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My Journey at Mantell Associates - Nikhil Akkoo

I joined Mantell Associate (MA) in April 2021 in the midst of the UK lockdown.

I graduated in December 2019 with a MSc in Regenerative Medicine from Queen Mary, University of London and was still working my part-time job that I had since my 2nd year of university. It was an extremely challenging part of my life trying to work out where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do in life. After realising that, I didn’t want to go into a laboratory environment to start my career, I began researching what I could do that also allowed me to utilise the degrees I worked so hard to obtain.

I began looking into the Life Science Recruitment industry and to be frank, I didn’t hear good things at first from family and friends about the recruitment industry in general. I heard that it was a toxic environment, long hours, unrealistic earning potentials advertised and a back-stabbing work culture. At this time, I had done a lot of research into recruitment, ignoring the advice I heard about it and being a talkative and very social person – I thought this industry would be great for me to network with Executive individuals within the Life Science space.

When I received an invitation to speak with the CEO of Mantell Associates, I had already received 2 offers from 2 other Life Science Recruitment Organisations that I wasn’t very confident about. On my call with Alessandro, we found a lot of common ground – a person who is a very strong believer of manifesting, the law of attraction and a mindset for success, I knew I had to join Mantell Associates.

My journey when I joined Mantell Associates was a rollercoaster. 5 months in and I had still not billed anything, yet the other Associates that had joined MA at the same time had all billed around £30k each. Strong willed and resilient, I knew my time was most definitely coming so I stuck with what I had learned and everyday pitched harder, and then boom. I had done 7 deals in 2 weeks, taking me up to £75k in billings with 5 different clients. Nevertheless, the 5 months of hard work, grinding and staying positive taught me the hardest lesson and yet the best lesson, recruitment is about the long game. If you want easy money recruitment is not for you but if you’re a hard-working, dedicated person, driven for success, then Mantell Associates will guide you to that success.

MA has offered me so much. An amazing environment to learn and help each other grow, the opportunity to speak with CEOs of HUGE Pharma/Biotech organisations, a manager/mentor that sees my potential and helps/motivates me to push even further. 

Fast forward even more, I am now a Senior Associate at Mantell Associates specifically focusing on the Large Molecule space with 3 Major Clients that I have placed candidates with and I am on the way to signing my 4th major client.

To conclude, I know I have made the right decision in joining Mantell Associates – this is just the beginning of my very successful journey


If you are looking to get into recruitment or are already working in the industry but you are looking for an environment that is all about ‘Positivity & Self Belief’, ‘Hard Work’, ‘Passion’, ‘Excellence’ and ‘Being a Team Player’ then contact us on +44 (0)20 3854 7700.