Work Term Report 2: UofG Computing & Communications Services MD

⇘ OVC's main building, location of the deans office and a major client of CCS OVC's services

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, with additional coop help. I was the second oldest in position within the OVC offices 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.
• This term I worked very close with the informatics office to replace many of the machines around both the administrative OVC buildings and the main hospital rooms. I got to work with many special machines, from lecture hall projector to pathobiology lab machines and even radiology imaging monitors worth over $10000.

Since I had already had a previous term working with CCS, I had decided to give myself advanced goals which I would try to improve on throughout the semester. The main 4 I had planned were:

• Teamwork: Inter-department communication and planning
• Technological Literacy: Intranet systems and device networks
• Written Communication: Processing and responding to tickets
• Personal Organization/Time Management: Issue planning

My first major goal was being able to spearhead and help take the lead focus in communication and planning between the OVC team and informatics team. Because of school slowing down at the OVC during the summer semester, much of the term was dedicated to updating machines, performing rebuilds, and making sure all setups were adequate before the start of fall. Informatics would build the machines and image them, and our OVC team would help deploy and manage them. I wanted to take a bigger focus on getting involved in the process and organization of transfers and planning, as in school projects and group assignments I have always found myself sitting on the sideline doing what was requested to be done without a hand in the process. Leadership and communication skills are important in any field, and I found that my involvement in the deployment tickets helped me advance in that category.

I also wanted to further my knowledge in the technical processes and the larger network infrastructure. I find great interest in computer networks and wanted to learn how the managed desktops were deployed and organized in a professional environment. Working on endpoint devices, servicing machines remotely, and working on the network lever administrating machine groupings and user groups was extremely interesting. Working with the managed CAN networks at the university taught me much about the network layer in general and has interested me enough to further my learning through classes in the next semester.

An issue I found occurring my first work term with CCS, was that my personal writing skills when working on procedural and instructive writing was very poor. I wanted to improve on this greatly as the OVC is one of the most culturally diverse parts of the university, with many professors, doctors, and specialists coming from other parts of the world. Making clear, easy to read and execute instructions would save both me time by allowing me to not have to follow up with the client on site, but would also save the client time by not having to book with me. I think technical and procedural writing is extremely important when working in the tech sector, whether it be writing SOP's, documentation, or instructions. I was glad to improve my skill in this field.

My last goal was an expansion of my previous goal from last semester that I didn't feel like I handled well enough. I focused on organizing my time using enterprise apps such as microsoft teams scheduling and in-office ticket scheduling to make sure my days were planned efficiently. Never having hanging or loose tickets, but rather organized and sorted issues that were planned by the day 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 be a great improvement to my previous term, where I often found myself struggling to keep up with tasks assigned. 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.

⇘ the former VMI building, holding the offices of both the informatics and CCS teams

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. As I had already worked a term, like mentioned before I also took on the task of helping aide the new Co-ops and anyone not introduced to specialties of the OVC side of tech support. Alongside helping newer coworkers, the comfort with day-to-day work allowed me to work on larger projects, like developing projects and scripts in office to help my workflow or working on longer multi-week tickets. I found it very refreshing.

Overall, I would say that I have further improved and built upon my skills from my second term this summer. While already familiar with the environment, I was able to expand my knowledge and further improve and refine my own workflow. I explored more bits of the university on the OVC side, improved greatly at my learning goals, and even found myself teaching other newer coops my knowledge. I felt like a tenured part of the team with skill to help keep the OVC running. Further developing my skills in hardware processes, networking, and troubleshooting has helped me immensely in not just my work life but outside of it, whether it be with school or developing hobby projects. I am very grateful for the developments and advancements I had made during this semester.