We have some impressive employees in our ranks: from basketball players to marathon runners, from gamers to authors. The Employee Spotlight series aims to highlight the talented individuals who work here.
For this month’s Employee Spotlight, we’re featuring Tom Smith, Outsource IT Engineer here at CYBRID.
What do you do at CYBRID?
Outsource IT Engineer.
What are your credentials/past experience, for working in your position?
Before working as an IT engineer, I was living in France where I studied for a degree in IT. This gave me a base understanding of IT. When I moved over to England I was taken on as an Apprentice for CYBRID where I was able to gain further knowledge through exams but most importantly the hands-on experience of the job itself and tackle the different tasks given.
What’s the best thing about your job?
There is a lot to choose from, but some of the best things about my job are interacting with people and also the satisfaction that comes with fixing user issues. It’s great to enable clients to work more efficiently. The diversity of projects is also a great aspect of working at CYBRID. I really like dipping into different projects and learning and understanding how systems work – in IT, every day, you really do learn something new!
What’s been your proudest moment at CYBRID?
I think my proudest moment at CYBRID would be implementing an access control system for one of our biggest customers. I’m grateful that the team above me gave me the opportunity to take this project on and get involved in all aspects – from the installations, the planning, designing of cards, the system setup to finally activating the access control system.
I also take pride in training our new engineers and passing on the knowledge they need in order to resolve customer issues.
What’s it like working at CYBRID during the current pandemic? Has the way you work changed at all?
Due to many of our systems being cloud-based, I don’t believe that the current pandemic has changed the way I work too much. I have obviously not been able to do as much onsite physical support in the same way, what with having to wear the correct PPE and making sure everything has been disinfected, but it’s a small price to pay in order to keep ourselves and the customers safe!
Before working at CYBRID, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?
Whilst studying I was also employed by a basketball club where I would train kids from 3 years old to 12 year olds, I was also in charge of the sponsorship side (finding and maintaining sponsors), organizing events and also trainer management.
During the holidays, I also worked as a labourer for my Dad’s building company which wasn’t always easy and was hard work! It made me experience the value of working hard and that if you work hard you can achieve anything you want. Working on the building sites did help me with my current role, as I can do all onsite installations like cabling to installing and fixing cameras and bells on different surfaces which has come in very handy over the last 2 years working for CYBRID.
What’s something new you’ve learned in the past week?
To be honest working in IT you learn something new and come across new challenges every day, but to answer the question, I have learnt how to cable up an intercom and bell system and also learnt a lot about how to audit a network and create the network diagrams according to that audit.
What are your top three books/podcasts?
Over the last couple of years I’ve had to read a lot about IT – does that count?!
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?
When I’m not working, I do like to spend time with my friends and try to travel over to France to visit my family as much as possible, which over the last year has been quite a challenge. I like exercising but basketball is my passion. I used to play at a high level so I’m trying to keep my form up as much as possible!
Stay tuned for more CYBRID Employee Spotlights!