Work Term Report 3: UofG Computing & Communications Services MD

⇘ Overhead shot of the OVC complex, with virtually all clients of the CCS OVC's serviced buildings in view

This term I worked for the University of Guelph, under the Computing & Information Service, the central IT department. I worked directly in the Managed Desktops department, which controlled the networked devices on campus. Some fun facts about both CCS and my work term:

• This term I spent the entire time working within the OVC, working with a very small team. I was one of three within the OVC offices this term, so I was given much more privileges in terms of ticket handling.
• The OVC is one of the largest veterinary schools in the world, and has 2 split IT teams managing all the devices within it, from medical computers to office desktops. To expand on this further, I worked with the MD team, while there is an informatics team for more advanced hospital equipment and machines.
• CCS MD OVC works and supports clients in over 7 building complexes within the university, from supporting with basic software installations to deployment of computer labs and office setups.
• This term was heavily focused on rebuilding and replacing much of the older equipment around the OVC, making sure both the mixed setups of iMacs and windows machines were updated and secure. I found myself getting to explore alot of the rooms within the OVC and helped support some new areas.

Since I had already had 2 previous terms working with CCS, I had decided to give myself advanced goals which I would try to improve on throughout the semester. The main 3 I had planned were:

• Personal Organization/Time Management: Issue planning
• Critical & Creative Thinking: Problem Solving
• Communicating: Integrative Communication

My first major goal was a continuation of my previous goal from my last work term that I want to keep getting better at. I continued focusing on organizing my time using microsoft teams scheduling and in-office ticket scheduling with our ticketing software footprints to make sure my my work hours were clean and regimented. Never having long hanging or loose tickets and issues due to mismanagement or bad planning, but rather organized and timed issues that were planned for the whole week allowed me to both get more work done, alongside giving me reassurance I wasn't missing anything or attending to tickets late. I found this to work really well for the flow of my job, and helped strengthen my goals from the last term, where I often still let some tickets lag when not following my scheduling rules. I have also followed up this goal in my personal life, planning to do the same while I work part-time and continue school next semester. Overall it has aided me greatly.

I also wanted to further my skill in general problem solving. As an IT techinician, being able to hop into a problem and troubleshoot the issue away is the paramount of the position. In the end of the day, clients need help to continue doing their own work. If I sit down and scroll through guides when I should be troubleshooting the issue it does not help them much, neither does it help me. I wanted to make a big goal of mine be to further work on my problem solving skills, as a way to break my reliance on others fixes and instead finding the answers myself. Overall it has been a big success this semester, whether it be me writing my own scripts from scratch to solve a users problem or tinkering with common hardware issues I know before having to search online for a while to find a similar issue. It has helped me become more independant and has made me enjoy the job much more!

My last goal was improving my skill in integrative communication, being able to transpose issues previously worked on to knew issues, either through commuinication to a client and instructions, or explaining the issue when working on it in person. I believe that this term I have done a good job at increasing my skill in integrative communication. I found myself writing issues that had come up multiple times in a notepad for recalling what to do qucikly and efficiently, and it really helped nail some of the fixes into my head. Its helped me a bunch when encountering similar problems, as I can use the knowledge and apply it to the new problem easily. Overall improving this skill both saved me a bunch of time troubleshooting issues and has helped me apply my knowledge to new problems I face.

⇘ The large animal clinic front office, this building took much of the damage on both floors from the flooding

Working within CCS’s MD OVC team, our job was to handle both general computer support, alongside specialized hospital system support and software. Devices from a professors iMac to signage machines across campus fall under our management. If it was on the network, it most likely would end up with us servicing it. While not as independent and isolated as last work term, the OVC department has little staff so resource and time management was very important for accounting for all issues within the entire OVC. This term had also covered the OVC's flooding that happened early January, leading many to be out of offices in the early months of the term and much additional tech support and recovery. As most of the flooded area was in office blocks, more than a month of work time was dedicated to tracking, fixing, and replacing technology lost to the flood or mold damage afterwards. I was part of a main team dedicated to documenting what would be needed, and distributing replacements. While it was difficult work, it was also rewarding getting to help many of the people affected.

Overall, I would say that I have further improved and built upon my skills from my third term and part time work last summer and fall. While already deeply familiar with the environment, I was able to organize myself further and balance my workflow easier. I explored more bits of the university on the OVC side especially due to the flood, improved greatly at my learning goals, and enjoyed tinkering and playing with alot of tech that would come through the door. I felt like a tenured part of the team with skill to help keep the OVC running. Further developing my skills in hardware maintenence, troubleshooting, and scheduling has helped me greatly during this term, and has made me overall much more efficient. I am very grateful for the developments and advancements I had made during this semester.