I Spent 30 Years Pleasing Everyone… Then I Changed | Matt Burton on People Are Everything

S04 EP07 Matt Burton

What happens when a recruitment veteran decides to reinvent an entire industry — and himself?

In this episode of People Are Everything, host Julia Duthie speaks with Matt Burton, an Oxford graduate turned recruitment leader and AI innovator, about the five most influential people in his life.

From a Royal Navy veteran uncle who taught him about duty and reinvention…
To a fictional TV character who inspired mindfulness…
To a first boss who changed how he thinks about money and hunger…
To the band Chicago, whose six decades of consistency shaped his values…
To the wife who gave him structure and freedom in equal measure…

This is a powerful conversation about:

• AI in recruitment and the future of hiring
• Why CVs are broken
• Reinventing yourself at 60 (or 50)
• Male identity, responsibility and permission to change
• Loyalty, structure and creative obsession
• Letting go of pleasing everyone

Matt shares how AI should enhance human judgment — not replace it — and why he’s on a mission to transform recruitment in the next five years.

Matt's five:-

1. Uncle Andy — showed Matt what duty, loyalty, and “you can reinvent yourself at any age” really looks like.
2. Mark Harmon (as Gibbs in NCIS) — inspired Matt to find a true off-switch through mindful, hands-on making (model building).
3. Simon Harrington — his first boss who taught him hunger and leadership by example (“don’t ask others to do what you won’t do”).
4. Chicago (the band) — modelled longevity and staying true to your craft while adapting without losing identity.
5. Bobbie (his wife) — gave him structure, honesty, and freedom to stop pleasing everyone and rebuild after chaos.

This is a story about hunger, humility, obsession, grief, love and purpose.

Because at the end of everything — people are everything.

 

 

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