Our JBM SOS team has been on an incredible journey, since launching at the end of 2020, placing over 50 fractional leaders over the last 12 months. If you haven’t heard of our flexible talent solution yet, make sure you head here to find out more. 

In this community spotlight feature, we caught up with Jamie Devlin, who we placed into a Commercial Development role at Cushon, the ISA and pensions Scaleup. Before his switch to a portfolio career, Jamie worked in strategy consulting with Bain and spent seven years working in leading neo-banks, including Tandem and Revolut. In today’s interview we find out more about Jamie’s experience with JBM SOS and his advice for anyone looking for a more flexible employment arrangement.

Jamie, tell us something we wouldn’t necessarily learn from your CV? 

Firstly, I absolutely love drum and bass music and will seek it out wherever I can find it, one of those places being my spin class. Another little fun fact is my passion for skiing – downhill, uphill, cross-country – you name it. I’m actually speaking to you from a cross-country ski resort in Canada right now.

Amazing! What has your experience with JBM SOS looked like so far? 

I’ve had a fantastic experience with SOS, right from my very first interaction with James and the team. I think what sets SOS apart from other ad-hoc consulting businesses is that they really try and match you up in a very thoughtful way, with companies where you can really add value. I found with other recruitment agencies, they will often just fire out roles to anyone and basically treat it like a numbers game. 

I found that JBM will go the extra mile to think very carefully about where you could add value and match you up with those companies and opportunities, which means that you’re likely to have a much better experience. You waste a lot less time interviewing for things that just aren’t suitable or that you aren’t qualified for. It’s likely to benefit you personally as well. You can add value right from the word ‘go’. So yeah, I’ve had a really positive experience.

That’s so great to hear. Why would you recommend SOS to others with similar profiles to yours? 

I got a lot from my early career in strategy consulting and learned a heck of a lot at both, Tandem and Revolut, but I would say SOS tends to be quite lucrative if you were looking at roles in the Tech/FinTech space, or any new, emerging industries. That’s not to say the traditional ones don’t offer lots of opportunities. 

Also, at SOS you’ll be really in demand. I was pleasantly surprised by just how many opportunities come up. I haven’t really been doing any proactive work at all – they just tend to come to you. Plus, things can be put in motion very quickly – from day one of saying you’re interested to starring on the project and getting going and billing your hours – it can be one or two days, honestly.

And lastly, for anyone reading this looking for flexible employment – what advice do you have for them? 

I would say, go for it. 

The flexibility that working an organisation like JBM gives you, for me, is really important, especially for my current life and my priorities. I think you can get involved with really impressive, blue-chip, market leading companies and be critical to some of their most important projects. But you can also do it on your terms and not necessarily have to be committed in the way that you would be if you were working somewhere like Bain, McKinsey, BCG or any of the other FinTechs. 

So, definitely go for it. I wouldn’t let anything or any doubts hold you back. I’ve personally had a great experience with it and hope to continue working with JBM SOS for the longer-term. 

If you’ve been thinking about making a similar career move, please get in touch with our JBM SOS Head of Community, Alice Olafare at ku.oc.cmbj@ecila.