Women in Industry #6: Emily Coates

Diversity and inclusivity are vital for the industry's growth, acknowledging the crucial importance of promoting gender diversity and inclusivity.

Hosted by Marie Tyler and powered by OrangeDoor, in partnership with IPSA and DARE - the Women In Industry series shines a spotlight on the journeys, perspectives and impact of women across the industry.

Episode 5: Emily Coates – Tech Recruits

Vision, Focus, and Making It Happen

A conversation about the power of setting clear goals, backed by real-life examples, from turning a vision board into reality to achieving major personal milestones, and how focus, intention, and self-belief can shape both career and life direction.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Okay. First of all, we just talked about our footwear. That's quite important. I've been proudly I've been proudly wearing very high pink stilettos uh during this event. I am not wearing them today.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

No, me neither. I had them on yesterday and I managed the whole day, but today it's the trainer day.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

100%. Day three, trainers. Do you know what I'd say, oh why didn't I do it every day? But I I do like and you're tall as well. I like being tall. Why not take a couple of extra?

SPEAKER_01 0:47

I didn't do that too, yeah. Stand out and you know, be me. I'm taller than everyone in here, but I don't really am I.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

That's how it should be, 100%. Um so the voice that you're hearing right now is the lovely Emily.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

How are you doing? Yes, I'm good, thank you. Really good. Happy days.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

So I did say to um uh a lot of the on the posts that I was doing before this that there might be a few bonus interviews, and this is one of those bonus interviews. So thank you very much for finding the time. This one's a little bit quieter than the other ones because we're right at the beginning, in fact, right before the show actually opens, which also, by the way, might mean oh no, I think we'll be alright. The announcement hopefully won't come until right near the end so that they'll say the show is now open. Everyone's piling in soon. Do you like that? I feel very husky today. Uh anyway, Emily. Yes, your story is an inspirational one. I've been very lucky to have met you through another venture, the Dare Venture. Um, and through that and a competition that you entered into meant that we had another chance to kind of go another layer deep and understand that that wasn't just a fluke. Something was supposed to happen, like Destiny took a course. Um, but take us back, tell us uh what you're comfortable sharing around, I suppose, the the relevance of the journey that's got you to where you are today and steps you've taken.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Thank you, yeah. So my business is Tech Recruit, Here to Connect, which is a recruitment business in the security industry, um, which I've had now for just over a couple of years, which has been going really, really well. Um but yeah, going back to the story of the um the DARE competition, so uh before I set the business up uh two years ago I created a vision board uh about um all the things I wanted to achieve as part of um being a success in the business that I have. Um and one of those images was um this hot air balloon over Kappodokyo in Turkey. Um something that I've always wanted to do. Um so the vision board is really important to me to have that clear vision direction as to where I'm going and why I'm doing it for. Um and yeah, I entered the competition that you had with Dare. Um and I think it was something along the lines of um magic happens outside of your comfort zone. Yes. So that is really like the bridge I feel, like between putting a vision out there, something that you want to achieve, and then actually achieving it, you have to put like a step, an action in, and that action for me was entering your competition um and winning this there. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Which we're really pleased you won. And uh, if you haven't seen the um the photos and the video that she took, it is amazing. Go and check it out. You've got it on your LinkedIn as well, haven't you? Brilliant. So that is really cool, but going back a bit more around this vision board, was this a printed? Did you cut things out, stick it in? Was it digital things?

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Yeah, I use Canva and I put on there, and it's also on my screen saver on my phone as well, so I can see it all the time. So it has uh Kappa Dokia on there, it has a few other things as well, such as um New York, um doing a safari, um, and all like the big like life experiences that I want to achieve. So um yeah, it's really important to me to have that as a vision to kind of like motivate me and inspire me to do to do what I do. I've always wanted to be a success. Uh I was telling you earlier, so my my grandfather, he was a um a famous opera singer, Donald Adams. Um and he inspired me. No, I can't sing though. I'd love to, I'd love to sing. You can sing.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

We could definitely do a karaoke.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Yeah, do that. Um yeah, he was amazing and he's he travelled the world. And um if he wasn't going to be a singer, he he was going to go into medicine and be a surgeon. And um Wow, extreme. Yeah, that was another kind of place I might have taken, yeah. So um throughout my my education and my schooling, like I um I was drawn to science and medicine, and I got a place in medical school. I was like step dead set on this was going to be my career, my life, um, to become a doctor. But I needed all A's, A level. Right. Um got a place, which is hard to get in itself, but I needed all A's and I got all B's. I won't say R, but that's awesome. But it was okay, yeah, but obviously didn't get my place into medical school. Um, and friends around me did, so I think that probably fuelled me quite a little bit at the time. And I'm glad that I haven't gone down that route now because rather than save other lives, I I'm saving my own life in a sense, like I'm much happier in the career that I have now, and you have to distrust the process. Like, if things don't work out, there's a reason why you're redirected.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

You say you're you're not saving lives, but actually you are uh helping lives because you literally help people to place them into careers and and hunt out talent, so you're still very much into lives, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

It is rewarding because I do like to help people, so make that part of wanting to become a doctor, I guess. So being that you know, that um advisory, that consultant. So I'm still very much doing that, and it is rewarding. Yeah and you are changing lives essentially. People are so grateful. Um thank you so much. You know, it really uh just brilliant, you know. For whatever reason it might be, they're nearer to their family, um, you know, it could be life-changing, you know, salary increase or whatever it might be. Um it's great when you get that feedback. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

You are uh another one who's smashing it on LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Oh, thanks.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

I I follow your staff, you're great. You you the video content as well. I really need to up my game on the video, but I just I look at I look at the video icon.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Sometimes, yeah, um we do them, sometimes we don't, yeah. Yeah, it's like yeah, trying to be consistent with it, but not do it all the time and be in each up in people's faces too much. Yes, but enough to know where I am so that if they need my help, they um yeah, they know where I am.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

I suspect as well with your business, it's a competitive market, and by you having your own personal brand that you've got online, um I think for me it looks as though I mean if I was looking for a role, you'd be the first person I would come to, or if I knew somebody else that was, because I would have that trust and belief in you that it's not just oh here's a you know, well there's a list or there's a link. Like you put that extra effort into actually trying to pair up the right people. Like we've had conversations about different things before where you said, Oh, I know about this thing, and you know, like there's a belief in the outcome.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Yeah, that is really important, isn't it? And getting across on LinkedIn, like how I am, you know, brings across, you know, like how genuine I am, how I want to help, um, hopefully allows people to trust that they can reach out to me and like I would I would help them.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Um you're a manifester of good things. You took action and and did what you did and it brought us together, which I'm very grateful for. You are smashing it on LinkedIn. What is next or what's on the agenda now?

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yeah, so um going back to so obviously doing the hot air balloon challenge and winning that was was a big big deal because I had had it on the vision board um and then when it actually came to life, it was all part of this like dream to reality campaign that I've been promoting. So not just obviously with this but with people wanting dream careers and then that becoming a reality. Um but it really was proof and evidence that um my vision was becoming a reality and was a reality, and like that really like sunk in then. Um and so since then I I've gone to New York and done another on the list, um, which was also my son's dream. Oh and one of the best trips I've ever done as well, like with him, it was such an experience. Of course she is, all the things and um we've also got our our trip booked in July to Africa, we're doing the safari. Oh my god. So lies for living, right? Wow. Um I'm so excited about yeah. This is like a yeah, last year Cappadocia was the highlight. This year it's the safari.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

And Cappadocia was like a a you time moment, wasn't it? Like very much like as you say, but springboards, all these other things. I love that you did New York with your son and Africa is gonna be mind-blowing. I've never done anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

It's quite scary, but I think it will be yeah, something else, won't it? The like the experience of seeing the animals in the wild and um doing something a bit different like that, yeah, with him as well. Always visioned that I would go on this trip with with my son. I always had had it in my mind that one day I will go, but I will go with with him, so he gets to experience that as well. Um, which is really strange because yeah, like I have been in in relationships, you know, you'd think that it would be with them, but yeah, but no, I'm all what better relationship with your own flesh of the body. To go with him, yeah, is yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

You made a little person.

unknown 9:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

It's good in it. I've made people made people, it's quite nice. Um, so we're on the Women in Industry podcast. Yeah. How do you feel being a women and woman in this industry?

