IT Support Manager
CEVA Logistics

Richard H

My name is Richard H. I work as an IT field support analyst for CEVA Logistics. All of our depots have to be connected to each other so orders can come through from customers and deliveries can be planned. Any problem of any connectivity is going to stop people working. I offer basic IT support, or general maintenance to equipment, and that’s basically most of my job from day to day.

00:00: 35 I was probably a bit of a geek at school, really. I probably didn’t have enough fun, really. I was a bit too serious, but through university I loosened up a bit and started to enjoy myself a bit more and realise what life is actually about. I did a degree in electrical engineering, which I was interested in when I started. By the time I’d finished it, it wasn’t quite so interesting, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do.

00:01:04 I had an interest in IT, which I’d sort of picked up through uni, but I got into logistics after uni because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, and it was basically a temporary job actually working in the warehouse. Not bad money, but pretty hard hours. Then I got more into the office side of thing, being what they call a POD clerk, who basically goes through the drivers’ paperwork.

00:01:35 And then I ended up on the traffic desk, responsible for ringing up delivery locations and getting our drivers in there. After about a year of that I got a little bit bored of it because every day was the same, so then I got the chance to move into IT because the guy who used to cover the depot I worked at had seen that I was interested, and he had an opportunity to work… for me to go and work with him for a while. So I went for that and I’ve been here since – just over a year now

00:02:13 Through the series of jobs I’ve had, I’ve realised that the jobs I enjoy the most, or get the most back from, are ones where I’m helping people. Jobs where I haven’t really been helping people, I haven’t really got any satisfaction out of them. What really makes me get going is knowing that I can sort out people’s problems.

00:02:40 At the moment, outside of work, really, it’s more work, to be honest. There’s one area of my life where it’s really I need to work on. If I had the time and resources wasn’t an issue, I’d really love to get into some sort of motor sport, just because I love driving. It just looks so much fun. But, I don’t know, it might be the sort of thing you can do as an amateur kind of thing, possibly.

00:03:10 The qualities I admire in people are people who keep working hard no matter what happens. One person who really has inspired me, and I think has played a role in, sort of, my own development, is a friend of mine called Sally. When I first met her, I think she was working in a building society and supporting her two daughters, and she just decided she was… she had to get into something else. So she got herself on some courses for… as a mortgage advisor, and then started getting into property development, and she’s doing really well. And has now got something for the future, something she can leave her family, and that really struck a chord with me, I think. ENDS