Barbara Kolosinska

26 years. How do you compress more than a quarter of a century into one blog? Well, C&amp;M have reached our huge 26th birthday (the one everyone celebrates, right?) and we thought we'd celebrate by highlighting the six things that have really made us who we are today. So&hellip;where to start?
It's all about the team
Ok, we&rsquo;ll start with the obvious. It's a clich&eacute; but it's true &ndash; we're nothing without <a href="/about-us/">our team</a>. Like all companies we've made mistakes along the way (we'll come on to that very shortly), but our staff here at C&amp;M are fantastic and we couldn't possibly write this article without thanking them. Our retention rate of staff is excellent, with many having been here for more than 10, 15 or 20 years &ndash; and some have even gone on to successfully start their own recruitment businesses as well as securing very senior roles within the industry too.
Most of our staff actually applied as candidates looking for travel jobs, so we explained the benefits of working in travel recruitment and (thankfully!) many of them started a hugely rewarding new career path.
Trying to get too big too soon
But like so many companies, our egos probably got the better of us.
We were up to 50 staff at our largest point, and we had five offices in London, Manchester, Surrey, Brighton and Birmingham. Our temps market was very big in the early days too with over 200 temps working for us.
Opening these offices came at a huge, huge cost. And in hindsight, our egos and growth plans got in the way of thinking about what was actually fundamental in running a business. Because we were quite new to it, we didn't realise the full cost of keeping all of these offices. Also, we took on too many staff &ndash; and we held on to some of them for too long simply because we wanted the right number of bums on seats!
As well as opening new offices, we looked at expanding into new divisions related to travel. Some have been very successful, such as Evolve Hospitality, which started as a division of C&amp;M before becoming a thriving hospitality and events recruitment business in its own entity. But many of our other expansion plans didn&rsquo;t go quite as well!
You have to try these things and you have to take risks, but we were too happy to take the big risks. That's a lesson learned. Don't grow too quickly just because you think it is the right thing to do. Big isn't always best. We were na&iuml;ve, but God we had some fun along the way.
Celebrating in style
We believe massively in looking after our staff and we have a very good benefits programme, but we also love to do incentives. We've been to the F1 at Silverstone, tennis at the O2, horse racing at Ascot, white water rafting and too many posh restaurants to mention. And we also really enjoy taking part in charity events together &ndash; including Tough Mudders, triathlons, London to Brighton cycling races, a 100-mile nighttime bike ride for Rubens Retreat&hellip;and even an ultra-marathon for Issy's Silver Linings!
But nothing beats an overseas incentive trip with the whole team. We've been to all sorts of destinations from Palma and Marbella to Iceland and skiing in the Alps, but it's hard to think of a better one than last year's trip to Marrakech, which was outstanding.
The pandemic was hugely challenging in terms of staffing and ensuring we survived (before we could even think of thriving again) - so to get the whole team together in Marrakech and celebrate what we'd all been through was truly special. The early morning hot air balloon ride over the Atlas Mountains is something none of us will ever forget.
Global events
Talking of the pandemic, it would be impossible to recite the big events of the last 26 years without mentioning Covid, 9/11 and the recession of 2008/09.
When 9/11 happened, we were sitting in our office in the Barbican, all the phones stopped ringing, and we all just thought what the hell has happened? So everyone gathered around my computer and we watched it play out before our eyes. We just didn't know what would be around the corner. From a business point of view, it led to many retractions of offers, and candidates accepting roles and then having their job offers withdrawn. But after two months, thankfully it picked up quickly.
Of course, the biggest challenge that we've ever faced as a business was the pandemic. We've written about this before, but let's just say it took a huge amount of effort to keep C&amp;M going, and there were many, MANY points where we thought we wouldn't make it. We scaled back, cut down on our overheads, got rid of our offices and somehow we got through it with hard work, quick business decisions and managing the cash.
We had to make redundancies after all of these events. As a business owner, that is something that's very difficult to do. When you have good people in the business and you're forced to make them redundant, it's a really difficult decision to make. But it has to be made and it has to be made quickly in order to save the business. Luckily on all three occasions, we managed to bring some of these employees back, which we're very proud of.
Our first big night out
In terms of highlights, one of the initial things that comes to mind is the first award we ever won. It was at the Travel Bulletin Awards where we were named Best Recruitment Consultancy &ndash; and it was a hell of a night! That was in the early days, when we'd only existed for a few years. It was our first ever nomination, so we hired a table, took some clients with us (who also won!) and we were all dressed in our black tie finest. I've got great memories of it and it was an amazing feeling - we were all so proud.
Winning our first ever award made it such a memorable night and then it all rocketed from there and we ended up winning awards at TTG, Travel Weekly, TravelMole, The British Travel Awards, Sunday Times' Best Businesses to Work For and others. A really personal one for me was the AWTE 2021 Business Impact Award, which was a true honour.
Filing cabinets and roller indexes
Looking back, it's crazy to think how much has changed since we started. Some of the main <a href="/jobs/">travel roles that we recruit for</a> now, didn't even exist back in 1998! Yes, lots of those old positions are still around &ndash; <a href="/jobs/#/business-travel-consultant-team-leader-manager">Business Travel Consultants</a>, <a href="/jobs/#/leisure-travel-consultant-reservations">Reservations Agents</a> etc &ndash; but there are so many other vital travel role these days, and that's mainly because technology has advanced. There is now many more ecommerce and <a href="/jobs/#/marketing-pr">digital roles</a>, and specific online skillsets that are now required by lots of companies.
And the emergence of job boards and other technologies means the way we recruit has changed hugely too. Back when I started, we were on the phone 80 per cent of the time. I remember we used to work with filing cabinets and roller indexes with CVs in them - and then we used to fax CVs to clients!&nbsp;
Things have changed a lot in 26 years. We've had marriages and babies from C&amp;M staff &ndash; and we've made friends for life, even with the people who have left us and moved on.
Here's to the next 26.
By Barbara Kolosinska, Managing Director at C&amp;M Travel Recruitment

