I’m Amelia! I am currently working as a Customer Support Team Leader within Docman Primary Care. I was in Customer Support for our Care team for just over a year and a half before moving into this role.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and journey to Advanced?

I graduated from Oxford Brookes with a 2:1 in Business Management degree. Started applying for jobs in a local area and came across a customer support role. I saw it as an opportunity to learn some IT skills, and I applied with very little knowledge and no tech skills at all! I needed full-time work, and this was a great opportunity to grow my skills and start my career. Something that really interested me was the internal promotion scheme, and ultimately I wanted to be a manager and thought the career progression would be really beneficial for me.

What is the best career decision you have ever made?

Best career decision I made was going to university. It gave me a couple more years to mature and give me some direction with where I wanted my career to go.

What advice do you have to anyone looking to start their career?

Be prepared for more challenging situations. Support isn’t always plain-sailing, and the nature of the role is that you are dealing with issues and solving problems. You need to find something you want to do and find something you can be passionate about, and that comes with being open and exploring new opportunities, especially ones which you did not know about.

What was your biggest learning development you made on the Service Desk?

Troubleshooting. At first I was unfamiliar with how to do it successfully, especially with a new product I’d never used, but then I learned how to use it in a positive way and not see it as a negative thing.

How do you keep learning and developing yourself in your own role?

The skills I learned were very product based with the troubleshooting, and I picked up IT knowledge, but my interest was mainly in management and learning the people management side of things. My manager supported me in my role, and they knew early on that my desire was to move into a management/team leader position and they helped me on my way to do it.

What is the best career advice you have ever received?

When I came into my current role, it was the acknowledgement that I am only one person and can only do so much. Never spread yourself too thin and do one thing to the best of your ability rather than doing multiple things to a sub-standard level.

What do you find most rewarding about your job?

It’s the reward of seeing my team flourish. Seeing the whole team work together and improve and getting positive feedback from other parts of the business is incredibly rewarding.

What’s been the most challenging part of a new role?

It’s been a challenging move into team leadership into a different product. It’s been challenging but ultimately a positive experience that allowed me to be autonomous in finding out the answers to my questions. I was managing a brand-new team, with a brand-new product and it really was a learning curve.

What is the best part about working for Advanced?

The people! I’ve made some really good friends that I’ll be friends with for the rest of my life, even though we are completely different and from different walks of life.

If you weren’t in your current role, what would you be doing?

I actually do enjoy what I do now - but ideally to do something more active and based outside would be amazing, working abroad would be the dream!