Goals

My goals for this work term were: to become a cohesive member of a team, learn more about work environments and how they operate, as well as to work on my typing skills. There were many occasions where a client had a problem I did not know how to fix. In this case I would turn to my team for assistance. We would problem solve the situation and find the correct procedure to follow. Learning to work as a team was also invaluable to my work experience because if I did not learn it I would not be able to do many of the tasks required of me. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were working from home for the entirety of the work term (8 months). Because of this, I was held personally responsible for my day-to-day behavior and gained invaluable experience being in charge of my own workflow. I found myself thriving in an otherwise challenging time, gaining the knowledge and discipline I feel is necessary to continue in my field of study. I also learned how large-scale companies control their data flow, which was intriguing and useful. Lastly, my final goal was achieved easier than expected. Due to the nature of the work – i.e. typing constantly – I was able to swiftly become faster at typing. My typing speed increased from 70wpm to 80 wpm throughout my time at The CCS IT Help Centre. This aided my workflow as I was able to complete tasks quicker than at the beginning. Typing is a vital skill in the computer science field, and I am grateful to have had this opportunity to improve such a skill.

The technologies that were introduced to me while working at the CCS IT Help Centre were ticketing software, older databases, and web conferencing tools. I am familiar with some web conferencing tools, however I was not used to using Teams or Zoom. Learning how to use these tools was vital to assist clients. The ticketing software was a difficult adjustment at first, however over time as I became more comfortable with using it I was able to perform at a higher level utilizing the tools available in the software. As well, older databases were stored on the school servers, thus to access them we were required to remote desktop in to a machine that was on campus. Initially using the databases was confusing, but over time I learned to use them well. Being familiar with using older databases will aid in my next work experience as I will carry on my knowledge from this work experience and be able to adjust to my new environment with ease.

In this work term, I had hoped there would be some opportunity to implement code. There were a few opportunities to code, however most often it was in regard to answering queries summited by clients. I was able to broaden my skills in HTML and PHP by editing some of the university webpages. This was a fun experience although I had wished there were more opportunities to code.

I was able to achieve most of my goals. Learning to work as a team merely required practice and overcoming social barriers. Adapting to a new, remote work environment and workflow took some time to adjust to, however I consider my experience to be incredibly valuable to my future work and am glad to have had the opportunity, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. My goal to become more proficient at typing also required practice and I am very pleased with the outcome. Lastly, I wanted to learn more code. Unfortunately due to the nature of the work I was not able to – aside from some HTML and PHP. Because I was not successful in this goal, I decided to code a personal website using Bootstrap and WAMP as I thought this project would give me some practical experience in web development. The site is still under development but I will be launching it soon.

Conclusion

Learning skills based in teamwork, workflow, work-environment, and communication were the most critical skills I gained during this opportunity. They assisted me in my day-to-day work and will serve as the foundation for my future career. Even though I was not able to code as much as I would have liked during my time at CCS, I was able to further develop my HTML skills. Lastly, I am proud of how quickly I can now type.