We've reached our 26th birthday and we're celebrating by highlighting the six things that made us who we are today

C&M is 26! Here's the 6 events that made us who we are

The headline figure is that wages for <a href="../../../../../jobs/">new travel jobs</a> are up by 11.4 per cent since last year and by 19.1 per cent since before the pandemic &ndash; which is great news! Everyone's benefitting and we're all now earning significantly more, right? Not quite.
For those in standard travel jobs (those paying less than &pound;40,000), pay increased by a very healthy 16.1 per cent between 2019 and 2022. But in the past year, it&rsquo;s risen by just 3.6 per cent &ndash; less than the rate of inflation.
And for those in junior travel jobs (those paying up to &pound;22,000), pay has increased by just 1.9 per cent so far in 2023. Those in <a href="../../../../../jobs/#/26-000-34-999">mid-level travel roles </a>(those paying between &pound;22,001 and &pound;29,999) have seen an even smaller annual rise of just 1.1 per cent.
Since 2019, pay for those in junior travel roles has increased by 9.8 per cent to stand at an average of &pound;20,942, while those in mid-level roles have seen wages rise by 4.7 per cent to reach an average of &pound;26,553 &ndash; an increase of only &pound;1,198 in four years. Just think about how much more expensive everything else has got in that time!
So what accounts for the big overall increase in wages? Rather inevitably, it's at the top. Pay for <a href="../../../../../jobs/#/40-000-49-999/50-000-59-999/60-000-69-999">executive roles</a> (&pound;40,000 and above) has risen by an average of 7.23 per cent in the past year and the overall figures have been skewed by a big increase in placements of higher-paid executives.
With an average wage rise of just 3.9 per cent (or less than inflation) for all new entry or mid-level roles (those paying less than &pound;30,000), how do we expect to entice candidates to work in the travel industry? And don't forget that from next April, minimum wage increases to &pound;11.44 per hour, meaning it will be illegal to pay any full-time employer aged 21 or older less than &pound;22,308.
In order to attract more talent into the industry, we need to see wages for junior and mid-level travel roles at least keeping pace with those of more senior positions &ndash; and preferably rising faster. That's how we create a talent pipeline for future years.
Travel's a fantastic industry, but we can't continue to be a low-paying one. We're already losing too much great talent to other sectors, and continuing to offer poor salaries to junior members of our teams will ultimately hurt us all.&nbsp;
Many travel companies are currently experiencing difficulties in <a href="../../../../../clients/">recruiting quality talent</a>, and unfortunately this is a byproduct of our history of low pay &ndash; many talented travel professionals have left our industry in recent years and they're not looking back. And with far better salaries in other sectors, how can we blame them?&nbsp;
Some companies simply don't get it. They want candidates with years of travel experience, but are only willing to offer salaries that already looked miserly five years ago. It should go without saying that it is proving more and more difficult - almost impossible - to find talent for these roles.
This is on us. As difficult as it is, for the health of the travel industry, we simply must offer better salaries to our junior and mid-level team members.
Otherwise, we're creating real problems for future years.
<main class="flex-grow-1">
<div class="styles_root__9tid2">
<div class="styles_content__1FKc5 py-4 py-md-5">
<div class="container">
<div class="py-4 py-md-5">
By Barbara Kolosinaka, Managing Director at C&amp;M Travel Recruitment
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</main>

