Episode 9 – Apprenticeship program

Podcast Guest Introductions

Charlotte
Hi. And welcome to the latest episode of In the Thick of It.

And today, we’re gonna be talking about ITGL’s apprenticeship program, which is super interesting, and something that I know ITGL are really passionate about is nurturing and bringing young talent into the industry.

So, before we jump into that, I’m gonna get our guests today to introduce themselves. Should we go this way around?

Andy Finch
Sure. Hi. I’m Andy Finch. I’m a enterprise networking consultant at ITGL.

Barbara Giunchi
Hello. I’m Barbara Giunchi, and I’m, I am people and culture manager at ITGL. Lovely.

Zak Lanham
Hi. I’m Zak Lanham. I’m a network engineer or IT consultant at ITGL.

Charlotte
Excellent. Well, welcome. I’m really looking forward to this discussion today because I’m also very passionate about this sort of thing, and I think it’s great. And and Barbara, you know, certainly, ITGL does really seem to prioritise people and talent and skills, and culture particularly in a way that’s, that does stand out in the tech industry. Can you paint us a picture of what it actually feels like to walk through the doors of ITGL for an apprentice?

Barbara Giunchi
Yeah. I think you can say that it’s a very so it’s a kind of a smallish team for now. We’re about eighty five eighty six growing.

But it’s a it’s a team of kind of some of the guys actually known each other for quite a long time, so there’s a lot of camaraderie. And when I say camaraderie in a positive way, and, yeah, there’s a lot of positivity, collaboration. I think you can really feel that when you walk. They’re all very eager to support people.

We’ve actually recently, somebody for just finishing a work experience through the school and what they said was that they felt so very much, welcome from the first day. And it was quite intimidating, you can imagine, for somebody, kind of seventeen, eighteen year old, you know, probably the first time in an office. But they did it. They felt really quite at ease because everybody was there to help each other, and that’s really so important.

So it’s really just kind of positive environment nurturing and yeah a lot of collaboration and yeah and the environment as well where we are, it’s a really nice kind of facilities as well, which I think it kind of fosters that as well. But, yeah. I think it’s yeah. I just love it.

Charlotte
Yeah. No. That’s great. And it’s really nice to hear that you do it for I know we’re here talking about apprenticeships today, but it’s nice to hear that you do that for work experience as well.

Because I know from experience, it’s really hard to find businesses that will take on someone for a week or two for work experience and give them of something of value. Yeah. So that’s really nice to hear. And then actually, it brings me on to my next question around, what is it that you look for in people?

Because I know that ITGL doesn’t just recruit for skills alone sort of and to your point that you were just talking about, obviously, the culture and the softer skills are really important. What what is it that you look for?

Barbara Giunchi
Of course. So no. Skills are obviously important, particularly within a tech environment. But yeah. Absolutely.

As you said, we really look for right attitude in the right you really want to come in and learn and it’s really this learning culture that we really want to foster and support and develop not just for the newbies coming into the business but for those that have been in the business for a while. You know we’re continuously learning anyway and that you know the experience of having somebody new to at the early stages of their career for me It’s really something that can really develop soft skills like leadership skills and managerial skills for people who are actually trying to get you know, to go on through that kind of career.

And, and it’s so important that, you know, we find somebody who’s, as I said, they’re just eager to learn and to be to be supported because we provide a lot of training as obviously Zach and Andy will, you know, we’ll talk about it later. But, yeah, we give all, a lots of support in terms of, you know, development, professional development. So, as long as somebody is eager to be part of the team, to learn and to work together, that’s basically what we want really. Yeah.

Charlotte
Yeah. And that’s the sort of thing that you can see during the interview process, can’t you?

And, I remember being at an event once and hearing the guy that founded Metro Bank talking and he was saying he’s Texan and he was saying his ethos when interviewing is if, the person being interviewed when they arrived at the branch, if they didn’t smile at the first person they saw, they never made it any further, which I thought was great because that’s a real customer service.

Barbara Giunchi
I guess it’s one of the things that you need to have.

Charlotte
Right. Exactly.

So how would you, this is going to feel a little bit like I’m putting you on the spot because I know you’re not a marketeer.

