What were you doing before you joined Quorum?

I was working at the National Trust for Scotland in quite a similar role as a Project Manager within their IT function for over two years.

The main difference being that it was more of a “hands-on” delivery, so although I was Project Manager there were a lot of varying tasks within that e.g. being involved with physical hardware deployments.

Tell us a bit about your team and working patterns?

I am a Project Manager within the PMO team. I think Gabby explained this in her article recently; working in a project management team is quite different from other departments. You don’t tend to work closely with your teammates day-to-day, you’re working on your own projects and so that means you’re actually working more closely with other teams across the company. But we have regular meetups both in and out of work to keep those relationships strong.

I work remotely, which I absolutely love. It gives me the freedom to do more outside of work. We’ve got all the technology required to make that setup work and there is the opportunity and options to go to the office whenever I want to.

The only con might be your everyday human contact, but if I’m being honest that’s not really a biggie for me, I’m comfortable with working remotely, so I’m happy!

Any notable moments from your first six months?

I’ll take it right back to day-one, where, as part of the onboarding process I was expecting to ease in slowly, get up-to-speed, learn the processes. But it was pretty different to that! Now this is by no means a negative, actually this is a positive, but by the end of day-one/start of day-two, boom, I was given my list of projects that I’d be working on.

Of course that was a challenge, but also it’s been a massive learning opportunity. It allowed me to just crack on and so that’s been the right approach for me. Getting thrown in at the deep end, I’m probably more advanced and more comfortable in Quorum and my role than if I’d been drip-fed information. That’s been the most important part, the autonomy. I don’t feel like i’m only six months in. It really suits the way I like working.

How is Quorum different from other employers? 

The best company culture I’ve ever experienced and that’s genuine. I think that’s driven by the people, first and foremost. Everyone is very open and welcoming. There isn’t that hierarchical feeling that you get at some organisations.

As I touched on before, there’s the autonomy too. Being able to contribute to improvement is a big aspect that I enjoy. The PMO is a relatively new function in the business when you compare it to some of the other departments, so being able to contribute ideas to enhance and refine it is rewarding. It feels like I’m able to play a part in the bigger picture.

Sharon (Head of PMO) is also great. We speak when we need to, but I’m not constantly being chased for updates or bothered by unnecessary communication. Being trusted to have control and responsibility over what you do is a great aspect of working at Quorum. I’m confident and comfortable in achieving what I’m supposed to, so it feels really good to be allowed to just get on with it!

What have been your biggest achievements or highlights? 

My biggest achievement would probably be a specific project. One of the first projects I was given right at the start was a Semarchy implementation for a large client in the education sector. It hasn’t been without its challenges, but by working closely with the client and internal team in a collaborative way and in an open and transparent way, we’ve been able to remediate any issues.

We experienced some setbacks along the way, but working in this way with the client has kept us on track and we’re now just days away from successfully delivering an important phase of the project.

It’s great to be in a strong position and have developed and maintained such a good relationship with the client. For me, that’s one of the most important things, especially when you’ve encountered some challenges together.

What do you hope to achieve over the next six months? 

I’m keen to gain more experience at the Programme Management level, which is the step up from Project Management. I had some brief experience of this in my previous role and I know there are a few potential opportunities coming up in Quorum that could be lined up in the near future and so my goal is to work on taking that next step. That would be ideal as the next stepping stone in my career path.

Really, I’m biding my time, making sure I’m doing as good a job as possible in my current role and then taking any opportunities when they come!