​This article originally appeared on LinkedIn

​As I’m writing this, I must confess to a bit of nostalgia. Twenty years ago, I was in my office with nothing more than a dream. If I think of our journey – starting from scratch with no clients and candidates – and look at where we are now, I really do have to pinch myself.

​When we started the company in 1997 (the year that Tony Blair served his first term as prime minister!) recruitment was a professional service often not done professionally. The ‘average’ (in both senses of the word)recruitment consultanteither thought that they were God or the client was.

​Yet it was an exciting place to be, the industry was moving and evolving quickly. Making a difference to people’s lives was (and still is) our ‘raison d’être’ and it’s something we’ve never lost sight of. Equally, I’ve been privileged to see so many of our people take their careers forward both here and elsewhere; many have told me that their formative years at Hydrogen played a big part in their career growth.

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Platform for success

From day one, we wanted to be different, not just with our name and branding, but in a positive way. We sought to treat everyone fairly, especially candidates. And I’m proud to say that we’ve stayed true to that over the 20 years. Working with organisations to understand their precise needs and help solve their challenges is what energises us. That’s why the best recruiters are inquisitive by nature.

​Our organisation is at an exciting stage of growth and the future will bring a lot of changes and opportunities. We know that we need to create the best environment for our people to flourish. And that’s what we’re doing, as we want everyone to succeed here.​