But if you think about, you know, ITGL’s proposition out to the market and how they talk about themselves to clients, you know, how do you feel that’s reflected in this type of programme?

Barbara Giunchi
Yeah. I mean, our values really is all about positivity where we’re actually partners in positivity, integrity, which obviously our customers really value. Yeah. And that’s what we do all Bosley internally as well because that’s as you said, you know, just you got the internal and the external right kind of marketing. So, as people in culture, we really work on the kind of EVP employee value proposition and that’s really what we what we offer to our people. Yeah. And and what we expect from them as well because it’s always a two way thing, right?

Charlotte
It’s a

Barbara Giunchi
two way street.

And it’s all about really as I said really just been providing a positive and supportive environment and integrity as well. People need to know that they need to own what they do. They need to feel accountable. They need to be given the right tools to be able to do their job, you know, and the right support from their manager.

So, we’re all trying to put together also some kind of more structure line managers training going forward as well because again it’s one of those things particularly again for people that just new to management.

It’s not something that even if you’re very good at your job you can still you might be We’re often not taught that. Exactly.

So it’s very difficult so you just need to have the right kind of support. Yeah. And so yes I mean it’s all about necessarily being positive and being in integrity and collaboration.

So

Charlotte
Yeah.

Yeah. Nice. And I guess that underpins why you went down the direction of an apprenticeship program rather than just hiring a new talent.

Barbara Giunchi
Yes. Absolutely. I mean, it’s so nice as well. I think it’s such a rewarding experience as well on you only know to grow your own talent, to bring somebody from the start, giving them the opportunity to develop and then just say, wow, look, you know, it’s great.

I think it’s one of the greatest things as a company that we could do really for our people is develop our own talent and support them. And then there come a day when, you know, they’d be so good that it’s, you know, their goal. But that’s great because, you know, it means that we’ve done a good job. Yeah.

Exactly.

Charlotte
Yeah. And and I love that. And I think yeah. And it’s it must be quite interesting to see to see and you were talking about creativity and that learning and development. So have you got some examples of what you’ve seen over the program?

Barbara Giunchi
Yes. I mean, as I said, obviously, apprenticeship is just one side of the program that, we’ve been doing for a few years. We’ve been we’ve been working with a local college and it’s so far so good. Obviously, Zak is a living example of that. And we also have currently two other apprentices. Again, Zak has been acting as a mentor with them, but, again, you know, he talked about this.

Charlotte
For you to have that development.

Zak Lanham
Yes. It’s interesting. It’s a different sort of, area to my learning.

Obviously, I started off not knowing much at all really Mhmm.

Charlotte
And

Zak Lanham
then progressing and learning myself.

And then when we brought in the new apprentices, it was, again, a whole another sort of area of learning for my teaching skills. And it meant that I had to actually make sure that what I had learned was correct and, you know, making sure that was properly done, and it reinforced my own learning as well.

Charlotte
Nice. Nice.

Barbara Giunchi
Yes. Absolutely. And, and, yes, obviously, I was talking before about work experiences as well. It’s something that we’re trying to put a little bit more structure around, but, we can work either directly with students or with schools.

And, we had a couple of people actually just completing a work experience. And one in particular after a month work experience, it was a bit unusual, but after a month, we decided to, offer him, an internship. So now he’s just started an internship. And the idea behind this just to give him, kind of exposure to all different sides of the business.

So he’s gonna do like a rotation work a little bit marketing and sales with the technical team. So then at the end of it, the idea is then he’d be able to say, but, yeah, I mean, I can I can settle in a specific role? And, so yeah. It’s really I love that.

Charlotte
I really love that. That’s great.

And that’s nice as a company to have that, you know, you’ve got that succession planning almost

Barbara Giunchi
That’s it.

That’s about that as well. As I said, yes. It’s obviously, it’s growing talent. It’s supporting development and supporting development also to managers, but as you said, also succession planning as well. Yeah. So it’s something that obviously we need to be aware of that.

Charlotte
Yeah. Definitely. Yep.

So Andy and Zach, you’re going to be in the hot seat now.

