Hi all, In the CISCO Networking thread Darren had asked for peoples experiences in the industry. I've included a short snapshot of mine from Degree and placement below. Hi Darren et al, I'm out on placement as a System Engineer with Liberty information Technology at the moment. I've completed an Associate Bachelors in Computing Science and am heading this September towards final year of my BSC HONS Computer Science Degree. Diagrams are the Bain of my life!
From DFD's, UML, Relational Models in Databases they drive me up the wall. Well to be honest it's not so much the diagrams BUT THE LECTURERS UNWILLINGNESS, (laziness), to provide me with reasonable alternative assessments.
I've been fortunate that I've had very technically capable PA's who have been able to use the CAD software under my instructions. This sometimes falls down when the same lazy lecturers have Graduates marking their papers and therefore I'm just a number. I had one lecturer stumble all over the place to try and explain my mark to me. It became evident he hadn't' marked it when he couldn't' even read the hand-writing on the marks given! Another area I struggled with as a non-Braille user is debugging large amounts of code in the software engineering modules. I got round this by having a very helpful lecturer who recognised the hours I was putting in in actually going to his classes and labs, plus the efforts I went to to understand the concepts of the data structures and algorithms he was teaching. He met with me on a one-to-one each week to cover materiel that had been done in that weeks class and give me a brief overview of what was coming up in the next weeks class. I found these sessions invaluable and would encourage any student to request this level of support if you find you are struggling. In my mind a good teacher will make every effort to accommodate a student, because it's important to them and they're passionate about their subject. It might not always be practical granted so you cant' say it's a bad or lazy lecturer if they genuinely don't have the time. Back to work. Sys Eng in the company I currently work for is very challenging if you can't see at all. There's only 8 in total in the Systems dept and that includes the manager. Larger IT Depts will have a team dedicated to Exchange, a team for VMWARE, a team for Licensing, a Networking team, a Helpdesk team etc etc. All our work has to be shared amongst the Sys Engs, Senior Sys Engs, and Principal Sys Eng. With so many proprietary environments it's difficult to get away from the desk and away from the Helpdesk and Sys Admin side of things if you cant' see. System Access To Go, Window Eyes/Jaws on pen drives even NVDA sound great but in the case of WEYE and JAWS they modify Video Drivers. If that's incompatible in any shape or form you have egg all over your face. EG. Some old Dell machines will flip the monitors image upside down (if the drivers haven't been kept up-to-date). If you think an ordinary users desktop environment can be iffy multiply that by ten and you might be close to a developers environment, which is what we deal with in here. Maybe I'm telling my granmother to suck eggs but I would advise anyone who's totally blind, doesn't' read Braille and thinking of going into the IT industry at a corporate level to specialise, specialise, specialise! It's quite difficult to turn your hand to tasks as quickly and on-demand as your sighted peers would. I'm not sure what I want to specialise in, possibly security. Sys Admin sounds OK but I'm not sure if I could sit and fiddle with Active Directory all day. Maybe Exchange but I'd be afraid it might get quite boring after 6 months. Barry. "Tell me and I will hear, show me and I will see, involve me and I will understand. Chinese Proverb" Barry Toner Placement Systems Engineer Liberty Information Technology Direct Line: 02890 167000 Adelaide Exchange Fax: 02890 445511 24-26 Adelaide Street Switchboard: 02890 445500 Belfast BT2 8GD Email: b.toner@liberty-it.co.uk