Infrastructure Engineer Review

My role involves me monitoring a customer IT system/ platform and resolving any concerns/ issues that might arise. I am tasked to keep the system maintained and running through patching and upgrades/ updates and overall ensuring the platform is at most time in green status.

While I have been at my customer site I have been exposed to a number of leading edge and state of the art technologies that I have not yet experienced prior to working on this project. I have also gained vast knowledge of linux and how to work at the linux command line. As well as this I have managed to develop some of my soft skills such and team working, communication, etc. And have had the opportunity to run my own project as the project manager.

This programme has been very enjoyable as it has given me the opportunity to widen my knowledge of IT security and work with software/ applications that I had zero experience with before and develop my skills with these software and applications. I have been involved in some interesting tasks/ projects while here which has only made my experience more enjoyable. It has given me challenges to test myself throughout and allowed me to use my own initiative to find solution to problems. I have been given the opportunity to develop myself as a system admin working in the IT security sector.

The overall structure has been good and I do feel that there is always work/ projects that I can get involved in to help better educate/ develop myself as a system admin. However, I do feel at times I would of like the opportunity to experience multiple teams and get involved in a wider range of projects/ get involved and different stages of a large project for my own experience/ development. Reasoning for this is that I would like to experience different roles and what they do for my own experience/ benefit.

A lot of support and encouragement is received throughout through team meetings and emails letting us know about the different opportunities that are available to us and where we could go if we have any concerns/ questions.

The university provides plenty of support in terms of online resources, team meetings and emails As well as that the staff/ lectures are available for students to contact any time and most of the time a response is received fairly quickly.

Although there is some cross over, depending on the module and the project you are on it can be limited in relation to practical practise when it comes to what you have learned at university. Although the knowledge and theory you learn throughout your time at university/ the qualification does give me a better understanding on the theory side when it comes to my role. For this I mean, when it comes to completing projects at work understanding the theory behind it makes it easier for myself to then go complete the practical work even though I may have not experienced this before.

Yes, however they can be very location based. Meaning if you are not located within a reasonable distance to the location it would be difficult to get involved. These opportunities are mainly given to the main sites in London, Manchester or Birmingham. So if you are not already at those sites or within a commutable distances it is difficult to attend endless you cover the cost of travel or wait until and opportunity arises near you. However, if you do wish to go or an opportunity for one of these events does occur near you then the experience is very much worth it.

Yes

BT is one of the leading technology companies within the UK. It gives you great opportunities to get involved in exciting projects, working with state of the art and leading edge technologies. The working environment is very flexible (some more then others) and BT does encourage internal development for all its employees.

why have you not done it already?