Let's Meet... Janko Labudovic

Please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your role.

I'm Janko from Serbia, and I work to provide support on the Service Desk. I'm currently a Service Desk Team Leader, but I started two years ago as an IT Service Desk Support Officer. I'm working on everything that a lead needs to do, including creating the rotas, dealing with complicated tickets, escalations, working on improving procedures, creating reports and performing quality checks.

I'm one of two Service Desk Team Leaders. and the two of us lead around 20 people. The number changes depending on the time of year, for example during the busy September period, we usually have the most people in the team.

What did you do before joining the team?

This is my first job! I had an internship here before this role, and after a few months I started a second internship which should have been for three months. After those three months had passed, I stayed on and eventually I started on a full-time contract.

As part of your training, you came to London. Was that your first visit?

Yes, it was my first trip to London. It was a great experience, not only meeting everyone at Queen Mary, but also getting to know the culture and the city. I think it's a very nice place, maybe one of the favourite places that I visited. London is full of different people and cultures; a lot of everything combined in one city. It was an awesome experience, especially because I really like big cities.

Did you manage to fit in a bit of sightseeing?

Yes, we did! We visited the British Museum, Big Ben, London Bridge, Soho, Trafalgar Square, a lot of the sights in the city. We also visited the Imperial War Museum, Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park.

Have you been involved in any projects as part of your job role? 

When we were preparing to transition to ServiceNow we worked closely with the project team to provide a lot of feedback.

What did you study? 

I'm currently studying; I’m in my final year at an Information Technology School studying IT. My course covers everything from programming and databases to management, giving me a solid understanding of both the technical and organisational aspects of IT.

What are your hobbies? 

I have two big hobbies: one is gaming and the other is sports. When I was little, I played a lot of football and basketball. I also trained to be an American footballer – not for very long. The sessions would include training with the ball, but then we had sessions where we’d sit for three to four hours just taking notes on tactics which is different from other sports like basketball or football. I tried to go professional, but that didn't work out. Now, I'm also looking to start MMA training.

What's your favourite game? 

I wouldn't say I have a favourite. I also considered going professional as a gamer so at that time I played a lot of Counter-Strike and Valorant – FPS games. There was a lot of people from around the world that I was speaking to, and English is the main language that everybody uses. So, after years of talking to people from all around the world, my English really improved, and it helped me a lot in this position.

Now, I still play from time to time. I don’t have one game that I stick to for life; I have a variety of games that I like to play, including single player games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Elden Ring, Assassin's Creed, The Witcher 3 and many others.

Quick-fire questions

What is your go to comfort food after a long day?

This is a hard question because I like food a lot! But the one thing that I maybe like the most is burgers and Coca-Cola with ice.

Coffee, tea or something stronger?

Maybe coffee – cappuccino. In the mornings before work. It's not strong, but it's good for me to get the day started - just enough.

What's the song that always gets you in a good mood?

I'm not sure about the name, but I like to listen to Balkan songs. Not the old traditional ones or the folk ones, but the newer Serbian songs. But I also listen to a variety of songs.

If you had to be stuck in a movie universe for a week, which one would you pick?

Maybe Lord of the Rings - there is a lot of good movies! I love fantasy things. The first thing that came to mind was Guardians of the Galaxy, or something from the Marvel universe. But maybe Lord of the Rings, because of the medieval theme.

Are you a morning person or a night owl?

Oh, I used to be a night owl before starting work. I would stay awake the whole night and go to bed at like 5:00 or 6:00 AM, then sleep through most of the day. Right now, I'm a morning person because I need to be! But on the weekends and free time, like vacations, I'm a night owl for sure!

If you could invite three people either dead or alive, to dinner, who would you invite?

OK, so maybe because I like sports, I would like to invite Michael Jordan, Diego Maradona and Mike Tyson. Across the three sports all three for me are the best. So, I think those three would be a nice pick.

What's your personal motto or favourite quotes that you live by?

I'm trying to think of something because I really don't have a quote or motto. I just get up every day, do the job and try to be better; just be better than you were yesterday.

“Make every day a better day.” You can make that your motto - I've created a motto for you!

Janko, thanks for taking the time to talk – it was great meeting you!