We've heard for some time now that salaries are increasing continually in the travel industry, but when you dive into the stats, is that actually true? Well, yes…but also no…

Travel salaries are going up and up (…or are they?)

2022 was a fantastic year for travel recruitment &ndash; the <a href="../../../../../news/press-releases/travel-salary-index-2022-overview/">most successful in C&amp;M's 25 year history</a>. But it was always going to be an anomaly. Cut to halfway through 2023 and activity levels are roughly where we were before the pandemic.
Vacancies and placements are both down compared to last year of course, but this is no surprise. Many companies &ndash; especially TMCs &ndash; cut their headcount so deeply during the pandemic, they had to do a colossal amount of rebuilding and hiring last year.
They recruited so heavily in 2022 that they simply do not have the capacity or budget to continue at that pace in 2023. Expecting anything else would be unrealistic.
There's no reason to worry about this and it is no indication of where the year is going.
The truth is, for us at C&amp;M, last year was actually too busy. Our team were almost firefighting &ndash; they were manically busy, trying to react to the huge demand. They were working far longer hours than we would like and were stretched to capacity trying to fill all of the roles that we had on. It was our busiest and most successful year ever, but you can only maintain that level of activity for so long.
With fewer vacancies this year, it means we're able to <a href="../../../../../clients/">focus on each client</a> and manage each role much more thoroughly. And, importantly, it means our Consultants have more time to advise and guide our clients through every step of their hiring process. Although not at the level of 2022, we're still placing a large number of candidates in new travel roles every week &ndash; and we're now able to do it more efficiently with even better service and dedication.
Salaries going up and up
Wages in the travel industry have increased by around 11 per cent from the first half of 2022 and this is great news. It's long overdue but they need to continue rising as they have been historically low for far too long.
Quality candidates are still in short supply. The best were receiving four or five offers last year, with some companies even getting into price wars over certain applicants! However, with <a href="../../../../../news/press-releases/">vacancies falling and candidate numbers rising in recent months</a>, this imbalance is now less pronounced and is beginning to rectify itself.
With wages increasing across the whole industry, there are now lots of <a href="../../../../../jobs/">attractive travel jobs</a> sparking the interest of both active and passive job seekers. These factors should combine to mean that companies will hopefully begin to have a bigger talent pool to choose from in the near future.
Widen your horizons
Of course, not all of these candidates will have the appropriate experience or qualifications to be the right fit for each specific role. But more and more of our clients are listening to us about broadening their requirements and looking outside of the industry for talent &ndash; and, we're glad to say, many are finding great success with their hires.
For any companies thinking of hiring later in 2023, we would advise them to do it now. Summer is always a quiet period for travel recruitment with normal pre-pandemic seasonal variations, but from September onwards things really heat up.
That's when all companies resume their recruitment&hellip;and they all fight each other for the best candidates! So for any travel companies that have the resources and time to recruit straightaway, we would advise them to jump ahead of the competition and <a href="../../../../../clients/">secure the top talent</a> before their competitors have even written their job adverts.
By Barbara Kolosinaka, Managing Director at C&amp;M Travel Recruitment

After a monumentally busy 2022, travel companies are recruiting less in 2023 – here's why that's actually a good thing