SPEAKER_01 9:44

I feel good, yeah. I feel empowered. I feel like, you know, it's taken bravery to get here to have my own business. It took a brave face to you know walk into the show yesterday because I am on my own as a woman, and it is very male-heavy, isn't it? The industry. Getting better though. There is a support network though, we're not on our own, you know, the likes of yourselves and Dare. There's a community, there's other women that support, but also the men as well. Don't forget the men are very supportive of women in the industry. Um I think.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

This just traditionally found its way that way, didn't it? But I don't think it was necessarily that men were stopping women coming in. No. There's sort of this bigger um opportunity for us as an industry to seek out ex not just women but also diverse talent generally to come in and say, Do you know what a security industry is actually a pretty good one to be in, and there's there's a lot of career opportunity within.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

There is a lot of opportunity, and people have been so so kind as well. Like since having my own business, like they really want to help. Um, yesterday um I met with um some new clients, which is really nice, and they said we really want to work with you, Emily, because we've seen your journey and how you set this business up on your own, and we're doing the same, and we want to help you, uh, and you to help, you know, us. So it's kind of like that mutual understanding, and um yeah, I'm really grateful for that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

So what were you doing before you had your own business?

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Well, I was working, I was employed, so um, so yeah, when I I just didn't go to medical school, did a slightly different degree in biomedical science, and then came out of that. Um I didn't want to study for another four years, so I went into uh recruitment and and sales, had to prove myself in sales first, yeah, then got into recruitment and I've done various different recruitment roles in IT, um, became a mum. I did have my own business before in IT recruitment, but that was on a lot smaller scale. Right. Became a mum. I did a bit of aloe vera. That's you too. Brilliant. Um that was good fun. Then I got back into my career, back into recruitment um and found the security industry, which I didn't realise it was security, I thought it was IT. But then they did IT and security.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Um IT kind of transitioned you in a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

My emblem, yeah, like how like in demand the industry is for people. So I feel really grateful to be in the position where you know my skills sort of connecting people are needed because of the demand that's that's there.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

So at the or how quickly did it like was it like you were in and then there was just a great demand, or has it taken time to build that?

SPEAKER_01 12:17

And and I suppose you probably have clients that have just stuck with you over time, or like how does it work, like the mix of your your clientele and and um consistency versus one-offs or I guess over time, yeah, over period of sort of eight, nine years really, like starting out as a as a resource, or sort of just focusing on candidates and speaking to them, understanding them, getting to know them, um, and having certain conversations where you relate to people and and then when you're ringing them maybe a year or two years, three years down the line, they still remember you, you know, it's like being memorable um and like and caring and that kind of thing. But meeting people in person is really important. That's that helps people remember you coming to events like this. That was going to be my next question, is like how important is this event? Yeah, really important. It is like like this and the Foreign Security Excellence Awards are the are the two ones I I definitely have to go to. It's um yeah, really important.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

Everyone's here, so that's why I've come for the all three days. Networking, um I think especially in this uh digital world that we're living in now, although it's great because like with LinkedIn and other things, there's ways to, I suppose, ripple effect what's happened, but actually getting in person and talking to someone like this and doing it in real life.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

You connect with them better, don't you? You trust them, um people want want that in that in-person contact, don't they? Um we do a lot behind the screen, don't we? So we have to and it yeah, to be conscious that we need to step out away from that. 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Um, so this um at the NEC and so on, and then the London one, because there's one at the end of the year as well. You said you go to this one and security for our excellence awards, but um I might just start tapping up now to be like, I'm going to another one. Do you want to just because unlike you now that you're on your own and you're right, and it and it is nice to go like have a bit of a plan, but somewhere where you can buddy up and go, right, I'm gonna do that when you do that, right? Right, and then we'll meet for coffee later and see. We should start doing a little bit of that, I think. I'm not from the road.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

