Technical Support Specialist - Technology Administration, CIT: Service Operations Teams - UC Communication Review

Despite all the difficulties and unexpected outcome of this 2020, I enjoyed this work opportunity so much. I applied to this job intending to expand the work possibilities my degree could offer me. I mainly wanted to learn more about hardware and tech support. I not only succeeded in this but I also learnt more about server-side engineering and administration, and I gained confidence with the English language since I moved to a new town challenging my comfort zone and also because I spent most of my working time chatting with people via Skype and personally. I am sure the combination of all the skills I gained, and practices will offer me a good chance for a bright future.

It has been an awesome year during which I achieved so much. Right from my first day, I felt like a true employee and an individual, I have been lucky to join a fantastic team which made me feel welcome with opportunities to socialise creating friendships. These were excellent opportunities for creating interpersonal relationships and having some fun with the whole IT department. That has been great since I almost worked along and spent time with colleagues from all the lines of business. I am sure the combination of all the skills I gained, and practices will offer me a good chance for a bright future. I also created a network of people inside a very prestigious company which has high standard policies and values I enjoyed a lot. I would enjoy working in this company again, and I would also like to work with both the UK offices and colleagues and the Italian ones as I did this second semester.

Despite the period of isolation I managed to build some relationship with my colleagues in particular with my manager taking time to develop and maintain connections with others by considering their needs, sharing ideas and building trust also thanks to the fact that we have had a weekly meeting. During these meetings every Tuesday, we shared what happened during the week and any news or event relevant to us. I succeeded in my work helped by my manager, who met my needs, also by the messaging team members. My manager has always been my first reference point. From the first days when I've been assigned a supervisor/buddy for learning all the bases to know the company building and to know the right procedures for my job, my manager taught me what to do and what not. To fulfil my potential, I had to take responsibilities for all my action, to learn how to do things right avoiding mistakes since other user’s data were involved. This job has been an infinite source of knowledge as I always had to learn from others, from guides my colleagues were giving me, from the internet or directly shadowing my colleagues. I’ve been an active learner all year long. For some kinds of problems, since changing values to the server may bring to interruption of services, if I was not sure, I always have preferred asking for help if I thought it wasn’t safe improvising. Teamworking has been very important to my work since I learnt almost all the techniques just looking at my colleagues working. Teamworking would have been more demanding since I would have been working with a third level support team dedicated to unified communications, so everything related to messaging aspects including emails, calls, Outlook, Teams, Skype, working with others to set and achieve shared goals. With my manager, I set up some goals to achieve during the last six months of my placement year. I had to break an overall objective down into smaller tasks and work out how much time and resource will be needed to complete each part. We decided to set an objective to keep track of all the people I would have changed during this time. Another aim to record the people I helped and finally, the last one for what I would have learnt including the initial knowledge about cloud and exchange server, Microsoft Teams application of which I needed to learn about the administration along with some Microsoft Server administration knowledge. I needed to keep track regularly of my goals and actions, writing how I was performing, and I also had to ask for reviews and feedback when I was helping people and changing their addresses. I needed to submit a request to users I helped to receive constructive feedback. Since I needed to work with other offices in Mumbai and Italy, I asked my manager some contact from local IT to send the guides for helping the migration in case they needed help and for being sure they knew that I was changing users at their office. I knew my manager would have always helped me. Once I had the server returning me an error, I worked along with my manager and other messaging colleagues since the error came out frequently until we solved it. Or another example when I had another error from a user I was not sure how to solve, I contacted my manager and he gave me the right solution along with an explanation of the causes of the error and other possible solutions. My manager also sent me some links of resources I could have used for studying technical topics.

