Hello,
I'm a computer support engineer resident in London, England having had the experience of working in commercial IT for over 20 years mostly in Microsoft Office programming, but also in general computer support on behalf of a couple of managed service companies.
Often based inside clients offices, I have resolved many technical solutions for corporate users in engineering, legal, hospitality, publishing, insurance and financial business environments, including supporting mission critical infrastructure and keeping the company VIPs happy.For the last few years, I've also been driving around the UK and Ireland installing, configuring and troubleshooting computer hardware items for a couple of the UKs leading Hotel chains keeping their stylish guests quite happy as well.
And lately ...
I've had more of a professional focus on building custom operating system images for both Windows laptops and desktops.
Using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) to deploy Windows 7 builds, Hyper-V for testing and various clever Active Directory tools, GPOs and scripts to support created machines, I've successfully helped over 1000 company users escape the menacing clutches of both Windows XP and Microsoft Office.
After an amazing holiday in the US and a bit of a long 18 month career break enjoying some of my own technical pursuits, I'm thankfully back in work.
As of August 2017, I've started working 2nd line for a large London based company supporting their networked applications for a very large number of users deployed worldwide. Sleepless but enjoyable times loom ahead ... :)
The CV extract below is my experience previous to this.
IT Analyst, Build & Deployment Engineer
Career Highlights
- Experience of business and helpdesk IT practices, processes and procedures including updating helpdesk documentation, issues monitoring, SLA adherence and meeting user expectations
- Has been involved with two major UK hotel groups on business critical OS migration projects
- Have gained transferable skills in planning that are adaptable to future migrations like for Windows 10
- Has regularly been complimented for attention to detail and ability to create productive output
Work Experience
Post-2016 USA Holiday / Self Training – May 2016 to Current (April 2017)
As an enthusiastic electronics and computing hobbyist, I have installed my own Microsoft Server 2012 R2 AD domain hosted on an HP DL385 rack server running Hyper-V. I use it for my own test lab training scenarios with Microsoft SCCM deployment of Windows 10, scripted application installs, workstation WSUS patching, group policy configuration, and virtual server management experience.
Currently, I am creating custom VLAN configurations for Technicolor ISP routers, monitoring TP-Link managed switch traffic with MRTG, scripting Windows 10 self-packaged application installations for preparing virtual machine images, and configuring Linux / Windows builds for 24/7 domestic network services running on Raspberry-Pi and Intel NUC low power computing devices.
UK Hotel Chain 21/02/2011 to 18/12/2015
Role: IT Migration Engineer / Infrastructure Support. 1000 users 19 Months pro rata
Primarily I was engaged for 2nd line cover and infrastructure support, then to offer desk-side support to the Heathrow office call centre staff and manage hotel equipment repairs and machine rebuilds, and later called upon to assist the main hotel support office in central London.
As part of their 2015 Google Cloud business computing transformation, I progressed to supporting their hotels move from hosted Citrix to full Windows desktop, a major engineering project requiring the entire replacement of 700 thin client terminals with HP Mini PCs.
Using remote auditing tools together with Microsoft Access, I examined all of their IT user assets (computers, printers and application software), and incorporated my findings into a hardware tailored build of Windows 7 Enterprise, configured with Microsoft Deployment Tools. This build was distributed with pre-installed core applications on a fast USB thumb drive, to maximise the efficient delivery of local machine upgrades and mitigate incidences of individual package misconfigurations.
I was involved in several technical stages of the project planning. These were tool selection, driver evaluation, pre-release compatibility testing, and scenario-based user acceptance testing. I was instrumental in meeting user expectations, resolving engineer deployment issues, communicating progress, and compiling user and engineering feedback to a ‘lessons learnt’ document.
I also designed many AD GPO configurations and scripts for the remote installation of software and printers, and control of security features like disabling USB port data access for general hotel users.
UK Hotel Chain 07/07/2010 to 12/06/2015
Role: Migration Engineer / IT Helpdesk 2ndline Analyst. 1000 users 18 months pro rata
Worked as a lead migration engineer on-location at various branded hotels operating within the UK and Ireland. Usually, I was working in a two man team with an assistant colleague operating under my guidance.
For each hotel, I was responsible for ensuring that the operating system software and application upgrades completed routinely within business deadlines, for onsite-held guest reservation and payment data to stay exactly synchronised with worldwide servers.
I also installed their application servers, user workstations, printers and point-of-sales equipment; troubleshooting payment interfaces, migrating system data, and decommissioning redundant hotel IT hardware for disposal.
In addition, I provided 2nd line helpdesk cover support at the London HQ, also assisting them with office moves and the extra IT workload that arose during the 2012 Olympics in London.
Prior Roles in IT
1st and 2st support / Windows 7 deployment contract engineer - 2010 to 2013
Support involvement with Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and Google Suite gained in multiple service-desk environments including ITIL, legal practice, and financial.
Access / Excel VBA developer - 1998 to 2010
For many blue chip media, financial and engineering companies, I developed and coded multiple business productivity applications using Microsoft Excel and Access with Visual Basic for Applications.
I often presented reports data from external backends such as SQL Server, Sage and Oracle, adding filtering and manipulation interactivity through the use of VBA.
