Matt Fulbright

I’ve always enjoyed playing with and working on computers. Whether it was optimising my own personal laptop in order to play the latest games, or troubleshooting my co-workers IT issues as a way to generate goodwill. I was dissatisfied with the pay and the quality of life a career in education was giving me, as well as the lack of advancement opportunity the field provided, so I decided to apply my efforts towards pursuing a career in technology.

The best part of the traineeship was the ability to set my own schedule. Often, I would come home from working at school utterly exhausted and would only be able to muster an hour or two of studying. Although it took me nine months to complete the package and be placed into a role it never adversely affected my social or family life. The live labs were also a very valuable way to mess about without fear of breaking anything, or angering an employer.

In a word: Brilliant. Octopus is a forward-thinking company who is keen to promote internally along flexible career pathways. They were interested in my CV because of the CV-rebuild and my background in customer service.  I wouldn’t have been able to pass the interview stage without the knowledge I gained from the Traineeship (I distinctly remember being asked in my first interview what DHCP stood for, and I easily chirped “Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol!”). I see myself still working for and advancing within Octopus over the next five years.