Life at Verco, Q&A's with Tom Purkhardt

We are a mission-lead business and have a collaborative working style, but don't just take our word for it! This article forms part of a series of 'Life at Verco' Q&A's where Tom Purkhardt, Senior Consultant within the Corporates team gives his insight into what it's really like to work here.

Q: Is there anything that’s surprised you about working at Verco?

A: "There's way more freedom and responsibility far quicker than you get from a traditional large consultancy. In my very first week I was on site doing an audit and interacting with clients. That was important to me and gave me a sense of making a real contribution from the get-go. I haven't looked back."

Q: What makes you stay at Verco?

A: "Verco is extremely well interlinked internally, so if you find you're drawn to certain aspects of work - in my case account management - then you have that freedom to diversify and explore that field. It's not a case of a set role with a set output that you can never deviate from. You get to choose what you want to do and as a result shape your career in line with your interests.

Q: What stands out culturally when you talk to friends about Verco?

A: "One factor that stands out for me about Verco is the openness and willingness to share and support each other with how things work and the bigger picture. Knowledge sharing is a definitely part of our DNA.

By being in our Deliver for Zero business, I get to work at clients' sites, assessing how to adapt sites to overcome carbon challenges. Anything from a huge scale brewery in the Dominican Republic to a small warehouse factory in the UK. I find small sites are equally rewarding because you're working off engineering principles, so the same things have applicability to one massive unit as they do to a tiny unit, but the results are seen faster."

Q: What's it like going on-site with Verco and being able to travel?

A: "I travel regularly within the UK and internationally as part of my job. This year I've been to South Africa, the Dominican Republic, as well as Aylesbury, Andover, and Hereford. It's fascinating discovering how different site teams operate across the same global business and how their challenges to get to net zero are the same but the pathways to get there are completely different. It means no two visits are ever the same. A great by-product of working at Verco is that I can find myself out in different parts of the world, in amongst different cultures and can take a weekend either side of a site visit to spend exploring, often with other colleagues."

If you would like to find out more about working for Verco and see our current vacancies, visit our new careers page.