My first professional employment on leaving university in 2000 was at a Measured Land and Building Surveyors where I configured Samba so that staff could copy files from the Linux data processing server to their workstations across the network instead of walking back and forth with floppy disks.
I enjoyed developing the small network, maintaining the CAD workstations and learning about IT in general so I decided to start a dedicated career in IT and in April 2002 left to work self employed for about 6 months, producing websites for local businesses using XHTML, CSS and PHP. I also produced some SourceForge websites during this time to help increase my website portfolio and I became heavily involved in the local Linux User Group. I did successful repeat subcontract website design work for local businesses but was keeping an eye out for a more stable and permanent position.
6 months later when a position came up at the local Higher Education college, who needed an assistant in their Computer Studies section to help teach students how to build computers and how to configure basic networks, I made a successful application. I used Squid as a web filter, supplied DHCP via ISC dhcpd and reduced traffic on our external link both via Squid as the webcache and by using local Bind servers to cache DNS requests. These services supplied roughly 60 desktops which I maintained. For network monitoring I used Snort with Zabbix for service monitoring.
Whilst working here I was also able to take some of the HNC level modules, covering systems analysis, database design and programming theory. This formal training has proved valuable in being able to quickly rationalise a database and in developing web interfaces for problems. I wrote an inventory system using MySQL and PHP whilst also self studying to pass the Comptia A+ and the Linux Professional Institute LPIC-1 qualification as part of continual professional development.
I had been applying to vacancies at both Bristol and Oxford universities to progress my career and it was at the Engineering Department, Oxford, that I was offered a post in 2005. I maintained a computing cluster and fileserver which were used for materials modelling applications, plus supported the users and desktops for two research groups.
At this position I used RT for support ticket tracking, implemented Knowledgetree for a shared Document Management System, moved the NFS setup to operate on a private network and again used Zabbix for service monitoring.
In mid 2007 a position in the university central computing support network team came up, which I knew was a great opportunity and the main IT challenges in the Engineering research groups had been solved, so I applied.
This is my current employment at the Oxford University Computing Services as a Network Development & Support Officer - Working as a member of a four person team running and developing the core backbone services. My duties are described in depth in the portfolio section.
| Oxford University Computing Services, 2011 | Letter of thanks for outstanding individual contribution to the department |
|---|---|
| Oxford University Engineering Department, 2006 | Merit for ‘Exceptional Contribution to the Departments Activities’ |
| Gloscat, in both 2005 and 2004 | Merit Award |
| Meon Survey Partnership, 2000, 2001 | Probation ended early and later award |
| Qualification | When | |
|---|---|---|
| Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician/ICND-1 | 2010 | |
| ISEB/ISTQB Foundation Certificate in Software Testing | 2009 | |
| Comptia A+ | 2005 | |
| Linux Professional Institute LPIC-1 | 2004 | |
| Bsc Environmental Land Management | 2000 |
| Course | When |
|---|---|
| Advanced Perl Programming, UKUUG - Dave Cross | April 2010 |
| Exim Training Course, Cam. Uni. - Dr Philip Hazel | 24th - 27th July 2007 |
| Perl Programming, OUCS - Oliver Gorwits | Nov 2006 |
| Implementing MS Windows 2000 Professional and Server | 2003 |
| Implementing a Secure Windows 2000 Network Environment | 2003 |
| Deploying and Managing Microsoft ISA Server 2000 | 2003 |