Jo Lindsay: Building a career at one organisation; Leading through change; The Opportunity Mindset
This week's guest is Jo Lindsay, Managing Director at Reed Talent Solutions, a part of Reed, the world's largest family-run recruitment business. Jo joined Reed on a graduate scheme in 1997 and has built her entire career there, moving through project management, sales, consultancy and leadership without ever needing to look elsewhere. Hers is a career story about what happens when an organisation keeps giving you new things to do, and you keep saying yes.
In this episode:
- Why Jo applied for Reed's graduate scheme instead of a traditional HR role, and how a six-month rotation programme changed the direction of her career.
- What she loved about project management, and why the variety of working across clients like Vodafone, Royal Mail and the Greater London Authority kept her engaged for nearly three decades at one organisation.
- How sponsorship worked for her early in her career, and how the nature of sponsorship changes as you become more senior.
- Why she has only ever been frustrated in one role at Reed, and what made that particular job so difficult despite having a high-performing team around her.
- How AI is reshaping recruitment, why the EU has already flagged hiring as a high-risk area for AI regulation, and the question of whether candidates and employers are now just screening each other with bots.
- What parenthood did to her approach to work, including working a four-day week, procrastinating less and being clearer about her priorities.
- What work-life balance actually means to her: being there when her kids get up in the morning and being there when they go to bed.
Jo Lindsay's best piece of career advice:
"Never turn down an opportunity before you've explored it."
Resources mentioned: Good to Great — Jim Collins
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Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.
Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.
Creators and Guests
Host
Dr Luella Forbes
Dr Luella Forbes is a consultant specialising in Organisational Change and founder of The Career Library and it's podcast, Career Stories.
Guest
Jo Lindsay
As Managing Director with responsibility for the Consulting and Client Engagement activity within Reed Talent Solutions, I am part of a collaborative team and work in an environment where every day I am inspired by the exceptional people I work with. I have overall responsibility for our Consultancy offering delivered via our dedicated Consultancy+ brand and through specialist practitioners within our wider Reed Talent Solutions business. In addition to this, I lead Reed's corporate sales teams securing opportunities across the full spectrum of contingent labour and permanent recruitment solutions, encompassing SOW, Services Procurement, MSP, RPO and PSL.
