E1 - Gary Gouldstone at Opticore IT

On the first episode of The Route to Networking, Co-Founder & Director of Hamilton Barnes, George Barnes, speaks to Gary Gouldstone, Head of Resources at Opticore IT, about what lead him into the position he’s in today and why he has such a huge passion for the Networking space.

But where did it all begin for a man in his position? Working as Head of Resources for a large company like Opticore IT, Gary explains where it all started and how exactly he got into the position he’s in today, “I guess like many people, I started off in a relatively small company, where I had the opportunity to get exposed to all of the different parts of IT”.

From starting small, Gary moved up to Investment Banking, which lead him to the opportunity of Driving the Strategy for Networking Services for a major corporation.

A Career Change

While working in Bishops Gate in the digital workplace i.e., Driving the Strategy, he was put on a talent development program. This program involved taking people who were at the top of their game to edge them into management. He learnt a variety of key skills during his time there such as, Presenting, Stakeholder Management, how to talk to an audience etc.

This essentially pushed him to get involved with the program, starting off as a helper, but moved on to being part of the core faculty running the program. He started helping people with their journeys, teaching them how to present and building them up to becoming public speakers.

“When you see people go on that journey from starting off, looking down at their feet to standing and projecting the room and hitting the mark with where they need to be speaking, I got a huge level of reward out of that”

Gary is now Head of Resource at Opticore, he explains the reasons why he wanted to go into this role in particular. After being involved with the training program for 10 years, he loved seeing people go on a journey from bottom to top and loves to work with people in general.

He prides himself in what he does and what he has achieved, in particular, the morality of the business and what makes them stand out from their competitors. The development of his employees and putting them first in general is the most important thing Gary believes as to why his business is so successful. By putting his employees first and encouraging them to keep pushing forward, it makes them a credible business that shows they care about their staff and their success.

Advice to 16-year-old Gary

So, what advice would Gary give to his 16-year-old teenage self before it all started? He explained how he could’ve experienced more life as a teenager before hopping straight from his shelf stacking Sainsbury’s job straight into IT.

Gary’s advice for all those who are starting up in the Network Engineering sector is to surround yourself with people who you can communicate with properly and are understanding. He also says, “it’s not all about tech”, you have got to be able to stake hold and manage, to present and to carry yourself well.

It’s not always plain sailing for Gary though, he discusses his biggest disasters in his history with Networking and IT. Do you want to know what could have possibly gone wrong? Listen to the podcast here: