What It Takes To Join Big Reputation

One of the biggest learnings I’ve had as MD is that every person we bring into Big Reputation has a direct impact on what we’re building as a business. We take recruitment seriously because the right people are crucial to growth for us and our clients.

At this stage of our growth we’re focused on building a strong core team. For the time being, we want to recruit marketers, creatives, account managers and senior hires who can bring capability, confidence and commercial value into the business. We’re not currently hiring any juniors into our team because before we do that, we want the right structure, leadership and standards in place.

Big Reputation is a brilliant place to work for the right person. We invest in our team, we care about development and we want the people who join us to become stronger and more confident in their roles. We do have high standards and we’re very clear about them from the start. It can be quite daunting to work in such a performance driven environment if you don’t have the drive and tenacity to constantly want to develop and achieve. 

Ultimately my goal is to build a high-performance, low-drama team. We’re looking for people who care about the work, take pride in the details, think commercially, handle feedback well and want to keep getting better.

So, this guide is designed to help future applicants. Firstly to decide if you’re the right fit for Big Reputation and secondly to outline everything that you can expect from our recruitment process to help you best prepare an application. 

We’re building a team 

In a growing business, every hire matters. Especially for us because we want to build out a lean, talented team where people have trust and autonomy to do their jobs well. 

There isn’t a huge layer of management for people to disappear into and there isn’t room for people to hide behind being “busy” while not achieving results. Everyone’s contribution is visible and that’s one of the best things about working in a small, ambitious team.

You can make a real impact here. You can get close to clients, be part of important conversations, see the results of your work and help shape the way the agency grows. That level of opportunity comes with responsibility though. 

The people who thrive here are proactive, diligent and emotionally intelligent. They can take a brief and think beyond the obvious. We want people who ask good questions, use their initiative and take ownership of their work without needing constant hand-holding.

My only rules at Big Rep are, work is delivered on time, to the standard that our clients and I expect and it helps to achieve our goals. That’s the ultimate success criteria of doing well here. 

Commercial thinking matters at every level

Big Reputation is a strategic marketing agency, which means the work we produce has to connect to something bigger than the deliverable itself.

Whether it’s a campaign designed to serve a clear purpose, content created for the right audience or a brand that aligns with the business’s direction, every element must work. Marketing should ultimately make a business stronger and more commercially effective.

That’s why commercial thinking matters so much here.

Yes, we’re interested in what you’ve created, but we’re even more interested in why you made it. We expect you to know who it was for, what problem it was solving and how it supported the business. A lovely looking post, clever idea or beautiful piece of creative work will always be stronger when there’s thinking behind it.

At a senior level, this becomes even more important. If you’re applying for a senior marketing, creative or account role, we need to see evidence that you understand the difference between activity and impact. That doesn’t mean every project needs perfect data attached to it, because we know people don’t always have access to full reporting in every role. It does mean you should be able to talk clearly about the brief, the audience, the objective, your decisions and the outcome.

Marketing can’t live in its own little world. The best people understand the business context around the work. We want the best. 

We can spot a lazy application quickly

We use AI tools ourselves, but there’s a time and place for it. The issue is when someone uses AI to produce an application that’s generic, unedited and completely lacking in thought.

If a cover letter could be sent to any agency in the country, it’s unlikely to stand out for the right reasons. The same applies when an application uses polished language but says nothing specific about Big Reputation, our work, our clients, our values or why the role is genuinely of interest.

We’re not expecting candidates to know everything about us before they apply and I’m definitely not looking for a theatrical love letter. We are looking for evidence of effort though. We want to see that you’ve taken the time to understand the business, thought about the role and made a clear case for why you could be a strong fit.

A thoughtful application will always carry more weight than one that sounds impressive but says very little.

Your portfolio should show how you think

A strong portfolio needs to give us enough context to understand your skills and your work properly.

Finished visuals, social posts, campaigns, blogs, websites or brand assets only tell part of the story. We want to understand the thinking behind them. What was the brief? Who was the audience? What were you trying to achieve? What role did you play? Why did you approach it in that way? What happened afterwards?

For creative roles, we want to see judgement, taste, consistency and an understanding of brand. For marketing and account roles, we want to see how your work connects to wider business goals. For senior roles, we want to see that you can think strategically and make decisions that support the bigger picture.

A portfolio should give us confidence in the way you approach work, instead of just focussing on the way the finished work looks.

Our values run through the way we work, the way we give feedback, the way we develop people and the way we make decisions as a team.

As part of our recruitment process, we’ll ask candidates about our values and how they’ve shown up in their own work and lives. We’re interested in real examples because values only matter when they’re visible in someone’s actions.

Revel in your work

We want people who take pride in what they do and enjoy their craft.

That means caring about the quality of your thinking, your communication, your attention to detail and your final delivery. Whether you’re writing copy, designing a brand, managing a client relationship, preparing a report or developing a campaign, having fun with that matters.

While we take the work seriously, we’re lucky enough to work in an industry that’s fun, inspiring and creative. I want to be surrounded by fun people who are positive and find joy in their work.

Every rep counts

Reputation is built through consistency and every interaction contributes to it.

That includes client meetings, emails, reports, creative work, social posts, presentations, internal communication and the way we show up as a team. The details people often dismiss are usually the details that build trust over time.

We look for people who understand that the small things influence the bigger picture. I’m a firm believer that how you do one thing is how you do everything.

Set the standard

We set our own standards and we keep raising them.

That can feel challenging, especially in a business where the expectations are high and the work is visible. We support people properly, but we also expect them to stretch themselves because growth doesn’t come from staying comfortable.

I push myself out of my comfort zone constantly and I expect the team to have that same appetite for improvement. That doesn’t mean everyone has to be perfect but I expect that everyone has to care about getting better.

