Introduction
My journey at GMA Began one year ago when I joined the team as a Helpdesk technician. Little did I know that this role would become one of the most transformative experiences of my professional career, shaping my skills, perspectives, and approach in IT.
The Company and My Role
About GMA
GMA is a small-to-medium-sized MSP that operates across all areas of IT. The company runs a lean operation, featuring a remarkably busy helpdesk often referred to as the “coal face.” The workload was consistently high—not rushed, but characterized by a sustained flow of tickets.
A core principle at GMA is cultivating exceptional client relationships and consistently delivering the highest level of support. This ethos resonated strongly with me. Coming from an in-house IT background, the transition was challenging, but the company’s commitment to service aligned perfectly with my own. In a relatively short time, I had the opportunity to build genuine relationships with the clients I supported—a new and rewarding experience for me. Truth be told, having that foundation of trust makes providing effective support significantly easier.
Skills Developed and Enhanced Learning
When I started at GMA, I possessed good technical knowledge, but it was largely siloed and theoretical. A helpdesk role shatters that paradigm. You are constantly forced to adapt, with each ticket presenting a unique challenge you’ve never faced before.
This environment also demands a mastery of soft skills. I learned to communicate complex, often unfamiliar, technical concepts to non-technical users—breaking them down into understandable steps while meticulously managing that most critical commodity: time. In this industry, the idiom “work smarter, not harder” is paramount. I grew to be decisive, learning from my mistakes rather than overthinking, which is a sure path to trouble.
These skills were tested and honed daily. After solo completion of 1,161 tickets and thousands of hours on the phone, I can state without hyperbole that I’ve gained a practical, deep-seated knowledge of IT that simply cannot be taught in a classroom.
Technical Skills
During my tenure, I significantly advanced my expertise in:
- Skill Category 1: Telephony - 3CX
- Skill Category 2: Linux server deployment (working in my own time to create this blog and a lot of other Web based services)
- Skill Category 3: Soft Skills (Intense customer focused experience)
- Skill Category 3: O365 management + some Intune experience (remote build deployment)
- Tools and Technologies: Powershell
Soft Skills
The role helped me develop crucial soft skills:
- Communication: GMA gave me the oppertunity to use my social skills to help solve technical issues.
- Problem-Solving: Every day was filled with new problems and tickets thus my skill set improved daily.
- Project Management: Effective time management and learning when task should take more time and to correctly prioritize.
Lessons Learned and Takeaways
My experience in helpdesk revealed a challenging paradox. It provides an invaluable, fast-paced education in IT, but it also poses a significant career risk if one remains too long. There’s a danger of becoming overly specialized in support itself, which can inadvertently limit opportunities for specialization in other areas and hinder professional growth. It’s easy to become pigeonholed.
This highlights a tension between organizational needs for retention and an individual’s need for developmental change. Without new challenges, skills can stagnate. I entered my helpdesk role conscious of this dynamic. My passion for technology is what drives me, and I believe that to maintain that enthusiasm and achieve my potential, I must move beyond the inherent limitations of a support desk position.
Professional Insights
My key takeaways from this role:
- Lesson 1: HelpDesk is extremely hard and this is also dependant on the type of MSP you work for, most IT professionals start here. That is for a good reason, you get massive exposure to many intersecting technologies.
- Lesson 2: Telephony based technologies have a steep learning curve but it is worth IT if you ever want to pick one self contained system that holds the entire OSI model in one place this would be it. You could easily Specialise in this one area.
- Lesson 3: There will always be more ticket never try to beat the queue it will always win, prioritize and work the problems.
- Lesson 4: Changing role is really hard more so when you are kind of happy where you are but is essential to broaden perspective.
Conclusion: Moving Forward
My new role starting on the 24/11/25
My time as an IT Engineer at GMA was more than just a job—it was a demanding yet comprehensive learning experience. Comparing the professional I am today to the one who first walked through their doors, I can confidently say I’ve grown immensely.
The foundation I built during this period has uniquely prepared me for my next career steps, and I’m grateful for every challenge and achievement along the way.
Feeling ready to progress, I’ve decided to leave my role at GMA on excellent terms. I’m excited to be joining Informal IT, another London-based company, where I’ll gain deeper exposure to my true passion: networking and all related technologies. While I know this will be a challenge, I am eagerly looking forward to it.
This move will also provide me with more dedicated support and time to explore specialized areas of IT—a opportunity that was often limited by the fast-paced nature of my previous role. This isn’t a critique of GMA, but rather a reflection of the different structure and approach at my new company.
Now, onto the fun stuff!
My next post will detail this very blog and the server backend I created to host it. I’ll also dive deep into the other VPS instances I’m running, which host VaultWarden (a self-hosted password vault) and my personal VPN network. It’s going to be a long one!
I also plan to share my experiences with Tailscale, as I’ve found it to be an incredible piece of technology.
Note: This reflection represents my personal experiences and perspectives from my time at GMA.