Travel recruitment in 2023 – and why 2022 was just TOO busy 

&ldquo;Should I include a photo on my CV? Can I leave gaps? What about hobbies?&rdquo; I&rsquo;ve been asked these (and many more) questions countless times over my 20 years in recruitment, so as the director of the UK&rsquo;s largest specialist travel recruitment company, I thought it was finally time to put together my guide to what you should and shouldn&rsquo;t include on your r&eacute;sum&eacute;.
Length / fonts / file formats
Gone are the days where your CV has to stick rigidly to a limit of two pages &ndash; if it&rsquo;s relevant and specific to the&nbsp;vacancy&nbsp;that you&rsquo;re applying for, feel free to make it longer, but there really is no point including anything irrelevant. In terms of fonts, it&rsquo;s best to keep it simple, so Arial or Verdana in size 10 is a safe bet. While there&rsquo;s nothing wrong with a basic black and white CV, you can be more experimental with the design - especially if you&rsquo;re going for a digital, marketing or creative role. However, don&rsquo;t be creative for the sake of it.
One of the key things that many people don&rsquo;t even consider is which file format they save their CV as. Most recruitment agencies and many big companies now parse candidates&rsquo; r&eacute;sum&eacute;s to their own database, and heavily formatted PDFs or those containing multiple images can sometimes create problems. So to give&nbsp;your CV&nbsp;the best chance of finding its way on to a recruiter&rsquo;s database, save it as a simple Word file and keep any uses of tables or boxes etc to a minimum.
It should (hopefully) go without saying that&nbsp;your CV&nbsp;should have a professional tone with perfect grammar, spelling and spacing, as well as consistency in terms of style and format. And it may be a personal annoyance, but I&rsquo;m instantly put off by any CV that&rsquo;s written in the third person. It should be first person every time.
Order / structure / which roles to include
Your <a href="../../../../../../news/job-tips/easy-ways-to-improve-your-cv/">CV</a> should start with your personal details i.e. name, address, email address, mobile phone number. This may sound obvious, but I&rsquo;m still amazed by how many people&rsquo;s CVs fail to include any contact information!
After this, provide a list of your experiences in reverse chronological date order beginning with your most recent&nbsp;job, with bullet points detailing your achievements and successes under each role. Even if your latest position isn&rsquo;t particularly relevant to the vacancy that you&rsquo;re applying for, you should still list it first because recruiters and employers need to know what you&rsquo;ve been doing.
How far back into your career you should go, really depends on how relevant the roles are. If you&rsquo;ve got a lot of experience then the last 10 to 15 years is the most important, but if you&rsquo;re relatively new to the industry then include all of it. If you&rsquo;ve spent a considerable number of years in one job, then break this down into the different roles that you had &ndash; and if you only had one role during that time, then split it into sub headings with separate tasks.
For every other job, list a few bullet points under each with a couple of examples of your successes &ndash; usually relating to targets, profitability and revenues. So if it&rsquo;s a marketing role, state which tasks you have been part of. If it is a sales role, detail which targets you had and illustrate how you reached them. If it&rsquo;s a customer service role, perhaps include some testimonials from clients that have been happy with your service.
Gaps
Whatever you do, don&rsquo;t leave gaps on <a href="../../../../../../news/job-tips/more-easy-ways-to-improve-your-cv/">your CV</a>. As a recruitment agency representing you, we need to know what you were doing so that we can explain it to the potential employer in the best way. However, if you sent your CV directly to the employer and it included big gaps, they&rsquo;re likely to think that you&rsquo;ve either been doing nothing, were unemployed or were maybe even in prison! The CV is your shop window and it needs to sell you in the best possible way, so don&rsquo;t make problems for yourself by leaving gaps and creating needless question marks.
Education
How much educational information you include on your CV depends on how much experience you have. Even if you&rsquo;ve been in the industry for a significant amount of time, then it is still important to put some education on your CV &ndash; especially if you are degree or A level educated. So list where you were educated and a top overview of what qualifications you&rsquo;ve gained, but you don&rsquo;t need to specify every individual subject and grade. Any additional qualifications or training should go above your education but below the employment history.
Hobbies
Something that people often overlook on their CVs are hobbies, but I think they can be really important &ndash; especially any sporting achievements. If you&rsquo;re going for a sales role, then someone with a competitive nature or a high achiever within the sporting field will always be attractive, so if you&rsquo;ve played any activity to a club, borough or country level, then this should certainly be included because it demonstrates drive and application, and potentially the ability to work as part of a team as well.
Also, what looks is good is if you&rsquo;ve coached any teams, such as children&rsquo;s football or something similar. Hobbies outside of work are quite important, especially if they are in some way relevant to the role that you&rsquo;re going for. Every recruiter is different, but I always look at hobbies on a CV.
Personal statement
All candidates should make sure they include a personal statement, which should be at the top of the CV below the personal details. In it should be everything that&rsquo;s not included in other categories, so it should include attributes, strengths, achievements that aren&rsquo;t already listed &ndash; such as if they have sat on any boards &ndash; and things that are related to the industry that aren&rsquo;t in their employment history. It should be a paragraph or perhaps two at the most, but no longer - and it absolutely shouldn&rsquo;t take up half a page.
Cover letter
Separate covering letters aren&rsquo;t really used anymore, but you should still include a version of it on the email when sending your CV in. It should be a short synopsis of the CV which needs to state what role you&rsquo;re going for, what your attributes are, why you could be good for the position, when you&rsquo;re available for interview and how close you&rsquo;re located to the vacancy. If you&rsquo;re applying to a recruitment agency then you should also say how far you would be willing to travel for the right role, what salary you&rsquo;re looking for, why you&rsquo;re leaving your current role, what notice period you&rsquo;re on and whether you&rsquo;re applying for any other roles. That should all be condensed down into about two paragraphs or, even better, use bullet points.
Photos
Don&rsquo;t do it! When applying for the average role, including a photo on your application is just ridiculous. Unless it&rsquo;s absolutely relevant (for example, if you&rsquo;re applying for a cabin crew role and the employer is interested in your appearance), please don&rsquo;t even consider it. Including a photo just opens up the risk that the employer might discount you purely for what you look like.
Also, it can potentially come across as arrogant because employers may think that you presume you have an advantage in getting the job because of your looks.
Need more help?
Hopefully that&rsquo;s covered a lot of questions, but C&amp;M Travel Recruitment have been helping candidates find great travel roles for the past two decades, so if you need any <a href="../../../../../../news/job-tips/how-to-build-up-your-cv/">extra help with your CV </a>or want to know how best to present yourself, just let us know.
Barbara Kolosinska is the Managing Director at C&amp;M Travel Recruitment

