TGt Meets... Sian Jack

In this month's TGtS Meets we've been speaking to Sian Jack of IT Recruitment specialists Orchid Wire.

Please tell us a little about you and your business?

Orchid Wire is a specialist IT Recruitment business, which is staffed entirely by IT professionals, not recruitment consultants. This means our candidates are represented by people who have been in their shoes before and our clients get genuine IT experts to work on finding their colleagues. 

What inspired you to start Orchid Wire?

Orchid Wire was started by myself and my business partner Dan Romani as during our IT careers we got fed up with recruiters contacting us about roles that were totally outside our remit. I remember being contacted for a developer role once all because I had a specific keyword on my CV. We found throughout our careers that some recruiters out there do not understand the IT environment and the roles so we thought that this was an opportunity to bring something different and new to the IT recruitment world.

What’s been the biggest challenge setting up your business?

Initially the biggest challenge was having the faith that we can sustain ourselves whilst going through the start up. It was a huge decision to give up the day job and all the security that it had to offer and at times it’s really tough going without all the little luxuries like holidays. But it’s been worth every minute.

What are the benefits of using a recruitment agency?

The biggest benefits of using a recruitment agency are time and expertise. Especially for SME’s, Orchid Wire can offer them support at every stage of the recruitment from writing job descriptions, initial screening interviews (to really probe their IT knowledge!) right through to skills testing.  We can also save businesses time by doing all the paper sifting at the beginning and only sending a small number of high calibre candidates through to the hiring manager to review - knowing that they are all capable of performing the role that they are looking to fill. (Definitely a plus when you have over 200 applications for one role!)

What makes Orchid Wire different?

We have all been there, done that and got the T-Shirt so to speak. Everyone who works for Orchid Wire comes from an IT background and therefore we understand what it’s like to rack mount a server, deal with large scale infrastructure projects and manage technical queries.

What’s the best advice you’d give someone looking to move up the ladder?

Never assume you know everything and focus on maintaining and growing your professional network. Especially with constantly evolving technologies, a strong network will be there to help you in your day job as well as opening doors and opportunities further down the line.

What’s the best tip you’d give to an employer looking to hire?

Do your research to ensure that you have an accurate job spec with a healthy and realistic balance between essential and desirable skills. Where possible involve experts to confirm that your expectations are valid. If using an agency, find a specialist as you will get better results through their understanding of the arena and their access to candidates.

What is the worst thing you can do in an interview?

Over thinking and complicating an interview can in turn lead to you being under prepared. Research is vitally important but don’t overdo it. Conversely, if you don’t do any research it can lead your answers to become confused, jumbled and irrelevant. Oh, and don’t cry in the interview… yep, that’s right – don’t cry. We’ve had this happen to a candidate before and it looks far from great.

What’s been the highlight of your career so far?

For me it had to be starting work on the business full time. For a long time the business was being managed around the day job to ensure we could sustain our income and lifestyles. When the time was right to cut the employment strings it made me realise how far we had come with Orchid Wire and how much of a success we could make it.

Setting up a business takes a lot of work, what do you do when you’re not working?

I love going to London exploring - everything from the West End to a walk around Camden market and other tourist attractions. We like to spend time going out on family day trips to the zoo, swimming, country houses or theme parks when we have my other half’s little boy. However, when I have some time to shut down completely, I am partial to a glass of wine and sitting down doing some cross stitch.