“At Kramp, you’re free to develop yourself. Your ideas are welcomed. You’re being heard.”

After a couple of years at college studying IT technology, which involved working one day a week with a local company, I got my first full-time tech job. It was with a local network provider with clients across the whole country. I worked in first-line support, fixing problems or escalating them to appropriate engineers.

In February 2018, I started at Kramp. I was looking for a new challenge; two years in first-line support was fun, but I really wanted to specialise in my main interest, which is networking and infrastructure.

A recruiter came to me and told me about the role at Kramp. I’d never heard of the company, even though it’s so large and only 30km from where I live. As it turns out, the commute to work is amazing and much faster than getting to my previous job, even though it was closer. I’ve never been in a traffic jam in two years!

I joined Kramp as Network Administrator. I help look after the entire Kramp network, from core connections in our data center to the WiFi in China. In a normal day, maybe 3,000 people are connected to Kramp’s WiFi and we manage it all with a team of four; three of us here and the fourth in Poland. At the moment, my manager is supporting me in progressing to become a Network Engineer, which will be more project-based in scope.

I asked for further training to help me take that step up, and Kramp sent me for a two-week bootcamp training in Cisco technologies, which was fantastic. I learnt a lot. Of course, I’ve already learnt so much; we’re also in charge of the load balancing processes, which were a completely new field for me. In such a challenging environment, I’m progressing my skill set every day!

Back when I was interviewing, I had a choice between two companies, but I soon realised Kramp was the right fit for me. Kramp was so much larger, with so many technical teams and potential opportunities. It wasn’t just about the technical fit, or the chance to grow, I felt it was a good fit for me on a personal level. I had done my research, read the testimonials about working here and I felt that – even though it’s a very, very big company – there were lots of small teams working together and enjoying a real family atmosphere. When I had my first interview, I was shown around the IT department. There were around 100 people there. Even though the department is enormous, when you are shown around the you that all the specific disciplines are close to each other and able to work in small teams.

I will always remember my first day. I remember the introduction, being shown around, and I shook hands with everybody there; I’ve never shaken hands with so many people in my life! I thought, I’m never going to remember all these names. It might have taken a year to remember them all! But everyone was so friendly. The other thing that sticks with me was the tour of the facility and warehouses. It was my first time seeing such a warehouse in operation. These huge conveyor belts and the newly built hall were very impressive. Over that first couple of weeks I sat with all the different technical teams to see what their work involved and their projects; they’d invite me to have lunch with them, it was a good, relaxing and positive way to start my time here, not just being sat down in a cubicle and told to get on with it! Since then, I’ve been able to travel around Kramp, to visit sites in a number of countries, too.

At Kramp, you’re free to develop yourself. Your ideas are welcomed – you can investigate ideas, put them forward and know that they can be put into action - if they’re good, of course! You’re being heard. Lots of friends have asked me about working at Kramp, because they see how happy I am here.