C&M Travel Recruitment’s Barbara Kolosinska shares her ultimate guide to creating the perfect CV

C&M's definitive guide to the perfect CV

Candidate-driven market
Experienced travel candidates have all the power right now &ndash; they can pick and choose their next role, so if you're not offering a distinct reason why they should work for you, you're likely to be left behind.
Flexible working used to be a real selling point for a vacancy, but now it's expected. However, while the majority of travel roles are now hybrid positions, there's still a lack of pure homeworking positions &ndash; and these roles are highly sought after by candidates.
Travel wages MUST increase
Salaries have always been an issue for our industry. We commonly say that people work in travel because they love it, and while that's still true, it's not enough anymore.&nbsp;Wages simply have to increase&nbsp;across the whole industry. It's unacceptable to just offer minimum wage &ndash; especially when there's such a fight for talent going on. Many, many people have left travel, so how do we expect to tempt them back if we continually offer such derogatory pay?
Why should talent choose your company?
The pandemic has made many people question what they want from life and where they want to spend their working day, so travel companies really need to spend time thinking about their <a href="../../../../../../about-us/">brand </a>and what they stand for. What does your company represent? What are your values? Why would someone want to work there? What's your reputation? And, if necessary, how can you turn it around?
Candidates &ndash; particularly younger ones &ndash; are now focusing much more on these aspects. Any company that can offer a positive and engaging working environment, attractive salaries and benefits, as well as mentoring or career development opportunities will find they have a much bigger talent pool to choose from.
Identifying your key players
With the entire industry experiencing recruitment challenges, it is crucial to do all we can to keep our current talent content and happy &ndash; and, in particular, our key players.
Whether it's to do with their fantastic sales skills, morale-boosting positivity or guidance for other colleagues, we all have these star performers, and it is vital to assess what would happen if they leave.
How would team morale be affected? What would it mean if they joined a competitor? Would our company reputation be impacted? Could we replace them - and if so, how long would it take and how much would it cost?
With demand for talent far outstripping current supply, this is achallenging time for travel recruitment. But the opportunities are clear for us all to see. And by adjusting a few aspects of our <a href="../../../../../../clients/">recruitment</a> and retention policies, we can give ourselves the best chance of making the next year a hugely positive one. By Barbara Kolosinska, Managing Director at C&amp;M Travel Recruitment

So how do you stand out from your competitors when recruiting? What are candidates looking for? How can you keep hold of your current employees? And have you got a plan in place if your key players leave?