I bet they didn’t tell you about this on their first, on your first day.

Andy Finch
My first day was a long time ago.

Charlotte
Well, and actually speaking of the first day, why don’t you I’m really interested in, you know, what take us back to that first day, each of you know, how you felt when you came in, what you kind of experienced, how that made you feel. I think that’s for people watching this who might be thinking of doing an apprenticeship or hiring apprentices.

Tell us about it.

Andy Finch
Yeah. Sure. So for me, it’s a bit it was a bit of a different journey.

I started off at the bottom in the warehouse and worked my way up.

But yeah, certainly back then I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Mhmm. And I just saw a bit of equipment and, ITGL gave me the tools I needed to learn how to do it. And I progressed on and now I’m an engineer myself, bringing in apprentices and teaching them what I learned.

Charlotte
Nice.

Andy Finch
It’s yeah. It’s really rewarding.

Charlotte
It’s a nice full circle moment. Yeah. Yeah. I love that.

Zak Lanham
I think for me, I obviously came from college first. I did a bit of IT at college, which some of it related to what I do now, some of it doesn’t. But Yeah. You know, that’s the differences between school and, normal work sort of life. But, when I came into ITGL, I the first sort of day as it was, I think I met Andy on the first day. Yeah. You did.

Can’t quite remember, but it was a little while ago now. Yeah.

Yeah. We we went into the Oxford office, and I sort of got to get an idea as to how people are, within ITGL. And it’s a different work environment to what I was expecting, to be honest with you at first. You sort of expect a bit of an office, very strict based environment, but we’re very open and sort of everyone’s easygoing.

Made me feel at ease, especially when I was just starting. I was also nervous, didn’t really know what was gonna aspire or who I was meeting, who my manager was.

Charlotte
Or what questions to ask.

Zak Lanham
Oh, yeah.

Andy Finch
And then a week later, you were carrying my bag around the site.

Charlotte
Yeah. A week later.

Zak Lanham
On-site already within the week, already doing

Andy Finch
Racking stuff.

Zak Lanham
Racking and stacking.

Andy Finch
Already hands on the equipment.

Zak Lanham
Nice.

Charlotte
So, Zach, I know you’ve been juggling university while doing your apprenticeship.

So and you touched on earlier about, you know, school. What you learn at school is very different to what you experience in real life at times.

So how is that how is that really helped you doing this kind of practical apprenticeship alongside what you’re doing at university?

Zak Lanham
So the university side of things, within ITGL, I’m able to sort of pick and choose when I do my university, which is finished now as with yesterday.

Charlotte
So done.

Zak Lanham
So finally done.

But yeah. So we’re allowed to sort of move our time as is. So I had a free a lot of freedom with, how I did my university work or when I did it.

The practical approach to it, I got to learn, obviously, on-site with Andy doing other things along that sort of line as well as my own personal learning.

And then that then trans translated into what I was doing at uni.

So if I had a project around project management, I would ask Andy, and he’d make sure that I got the right sort of people behind me to be able to sort of then, expand my knowledge within that so that I could improve my grades and other important things within the, university side of things.

Charlotte
And and do are all of your fellow classmates students doing apprenticeships as well? So are they having that same input?

Zak Lanham
Yeah. So it’s what through who I’m doing my university with, it’s all online.

The newer apprentices are doing theirs through college. Yeah.

But we the I do meet them online. I haven’t actually ever met any of them in person Mhmm. Which I’m hoping to do when we go to my graduation.

Barbara Giunchi
And celebrate.

Zak Lanham
Yes.

But some of them are from, the older end of the spectrum. Some of them are from, you know, in between younger.

So you get a very big range. Not all of them are doing going into it like a direct apprenticeship.

They’re doing the university course on the sort of side, I guess, is the sort of right way to

Charlotte
do it. Already have a job on

Zak Lanham
Yeah.

Yeah. So it’s like, an additional thing to add to it. Whereas my side of it, I come in to do the university with my, working experience.

Charlotte
Yeah. Nice. Nice. And has there any been a has there ever been a clash between what you’re learning at uni and what you’re experiencing in the real world? Just as to your earlier point about sometimes what you learn in education isn’t always reflective of what goes on in the real world.

