P.J. Recruitment and Executive Search

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P.J. Recruitment and Executive Search We find specialist talent for residential and home care services, retirement living, disabilities an We find the best talent, allowing people to be their best.

We provide executive search, recruitment and career counselling services for the aged care and disabilities sectors.

Every executive search has a story. Our job is to find it and tell it well.When StewartBrown engaged us to find a Senior...
19/10/2026

Every executive search has a story. Our job is to find it and tell it well.

When StewartBrown engaged us to find a Senior Aged Care Financial Consultant, we didn't start with the position description. We started with questions.

Why was the role available? What was happening in the business? Why did they need this person now? What did they need them to achieve in their first 12 months? And why would someone successful and settled somewhere want to be part of it?

Because that's where a good search starts. Before we take a role to market, we need to understand the problem our client is solving, and the opportunity sitting inside it.

In this case, the person we ultimately appointed wasn't looking for another job. we tapped him on the shoulder.

But we didn’t send him a position description and ask if he was interested, we told him the story. What StewartBrown was building.

Why they were recruiting. What they needed from this role. Where his experience fitted. And what he could do with the opportunity.

It resonated enough to turn someone who wasn't looking into someone who wanted to know more. And ultimately, into the person who took the job.

He later left us this review:

“PJ was an excellent recruiter, very professional, great insightful advice, managed the relationships well, and always kept me apprised of the situation. Strongly recommend her services.”

For us, that's executive search.

The storytelling doesn't start when we approach a candidate. It starts in the client briefing where we question and get curious and work out what's really going on. Because the most compelling part of an opportunity often isn't written anywhere in the position description.

Because headhunting isn't simply finding someone who can do the job. It's understanding the opportunity well enough to make the right person want to hear about it.

We recently tried to move too quickly on a recruitment assignment.It was a contingent role, we rarely work contingent. S...
14/10/2026

We recently tried to move too quickly on a recruitment assignment.

It was a contingent role, we rarely work contingent. Several recruiters were working on it and everyone was racing to find candidates. In the rush to get people in front of the client, our initial phone screening wasn’t as thorough as it should have been.

The result? We spent 45 to 60 minutes formally interviewing people we could probably have phone screened out in a short 10 minutes.

Every quarter, our team maps our recruitment process from beginning to end and asks four questions: Where did the process get stuck? Where did we waste time? What didn’t work well for the candidate? What could we do better for the client?

This review took us straight back to the humble phone screen.

We now develop five or six questions that are purpose fit for each assignment. It's not rocket science, but sometimes you need to fail to be reminded of top recruitment tips and tricks. We pepper this phone screening now based on the organisation’s situation, the realities of the role, the working environment and what the person will actually be walking into and need to deliver.

We’re not simply confirming what is already written on the CV. We’re listening for judgement, motivation, communication, humility, self-awareness and whether the opportunity actually fits the person’s life.

Our aim isn’t to interview ten people to find three good ones. It’s to screen intelligently enough that we only need to interview two or three.

Sometimes improving a recruitment process isn’t about adding another assessment, meeting or piece of technology.

It’s about becoming much better at the conversation you’re already having.

Five stars and a happy candidate. That's the best part of what we do 🌟 Pouring genuine care into every search, every con...
05/10/2026

Five stars and a happy candidate. That's the best part of what we do 🌟

Pouring genuine care into every search, every conversation, and every placement ticks everyone's boxes.

People deserve more than just a recruiter, they deserve a supportive seasoned recruitment partner.

October is Mental Health Month, a good prompt to do the simple things we all mean to do more often.Reach out.Check in.As...
01/10/2026

October is Mental Health Month, a good prompt to do the simple things we all mean to do more often.

Reach out.
Check in.
Ask how someone is and listen to the answer.

In the sectors we work in, people spend their days carrying a lot for others. Leaders especially. And the ones who carry the most are often the least likely to say they’re struggling.

Connection doesn’t have to be a big gesture. It can be a message. A phone call. Five minutes that aren’t about work. Small things that remind someone they’re not on their own.

So this month, check in on someone. And if someone checks in on you, tell them the truth.

Great leaders don't just fill a seat. They shape culture, inspire teams, and move organisations forward 🌟 Finding those ...
29/09/2026

Great leaders don't just fill a seat. They shape culture, inspire teams, and move organisations forward 🌟

Finding those people is what we do best, and we love every moment of it.

Recently, as part of a proposal process, a prospective client asked me a pointed question:Name three organisations you w...
24/09/2026

Recently, as part of a proposal process, a prospective client asked me a pointed question:

Name three organisations you would not approach candidates from.

It’s a smart question. And I suspect it was designed to test something specific – do we poach the people we place?

The answer matters, because it goes to the heart of how ethical search actually works.

The care sector is a small world. Everyone knows everyone. People move between organisations, sit on each other’s boards, cross paths at the same conferences year after year. Reputations travel fast and they last.

In an environment like that, how a recruiter handles trust isn’t a soft consideration. It’s the whole game.

In my latest blog, I unpack how we approach it – the boundaries we set upfront, and why confidentiality is an absolute, always.

I also share something we’re noticing more and more: senior candidates now ask “is this clean?” before they ask about salary. They want to know the process has integrity before they’ll engage. And that tells you a great deal about what the best people are really looking for in a search partner.