How to recruit top travel talent and retain your key players

With stats showing that <a href="../../../../../../news/press-releases/travel-s-gender-pay-gap-narrows-in-2021/">travel and tourism has a gender pay difference of 6.5 per cent</a>, some could be tempted to celebrate that we have a much smaller equality gap than many other industries. But this isn't recent to cheer &ndash; travel SHOULD be leading the way on this issue.
Travel and tourism is seen as an industry of inclusivity with a diverse range of people working in it, so it stands to reason that we will be ahead of many other sectors when it comes to equality. The concerning thing is that a <a href="../../../../../../news/press-releases/travel-s-gender-pay-gap-narrows-in-2021/">gender pay gap</a> still exists in our industry at all.
There are many positives to be taken from the figures &ndash; not least of which is that&nbsp;the gap has fallen from 14.2 per cent before the pandemic. Things are clearly changing, and the industry is beginning to make headway with the issue.
Both in travel and other industries, we are all more aware of gender inequality, and bigger companies are now required to declare their pay disparity. Measures like these are certainly helping, but they will only go so far.
What's really heartening is that we're also seeing female candidates in our industry becoming more confident in negotiating&nbsp;better salaries&nbsp;for themselves when looking for a new role, with many feeling increasingly comfortable about having conversations with their bosses regarding wage increases.
For many years, men have been far more vocal regarding their pay, while women traditionally remained quieter, but thankfully this is now changing with more women understanding their worth and importance to their company. Changes brought about by the pandemic &ndash; such as homebased and hybrid working &ndash; are also creating positive results, with more women and those with children now increasingly likely to put themselves forward for bigger jobs.
One of the main reasons for travel's overall gender pay gap is due to the large number of women being placed in entry level roles in the industry. This has always been the case, but the percentage of females joining the industry in lower-paid positions has increased in recent years from&nbsp;68.7 per cent in 2019&nbsp;to&nbsp;73.3 per cent last year.
However, in time, some of these women should progress through the industry into more senior roles and will then have the ability to implement their own diversity and inclusion policies at their future companies, helping to eliminate any salary disparities between genders.
Every year since C&amp;M's figures began in 2014, male travel executives have significantly out eared their female equivalents&hellip;until last year. But while this is a clear example of the progress being made, we can't be pleased with a one-off anomaly &ndash; we need to see this happen more consistently.
Ultimately, this isn't about paying women more or reducing men's salaries so that they fall in line with their female colleagues &ndash; it is about equality for all. Companies should carry out salary audits to ensure they are paying their employees fairly for their position &ndash; regardless of their gender.
Travel is a wonderfully inclusive place to work, so if we don't lead the way with true pay parity across our whole industry, who will?
By Barbara Kolosinska, Managing Director of <a href="../../../../../../about-us/">C&amp;M Travel Recruitment</a>

With stats showing that travel has a smaller gender pay difference than other industries, some could be tempted to celebrate, but this isn't recent to cheer – travel SHOULD be leading the way on this issue.