Play to Win

Playing to win is about preparation, focus and effort.

It means showing up properly, taking the work seriously and being willing to give your best. Our clients trust us with their reputation, their marketing and often a very important stage of their business growth, so the work deserves real commitment.

The right people take responsibility for the standard they bring into the room.

Rebellious Optimism

We believe in possibility, but we’re practical about what it takes to achieve it.

Rebellious optimism means looking for solutions, challenging lazy thinking and staying focused when things feel difficult. It means being honest about problems without becoming consumed by them.

That mindset matters here because we work with ambitious businesses and we’re building one ourselves. We need people who bring energy, clarity and resilience into the team.

Feedback is part of doing excellent work

Ideas are challenged, copy is edited, or designs and campaigns are refined and questioned, this process is never personal; instead, understand that it’s a professional necessity designed to test strategies and ultimately make the work stronger.

We’ll always give feedback clearly and respectfully, but we won’t lower the standard to make a conversation more comfortable. The right people for us value honest feedback because they want to improve.

That’s why emotional intelligence is so important here… We need people who can listen, reflect, make changes and move forward without turning feedback into drama.

The attitude matters as much as the ability

Skill is important but attitude is the base of everything.

The people who thrive at Big Reputation are commercially minded, proactive, personable and diligent. They care about the details, communicate properly, take responsibility and want to keep learning. They can manage the pace of agency life well and thrive on it.

The behaviours that cause problems are usually easy to spot too: Needing to be chased repeatedly, hiding behind tasks, clock-watching, avoiding accountability, turning up late, bringing negativity into the team, being disorganised or treating client work like it’s just another thing on a list will not work here.

We care about the culture we’re building and we care about protecting the energy of the people who are doing good work. A strong team needs trust, reliability and respect running through it and as MD it’s my job to build and protect that.

We invest in people who want to be excellent

We want Big Reputation to be a place where ambitious people can build brilliant careers.

I’ll always place a focus on giving people access to training, development, better tools, the best equipment, a good working environment and opportunities to grow. We want our team to become stronger marketers, incredible creatives and more commercially confident professionals.

We’re a growing business with no external funding, so we’re careful and intentional about where we invest. We don’t waste money, time or resources, and we expect the team to respect what has been built. The equipment, environment, client relationships and opportunities we have are all there because of hard work and we want people who take pride in looking after them.

When we invest in someone, we want to see them use that support well. Training, coaching and mentoring only matters if it turns into better thinking, stronger work and more confidence in the role.

Our hiring process is designed to help us understand your experience, your standards, your thinking and if you’re the right fit for our team. It also gives you the chance to understand how we work too and make the best choice for you. Recruitment should feel clear on both sides, which why I’m writing this to be super upfront.

Application and portfolio review

The first stage is your application and portfolio.

We look at the relevance of your experience, the quality of your work, the effort you’ve put into applying and the way you present your thinking. We want to see that you understand the role, have taken time to understand Big Reputation and can show us work that gives a proper sense of your ability.

Shortlisting

Once applications have been reviewed, we shortlist the candidates who feel most aligned with the role and the direction of our business.

This isn’t based on years of experience or qualifications alone. We’re looking at quality, judgement, attitude, commercial awareness and the potential contribution someone could make to the team. From my recruitment days I learned to assess if someone has about 70-80% of what we’re looking for and try to gauge if we can develop the rest on the job.

Initial interview

The first interview is usually in person and with myself if you’re a senior hire or as we grow it will be with the head of department to the role you’re applying to.

The initial conversation gives us the chance to understand your experience, motivations, working style and standards. We’ll talk about your background, the type of work you’ve done, how you approach responsibility, how you handle feedback and what you’re looking for next.

We’ll also ask about our values, because they’re central to how we work and develop people.

Task

Shortlisted candidates will usually complete a task relevant to the role.

The purpose of the task is to understand how you think, how you interpret a brief, how you balance creativity with commercial purpose and how much care you put into the detail. We’re not looking for people to give away unpaid work so they’ll be dummy briefs and we’ll ask you to spend no more than an hour on it. We do need to assess how someone approaches the type of thinking the role requires.

Where relevant, especially for account management or client-facing roles, we may also ask for client input on task feedback. Many of our hires work directly on client accounts, so it matters that the work lands with the people it’s ultimately designed to support and that you get on with the clients we have.

Second interview and team introduction

If the task goes well, we’ll invite you back for a second interview. This will always be led by myself as the founder of Big Rep.

This is usually a deeper conversation about the role, the expectations and how you would fit into the team. It will also include the chance to meet other members of the team, because the team dynamic matters and we want the right person to feel excited about joining us.

Client meeting where relevant

For some senior or client-facing roles, we may ask candidates to meet selected clients as part of the process.

This won’t apply to every role, but when client relationships are central to the position, it helps us understand how someone communicates, builds trust and represents the agency.

Offer, references and probation

If we make an offer, it will be followed by reference checks and onboarding.

All new starters begin with a six-month probation period, with clear expectations, support and feedback from the beginning. During probation, we’re looking for consistency, reliability, coachability, ownership, quality of work and a positive contribution to the team.

If this sounds like the kind of environment where you’d do your best work, we’d love to hear from you when relevant applications come up.

Big Reputation is a strong fit for people who want to do meaningful work, think commercially, grow quickly and be part of a team that genuinely cares about high standards. We’ll support you, invest in you and give you opportunities to develop, but we’ll also expect you to take ownership, pull your weight and care about the quality of what you produce.

I know the right people will read this and feel excited by the challenge and grateful for the clarity we’ve given. That’s exactly who we want to meet.