Zak Lanham
Yeah. You you learn some things which, well, some things which didn’t relate to anything that I did. I had to learn about it, but that’s a good experience for me because, within the business, we always almost always had someone that was had some past in it or some experience in it somewhere. Yeah.

ITGL are very knowledgeable in different areas.

Charlotte
Mhmm.

You’d

Zak Lanham
be surprised with some of the people that have knowledge in, like, areas which I didn’t even know about.

Charlotte
Something totally random.

Zak Lanham
Yeah. Yeah. And, I’ve had some experiences where I just I’ve known someone for what they do at their job, but in past experiences when they were a different job, they did something else. And I was then able to help get them to help me, where I had struggles in one of my assignments or Yeah.

Experiences.

Charlotte
Nice. So, Andy, it must be nice for you to, as I said earlier, to have this kind of full circle moment, you know, and I know you didn’t come in as an apprentice, but you came in sort of from new Yeah. Very green.

What kind of lessons from your experiences have you been able to use to kind of help the apprentices?

Andy Finch
Well, from my journey, I started off shadowing other engineers

Barbara Giunchi
Mhmm.

Andy Finch
In the company, and we very much kind of use that as a learning experience. So when does that come in? We wanted to do the same.

So he was basically tied at my hip wherever I went. He went. Sorry about that.

But we got to know each other really well.

So, yeah, I’ve learned a lot teaching him what I know. And, obviously, now he’s doing that with the new apprentices. Yeah. And it’s good to see, and I sat on his, presentation yesterday for his final uni thing and that yeah.

I was almost like a proud dad sitting there.

Charlotte
Nice.

Andy Finch
Because you’ve seen the growth over the last three years, like, and he’s explaining complex solutions.

And you look back to the first day when he’s standing there with a screwdriver waiting to screw something in, you know? So it’s like you’re talking about a journey. It’s a huge journey. Yeah. But yeah, now he’s out on his own doing jobs where normally you’d expect him to be with somebody, but no, he’s taken other apprentices there himself.

Charlotte
Love that. That’s great. So what have been some of it for both of you on your separate journeys? You know, what have been the big moments in for that learning, you know, where you suddenly I know I’ve had that over my career over the years.

You suddenly go,

Barbara Giunchi
oh, okay.

Charlotte
Or you really help a client with something that you’ve noticed your own experience.

Andy Finch
I think for years, Zach, I think it was subnetting when you finally got subnetting. Seeing seeing his face change from a puzzled one to oh, okay.

And and I finally spent

Zak Lanham
a lot of time on that, didn’t I?

I was, yeah, that was probably one of the hardest points that I had, when I was going through my sort of learning processes. But Mhmm. Me, Andy, and some of the other engineers spent a fair bit of time together making sure that I did understand the sort of, processes of things and the subnetting, which probably took about a day or two to just really get into my house.

Charlotte
Side rule. Is that kinda Yes. I mean, Maybe a little bit.

I mean,

Andy Finch
we learned the stuff, didn’t we?

Because Yeah.

Obviously, the method I was teaching him, which was great for me when I was learning

Charlotte
Yeah.

Andy Finch
It wasn’t quite, the best for Zach. So we had another engineer come in and spend a day with him. Mhmm. Completely different way I would look at it, and all of a sudden he got it.

He put the two methods together and he found his own way. Oh. So it’s not just the fact that Zak’s tied to the hip my hip. There are other engineers that also come in and help with the development.

So Yeah. There’s a broad range of engineers that we can help.

Charlotte
Nice. Because we all have different learning styles at the end of the day, don’t we? And I think, yeah, it’s tapping into what that is, I think, is interesting. So so, Barbara, back to you for a second.

So, obviously, this is really good for ITGL. It’s really great for the apprentices.

What does it mean to your clients? Cause I think that’s always a nice perspective on these sorts of programs.

Barbara Giunchi
Yeah. Well, I think it just shows that we really take our people, seriously. We want to develop them, and we want to develop new talent, obviously.