In IT I worked with many people who were part of different groups. My services were addressed to everyone, including people working to other lines of business. That’s because I did not only offer software-related support doing troubleshooting, but I also had the tools and the duty of changing pieces of hardware, replacing the laptop if it was too old/slow with a new one or calling Dell if the device was on warranty for repairing it with a technician. I also handed over new equipment people ordered after I collected it from the post. From July to November there were new hires almost once per week. For any new member, Reigate depot used to send us the equipment the joiner’s manager ordered. Usually, kits included a bag (backpack, rucksack or handbag) and the laptop that might have been the traveller, a 13 inches laptop very light made for been easily carried around; the classic working laptop 15 inches or the computer for developers which was bigger and with more performing hardware. After how to use the ticket system for helping people, one of the first things my manager taught me was how to perform an upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10. The most significant changes that the Willis Towers Watson needed to complete from July onwards was the migration to a new version of the operating system for all the users. New joiners were already using Windows 10, but many already existing colleagues were not. I have been given a USB with a custom version of Windows 10. Every day I was required to collect the post. There was a room which was the company post office where I could have both shipped items or received them. Since after ten years, support for Windows 7 ended on January, Willis Towers Watson planned to update all the Operating Systems of the laptop in good conditions or to replace the old ones with a new model. Even if the migrations were performed during the night, my colleagues were busy with this project all day long. It was likely that I was working alone in the Technical Support area on my own. I gained a high independence learning how to work without supervision or input from others, using self-motivation, my personal knowledge and skills to achieve goals. I still had to deal with everyday people’s issues, so if users were having problems, they could call me via skype, or they could come to my team area where Tech Support was located. If they preferred assistance without leaving their desk, I could take remote control of their devices without the necessity for them to bring their laptop to my office or I could have arranged a meeting at their desk for problem-solving. Customers usually opened tickets with all the details so I could already know what the issue was and then starting investigating. If they contacted me directly, I had to open the ticket with the details, including problems and resolution attempts in case someone else would have used the same hints or if the problems appeared again. Problems typically were on Microsoft office software, users being locked out from their accounts, synchronisation issues, files wrongly moved or deleted from server folders and loan laptops to borrow. Sometimes new hire or other colleagues needed to install software not included inside our Software Center through the intranet so since for installing they required an admin password, they were coming to my desk for my credentials. All the users also have the possibility to work from home connecting to the network using a VPN, but it needed to be configured following some guided steps. I have also been taught how to replace RAM, SSD, Battery or call DELL for scheduling a meeting with a technician for a replacement. While working on one of my projects, I gained experience helping during the London office migration to Windows 10. When back to the Ipswich office, I helped with another project. WTW in Ipswich has two building, the main one and another one where there were mainly archives and other kinds of offices. There I managed to replace desktop computers for all the users who required an upgrade of their workspace. I used to bring there two monitors (o a single one if theirs was good) along with their docking station, laptop and all the cables with mouse and keyboard. Then with a platform trolley, I brought back all the old equipment. During the second semester, I had the responsibility to amend Skype addresses of those colleagues who had it different from their email address.

I had many duties during my probation period (which ended at the end of January), all these tasks were for me challenges to face since I had never carried out similar jobs, so I was completely new to this field. I uncovered a laptop for the first time discovering what was inside and I replaced hardware by myself for the first time just knowing only what to expect as a result and not much more. Most of the time, I received tickets with details of issues, then I needed to look for a solution and attempt many ways until the right one worked The user needed to be informed about the problem status, changes made, and how would have affected their job, so I had to write a sort of summary to close the case. I had to gather relevant information from a variety of sources. Usually, I searched in many forums possible solutions to the issues just to have more chances to get to the resolution, and I needed to present them in the form of a reasoned and well-written argument always keeping in mind the Willis Towers Watson values and the reliability of the service I was offering. Fortunately, I was in an excellent team where I could find all the support I needed in case of doubt since almost always I had first to find solutions to problems and then use that solution every time the same issues occurred, so an expert help shorted my answer times. Another one of the significant pieces of work completed has been the replacement of all the Windows 7 machines with new Windows 10 ones. Since after ten years, support for Windows 7 ended on January, Willis Towers Watson planned to update all the Operating Systems of the laptop in good conditions or to replace the old ones with a new model. In this second semester, I had the responsibility to amend Skype addresses of those colleagues who had it different from their email address. This messaging team member along with my new manager also explained to me how the Exchange Servers work giving me some knowledge about protocols, pools. They also showed me how the Active Directory works, how Groups, emails and Skype for business are managed. They also introduced me to the Skype for business server console, the tool I would have used most of the time from then.

To fulfil my potential, I had to take responsibilities for all my action, to learn how to do things right avoiding mistakes since other user’s data were involved. This job has been an infinite source of knowledge as I always had to learn from others, from guides my colleagues were giving me, from the internet or directly shadowing my colleagues. I’ve been an active learner all year long. I also did some courses that were related to the internal policy of the Willis Towers Watson. Those courses were about WTW values which are client focus, teamwork, respect, excellence and integrity. Taking part to those courses were useful to master the ability to find information using various resources, to then collect and combine them to complete some training including the DPPIST and the Privacy and Data Protection courses using my information literacy skill. The skills gained during this year valued a lot for me as I succeeded in getting a job and working in the Technical Support field, in which I learnt how to fix hardware related issues and to change pieces of equipment. I also learnt to troubleshoot Windows 10 problems, learning more about drivers, BIOS settings and professional business-related software, and I also started creating my way in the Server Administration field. Most of the time, I received tickets with details of issues, then I needed to look for a solution and attempt many ways until the right one worked. It also happened that I had to contact my colleagues while investigating the issues to get as much information as possible to try to replicate errors or just to better understand them. I was then using my critical thinking skill, considering issues from a range of perspectives, drawing upon relevant information to make an informed assessment. I had to write every single detail on the ticket so me or my colleagues could always use the solution in case a similar error would have happened again. Working in this company allowed me to expand my knowledge in many other fields. I started this job with a precise aim in mind. I wanted to get experience about support and hardware that were two fields in which I wasn’t expert. I took this as a chance for learning something new not included in my knowledge from the university. During these six months, I took part in seminars and lessons about economic topics since Willis Towers Watson is mainly a risk management, insurance brokerage and advisory company. I have done some tests on anti-bribery & corruption rules and the Willis Towers Watson values. The courses I did for getting the certification were about “Anti-Bribery and Corruption; Gifts, Entertainment, and Hospitality; and Third-Party Bribery Risk.” During the second semester for keeping learning about servers’ administration, my manager sent me some links of resources I could have used for studying technical topics about the Microsoft Teams app administration to include in my Microsoft Server administration studies.

