As 2024 draws to an end, I feel now is a great opportunity to reflect on our 10th year in business with Thompson & Terry Recruitment and my 34th on the planet.

Personally, it’s been a turbulent year. Starting off with paternity leave after welcoming my first child Olivia into the world who has absolutely filled our family with joy. Although, it hasn’t all been joy personally. Moving house this year was very stressful but mainly our poor Labrador, Archie, has certainly been through the wars too.

As I reflect on the personal challenges, the first feeling that comes to mind is sheer gratitude for my wonderfully supportive wife Rebecca and my whole family (including Archie, who has made a remarkable recovery). I am also thankful to have such a fantastic team at Thompson & Terry Recruitment who have not just kept the boat moving, but recorded our record year!

Bringing this onto business, yes there have been challenges being away from the business, but Thompson & Terry Recruitment has without a doubt become less reliant on me. If anything, 2024 has actually provided an opportunity for Aoife, Cara and Ella to really spread their wings and isn’t that what we are all striving for?

If this is you, I’d definitely recommend following a friend of mine, Alex Minchin.

The summer was definitely a celebration for us as our business turned 10 years old and we were announced as a finalist at The Oxfordshire Business Awards in the ‘SME of the Year’ category which was a real honour.

We were also really excited to launch phase one of our rebrand, after 10 years it was definitely time so thank you to Charlie and the team at Hook Digital for working wonders! 

It would be wrong for me to talk about 2024 without talking about the budget. Yes, it has slowed recruitment, especially graduate recruitment as the uncertainty came during peak graduate season, which given our Graduate Programme designed for SMEs is a big part of our business, was a pain.

BUT, what an opportunity to reflect, innovate and grow…

This comes onto 2025. What are our plans…

Well I certainly predict a surge in the employment market in Q1, we have a new offering we plan to launch in Q2 and we hope to make our biggest announcement yet in Q3.

The biggest lesson I learned this year is to be grateful – I am so lucky to have a wonderful family, team, clients, friends and the whole community around us.

Thank you.