Name: Lynn Walters

Age: 40 something!

Job description: Director and founder of a specialist recruitment business. I spend my time split between senior management and board level recruitment for clients, looking at new opportunities to develop the business and creating the best environment for our staff to excel at what they do best.

Who do you work for? Pure Resourcing Solutions - which specialises in providing recruitment services for Accountancy, Executive, Financial Services, Human Resources, Marketing and professional Office Support. We also provide additional services such as assessment centres, proficiency and psychometric testing, training, salary benchmarking and coaching.

Where are you based? I travel between our four offices in Ipswich, Cambridge, Norwich and Chelmsford, but also spend some time in London, working with our Financial Services clients.

What gets you out of bed in the morning? The alarm! I am not at my best first thing. What was your first ever job? I was a management trainee for an independent department store in Cambridge. I wanted to be a fashion buyer, but I ended up managing the stationary department!

Do you remember your first day at work and, if so, what was it like and what did you do? I can remember spending an hour on the bus travelling in to Cambridge and meeting a great team of colleagues in my fellow management trainees. We were all very different but a good group and we spent a lot of time together at college in London on a weekly day release. When I learnt that I had been allocated to the Christmas stationary department I had to overcome my disappointment at not being on the fashion floor.

How did you get where you are now? Through tenacity, focus, drive and determination and by learning that you can achieve far more as part of a team than on your own.

What was your best day at work and why? There have been a few which typically involve winning and delivering new business. However, after Gill, Ian and I (my fellow Directors) had been building the business for three years, we realised that we had achieved our five year plan in just three years and in what was not the best market. What's more we had been fortunate enough to be joined by a team of really experienced consultants who had built some great relationships with our clients and candidates and the numbers showed that. Some of my most memorable days are when I receive excellent feedback from our candidates or clients about their experience of working with Pure. We are clearly different from our competitors; we offer a superior service to our candidates and clients through our consultative approach, in-depth local knowledge and the ability to match the right candidate with the right role in the right company, ensuring they will flourish and make a difference.. This all complements our core values of honesty and integrity and that makes me feel proud.

What was your worst day at work and why? It was in 2008 when the recession first hit. This had a significant impact on recruitment and as Directors we had to take the difficult decision to close our Peterborough office within just five months of opening. Telling the staff of our decision was the toughest of days.

What impresses you most on your own CV? That, along with two other Directors and a senior management team, we have created a business I am very proud to be a part of, which has a strong set of values and a commitment to long term relationships.

What impresses you most on someone else's? I see many CV's in my role and picking out one thing is tough, but anyone that can demonstrate a sense of drive by doing something out of the ordinary works for me.

What do you hate to see in a CV? Anything that is more than 4 pages long! I switch off.

Do you think you make a good employee and if so, why/why not? Well, I don't like being told what to do and I will continually question why something is done in a certain way, so I don't think I would be the easiest employee in the world. However, I can make things happen so it would depend on the role.

Do you think you are a good employer, and if so, why/why not? Yes, I think so. I do have quite high expectations of myself and others, and I can be quite direct in my feedback at times, but the team always know where they stand. As a business we have created a very flexible, supportive environment for our staff and I spend a lot of time thinking how we can be good employers.

What do you think are your best attributes at work? I'm good at listening, have lots of energy and an entrepreneurial spirit.

What are your worst failings? I can be too direct

If you weren't doing the above, what would you be doing? It would have to be something creative like interior design (I spend far too much time browsing interiors magazines!) or building our own house which has been a dream of mine for some time.

What are the attributes in work colleagues in general that you admire the most? A positive attitude, energy, empathy and team work.

What are the failings in work colleagues in general that you hate the most? A negative attitude and giving up easily.

What's your biggest work worry? The ongoing negative news about the general economy and how much companies will recruit next year is a concern, but this is out of our control. I believe in concentrating on what we can control; to be consistently giving great service to our candidates and clients which will ensure they do come to us whenever they need to recruit.

What's your best stress-buster? A run in the woods or on the beach with our Dalmatian Ruby.

Outside of work, what do you enjoy doing? I have two children aged 10 and 12 who both love their sport, so I spend a lot of time helping out and supporting them at swimming galas, hockey and cricket matches and athletics meets. If I have any free time, then a walk on the beach or a trip to a spa is a real treat for me.

If you had the power to do any job in the world, what would it be and why? Organising the corporate hospitality for London 2012, so that I could meet and all the inspirational athletes at this special event.