From the Service Desk to the Rising Stars Programme: Will Jarrald’s Journey at Vantify
Eighteen months ago, Will Jarrald joined Vantify’s Service Desk with no office experience and no idea where the role might lead. Since then, he has moved into a First Line Support role, mastered three new systems from a standing start, and been selected for Axiom’s Rising Stars leadership programme, a five-company initiative reserved for the group’s brightest emerging talent.
It is the kind of progression story every business hopes to tell about its people, and it says as much about Vantify’s culture as it does about Will himself. It is also a story about what happens when a company genuinely invests in its people.
A path that was never planned
Will’s route into the business world wasn’t planned. He had intended to follow his family into the armed forces, but a medical setback changed his direction. "My family are very Army and Navy orientated, but unfortunately I got rejected because I failed my medical, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.”
He studied business and marketing at the University of Lincoln, while working part-time at Aldi from the shop floor to running click and collect and home delivery operations. A referral from a colleague, Ethan Cowley, brought him to Vantify’s Service Desk in March 2025 where his career path truly began.
Finding his feet on the Service Desk
“Originally, I started at the Service Desk. I completed my training and then I just started to progress more and become a strong member of the team.”
After doing his basic training at the Service Desk, Will started taking calls and fielding queries from lift entrapments to air conditioning failures, as well as other day-to-day maintenance issues. Because the Service Desk operates through Vantify CAFM, Will also needed to know the system inside and out.
“I’d never had customer service training before. It took me a couple of weeks, a month, to get used to it. But I feel like that also increased my confidence.”
He soon volunteered to help clear a backlog during a particularly busy period for the Service Desk and quickly established himself as a reliable and capable member of the team. Within four months, he had built a strong reputation for his work ethic and growing expertise. This meant that when a role in First Line Support became available, he had the confidence to apply for it.
“You need to be using your communication skills a lot of the time, and making sure you're efficient in what you do as well.”
"If you're not confident in yourself, they're not going to have confidence that you're right. I feel like if I don't feel comfortable with myself, it reflects in my work, so I try to do everything to the best of my ability."
Sink or swim: moving into First Line Support
The move into a First Line Support role meant learning two entirely new systems, Vantify Risk Manager and Vantify Supply Chain.
“For the Service Desk, it was more communication skills, trying to get quick solves. First Line Support is very system based. You learn two whole new systems, so it’s a completely different outlook, and your knowledge expands so much.”
The transition was a fast-paced one. From an early stage, Will was trusted with live client calls while building his knowledge of Risk Manager and Supply Chain. His onboarding combined formal learning with practical experience, allowing him to develop his skills quickly and take on responsibility from the outset. It was a decision his supervisors made deliberately, based on what they had already seen from him on the Service Desk.
The opportunity reflected the confidence his supervisors had in his potential and their commitment to supporting his development. As Will recalls: “They said, we’ve seen you at the Service Desk before, you learned that very quickly, we’re going to chuck you in the deep end. If you swim, you swim, and if you don’t, we’re here to help. It was a bit of a gamble, but it paid off.”
It was a level of trust not every new starter gets this early, and it reflects something Vantify does well: recognising potential and backing it, rather than waiting for tenure to catch up with talent.
The skills behind Will’s progression
Both roles call for a mix of technical know-how and people skills, quick thinking on live systems, patience with frustrated callers, and the confidence to speak with authority on issues you are still learning yourself. When asked what has carried him through, Will points to two things above all: confidence and communication.
Handling difficult calls was an early challenge that became a genuine strength. “When I first started, I wasn’t the biggest fan of confrontation. But they’re not targeting you, they’re targeting the situation. That built my patience up, and now I’m so much more comfortable reassuring customers and clients that it will get sorted,” he said.
Becoming a rising star
Will recently learned that he had been accepted onto Axiom’s Rising Stars programme, a leadership development course spanning five companies within the group, built around theoretical and practical leadership scenarios and a final project with measurable financial impact.
“It’s a good incentive, and it’s good for my personal development. Getting accepted into this programme really boosted my career and my confidence in myself. So, I guess I’m trying to get to the top as quick as I can because I feel like I’ve got something that I’d like to contribute.”
He was interviewed for the place by senior leaders within the business, competing against colleagues with years more tenure. “I’ve been in the role since January, people have been here for a couple of years, and I applied and I got it,” he said.
Will has now started the programme, which is taking place in London, working part-time alongside his current role for six months, with dedicated leadership training and a mentor.
Looking to the future, Will is happy to let his path stay open for now. However, he can already picture himself in a leadership role, and something like Vantify’s Head of Operations appeals to him as one example of a role he could see himself in.
“I feel like I’m good at delegating, working out what everyone’s good at, pros and cons. Whatever opportunity comes up, if it’s the right fit, I’ll go for it.”
A culture built on people
For someone whose only prior workplace was a supermarket, the move into an office environment was a big adjustment, made easier by the welcome he received.
"It's kind of like a large family, but it is a really good place to work. I would never have referred my brother if I didn't think so."
For Will, seeing Vantify as ‘family’ is not just a turn of phrase. His younger brother now holds his old Service Desk position, having joined the company on his recommendation. It is a small but telling detail: the kind of endorsement that only comes from genuinely believing in a place, and a sign of how much Will’s own experience at Vantify has shaped his view of it as somewhere worth building a career.
Richard Branson once said, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
Will was given real training, real trust, and a genuine stake in his own progression, and eighteen months on, he is one of the group’s Rising Stars. That is what Vantify sets out to do for every person who joins: invest in them properly, back them when they take on a challenge, and give them the room to find out how far they can go.
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