People Behind the Brand: Tom Fern

In this instalment of People Behind the Brand, the series where you get to know the Orbis team, we sit down with Senior Cloud Consultant Tom Fern.

We chatted about all things Orbis, his top tips on work-life balance, and how he ended up making his way from a career on cruise ships to one in recruitment.

Tell us about your journey to recruitment…

I’d just finished up as a sports instructor on a cruise ship and didn't get accepted onto a Sports Psychology master's degree, so I was at a bit of a crossroads as to what to do career-wise. 

I knew nothing about recruitment but a good mate of mine was working at Orbis and said I’d be good at it, so I had a chat with a few different companies and another recruiter recommended that I choose Orbis as apparently, I kept talking about them in the interview!

What's the best part of the job?

Getting the perfect fit - a candidate the client loves, a job the candidate loves and then giving them the offer and hearing how happy they are.

I also love the fact that there's no ceiling to how good you can be, there are so many different elements to being a great recruiter so you’re always learning.

What's the biggest challenge?

The biggest challenge for me recently has been switching off, it was never an issue when I went into the office but it's a lot more of a conscious effort to stay off emails and LinkedIn when I’m at home.

What’s something you wish you’d known at the start of your career?

It’s a long process to become a great recruiter, you have to mess up, learn from different people, work with different clients etc.

It doesn’t happen overnight, I think I was quite naive and believed I would smash it from day one.

In another life... If you weren't a recruiter, what would you be doing?

One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is trying to find candidates that aren’t the easiest to find so maybe like a detective or something… Or a golfer!!

How did you discover recruitment and when did you know it was the career for you?

My mate introduced me to Orbis and recruitment. Not sure when the “moment” was but I loved the social side from the start, this was my first office job and didn’t think the environment would be as fun as it was.

The first bit of commission I got definitely helped cement the idea that this was for me.

Your success story within Orbis is a special one, throughout an unprecedented time for the world and the company, can you tell us about the journey to your current position?

I started doing UX, to begin with, and I just didn’t get it at the time, but it’s a great market to start with because everyone seemed so chatty and friendly so it was quite a nice way to get introduced to recruitment.

Since then I’ve been in the cloud team, focusing primarily on GCP and have gone from Associate Consultant to Consultant and now Senior Consultant. 

What are the top skills everyone needs to:

A, be a recruiter?

Listening, creativity, empathy and hard work. 

B, work in a team?

Communication, supportiveness and contribution to discussions.

C, balance life and work?

Actually, quite a big challenge, not because of Orbis but at the start, you just think working longer hours is going to mean greater success which is not necessarily the case. You need time to switch off so you can come back to work refreshed and with a more creative mindset.