For our ‘5 minutes with …’ interview this month, we speak to Catherine Young. She has been with Totum since it started and is integral to the smooth running of the office, managing and resolving the daily needs of a busy firm including all our IT and processes for agile working which has gone without a hitch since Covid-19.

Tell us something people might not know about you?

Goodness there is quite a lot but that would be telling! 

I love gymnastics and dance. I often stick loud music on and have a boogie around the house with my 3 little children- I love that they enjoy dancing with me. 

I’m always in the kitchen and am quite creative when it comes to food.  

Oddly, from a young age I have also loved typing… I used to play with a keyboard that wasn’t plugged into anything, I just liked the clicking sound it made. 

What is your background?

I think my calling in life is to organise things. When I left school, I studied Business Administration with Medical and Legal Secretarial training at college.

My first job was as a Team/Marketing Assistant for a property services company.

Next, I worked as an admin assistant for Headway (the brain injury association). It was an amazing experience working for a small charity. I gained such valuable experience and loved working with the staff and the members who all had a variety of acquired brain injuries. It taught me a lot about patience and to never judge people as you never know what someone is going through on the inside.

After that, I joined an IT sales company where I was for 6 years prior to joining First Counsel. I was lucky enough to be involved in their rebrand to Totum all those years ago.  

I have been with Totum for over 9 years now and I can honestly say they are the nicest people to work with. I’m so lucky to have found somewhere I really fit in and where we are all truly one united team.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

For a long time I wanted to be a physiotherapist but once I learnt you had to go to university, I changed my mind. Then I wanted to be a mechanic, but I listened to my mum and dad when they said this was a ‘phase’ and I haven’t looked back since!

What are your favourite projects?

I started at Totum as an Administration Assistant and my role has grown over the years, evolving into Office Manager, which covers a wealth of different things. 

I always loved having the interaction with clients and candidates and although I don’t have so much of this now, it’s still wonderful to meet some old faces at the events that we hold. 

I enjoy the challenge of getting a problem and finding a solution that works for everyone. Managing our office move was a huge challenge and it’s been amazing to see the final outcome. I’m so proud of our new office and infrastructure and I have an amazing team to thank for this. I couldn’t do what I do if it weren’t for all the support from my colleagues.

If you would like to find out more about Totum, or talk to Catherine she can be contacted at catherine.young@totumpartners.com