Consultant Focus with Lorna Burrows

Lorna is a Senior Consultant specialising in Technology for McGregor Boyall’s Glasgow Team. Lorna graduated with a degree in International Business in 2013 and has been working in the Technology industry since 2015 when she joined a Glasgow software house as their Sales & Marketing Executive. She moved into Technology Recruitment later that year.

Lorna is passionate about Diversity within the Scottish Technology market, having been a finalist (2019) and winner (2020) for the Gender Aware Recruiter of the Year Awards at the Scotland Women in Technology (SWIT) Awards. She regularly collaborates on events with SWIT Board of Directors and is also a Collaborator, Speaker and Mentor with the Dell STEMAspire programme.

1. How did you get into recruitment?
I worked in a lot of both customer service and sales roles during University where I studied International Business and Marketing, and learned I am motivated by building relationships with people, so I knew from early on in my career that I would love recruitment! I just needed to find the right company to give me a chance to prove myself, and finally got that chance after a couple of years of working in Sales and Marketing roles for small companies and getting some experience of the technology sector.

2. What advice would you give to someone just getting into recruitment?
Be inquisitive – ask your peers, candidates and clients tons of questions. It will really help you build relationships, understand your market and learn. Don’t be afraid to say ‘I’m new, please help me’.

3. What has been your career highlight to date?
I’m people-driven, so my all-time favourite was telling a young candidate not only that he got the job, but he also got a £20K pay rise. His reaction was priceless, I really did help change his life and that’s the reason I do this job! Oh yeah, and there was the time a candidate thanked me with a diamond ring ha-ha!

4. What has been the biggest career challenge you have faced and how did you overcome it?
Sometimes even the best of us have dry spells in recruitment and they can be really tough! It can seem like an endless stream or bad news, rejections, pull-outs, cancelled roles etc. Believe it or not, for my first six months in recruitment I actually didn’t bill! You just have to keep pushing, making those incremental gains and believing that if you do good work, the good will come. After a dry six months, I had the probably the most bountiful six months of my career to date! Effort, resilience and belief go a long way.

5. What do you love about recruitment?
This might sound a bit cheeky, but I love selling the dream. I get to know my candidates really well and know when I’ve found them the dream job. I love telling them about it and hearing them get more and more excited about it. Of course telling them they got the job at the end of the process isn’t bad too!

6. What do you think are the key attributes needed to be successful in recruitment?
Resilience is crucial! The highs are amazingly high, but the lows can be pretty damn low, so being able to weather the storm is essential. You also need to be a good communicator and build good relationships with everyone you meet. And you need to be self-motivated. It doesn’t matter what those motivations are but knowing them and being able to focus on them and push without anyone behind you telling you to will set you apart.

7. What keeps you motivated
There are two sides to this for me. The first is people – I love being able to say I’ve made a change to someone’s life to feel that someone is genuinely thankful for my support, so building those long-term relationships and getting to see my impact reminds me why I do this. The second is money, of course! I always have a life goal I’m looking to achieve and the money I make brings me closer to that. Before it was achieving my life goal of a solo trip across Japan, and I am so proud to say I achieved that goal in 2019! Now it’s to get my own mortgage and every day I get closer to that goal, something that for a long time I did not think I would be able to achieve on my own.

8. If you weren’t a Recruiter, what would you be?
A politician. Back when I finally got a job offer for a Recruitment position, I was due to go down to London to start a Government Fast-track program in Marketing for the government and I pulled out to follow my dream of recruitment. I often wonder about my forking path as a spin-doctor, I know I would be SUCH a different person – a lot less conscientious and a lot less happy. But it would make a good TV show ha-ha.

9. Which famous person would you most like to have lunch with and why?
I’m a huge sci-fi nerd so if I could meet Sir Patrick Stewart for even just one second I would die happy. He is an absolute national treasure and to be able to say I shared a hot Earl Grey with Jean-Luc Picard would just be the absolute best. Make it so!

10. Why McGregor Boyall?
I joined the business in 2019 when I was three years into my career, and by that point I knew I was good at wanted a platform to grow. I wanted colleagues who share my values and work ethic, but also who would be good fun down the pub. I wanted a professional business that could provide me with clear goals and progression plans, but who also wouldn’t make me take my nose ring out or hide my tattoos. I wanted a business with a good reputation and existing base in the technology sector so that I could start making money from day one and continue my progress to my next life goal. I had other offers, but McGregor Boyall ticked every box for me, and two years later I can say with complete confidence it was one of the best decisions I have ever made!