I worked at Amadeus for 15 years. The company is a giant in the airline and travel IT industry. Now that you know of it, you may notice the name when booking flights online. I started in August 2008 as an IT Desktop Support Engineer. At that point, the IT infrastructure was managed in-house at the local site in Heathrow. I loved how diverse the role was and really enjoyed meeting great customers, plus the dopamine hit from fixing things was addictive (still is). I worked in a core team of five, and we still meet up at least once a month to this day. My energy was put to good use handling service desk tickets, managing mobile devices, setting up new starters, desk moves, and many other tasks. That experience allowed me to form meaningful connections both professionally and personally.

In 2011, I moved into a new role where I implemented RSA multi-factor authentication across various sites and managed the infrastructure. I worked closely with the vendors and the IT Project Manager to ensure a smooth implementation of RSA SecurID. This led to a promotion to 3rd Line Support for infrastructure. The role gave me the opportunity to travel frequently to Germany, Nice, and once to Istanbul, Turkey. I jumped into the role without any formal training and showed resilience when it counted. The pressure was intense at times, but it only heightened my focus and I thrived in those situations.

In 2016, there was a large reorganisation, and by this point, the IT infrastructure had either been or was in the process of being centralised. I joined a remote Implementation team based in Nice, France. I developed proof of concepts, created documentation, and implemented systems according to business needs. The role required me to work alone, mostly confined to my laptop, with minimal human interaction as it was largely technical. The lack of social contact and the physical distance from the team in France made the role unsuitable for me, and eventually, I moved to another team where I was a better fit.

My final role at Amadeus was extremely fun and rewarding. I worked with a wonderful team based in Bangkok, Thailand. We were tasked with migrating all users from VMware to Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). Amadeus started a partnership with Microsoft, and AVD was included in the package. The switch from VMware to AVD would save Amadeus thousands of dollars. The team was small, starting with just two of us, and expanding to four shortly before I left. The team and leadership pulled together to create an environment where no one wanted to let each other down. The best part was that we organically created a no-blame culture. Naturally, mistakes happen, but no one pointed fingers, only solutions and process reviews were prioritised to prevent repeat issues. I was happy to wake up at 4 a.m. (often did) to connect with the team because I wanted to contribute and get the job done. The migration was delivered as part of a project, and it helped that we had an excellent Project Manager. Management at all levels was exceptional, and the positive energy clearly trickled down to every team member.

Throughout all of this, I remained seated next to the same three colleagues from my original role in 2008, including the person who first recruited me. We worked in different teams, but remain close friends to this day. I eventually left Amadeus in July 2023. My role still existed; however, the on-call service was to be removed from my contract, which affected my salary. As a result, Amadeus offered voluntary redundancy — which I accepted.

Calves, to be more specific. I’m on a mission to strengthen my legs. They’ve been a weak point throughout my life, and now it’s time to put that right. Besides, I need them to carry me through the second phase of my life.