Meet our People – Fergus Bailey
Find out more about our staff, their roles, and what their day to day looks like!
What was your path into evaluation/ARTD?
I have had a very diverse range of work experiences, from fashion to bartending to music to tutoring. So when I finished up my Philosophy degree, I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do! All I knew was I wanted to do something that I felt mattered, that let me keep my curiosity, and that had a good workplace culture – the hardest one to know. My housemate had finished his Philosophy degree and had started working at ARTD a few months earlier. He recommended I apply, and after an assessment and interview period, I started work.
Can you sum up your role in one sentence?
My role at ARTD is to provide general project support, be it note taking, conducting interviews, doing qualitative/ quantitative analysis, or writing parts of reports!
What was the best opportunity/ your proudest work moment since starting at ARTD?
My proudest work moment at ARTD is hard to say, because I am regularly encouraged and supported to pursue new goals. A recent opportunity was working on a proposal for an exciting and big project that directly aligned with my personal interests. Rather than being told that the proposal was beyond my position, I was actively supported in pursuing it. I was given the freedom to apply my brain to the problem and think about how I would solve it, and then able to draw on the deep expertise of my colleagues to hone it. Not only was this a big professional step to take, it was also a vividly apparent demonstration of how helpful my co-workers are. I was supported without being railroaded, I was given freedom without shooting in the dark. It was a wonderful experience that consolidated what I already knew: I was in the right place
What is your favourite thing about working at ARTD?
My favourite thing about working here is that I get to do important work with people who care. At no point have I been made to feel our work is disposable, or that anyone doesn’t care about it. This means that my days are filled with engaging conversations about the world with intelligent, kind people. I don’t think I can ask for much more than that.
What does a ‘day in the life’ look like for you?
A typical day for me involves a blend of project work (e.g. survey analysis and synthesis), stakeholder engagement (e.g. interviews), and some form of meeting (internal or external). They’re generally pretty balanced so I can stay on my toes and keep my brain dynamic – it is fairly rare I get stuck on a single task for too long. There’s almost always some kind of workplace social thing too, even if it’s just going for a coffee run together.
What’s something your clients may not know about you?
I died in 1750. I mean, not literally, obviously. My clients probably don’t know that for about 5 years my main activities were modelling and playing music.