Here’s a question worth asking any recruiter before you engage them: can you explain your off-limits approach, clearly and without hesitation?

If they can, you’ve learned something reassuring. If they can’t – it’s worth wondering what else they’re making up as they go.

Read the blog here bit.ly/3T1nrNU 🔗

“It's my dream job. I don't mind driving 100km each way.”Recruiters everywhere: 😬There are certain sentences I've learnt...
22/09/2026

“It's my dream job. I don't mind driving 100km each way.”
Recruiters everywhere: 😬

There are certain sentences I've learnt to become very curious about.

“I’m happy to take a significant pay cut.”

“Three days in the office is absolutely fine.”
— from someone currently working almost entirely from home.

“The commute won't bother me.”

Perhaps it won’t. But experience has taught me that enthusiasm can temporarily make inconvenient facts look surprisingly small.

Then Monday morning arrives. And Tuesday. And the 100km drive home on Thursday evening. And the petrol bill. And suddenly that tiny compromise we discussed during recruitment has become a rather large part of somebody's life.

This is where recruitment needs to go back to some of the good old-fashioned basics. Not just: can this person do the job? But: can this person's real life sustainably accommodate this job?

That matters enormously when we're recruiting leaders into regional aged care, mental health and social care organisations.

A brilliant CV doesn't shorten a commute. Purpose doesn't pay the mortgage. And a shiny new title doesn't magically make family logistics disappear.

None of this means candidates shouldn't stretch themselves or take career risks. They should. But good recruitment requires us to interrogate the bits everybody is enthusiastically waving away.

Because sometimes the biggest predictor that somebody won't stay isn't hidden in a psychometric assessment. It's sitting there in plain sight.

What “small compromise” have you seen become the reason somebody eventually left?

Most of us aren't looking for another job. Until suddenly, we are.What actually makes an experienced leader move?I've be...
17/09/2026

Most of us aren't looking for another job. Until suddenly, we are.

What actually makes an experienced leader move?

I've been thinking about this because recruiters spend an extraordinary amount of time approaching people who weren't planning to go anywhere. No half-written application. No “Open to Work” switched on. Perfectly happy.

Then something changes.

A new CEO arrives. The commute becomes intolerable. A restructure shifts the role. A parent needs care. The kids leave home and suddenly relocation becomes possible. Or a recruiter calls with an opportunity that creates that tiny, dangerous thought: “Actually… I'd be curious to hear more.”

That curiosity fascinates me.

Because when we’re recruiting experienced executives into aged care, mental health and social care, our job isn't simply to find people who are looking. It's to uncover the circumstances under which a good person might consider change.

And that is a very different search. It means understanding people's motivations before trying to sell them anything. What matters now? What might matter in three years? What would they move towards? What would they never compromise on again?

There is a lesson here for organisations too. If your executive recruitment strategy is built around advertising to people who have already decided to leave somewhere else, you're searching a very small part of the market.

Some of the most interesting candidates are quite happily getting on with their lives, until somebody gives them a compelling reason to imagine a different one.

So perhaps the question isn't: “Who’s looking?”

Perhaps it's: “Who would be worth making curious?”

Sometimes a candidate leaving means the recruitment worked.That sounds slightly ridiculous coming from a recruiter, does...
14/09/2026

Sometimes a candidate leaving means the recruitment worked.

That sounds slightly ridiculous coming from a recruiter, doesn’t it? But stay with me.

We tend to treat every resignation within the first year or two as evidence that something went wrong. The wrong person. The wrong culture. The wrong recruitment decision.

Sometimes, absolutely. But sometimes life simply barges through the front door.

An ageing parent becomes unwell. A partner is relocated. A former employer comes knocking with the role they always wanted. Family circumstances change. People change. Priorities change.

I’ve placed leaders who were genuinely right for the organisation when they accepted the role - and genuinely right to leave when their circumstances changed.

Particularly at executive level, Boards and CEOs need to be careful about automatically diagnosing every unexpected departure as a recruitment failure. The better questions might be: Was this person the right appointment, given everything we knew at the time? Did they perform? Did they contribute? Did they strengthen the organisation? Did they leave because the role or organisation wasn't right, or because their life changed?

The cost of replacing a senior leader is significant. And when somebody leaves unexpectedly, we should investigate why. But perhaps we also need to be more sophisticated about how we define a successful hire.

Retention matters. But retention isn't the only measure of whether we got the recruitment right.

Sometimes we did get it right. And then life happened.

Curious to hear how Boards and executives see this one: when does an early departure become a recruitment failure - and when is it simply life?

Today is R U OK? Day. A national reminder that a simple question, asked properly, can matter more than we realise.In the...
09/09/2026

Today is R U OK? Day. A national reminder that a simple question, asked properly, can matter more than we realise.

In the sectors we work in – aged care, mental health, community services – people spend their working lives looking after others. Leaders carry a great deal, often quietly. And the ones who care most are frequently the ones least likely to admit they’re struggling.

So, this is a good day to check in. Not the passing “how are you?” we all ask on autopilot, but the real version. Asking properly. And then staying long enough to actually hear the answer.

You don’t need the right words. You don’t need to fix anything. You just need to ask, and mean it.

To everyone holding more than they let on – we hope someone asks you today, too.

Address

Suites 1&2, Level 1, 951/957 Pacific Highway
Sydney, NSW
2073

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+61291444544

Website

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