As part of our 20 for 20 series, we sat down with Rob to look back at his journey with, Blueprint, from starting a cold desk, developing new markets and building teams, to becoming a director, playing a key role in helping to shape the future of the business.

Finding his place in recruitment

After completing a degree in Business Management, Rob knew he was drawn to three areas of interest: finance, marketing and sales.

Straight out of university Rob pursed his first step on the career ladder as a Buyer / Supply Chain Analyst within a multinational manufacturing & distribution company. This role provided exposure to in working within a fast paced professional environment that offered good variety of tasks and overall understanding of the business. Having asked Rob why he left this role to take the next step in his career, he said, “I gravitated towards certain aspects of my Buyer role which I enjoyed most, as perhaps is natural for anyone. For me is was communicating with a wide range of people, understand challenges, finding solutions, always being proactive and thinking commercially. After 2 years I was looking for a new challenge that embrassed more of these aspects and perhaps had a stronger Sales focus, which is where I found Recruitment and Recruitment found me”.

By the time Rob arrived at Blueprint, he already had experience in both recruitment and sales. Coming from a more larger corporate environment into a smaller business was a significant change, but it also presented a great opportunity.

There was a genuine opportunity to bring ideas to the table that would be heard and applied; including finding new markets and influence the direction of the business.

For Rob, that autonomy and the trust afford to him by the directors of the business, became one of the most important parts of his Blueprint journey.

The underdog years

Rob remembers the early Blueprint days as a business where individual effort could make a visible difference.

People within the business had the freedom to find their niche. If someone identified a market opportunity, understood it’s commercial potential and believed Blueprint could offer something valuable, they were encouraged to pursue it.

Rob was particularly interested in sectors where the business could support major projects. Building a reputation of bringing interesting work opportunities to the candidate market and intern connecting that top talent with the best clients and projects out there.

At the time, Blueprint was competing against much larger recruitment businesses.

“We felt like David against Goliath in the recruitment world.”

That underdog mentality made every conversation, every CV and every interview matter more.

From onboarding a new client to making successful placements and gaining repeat business, felt significant because you could see the impact it had both internally and externally with regards to Blueprint Recruitment’s reputation and confidence.

Rob compares those years to a non-league football team making an FA Cup run and promotion in the same season. “Blueprint was ambitious, hungry and determined to prove what we could do”.

Building something from the ground up

One of the defining parts of Rob’s career at Blueprint has been developing new markets.

Having initially worked across the Built Environment, Rob identified opportunities within the Marine, Maritime and Oil & Gas markets, establishing what became a major area of growth for the business.

From there, the team continued to evolve, moving with changing markets and developing further expertise across wider Water, Utilities, Nuclear, Process and Energy sectors.

For Rob, the achievement was not simply about commercial growth, it was about creating opportunities, applying our recruitment ability to transferable sectors and vertical markets to solve resourcing challenges.  “Fundamentally our business plan from there was to become an expert in that field, deliver an excellent client and candidate experience, building a solid team to support and develop that offering further”.

That experience has shaped Rob’s own view of what a career at Blueprint should offer.

People need direction and support to build confidence, but they should also have room to bring forward their own ideas and influence the work and results in their own style. You also have to have at least some passion for what you do in order to enjoy work and know that you can make a real difference to so many people who value professional recruitment services.

Growing alongside the business

As Blueprint grew, so did the way it developed its people.

Rob describes his own early career as largely self-driven. Blueprint was a smaller company and there was less formal structure around progression but embraced the fact that destiny was in his own hands and that meaningful momentum needs to be created, rather than waiting for the right conditions for it to happen.

Today, the business looks slightly different.

There are clearer development paths, more training and mentorship, additional levels of leadership and greater collaboration between teams.

For Rob, that represents an important stage in Blueprint’s evolution.

The business still wants people with ambition and initiative, but it is now better equipped to give them the tools and guidance to turn that potential into a long-term career.

Seeing people progress has become one of the most rewarding parts of leadership for him.

“Helping people in my team earn promotions gives me a big buzz.”

Learning to lead – and let go

Rob’s leadership style has evolved alongside Blueprint.

One principle, however, has remained consistent.

“I will never ask something of anyone else that I would not expect of myself.”

He describes his approach as leading from the front: creating an environment where individuals hold themselves to high levels of expectations and look to raise standards through a passion to deliver the best quality service, something that the whole team can all be proud of.

Over time, one of his biggest lessons has been learning when to step back.

Delegating means accepting that things will not always go perfectly. But Rob believes those experiences can often provide the best opportunities for people to learn.

Rather than expecting someone to get everything right immediately, leadership is about understanding what happened, learning from it and giving people the confidence to try again.

It is a mindset shaped by Rob’s own career.

Success in recruitment has not always been straightforward. Markets change, difficult periods happen and plans do not always work.

The important part is how you respond.

For Rob, resilience comes from being prepared to look at yourself, adapt and keep moving forward.

A culture that has grown up

Blueprint’s culture has naturally changed as the company has become larger.

In the early years, everybody knew almost everything about one another. Teams were smaller, the hierarchy was flatter and the sense of being “all in it together” came naturally.

As Blueprint has expanded, maintaining that connection has required more intention.

At the same time, Rob believes the company has become more joined-up in the way it operates. There is greater collaboration across the management team, more structure around development and more opportunities for people from different parts of Blueprint to come together.

The social side of the business has evolved too.

Early end-of-quarter celebrations grew into larger company events, while charity initiatives and family events have created new opportunities to bring people together beyond the working day.

For Rob, those moments matter.

They help preserve the sense of connection that came naturally when Blueprint was a much smaller company, while allowing the culture to mature alongside the business.

Building the next version of Blueprint

After years spent helping grow teams and markets, Rob’s focus is increasingly shifting towards the wider business.

Rather than only working in Blueprint, he is thinking more about working on it too.

That means looking at how systems, automation, training and development can make the business stronger and give people a clearer journey than previous generations may have had.

The aim is not to remove the entrepreneurial spirit that helped build Blueprint, it is to support it with better tools.

Rob is particularly excited by the opportunity to give others the benefit of experience; sharing what worked, what did not and what could make their own journey easier; and although nobody can predict exactly what Blueprint will look like in another twenty years, he believes there is significant opportunity ahead.

New markets, international growth and further evolutions are all possibilities.

But for Rob, the most important part is ensuring the people coming through Blueprint have opportunities of their own.

Creating opportunity for the next generation

Looking back, Rob recognises how important the freedom he was given at Blueprint shaped his career.

He joined a growing business, saw an opportunity to do something different and was trusted to pursue it.

Years later, he wants the next generation to experience that same sense of possibility; supported by the greater structure and experience Blueprint has today.

People should not necessarily be restricted to one predetermined path.

If someone has a strong idea, the right attitude and the drive to make it work, Rob believes Blueprint’s role is to help them develop it.

It is a fitting reflection of his own journey.

What began as an opportunity to shape his own role became an opportunity to shape teams, markets and eventually the wider business.

Now, the next stage is about creating the space for other people to do the same.