But it’s also is really part of our work corporate social responsibility. So obviously now we know that corporate social responsibility in every company is really is really playing a more important role really going forward. I mean, even people when they join a new company, you don’t just look now at the salary and benefits, particularly the younger generation they’re really focused on they want to join a company that care for people that they have like a strong ethics and CSR or corporate social responsibility. So obviously that’s offering that to our clients as well. I think that they seen as something that you know that again we go back to what I was saying about integrity and trust.

It’s all part of the kind of trust that they know that they can get to trust us better. Yeah.

And I know there’s some also there’s some companies that they as part of the, BIT, process as well, they do require their clients

Charlotte
Mhmm.

Barbara Giunchi
To a specific programs in place as part again of the corporate social responsibility, and that would involve also early career is what they actually do for early careers. Yeah.

So

Charlotte
No.

And it’s great. And I think particularly to be an apprentice, to be exposed to clients really early on must be equal parts exciting and terribly scary.

Zak Lanham
I think there’s a the one thing that I really sort of picked up on from, like, going to client sites and speaking to clients, there’s a lot of learning and the social the soft skills.

Charlotte
Yeah.

Zak Lanham
That was something that I didn’t have experience with before. Mhmm. And had I gone straight to uni, I probably wouldn’t still have that sort of experience.

Whereas now I feel much more comfortable talking to anyone and everyone.

Charlotte
Mhmm.

Zak Lanham
You know, be it client, be it just a random person.

But I think it’s a really important skill.

It’s an important skill that you wouldn’t learn elsewhere, especially for our clients, being able for me to talk to them because some of them don’t always have a good sort of talking point.

Charlotte
Mhmm.

Zak Lanham
Whereas if you can talk to them, you become their friends and then they feel much more comfortable with you. Yeah. Yeah.

And you build that sort of relationship where you can both talk about things without the sort of tension of our corporate sort

Charlotte
of We’re just as two human beings.

Zak Lanham
Yeah. Just to have a chat. Yeah.

Andy Finch
I mean, I mean, the first time you come

Charlotte
out on-site with me, you wouldn’t even say a

Andy Finch
word to anybody.

And I think within November five, we turned up on this site. I said, okay. You’re taking the lead today. And the shock on his face. Yeah.

But but now

Charlotte
Yeah.

Check it out. Even. Yeah.

Barbara Giunchi
You can make him quiet, Really just

Andy Finch
dogs now.

Barbara Giunchi
It’s okay. Nice.

Zak Lanham
I don’t sometimes.

Charlotte
I remember working on a project donkeys years ago on a client site and we had two of our development team on-site and they and the client nicknamed the Mr. Quiet and Mr. Quiet.

So they used to just sit in the corner and stop, not say anything to anyone. And, yeah, picking up the phone. I guess that’s a new thing too, isn’t it? Because I know, when I’ve worked in these programs before, sometimes that’s a big adjustment. Yeah. Because that’s, you know, with younger generations, it’s a bit more of this. Oh, yeah.

Zak Lanham
Lots of testing.

Barbara Giunchi
Yes. Yeah.

Charlotte
Lots of texting. Yeah. Barbara, how does, I guess because we’ve talked a lot about creativity, you know, development, bringing in new viewpoints. How one and actually probably a question for all of you. How have you seen that improve the outcomes for the client? Because that’s obviously what we’re all working towards here. So how has that helped?

Barbara Giunchi
I guess, really, again, going back to it just shows that, we put a lot of value on our people and that it kind of increases the trust the clients have for us. And, and I think it creates the right environment, a positive environment to build relationships as well with clients.

So don’t know, Andy, if you, yeah, agree and

Andy Finch
Yeah.

Completely. I mean, we’ve got some of my clients that I’ve been talking to for years and building a relationship with. Obviously, with Zach coming around with me. He’s now having those conversation with them, and there’s actually a client that I think forgot I exist because now they just go to Zach.

So Yeah. I mean, it’s great for me because it’s obviously sharing workloads out around. But it’s nice to see they’re trusting our apprentices. And That is nice.

So, obviously, they’re seeing the skill and benefit we’re bringing to them, and they’re trusting them as well. So Yeah.

It’s good all

Zak Lanham
around in Yeah.

