About Us

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This is the secret sauce

Mark & Amanda are two of the most experienced senior recruitment and HR people you will find and have been leaders in recruitment and HR functions globally for a long time. THIS is the inside track. THIS is the peak behind the curtain. THIS is the recipe for the secret sauce for your career.

steve moreland

Chief Planning & Projects Officer

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Learned a lot about the job market

Mark is a great coach, resume writer and mentor and he is always happy to help. I've learned a lot about the job market with him in just a couple of sessions. He is also very honest, patient, knowledgable and friendly. I'd highly recommend his services to anyone looking to level up their career.

rayssa hagmann

Sustainability Engineer

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Straight talking, with a splash of humour along the way

A complete and full service, always direct / straight talking, with a splash of humour along the way, keeping you focused and motivated and the right tools in your job seeker toolkit. No matter what your situation (even if you haven’t started the journey yet), their experience is broad enough to be able to help. Brilliant.

PETER VUCIC

Asset & ICT Manager

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Don't wait any longer

I highly recommend their support. They taught me to perfect my job-hunt process, to keep records organised and see the job-hunt in an objective manner (especially during those days that seem there’s no progress). Don't wait any longer, drop them a line.

CHRIS VIZZUET

PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONTROLS

Who we are

Valentines Day 1996. A cold, rainy day in Devon, England. After a quick breakfast, we said our goodbyes and set off for work at separate recruitment agencies - and were both fired the same day!

Our crime?

The owners of both companies thought we were setting up our own agency to compete with them, so they hatched a plan to make sure it would never happen.

A little stressed to say the least, we went for a walk across the neighbouring fields to our house. Making our way back we saw a suited figure approaching us. Two minutes later we were served. Yes, amazingly, they had gone that far.

Pages and pages of restraints were produced to not only stop us setting up our own company, but also not work for any recruitment agency in the next 12 months in a 50 mile radius.

Unfortunately for them, their case was thrown out by the court because they had no evidence, just a hunch.

Now you may be thinking hey, there's no smoke without fire. We must have been considering this, right?

Wrong. We were in shock. It was the furthest thing from our minds. We were newly married, happy in our own little bubble of comfort, and earning decent money from our commissions because we were good at our jobs. In fact, we loved our jobs.

But they burst that bubble - so this is what we did.

Started a boutique recruitment agency

Launched from the spare bedroom of our rented cottage (yes, not exactly ideal) but successfully grew it over 13 years to reach an annual turnover of c$50m, franchised it, and sold it.

Created bespoke outplacement programmes

Consulted to diverse companies - football clubs, engineering firms, and broadcasters to name a few - providing innovative, duty of care redundancy programmes that enabled them to be employers of choice.

Provided HR & recruitment consultancy

Solved challenging organisational issues for companies in the UK, Europe, and Australia - and we are still hands on doing this today.

Founded Real Life Career Advice & the Hump Day Newsletter

Providing actionable advice and coaching people one on one and through online courses to help them land their dream jobs.

So Just know...

If someone or something has 'burst your bubble', it could be a good thing.

It may not feel like that now if you can't get a job, you've been made redundant or even fired, but it might just be the start of your own personal journey to success like it was for us.

Take heart and take stock.

And when you are ready to take action, we have tips, advice, coaching and courses to make it happen for you.

Welcome to Real Life Career Advice.

We're glad you found us.