Alan Lee

Towards the end of last year, I was looking for a career change. Having worked in the events industry for 8 years, I felt like it’s time for a change. Having looked back at my trajectory so far, in particular having done Maths to a high level, I felt like my problem solving and reasoning skills developed there could be put to good use in IT, which is a rapidly growing industry that’s hugely in demand right now (especially during the current pandemic). Then I went online and searched for IT traineeships, and found IT Career Switch. Having looked at the contents of the IT Technician + Cybersecurity traineeship course, I thought that’s exactly what I was looking for.

The traineeship combines theoretical concepts with a bit of hands-on training via virtual machines. Also even though some of the videos in the course are quite long, they provided me with the content that I needed to further my own research on the subjects. Further, the tests at the end of the modules allowed me to test my knowledge and ensure that I have a thorough understanding of the materials in the course. In addition, the team from IT Career Switch were always ready to help. Leigh in particular provided me with some invaluable advice (like the best way to face the internal exam and also the official exams from COMPTIA). And Clive helped me immensely in preparing for interviews and looking for jobs that fit my criteria.

I’m currently Technical Support Assistant at A Productions, a dynamic, well established company specialising in animation production in Bristol. Some of my current duties include the following (with potential for more over the coming months):

Monitoring regular backups of files
Updating / Improving / streamlining backup systems
Monitoring on-site storage
Configuring and monitoring render machines, making sure that they’re working properly
Auditing hardware in-house
Configuring correct permissions of files and folders on all our servers and backup devices
Deploying PCs and any required peripherals to new starters
Deploying necessary updates and installations on servers
Troubleshooting hardware and software issues from users
Researching possible improvements to current systems
Liaising with external IT support if necessary

I was able to put to good use some of the skills that I learnt from the Traineeship, especially file/folder permissions and sharing, backups, server manager, remote access, between other concepts. Whilst demanding in itself, the job allows me a good work-life balance, and gives me enough time to keep studying IT and particularly the Cybersecurity part of the training.