In my opinion.

Charlotte
Definitely.

So I’m gonna ask you all now to just give a little bit of advice. So, Barbara, what advice would you have for companies that are thinking of implementing a program like this? So what advice would you give them to avoid any potential pitfalls or things that they really should focus on that maybe aren’t so obvious?

Barbara Giunchi
Well, just focus, obviously, do it because it’s so much worth it. And it’s, it could be quite time consuming. You need to particularly, if you want to build a good, structure program. And again, we’re just starting obviously with the apprenticeship.

We sometimes it’s a little bit more structured by nature because particularly if you work with colleges, you know, and university, they kind of help you they provide already a framework. If you want to do your own kind of work experience or internship that you need to build it you know yourself so it’s but it’s all kind of sort about taking feedback on board as well. So, we did with this work experience people that we engage lately at the end of the experience at the end of the week or the month, we actually ask, like, you know, is there anything that we could have done better? You know, something.

And we took some, feedback on board. And some of the stuff was, you know, we try to, you know, get them to liaise with as many people as possible and stakeholders. Sometimes it could be a little bit maybe overwhelming. So maybe trying to pace things, not trying because again, for some people will be just the first experience in a in an office environment.

So again, just maybe trying to pace you a little bit and maybe just making rather than doing all one week where you’re gonna meet everyone. And then, try to incorporate kind of some shadowing or some practical experiences. It doesn’t have to be just a one way or just listening because it could be particularly again if you come in and kind of a very technical environment, there’s a lot of, you know, new terminology to pick up and Yeah. All that.

So it could be again quite daunting for some people.

But making sure that there maybe there are some kind of task, maybe mini task that they can do

Charlotte
at

Barbara Giunchi
the end of, each session maybe.

Particularly, I mean, there might be something that they can help out with marketing, for instance, for, you know, kind of with the marketing team.

But again and letting them like as I said shadowing and maybe listening to conversations that maybe people have with customers so that they’re used to, you know, what you know what we’re trying to do, our way of communicating with customers. Yeah.

So, yeah. I mean, trying to listen anyway. I mean, it I’ve taken on board as well a lot of the feedback from, because I can see as a kind of two way.

Charlotte
Yes. Definitely. Yeah. Exactly. Because especially if you’ve not done it before, it’s good to know how it’s landing and where you can improve. Yeah. So Zach and Andy from you, what advice would you give someone considering being an apprentice?

Zak Lanham
Can I see it?

Andy Finch
Yeah. I’ll guide it. I think you gotta be flexible, because there’s a lot of changing environments.

One one day you’re in the office, one day you’re on-site, another day you’re in a training course. You know? So you gotta be flexible. You gotta be open to travels depending on what type of apprentice you’re doing or apprenticeship you’re doing. You you need to be open to travel, and just, yeah, just ready to take a lot of information.

But it is very rewarding as you can see from Zach. He’s he’s really progressed. So if you put in the time, you can really go far.

Charlotte
Excellent.

Zak Lanham
Yeah. I think one of the, important things for an employer side of it, is to make sure that they’re really sort of looking after that apprentice, because I think a lot of the time you might get or I say a lot of the time, I don’t know.

But,

Charlotte
I

Zak Lanham
feel like sometimes I have heard stories or horror stories where apprentices, they join a company and then nobody really pays attention to them.

Nobody really helps them.

I think you need to be sort of almost assigned a mentor Yeah.

Especially for a technical, apprenticeship because it’s really important to if you don’t understand something, go and talk to someone and someone who understands that sort of topic. Because from an apprenticeship perspective, you’re coming in to learn practically, not to learn academically, which is one of the main reasons why I chose an apprenticeship.

I prefer learning as a practical person.

Charlotte
Hands on.

Zak Lanham
Yeah. I love bit of hands on sort of on the actual technology, whereas the, academic side is very sort of open ended area, which is not really my sort of thing. Could be for some other people.

But, yeah, I find that it’s, as for an apprentice, I think paying attention to what the company is like and how the company treats other employees, not just the, new apprentices or new people coming in.

How they treat some of the people who’ve been there for a long period of time is really important as well.

