open doors, and set up calls that our consultants turn into new searches.

Right now most of your calls will go into the US, so you'll often be working until 8pm to reach people when they're at their desks. That focus could shift towards Europe over time, so you'll need to be comfortable with a working day that moves with the business.

The expectations

This role runs on KPIs, and they're demanding. You'll have daily and weekly targets for calls made, conversations held, and calls booked, and you'll be measured against them every week. Our team puts in the time, but this isn't about hours. It's about performance. If you like knowing exactly where you stand and being rewarded for hitting the numbers, you'll enjoy that. If targets make you uncomfortable, this isn't the role for you.

What we're looking for

We are not hiring on experience. We are hiring on mindset.

You will show:

• Confidence on the phone and the ability to build rapport in the first 30 seconds
• Relentless work ethic and personal accountability
• Resilience when a day of calls doesn't go your way, and the drive to go again tomorrow
• Curiosity to learn a technical market and talk credibly with senior people in it
• Strong organisation and IT skills, including comfort with CRM systems, LinkedIn, and Microsoft 365

Many of the people who thrive here have competed seriously at something, whether that's sport, academics, sales, or another pursuit where results matter and excuses don't. We value that edge, whatever form it comes in.

What's in it for you

• A basic salary plus commission on placements and new business that come from the calls you generate
• Close mentorship from founders with deep market experience, in a great small office in Basingstoke that works as a real incubator for the right person to learn fast
• Exposure to senior-level searches and global clients from day one
• Potential travel across the US and Europe to attend industry events
• Fully paid company trips away, with the destination set by how well the business performs
• Free coffee and free parking. What more could you want?
• A clear path into a full 360 Recruitment Consultant role for those who earn it

This is not a holiday camp, though. The rewards are there because performance and results come first, and the people who deliver them are the ones who share in them.

Final word

We are deliberately selective. We would rather leave the seat empty than hire the wrong person.

If you're hungry, disciplined, and ready to put serious energy behind your ambitions, we'd like to hear from you.