Firen is a Client Services Manager, who grew from one role to another and has been with us for almost 10 years. He finds his strength in the support of his colleagues and family. Read his story to discover why it is crucial to think smart, not only to work hard and play harder.

Describe your professional path within the company.

I joined the company through IMG’s merger with Endava, have been working here for almost 10 years now and am currently on my third role. I have acquired a lot of knowledge and growth over the years. This allowed me to progress from being a Team Lead to the position of a Client Services Manager. I received a certification in the configuration of Akamai CDN and Sitecore, I am also CMS and Prince 2 certified, but the most important thing I have learned are the soft skills, which help me a lot in my role.  

Since each role had a different focus, this helped me unfold my potential in unexpected ways. I learned how to manage remote teams, as well as to shift teams and developing complex shift patterns. I became fully aware of the accountability that you have as an Operation Manager for your team and the whole department’s direction. 

My career path was highly influenced by the advice of my Line Managers, friends, and my family. I have a professional background in the technology field and started my career as a Developer, but once I gained more experience, I realised my development path resulted in a mix of all strengths I developed in my former roles. I have always been convinced that the trust that people had in my potential, allowed me to build the necessary confidence of being fearless in continuously taking my career to the next level.  

One of the most important success moments I experienced was the migration of a site from our American Datacentre to our UK centre. I worked with one of our nearshore developers for a straight 24 hours to meet a hard deadline. During this time we were required to update, finish and test functionalities on a new platform that wasn’t working exactly the same way the old one was. With a few tweaks and a lot of testing, we were able to meet the go-live day by successfully migrating one of the busiest websites with millions of subscribers from one data centre to another without one single minute of downtime. 

Tell us about what drives you at Endava. 

My main drivers in Endava are to deliver quality and to ensure that we build trust-based, long-term relationships with our clients, who represent some of the most important brands in the world. 

I have had the pleasure of working with some of the most talented and dedicated people in their domain. It is the teams that you collaborate with that make working at Endava more enjoyable and going the extra-mile easy. 

How would your colleagues describe you in one sentence? 

Reliable, trustworthy, efficient - a person who gets the job done. 

Tell us more about yourself outside of work.

Outside of work I’m am now a very quiet person, spending most of my time with my family. 

I enjoyed doing sports and was a quite decent football player. I also played 2 years of American Football in the British University Leagues. My passions shifted over the years towards being a good family man. I do whatever it takes to have a happy family and to maintain a healthy work-life balance.  

My motto in the past was to work hard and play even harder. As maturity came with age, my priorities changed and I learned that working smart is maybe more important than anything else. 

What advice would you give yourself if you were starting work at Endava today?

Don’t sit back, be determined in what you want and go for it.