Career Journeys in Talent Acquisition: Amy Cotterill

Thanks for reading! This series is designed to shine a spotlight on Talent Acquisition professionals and highlight their career journeys and learnings so far. Today, we're joined by Amy Cotterill. If you'd like to be next, please reach out to a TTC Community Manager.

Introduce yourself in one sentence:

Amy is a Talent Acquisition and People & Culture specialist with more than ten years in the industry, including building the hiring and people functions at a scaling SaaS HR tech business. For the last two years, she’s been running her own coaching business supporting senior professionals through leadership and career transitions.

Can you walk us through the key milestones in your career in the talent acquisition space? What were some pivotal moments or decisions that shaped your journey?

The biggest milestone for me was the opportunity to build out talent acquisition from scratch at a scaling SaaS HR tech business. It meant centralising everything, setting up the processes, leading it and being hands on and executing it. Out of that came bringing agency dependency down from 90% to 4%. From there it grew into People and Culture, where I built employee engagement and retention strategies across the business, where none of that existed before. Building all of that was hugely fulfilling.

In this rapidly evolving industry, what strategies or practices have you adopted to continuously enhance your skills and stay ahead of the curve? Do you have any resources or learning methods you'd recommend to others?

For me it's been getting involved in the community in the talent and people space. I've leaned on that so much over the years and made some really strong friendships outside of work through it. It's something I'm finding valuable again now I'm coming back into the industry, going to networking events, meeting people, having conversations about what's changing and what's working. So my advice is get stuck in and stay active in networking groups and communities like TTC.

What has been the most challenging aspect of your career in talent acquisition, especially when you were actively seeking work? How did you overcome it, and what advice would you offer to others facing similar hurdles?

Career-wise, the toughest stretch was during COVID with hiring freezes and team changes. The day to day shifted a lot, which felt quite worrying, but it allowed me to work on the projects and strategy I'd not had space for before. So I guess it’s seeing the opportunity given to you which might not seem so obvious at first.

When it comes to actively seeking work, it's just a tough market right now. It's not only the automated rejection emails, it's that even a warm introduction can go suddenly quiet, which can feel quite personal and disheartening. It feeds into self-doubt if you let it. I personally try to keep up the habits and rituals that keep me grounded so I can remain resilient, and remembering your worth isn't tied to a knock-back from a hard market.

The recruiting world can be fast-paced and demanding. How do you strike a balance between your professional commitments and personal life? Are there specific routines or rituals you follow?

Yoga plays quite a big role in my personal life, I practice and teach it. I especially love teaching yin yoga, which is a really slow practice, so when everything around you is fast-paced it helps you slow right down. I love sharing that and holding space for others too. Breathwork goes hand in hand with that. And being out in nature is really important for me too. I'm a real nature lover, I think from living in Australia for ten years and then more recently I’ve been living on the Red Sea in Egypt for the last couple of years. Whether it's a walk in the woods, a hike up a mountain or a swim (or freediving) in the sea, that really helps me to rebalance and recentre.

As someone involved in talent acquisition, you've likely witnessed various technology and trend shifts. Which technologies or trends do you believe have had the most significant impact on the industry, and how have they influenced your role?

Working in HR tech for five years, I got really exposed to how technology can impact the industry, your role and the business when it's used in the right way. The trend that's made the most difference for me is technology taking on a lot of the admin and transactional side of hiring. In terms of how that's influenced my role, what I've found is that it doesn't replace the human side of what we do. It actually gives you more time in what is a people to people role to build relationships, to work with hiring managers, and candidate experience. Alongside that, being able to collect more data and stats has had a similar impact, it gives you more insight to make better, more informed decisions.

For those entering the talent acquisition space or those looking to pivot within it, what's the one piece of practical advice you'd give to help them thrive, especially if they are actively job-seeking?

The one piece of advice I'd give is to get stuck into the community. We all know you're far more likely to land your next role through someone you know than going in cold off an application. Beyond that, you learn so much from others in your industry, and there's real reassurance in seeing everyone's in the same boat, asking the same questions and sharing what's worked for them. So whether you're already in a role or looking to pivot in, it's about building your network within it.

You can also build real friendships from these connections. Someone once introduced me to a person in the same role at a different tech company, just a 'you two should connect.' Five years on she's become a close friend, and last year we road tripped round Jordan together. Some of the strongest friendships I've made have come out of these communities.