We've had a chat with Lee Watson, our new IT support engineer, to find out more about him and how to he got into IT.
Lee did software development at university, but eventually got sick of the software side of things, 'I was working for the council in an old government department. I was just sitting in an office all day, there wasn't any interactions with any clients.'
Lee then ended up working in a pub, until his friend who was running his own IT support company needed some help. 'It was completely different to what I was doing. It was a steep learning curve. The hardware side was quite easy, as I build my own stuff at home. But I got chucked in at the deep end with IT support. It was nice to be able to talk to clients and get to know them. '
After that, Lee worked for another IT company for a few years, 'That was a similar kind of work to Transcendit; mostly going on site, doing installs, fixes if you couldn't do it remotely. It was great to get back into MSP (Managed Service Provider) where I know I'm going to be busy.'
Lee says he's already been busy with Transcendit, even though he's just finished his first week, 'I've been out on a couple of calls, which is really nice because sitting round the house for three weeks was very boring. It's been great to get out to new places, and meet new people.'
When it comes to helping clients, Lee says that he prefers the more challenging problems. 'I've had the call where somebody was at their PC and they couldn't figure out how to turn it on - turns out, they thought it was wireless and it wasn't plugged in. Those problems are easily fixed, which is great for clients because they can get straight back to work.'
'But I much prefer calls where the problem is more challenging, because from a technical standpoint they're a bit more interesting. With the challenging problems, as an IT support engineer you can get your teeth into it, and it's enjoyable figuring it out. And you usually learn something new.'
'Sometimes, if the problem is really technical, you get to write your commands and everything. That's fun because it looks like the image of IT I had in my head when I was a kid.'
Lee has a foundation degree in Computing, and is also an Altaro Certified Professional, and a Sophos Certified Engineer. Lee is also working towards his qualification in Microsoft Desktop Administration.
When he's not working, Lee plays Rugby for Gosforth, 'I got into that because I was getting bored of sitting around, and I've been playing for three years now. Normally I play flanker, up the front in the scrums. I basically have to run into people as hard as I can and get them on the ground.'
Lee also plays Airsoft, 'It's like paintball but you use more realistic looking BB guns instead of paintball guns. It's pretty painful, especially when people don't listen to the rules and shoot at your back at point blank range - that hurts.'
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