At Harvard, he produced In The Shadow of The City,[6] a case study and video focusing on slum improvement works in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Reed's first job was leveling graves at a graveyard in Old Windsor,[7] which he described as "...miserable, it was cold, it was horrible and hard - and I didn't last very long at it.
He sent a speculative job application to Gordon and Anita Roddick of The Body Shop, working in the firm's stores in Brighton and Great Marlborough Street, London.
From 1987 to 1988 he coordinated relief and development programmes in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, on behalf of Help the Aged and Afghanaid.
After the Tom Peters documentary grossed £1m, Reed requested funding for a similar programme but was denied, prompting him to leave the BBC.
[23][24] In 1997 Reed was invited to bid on contracts issued by the Blair administration, in which some of the traditional work of Job Centres was outsourced to the private sector.
These Academies will provide essential skills training for assessors and installers of net-zero technologies, including solar power, electric vehicles and heat pumps.
"[30] Reed has also spoken of being "horrified" when a young member of staff suggested that the website should offer vacancies advertised by rival recruitment firms.
Reed would go on to approve the experiment; the scheme began in May 2000 and by November of the same year over 2000 rival firms had registered on the site.
[41] He has argued that state contracts should not go to corporations that deliberately delay payments to creditors, comparing such firms to "drunk drivers".
[47] He has described the employer's National Insurance increases announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the 2024 budget as a tax on jobs.
[48] In 2022, Reed correctly predicted that the UK would avoid a recession, contradicting the Bank of England's forecast of an economic downturn.
However, in July 2023, Reed warned that a recession may be imminent, pointing to declining job postings as an indicator of economic contraction, again contrary to official projections.
[49] Reed was formerly an associate of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit and a member of the IPPR's Taskforce on Race Equality and Diversity in the Private Sector.
During an interview with Spears in March 2023, he expressed his desire to recruit affluent families and charitable institutions from other countries, offering them a "starter kit" to create localized versions of The Big Give.
After witnessing the Grenfell Tower fire, Reed set up a Big Give charity appeal that raised £1m within 48 hours of the disaster and £2.6m in total.
Reed called for some of the appeal proceeds to be spent on an educational centre for local residents to learn coding and other digital skills.
[59][60] Co-authored by Reed and Harvard lecturer Paul G. Stoltz, Put Your Mindset to Work was published by Portfolio Penguin in May 2011.
[64][65] The title refers to the extremely short amount of time that Reed suggests recruiters spend reading a CV.
Reed offers advice on presenting an immediately-impactful CV, honing a unique selling point and the role of social media profiles.
Successful executives tend to be sociable and gregarious - but also “sustainably selfish”, establishing personal boundaries to protect against burnout.
[68] In a 2020 interview with Management Today, Reed described Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends And Influence People as the business book that "...resonated most with me".
Reed has identified his father as the person he most admires in the recruitment industry, and King Alfred the Great as his boyhood hero.
[73] Reed was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to business and charity.