Meet Jamie King: An Unlikely Recruiter

In this series, we interview one of our team members – Jamie King – to find out his journey, background and what it takes to be part of The Edge Partnership team. He is an Associate Director focused on banking and financial services compliance and covers in-house and private practice legal, fintech, reg-tech and corporate compliance in Asia.

#1 Tell us more about yourself.

My name is Jamie King and I am a British national who has been living and working in Singapore for the last four years, having moved over from London. I currently head up The Edge Partnership’s Legal and Compliance recruitment desk based in Singapore.

I speak intermediate level Korean as my wife’s family don’t speak English; if you need to order any combination of fried chicken, soju, and beer, I’ve got you covered.

#2 Did you come from a recruitment background? How did you land this role?

I actually come from a legal and compliance background. I began my career as a Research Analyst writing investigative due diligence reports on political, environmental, and financial crime/reputational risk matters supporting a range of clients across matters such as asset tracing, litigation support, and transactional due diligence.

From there, I moved to Goldman Sachs where I spent nearly six years in Financial Crime Compliance across both London and Singapore. I was most recently in APAC as the Head of Compliance for a credit rating agency before moving into recruitment. When I decided to pursue a career in recruitment, I contacted Sam Belcher for career advice as I had been a candidate of The Edge on a couple of occasions. The rest, as they say, is history.

#3 What is it about the recruitment industry that keeps you pumped? 

As someone who comes from a back-office career, what really gets me going is the people interaction and being away from the desk building meaningful working relationships. Being able to use my industry experience to really understand client and candidate needs are highly rewarding too.

#4 Describe an ideal workplace for you. 

It has to be light-hearted and enjoyable but with a strong atmosphere of ambition and collaboration, and with managers and colleagues that I can aspire to emulate.

#5 What are you passionate about? 

Health and fitness. I am a qualified personal trainer and wake up at 4:30am for 6 days a week to do my own workout then teach a high-intensity interval training class before coming to work.

My passion and motivation for interacting with people in the fitness context was a key driver for pursuing a more people-focused career in my transition into recruitment.

#6 How are you enjoying this role so far? 

I love it. It has been a pretty challenging transition as it’s my first recruitment role and I’m re-establishing a warm desk but I love the environment and look forward to getting stuck into the week on Mondays.

#7 Who would you most like to swap places with for a day – a celebrity, a family member or someone you admire? 

I’d swap places with my dog. He eats really posh food and just sleeps all day.

Does working in recruiting sound like a job you’d be excited to do every day? Well, you’re in luck: The Edge is hiring now – refer to our jobs page on LinkedIn!