Infrastructure Support Analyst Profile
Kai’s career as an Infrastructure Support Analyst
"I guess I was born for working in IT, as I spend a fair amount of my spare time poking around with computers anyway, just as I do at work. So IT work is barely a job to me, it is more like attending an adventurous journey everyday.
About getting myself a decent job in IT. But it was not easy as I thought, even with experience as a PHP developer within my university. Most of the time I only had disappointing refusal letters sent through to my mail box stating a more experienced person is needed for the vacancy, and they didn't have the time and patience to know more about my quality and passion in IT.
Luckily, I read about FDM's opportunities of working for various famous client companies as an IT Consultant in one of my university's graduate scheme emails. I had done some research and know job offers in these companies were not easy to get, unless you can make through several rounds of assessment and face-to-face interviews, and this process usually takes weeks and is very exhausting.
FDM's selling point is they can get you working within these companies, and you go into the roles with adequate technical capabilities and confidence. So I decided to apply.
FDM's recruitment process was more than welcoming, they soon recognised my value and employed me after a short telephone interview and an assessment day. After completing training for the infrastructure stream, I was placed with one of the most technologically advanced company in the world (I can't mention the name as per the contract I am afraid), and this experience so far has been amazing!
A friend of mine once asked me ‘what is the best part of your current job?’ My answer was ‘I get to do what I always wanted to do.’ Every morning, I walk to my desk with expectation of interesting challenges, and I do get quite a few of them every now and then: Automated inventorying virtual machines and HP servers, troubleshooting Platform LSF job scheduler cluster nodes, building replacement system for Red Hat Satellite server, you name it! Day in, day out, I learn a lot about UNIX/Linux at work and I can actually see myself improving, I even passed the exam for Red Hat Certified Systems Administrator certificate with the knowledge gained from work, and FDM even paid for me to take the exam, isn't it fantastic?
But how does a graduate like me pick up these skills so quickly? FDM's professional training was the magic. The academy training experience was wonderful; not only I learnt a lot about working as a professional IT Consultant, but I also made quite a few friends, who I still keep in contact with regularly despite the physical distance. The most interesting part of the training was the core infrastructure modules. The main topics including VMware, Active Directory, UNIX and MySQL, which proved to be very useful in my work. Even the documentation skills taught in the academy are invaluable for my day-to-day work. Having got through the training successfully, I have since been working as a professional FDM Infrastructure Consultant, with one of their top clients and, due to the training, I was confident and knowledgeable even during my first placement week! Of course my manager couldn't be happier.
I never regret choosing to work for FDM. Actually I would recommend any friend to FDM if they wanted to develop their career in IT. It is heartening to see FDM goes up in employer rankings every year and I am more than happy being an integrated part of the group and making my contribution."
