My mother encouraged me to include IT to my CAO form. After graduating from UL, I took a graduate position and it gave me opportunity to experience working with cross-cultural teams, green field projects and life in an IT company.

My day starts at 8:30am. I am part of the System Admin team. We are responsible for providing robust cloud infrastructure to engineering teams, automating processes, configuring hardware and troubleshooting infrastructure related issues. During my day, I assign myself tasks from our backlog. The highest priority tasks are issues and I would troubleshoot these issues first. In the afternoon, my team meets for our scrum call and we provide an update on our tasks and discuss any open items. My day ends at 5:30pm.

My main tasks are to provide infrastructure support, configuration management and troubleshooting. These tasks involve development work, such as code changes, problem-solving of open issues and managing/supporting infrastructure requests. The main skills needed are communication, problem-solving, and collaboration

The work is always changing so it never gets boring. There is a sense of self achievement when you solve a problem. There are opportunities to move roles and to develop your career.

It can be difficult working on legacy applications. It is important to upskill and to learn new technologies.

Applied Languages with Computing at the University of Limerick.

One of the most useful aspects I have learnt is learning how to communicate effectively. Technology is always changing and it is important to share knowledge, get feedback and be open to change.

Yes, there is a great work/life balance. I can work flexible hours and also work from home. This is very important as you can come in late if you have an appointment or work remotely if you cannot make it into the office. There is also a sports and social club that organize events onsite, such as BBQs, gym classes, running events and walking outings.

Anything is possible. Take chances. Don’t be afraid of failure.

If you are interested in learning about day to day tasks, then organize work experience in an IT company. If you want to learn coding, you can join coding groups or take free courses online. If you want to develop your coding skills and work on projects, then you can work on open source projects. If you want to learn more about the projects companies work on, then follow the company on Twitter or LinkedIn.

System Engineer