My first week as a network engineer apprentice

In this blog our new team member, Josh Peacock, talks about the highs and lows of his first week as a Network Engineer Apprentice here at Optima.

Day 1: Is the first day the worst day?

My first day was nerve wrecking as this was the first time I’d worked in an office environment as a Support Engineer. In the first hour, a new colleague Gemma, talked me through what my daily duties would be. They included checking back-ups, taking calls from clients and logging issues as tickets. I found these first few hours a little difficult as there was a lot to take in. By the end of the first day I was starting to enjoy myself.

Day 2: Plain sailing

The second day was quite straight forward. I ran through the backups and continued taking calls and logging them as tickets. I was then able to familiarise myself with how to find more info on a client. This would be useful for reference when they called with issues and questions. I was also given other tasks such as setting up new PCs for clients.

Day 3: It almost falls apart!

Wednesday was tougher. One incident involved a client’s servers. While my colleagues were busy dealing with this I was the only IT support person in the office taking calls. The calls were all like the previous few days and though I was a little nervous I managed to succeed.

Day 4: A return to calmer waters

The fourth day was a bit calmer. Calls were still coming in but not a huge amount which meant I could handle them. It felt like the start of the week again. I got to set up more computers from clients and got to familiarise myself with the server room. I also progressed to assisting clients with password issues.

Day 5: Getting the hang of it

Fifth day, I ran through the backup and attended a meeting where I shared how my first week had gone. I also got to meet the remaining colleagues that I had not yet met. I then did some cabling work in the conference room which took quite a while but was good experience.

Summary

It has been a new and fun experience and I look forward to next week. I know I will enjoy learning what else my role will include.

• Sam to climb Mount Snowdon for charity
• Out of the office…well my usual one at least!
• Optima welcomes Steve McGuigan
• Our experience moving to Microsoft Office 365
• Office 365 Migration and Support
• Small Business Network Setup and Cabling
• Optima will have a stand at the Let’s Do Business Brighton Expo on 13th June
• New voluntary code for the Banks to repay victims of push payment scam
• Check if any of your online ‘identities’ have been compromised with Hack Notice
• Our IT Support
• IT Support for London Companies