Bayside Personnel Senior Consultant Chris Aarons has just celebrated his 10 years with the company, seeing him become one of the brand’s longest standing consultants, and one that has achieved some great accomplishments along the way. Here, we chat to Chris about everything from how he got his start in the industry to his insights on how the pandemic may completely change the way we work in the future.



After studying Civil Engineering at Monash University in Melbourne, Chris went on to work as a structural engineer, designing buildings and industrial projects for more than eight years. While he enjoyed the work, he says that after his time in the role he was looking for a change.

“I was only 16 when I decided to be an engineer and I think that was a bit too young to make life decisions”, he laughs. “After quite a while in that role, I felt like I needed a change. I was really interested in the industry, but became less excited about performing the calculations and delivering projects and decided I wanted to give something else a try.”

Chris had been connected with Bayside Personnel since he graduated and, in what some might call an act of fate, after he made the decision to move out of engineering, Bayside Personnel reached out to him regarding a newly available position as a recruitment consultant. And the rest they say, is history.

The first few months saw Chris settle into his new role, but it took some adjusting to. As engineering is a technical profession, Chris had to draw on a different skillset, seeing him shift to a people focus, understanding candidate’s motivations, organisational culture and providing strategic solutions to clients. Despite no longer working in a role specific to engineering, Chris says that his prior technical experience in the industry allows him to recognise what skills are required for these roles.

“I found moving from engineering to recruitment very interesting and a really good learning curve,” he says. “But having the previous experience in the industry really helps me understand what it is that our clients’ requirements are. I can also see in what instances candidates might be ideal for a role based on their specific skillset and prior experience.”

When asked which projects have been the most interesting throughout his career with the brand, Chris laughs. “One of the benefits of being a recruiter with Bayside Personnel is that I get to work on Melbourne’s biggest and most exciting projects anyway!” And he’s not wrong, having been integral to building and maintaining relationships with key client accounts. It was his continued hard work and dedication on projects such as these that Bayside Personnel National Manager Wayne Eaton says saw him promoted to the role of Senior Consultant in 2016.

“The relationships Chris has established in business, together with his tenacious approach, not only ensures a positive client experience but has resulted in the overall growth for our clients,” he says. “This has allowed us to develop great relationships with key accounts for Bayside Personnel, which are as a result of commitment to understanding our clients’ specific needs.”

Like so many others, Chris found himself working from home in March, when Melbourne was thrown into the midst of a pandemic, which saw him come to a few new realisations. The first: that this would completely change the way we now work, but not necessarily in a bad way.

“I’ve found that moving to remote work and relying on technology for meetings has actually increased efficiencies, for both myself and many of my clients,” he says. “Rather than needing to travel from site to site, I can just log on to a video call and then I have more time to speak with our clients.”

The second: that once his wife and two children, a 10-year-old and 18-month-old, were also confined to the home during Melbourne’s second round of lockdown, the kitchen table was no longer a sufficiently quiet space to work.

His ability to self-motivate and work autonomously has also been something Chris has drawn on a lot during this time, and says this will be an important skill for those hoping to enter into the recruitment industry, particularly if needing to still work remotely.

“I think COVID-19 has shown us that you definitely need to be able to motivate yourself and self-manage your workload,” he says. “I’ve found setting my own personal goals and targets really helpful during this time. You also have to remember that recruitment is a business focused on relationships, so just because you can’t see each other in person, doesn’t mean you can halt communication. In fact, it needs to be the opposite.”