I like working at GC, I like how supportive the organisation is, as well as the team spirit. It’s great to see how everyone rallies around each other – we just seem to have each other’s backs, and I really like that. Its also nice to know that some of the people I started out with are still here today, some left and came back, and some like me, have stayed put.
I knew I didn’t want to go to university, so I decided the apprenticeship route would be the best option for me after high school. This was back in 1998 and I had a couple of options – one was for a trainee Barrister position on Quay Street, and another with the then Manchester Training and Enterprise Council, now GC, in IT on the Service Desk Team in a First Line Support role. I chose the latter and I’m still here 26 years later, so clearly it was the right choice for me.
I was as inexperienced as they come, I learnt on the job doing my apprenticeship for two years. In 2000 I moved to a Desktop Support role for the group, back when we used to have 60 sites, with little to no IT network support, just PCs on desks running windows 3.1. We moved these PCs constantly from site to site depending on contracts, along with printers and other equipment. I did this for two years before moving to the Infrastructure team, this is the highest level of support we provide to the organisation.
I worked in this role for four years developing areas where I excelled and developed many niches – one being technology email systems.
In 2007, I became an IT Infrastructure Analyst, so a senior role with extra responsibilities, but I was ready to take these on. I led on Microsoft at the time, making decisions on how we would shape the network. During this time, I did courses to help develop my skill set, such as the Leadership in Management course in 2008, as well as starting a foundation degree in Business Management in the same year with GC Skills – all of this was only possible for me because of the support I received from my managers and colleagues.
Truthfully, it was a tough time for me as I was working full time, at university for two nights per week for four years, as well as fitting in my other studies and family life. But it was all worth it when I graduated in 2011, and then in 2013 I became the IT Infrastructure Manager.
In this role, I took on the management of five colleagues, leading them to make sure we used the right technologies and that we were moving in the right direction.
Between 2023-2017 I took on three different roles, all had different responsibilities, but all helping me to develop my skill set.
In 2017 I became Head of IT, taking over management of the entire technical team, this included the Service Desk, second- and third-line support, and the Development team. During this time my role, had a slight change to it which meant I became Interim Director of IT for a year.
I was in the Head of IT role until September 2022 – that’s when l got promoted to Chief Technology Officer, which means I now sit on the Senior Management Team (SMT), and last year Facilities came under my management.
Working in a supportive company like GC, can make all the difference. I know that without the support of our organisation, I wouldn’t have been able to do a degree alongside my job, it's benefitted me no-end and allowed me to progress in my career from Apprentice to Chief Technology Officer.
I would say be open-minded and seek out opportunities yourself, you won’t always be shown them. In 1998, my career aim was to lead a team at the age of 40, and I managed to do just that.
I stay at GC, because it’s interesting, plus technology has evolved to such a large extent that I went from in 1998 having dial-up internet to 2024 where we’ve recently introduced a AI Gen chatbot in BGH.
Its never a dull day at GC, I would know, I’ve been here for 26 years and counting…