When you come in today to the event um in Birmingham, I did realise that perhaps now I need to be even braver now and not just be all about me in the business and expand and grow. So this is at the next uh phase of the business to hire somebody looking for a recruitment resource uh coordinator. Put it here first. Yes, it's happening. Wow and it is quite scary because I have quite enjoyed like being running it on. It's just too much. But no, I haven't. I came here and I thought, do you know what? Wouldn't it be great if I had people around me that were all attending this together as a business? And there's so much opportunity with tech recruits to have different consultants doing different technical recruitment, um, you know, different arms to it. Um so yeah, the opportunity's there. Um now it's about being brave and and doing it.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

One last thing that I'd like to ask you because I've seen a consistent thread with some other conversations that I've had around the skills gap. Um, there's a lot available for engineers, um, and that's with the frontline officers, you know, SII, SIA and other things, you know, certifications, apprenticeships, fantastic. Um do you think that there's a space for Tech Recruit to, and maybe you already do this, to collaborate with some of these upskilling partners that perhaps you might have a client that says, actually we're looking for XYZ, uh, and there might just be these these trends of needs, and you think, well, if you were to that is is that's a really good um that's a really good idea, actually.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

I mean, I work quite closely with um recommending uh skills for security. Yes. So for anyone that is more apprentice level, entry-level, um I would always say speak to skills for security, um they offer you know the best apprenticeship programs um across many different businesses, so but they also have a platform called Skills for uh I think it's Skills on Demand, which is a training platform to train engineers. But we talked about even just that basic training for people that are coming into any job role in like office-based job role, and with me hiring somebody, um where I've done this before with hiring people from previous companies, I do all the training on this is the industry, these are the types of job roles, these are the types of systems. Um, but yeah, using it. Maybe we should record you doing that.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Yeah, maybe. Because if you're already having those conversations, and also, in fact, thinking out loud, um, definitely we because we need to do a campaign outside, like we need to do more as an entire industry to attract fresh talent in. And you're already proactively seeking out individuals anyway, and you're doing that basically you're doing what I think we need, that that bit in the middle that's like this is what it is, this is so I wonder if the if uh and maybe Skills for Security might be happy to do something with you on it, but it actually kind of makes a lot of sense because what we're doing here, we're recruiting that that actually is what the campaign is. We're not just showing off in industry, we're saying come and join our industry. Well, how should they do that? Okay, they need to learn about it, but then what's the next step? They need to find the right employment, and maybe you're the key to that. So I feel like understanding what it's all about, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yeah, people don't really know. I never knew about the security industry growing up.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Everyone says it, oh kind of a mistake, I fell into it, uh, you know, and then they get there and they're like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

You don't realise like how big it is as well.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

And when you're in, yeah, typically you stay in. They joke about it being the ancestral industry because it's like, oh, I've been, you know, I've worked at what four or five different companies within the industry at some point. Um, but you all still know, you know, like walking through here, it's I always joke like coming in, like on the first day when I was saying to um Vex and Katie at Dare, I said uh they were like, why don't you wear your flax in and then put the heels on when you get to the thing? I went, Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. This is like a runway moment. I'm like, I'm coming in like Marie is here, I've arrived. Yeah, and I want to say hi to everyone. I'm not gonna keep it.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Although now I don't actually have a choice of trainers yesterday, but not today, not today. Not at all. Well it is everywhere, obviously. Like, so you you only got to when I was in a hotel like High Rise Hotel in London, yes, at night, and when it's all lit up, you've only got to look at that and realise like it is it is everywhere, security systems, yes, you know, in all the buildings and all the different you know environment sites, safety access, it's like big. Yeah, it's huge.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

Yeah, so anyway, it's important, it's awesome. Uh the more diverse, the better. It's gonna be a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Thank you so much for the um the competition with. Come on.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

And FMD, we should put a shout out to the FMD, yeah. Yeah, she funded the prize as well. So thank you, Maxine.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Yeah, really thankful for that.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Um thank you, more importantly. Uh this is I mean, we've we we've only really started to get to know each other like over these past few months, but I can see this being like this is for everyone.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Yeah, yeah, thank you, yeah, it's been great. Thank you.