Recruitment has lost its human touch.

I’m bringing it back.

My Story So Far

I started my career in the corporate world and genuinely loved the work.

But flexible working didn’t exist. No matter how well you performed, there were no exceptions.

My role involved constant travel, and it didn’t fit with nursery hours and life as a single parent to a newborn.

So I made a decision.

I left and moved into recruitment, believing it would give me the flexibility I needed to raise my daughter.

It didn’t go to plan.

Three months later, I was fired.

Not because I wasn’t good at my job, but because I refused to be dishonest with candidates just to get deals over the line.

Up until that point, I had only ever had strong reviews. So when it all changed, it hit hard.

I remember walking the streets of Manchester, exhausted and emotional, trying to work out how I was going to provide for my three month old daughter.

Then something shifted.

If the corporate world couldn’t give me the flexibility I needed, I would build it myself.

Three months later, I launched my own recruitment business.

I haven’t looked back since.

That experience shaped everything

It showed me how recruitment really works when it’s done badly.

And it made one thing very clear.

I was never going to operate like that.

So I built WhatIf differently

Not around volume. Not around pressure.

But around:

  • honesty

  • long term thinking

  • and getting hiring decisions right

Because one hire can change everything.

For better or worse.

What I’ve built over the last 14 years

Real relationships across Financial Services.

Not just with people actively applying, but with those who are quietly open, selective, and rarely visible.

Because talent exists in two places:

  • the obvious market

  • and the one most people don’t know how to reach

The advantage is not just accessing both.

It is knowing how to engage them properly.

What I bring

Not just candidates.

But judgement, access, and a way of working that protects your business, not just fills roles.

A woman with long dark hair is sitting on a wooden stool, smiling and holding a white mug. She is barefoot, wearing a black top and jeans with frayed cuffs. The background includes a mirror, a decorated table with a vase of dried plants, and wooden and frosted glass wall panels.

Who I Work With

Collage of four workplace scenes: a diverse group of business professionals in a meeting room, a team of colleagues smiling outdoors, a man working at a desk with a lamp, and three women engaging in a discussion at a conference table.

I work with Financial Services businesses who care about getting hiring right the first time.

That usually looks like one of two things.

Smaller firms who don’t need a full-time recruiter, but know their hiring needs to be more structured and less reactive.

Or larger organisations who need someone they trust with senior, business-critical hires, where getting it wrong has real consequences.

What they have in common

They’re not looking for volume.

They’re not looking for CVs to “see what’s out there”.

They want someone who understands their world, knows how to find the right people, and can tell the difference between someone who interviews well and someone who will actually perform.

And that’s where I come in

Because hiring isn’t about how many people you see.

It’s about knowing who’s right.

If that sounds like you

We’ll get on well.

A woman with long black hair sitting on a wooden bench in a modern kitchen, working on a laptop.

“Big agencies play the numbers game. I don’t. I go for fit and that’s where small becomes mighty.”