I was part of two different teams and during the last months of 2020, I worked from home. Ipswich office was organised as agile offices so I could sit in any free desk. IT support team was very busy as we did not only offer remote support but also we were helping people at their desk so it was very dynamic and inclusive since we were sharing tasks and tickets to help all our colleagues at our best. I also enjoyed the humour my team had since it wasn't always serious but the days were full of time together, laughs and memes. After work, I also enjoyed chatting and having a drink with the IT/Support department and the Christmas bingo and raffle. When I worked at the messaging team I almost worked from home because of the COVID but I had been offered all the possible help with hardware/software and also a weekly meeting with my manager.

I was well organised. Before starting to work in Ipswich I have spent a day in London for an induction. It gave us a lot of useful information and what I appreciated the most, a little guide with all the most important thing to know before starting about the intranet, about the company, about timetables, about the first day and many other things that eased my beginning. I brought that manual with me during the first period as it contained the essential. It was perfectly organised. I worked for 6 months at technical support where I learnt the basics to offer efficient support and to use programs and administrative rights in the correct way. During my probation period, I have been taught from all my teammates as I needed to deal with software and systems. Then during the second half of my placement, I worked with the communication server so I had to be sure not to make mistakes so it was fundamental for me to have he right tools acquired during the previous months.

WTW provided me with some courses about topics like Anti-Bribery and Corruption that were more concerning the insurance aspects of the company. During the first half of my placement, I had been given a lot of training since I needed to know in deep what tool I had and how could I use them and how was I expected to use them. For this, both my manager and another teammate gave me guides and resources to use when in doubt or when I was working taking initiative. During the second half, I had been given just the base knowledge to perform my tasks. One of my colleagues I was shadowing before starting my duties introduced me to a certification I intend to take in the future and I really appreciated it. I would have liked to receive a more in-dept lesson about servers than that one I received.

I received positive feedback from many of my colleagues I worked with and positive feedbacks from my managers as well. I had a great time with them and all of my teammates seemed to appreciate my work, my expertise and the time spent together. During the year I had to keep track of my work done and I reached all the milestones completing all the tasks I have been given successfully. I have enjoyed this experience that has taught me a lot and would love to learn even more if I were lucky enough to have a chance to work for this company again.

I met all the placement/internship colleagues during the induction and I kept in touch during the first six months since some on them was doing a summer internship in Ipswich with me but in other lines of business mainly insurance fields. The social scene amongst my colleagues was nice since there were some after-work activities to know each other better and just to spend a good time together. I also had the chance to mentor another placement colleague since a new joiner came to my team after me and I have been given the honour to teach him the basics.

Ipswich is a nice town close enough to London. I have been living there just for a year and I lived with ease since it is close to London (45 minutes by train) enough to have the chance to take part to a busy life but also the easy atmosphere that a town can offer. Cost of leaving was normal and the pay was right. I also enjoyed how well connected Ipswich is (by train/bus) to airports and other towns and cities nearby.

Ipswich offered a choice of clubs and pubs where to spend the night. WTW offices were located in the town centre so I had everything I needed within walking distance. The town offered great chains like Revolution, Yates, Wetherspoons and also Nando's, Byron. The town centre is not too big and you can always feel safe during the night, it's clean and well illuminated. There were also some other great independent Bars and Pubs including Greek, Italian and Indian restaurants.

I have been invited to many activities outside of work. Some of them were about seminars of many topics from business and finance to IT. They were covering my line of business and also the works I was doing like the migration from Windows 7 to 10 or other were made from US seniors and managers who talked about the company itself. Sometimes buffet was included. Other events were more to socialise. IT support teams organised an afternoon at the pub to hang out together. Before the Christmas holidays, the whole IT department organised some bingo games, quiz, raffle. Another great activity WTW organised was a wine tasting session where I had the chance to learn a lot about wines and after a delicious dinner, I took part in a challenge to win a fine bottle.