Charlotte
No. All helpful advice. Thank you. Yeah. I think it’s that’s a really good point.

It’s sort of when you go in for the interview process is being aware of your environment and how people are. And, again, how they greet you. Yeah. Like that first day, I think, yeah, really important.

So one thing I really love about this program, is that, and we’ve alluded to alluded to it slightly in some of this conversation is that, you know, and you mentioned you got taken to a client site in your first week, which is obviously a little bit scary at times. But, that’s one of the things I think is really good because you take them on board. They go into work in these big corporate migrations, these big digital transformation projects directly on client side. So it would be really great to hear from you, Zach, on an example of where you really made a difference to a client in terms of an outcome on one of those, you know, mission critical projects.

Zak Lanham
So I’ve, spent some time with a hospital, based in London.

We had already previously done a migration for them.

I met them through Andy. I asked in some ways.

He sort of introduced them to me how I do things, and it was sort of my first ever full migration by myself.

I obviously had support, in the background.

I felt capable of doing it at the time, definitely, and I was capable of doing it. I knew I was.

It’s just my confidence over

Charlotte
Yeah. And it’s the first big

Zak Lanham
thing.

Yeah.

Charlotte
Yeah.

The

Zak Lanham
nerves.

Yeah. We went I went to site, on a Saturday.

Nice nice day, really, for it.

And I added some more, additional switches into, this client’s network, which could possibly take down the network if it depending on if there’s issues with how we prestaged it or something like that. No pressure at all. And if it did go wrong, then I would have to fix said issue.

Charlotte
But Especially on a Saturday.

Zak Lanham
Well, yeah. Exactly.

Not many people are happy

Andy Finch
on a Saturday.

No Netflix.

Charlotte
No. No. No Netflix.

Zak Lanham
So I went round, met the client, had a couple I had a bit of a conversation with the client.

I found out some other issues whilst they were there on-site.

So I gave them some sort of, opportunity to, basically say, look. We can do this, with your, site because you’ve got these issues here.

We wanna obviously help you and fix it. I can go back to someone at work and go, look. We’ve got some of these issues on-site. We need to go and fix these. And then I went around, actually on-site, with them, went to all the switch stacks that were there at the time, made sure that the switch stacks were fine and working. I didn’t wanna change anything if it wasn’t working in the first place.

But then I installed the switches, and then stacked them, made sure that they were correct and configured properly.

We did about, honestly, seven switches on the day.

And then once they were all done, we had to do a lot of testing, making sure that, the switches were working properly as how they expected in the correct VLANs and other funky little bits that you have involved with it.

And then we ended up, I think, getting another purchase order from the client because of it.

Charlotte
Mhmm.

Zak Lanham
So yeah.

Charlotte
Brilliant.

What

Andy Finch
was that feeling like when you when you’ve done it and you’ve got it all together?

Because I know when I first did mine,

Zak Lanham
it was

Andy Finch
like relief, but Yeah.

Zak Lanham
An achievement sense of achievement. Right? Yeah.

Charlotte
It’s definite relief.

Zak Lanham
Yeah. And I felt really proud of myself afterwards, actually. That’s what it’s all about.

Charlotte
Yeah. It is. Yes.

Zak Lanham
I definitely came back to the offices, and Andy gave me sang my praises, as you say.

And, yeah, it was a definite sense of relief, but a sense of achievement in the grand scheme of things because it’s, you know, it’s my first ever one. Yeah.

And it makes me feel much more confident about the other ones that I’m doing now

Charlotte
Mhmm.

Zak Lanham
With other clients in different areas.

You know, me and Andy have worked in lots of different areas around, sort of industry.

A lot of being sort of health care, education, and, some corporate sectors. We’ve also worked on some very big projects.

Charlotte
Nice. Excellent. Well, job well done, and you’ll never forget that first one either, I suspect. I suspect.

Well, I think that brings us to the conclusion of this episode. I think it’s been really nice to have three quite different perspectives, on the program. So well done because I know it’s not an easy thing to take people in from new and get them like you say, make it valuable for the apprentice and for the company and for the client. So, yeah, thank you.

Barbara Giunchi
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.