Page 47 - James Caan - The Real Deal

5 · Finding My Way

candidates for jobs. I then met the guy who owned the company
and, after a third interview, I was amazed that he offered me the
job. I didn’t have any experience, but I suppose I was quite an easy
person to talk to, and that’s one of the qualities you need in
recruitment. It might sound a bit obvious to say it, but it is a
people business, after all.
There were two things I remember thinking about Premier:
firstly, I thought the work might actually be interesting; secondly
– and far more importantly – the salary was £38 a week. Not only
was that a couple of quid more than I was earning at Grand Met,
but every time I placed somebody in a job I would get paid
commission. ‘If it doesn’t work,’ I told myself, ‘I’m still earning
what I’m earning now. But if I place a few people in jobs, I’ll more
than double my money.’ I couldn’t see a downside.
I really liked the idea that my pay was incentivised: it made
sense to me that the better I was and the harder I worked, the more
I’d get paid. I can’t remember the exact figures, but I think the
agency charged 15 per cent of the first year’s salary, which on a
£6k a year job was £900, of which I’d get 5 per cent. That £45
was a real motivator – I might even be able to afford a car if I did
well enough. What I wasn’t old enough to realise, though, was that
if I didn’t place any candidates I’d get sacked. I hadn’t worked out
yet that the downside of sales is that if you don’t perform you’re
out. You’re only as good as your last month.
The concept of interviewing somebody was a lot more interest-
ing to me than looking at a batch of expense sheets, but on my first
day I found out that, before I got to the interesting bit, there was
some hard work to be done. Clive, the owner, showed me my desk
and then gave me my very own copy of the Yellow Pages.
‘So the first thing you do is canvass for vacancies.’
He may as well have been speaking another language, so he had
to take me through the whole process.
‘You ring up a company . . .’

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