This month, Recruiment Grapevine charts the career journey of Ricky Martin, Founder and Managing Director at Hyper Recruitment Solutions

2003 – 2006

Biochemistry with Medical Biochemistry

Cardiff University

I am a biochemist, I have got a degree in biochemistry. The reason my career has worked well in recruitment, and the reason my business has worked well, is that I have always been interested in the sciences. So, I recruit for something that I am genuinely passionate about.

My advice to anyone considering a career in recruitment is firstly to make sure that they go into recruiting for the right reasons. They need to be truly interested in it.  

2006 – 2012

Recruitment Team Leader – Science Department

I took the job not knowing it was in recruitment to start with, but within six months I realised what an amazing industry it is when it’s done well. Working there and learning what good standards look like really inspired me to do more in the recruitment industry. They were very much an engineering recruitment company and I was a bolt on addition to their science brand.

I just love exploring new places. America, South East Asia, Europe; I’ll go anywhere to understand more about the world.  

2012 – 2012

Winner

The Apprentice

It was the opportunity to get some capital to put behind the business I wanted to set up. The Apprentice enabled me to set up Hyper Recruitment Solutions more quickly and with greater confidence; my business partner, Lord Alan Sugar, added the pressure that every good sales person needs and put me in an environment in which I had to push myself.

2014 – 2017

Vice Chair of the Life Sciences Committee

Part of the reason I take part in the Life Science Committee is to upskill and further professionalise other recruiters in my space. That was always my pledge going in: can I improve the standards of recruitment and the perception of recruitment? It’s helping recruiters and knowing that I have supported people going in to this sector that I like.

2017 – present

Chair of the UK Life Sciences Committee

My strong opinion is that you can’t change Brexit so you have got to just deal with it. So, we run events where we have been able to give people ideas, bring in employment experts to talk about what they can and can't be saying and how they can help further support people. We have been able to deliver messages to the recruitment industry and the life sciences sector to help them with their industry.

I like finding opportunities in the country to be outdoors such as playing sports and going on holiday. Anything to take myself out of business mode and give me the sanctuary of the real world around me. 

2012 – Present

Founder and Managing Director

I believe that a lot of recruitment is led by money - whether that be sales, greed or filling loads of jobs. I felt that by creating Hyper Recruitment Solutions, I would be able to give clients a company that would actually support the industry in a way that it needed to be supported. Fortunately, six years on, my gut feeling of doing so has been proven correct.