Why travel should be leading the way on gender pay parity

From backpacking around Asia and Africa as a teenager to becoming Director at the UK&rsquo;s largest specialist travel recruitment company and being named one of the 100 most influential women in the travel and tourism industry, my career has taken me in many unexpected and wonderful directions over the last two decades! These are my experiences and tips about how to make your dream career become a reality.
The early years
I was initially planning to follow my interest of food and nutrition dietetics at university, but after spending a couple of years backpacking around the world, I realised I&rsquo;d fallen in love with travel and I was soon enrolled on a travel and tourism degree course.
After I graduated, I was really lucky to get <a href="../../../../../../jobs/">my first job in the industry</a> at an airline and I fell into the corporate side of the sector as an Account Manager / Business Development Manager working for a tiny little French airline out of City Airport, selling to the likes of American Express and HRG.
After a couple of years, I was fortunate enough to get a job working for Holiday Autos as an <a href="../../../../../../jobs/?query=account%20manager">Account Manager jobs</a> selling to the leisure market including tour operators and OTAs. A short time later, my career changed completely&hellip;
Finding my place at C&amp;M
Completely unexpectedly, the recruiter who found me my role at Holiday Autos, Angus Chisholm, got in touch to say he had just launched his own recruitment company and asked me if I&rsquo;d like to come aboard. No-one actually decides to be a recruiter, so his offer took me by surprise! He thought my experience meant I&rsquo;d be great for the role and I thought I&rsquo;d give it a go. And almost 18 years down the line, I still love <a href="../../../../../../about-us/">working at C&amp;M</a> &ndash; we have a great team and colleagues and I haven&rsquo;t looked back since.&nbsp;
I worked out pretty early on in my career that I&rsquo;d be much more suited to working at an SME in an entrepreneurial business rather than in a corporate company because I&rsquo;m ambitious and wanted to work my way up the ladder quickly and believe that at an SME you&rsquo;re more than just a number. I learnt a lot working for a corporate organisation, but I am far better at a company where I can roll up my sleeves and truly get involved.
I joined C&amp;M when it was still in its infancy - and this was a great time to come on board. Working for an organisation that&rsquo;s young and is almost like a start-up means there will be opportunities to make your own mark.
I&rsquo;ve held lots of different roles during my time here &ndash; starting as a Recruitment Consultant and working my way up as a Team Leader, <a href="../../../../../../jobs/?query=sales%20manager">Sales Manager</a>, <a href="../../../../../../jobs/?query=business%20development">Business Development Manager</a>, Business Development Director and then Sales Director before becoming a Director and then Managing Director.
Personal sacrifices
Of course, not everybody wants to rise up the ladder. Some people are happy as a Recruitment Consultant or an Account Manager. That&rsquo;s obviously completely fine, but I wanted different strings to my bow. I&rsquo;m very ambitious and wanted to grow intellectually and professionally, and I wanted to learn more. I pushed for it. I let people know what I wanted and how I was going to get there rather than just expecting it to come to me.
I told my boss what I wanted and he told me what I would have to do to get to the next stage, and then the next stage after that. I just kept pushing &ndash; and I worked my butt off!
It&rsquo;s not for everyone, but I put my absolute heart and soul into, and some things took a back seat as a result. My work-life balance probably wasn&rsquo;t as good as it could have been and I had to give up certain things. I did make sacrifices in my personal life because of my career and that was a decision I decided to make.
Hone your skills and prove yourself
Career advancement is all about honing your personal skills. Whether it&rsquo;s a direct Manager or a mentor, I believe it&rsquo;s important to have someone who can identify and develop those skills to help that person get to the next stage. You need to have a really clear plan of where you want to be, what you want to do and why you want to do it? What&rsquo;s the next stage?
Some people haven&rsquo;t got that ambition - they are happy doing what they do and earning good money. And why not? There is nothing wrong with that at all. Everybody&rsquo;s different.
But if you really want to get to the next level, then you need to be aware that you are not going to get that promotion just because you want it. It&rsquo;s not as simple as, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m doing this job and the next natural stage up is x.&rsquo; You have to prove yourself. You have to know what you want and possess the attitude and energy to prove you can do it.
It&rsquo;s much better to do this first rather than having to demonstrate it later, because by that point you will have a lot to prove to your peers, your managers, your staff and yourself. Show what you can do, and then get the rewards that come with it in terms of status, job title and salary.
It&rsquo;s also important to have humility and realise the disciplines that you still need to work on. Improve them and employ people around you who are better than you in certain areas.
Still lots to learn!
After two decades, I&rsquo;m still hugely ambitious and want to develop personally and professionally. Nobody is fantastic at everything &ndash; there&rsquo;s always more to learn. There are areas of my role that I want to improve on and there are more things in the business that I want to do &ndash; and hopefully, as I develop, the business will too.
There are loads of things that I still want to achieve, but I know that these will have to come from me. I&rsquo;m now beginning to work with a mentor / coach to help me develop up to the next stage from Director, which is something I feel I&rsquo;m ready to do. I&rsquo;m not complacent. I never think that I can do it all. People might think that they&rsquo;ve reached their optimum level, but they haven&rsquo;t &ndash; there are always ways to improve.
Barbara Kolosinska is the Managing Director at <a href="../../../../../../about-us/">C&amp;M Travel Recruitment</a>

C&M's Barbara Kolosinska shares her tips and experiences about making it in the travel industry

Barbara Kolosinska

Barbara's blogs