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 Callum Wheatley, Apprentice Outsource IT Engineer here at CYBRID.
What do you do at CYBRID?
I am an Apprentice Outsource IT Engineer.
What are your credentials/past experience for working in your position?
This is my first job in IT, but my dad worked for IBM for over 40 years, so I’ve had experience with computers for basically my whole life. He was kind enough to gift me my first PC at eight years old. I’ve been enamoured ever since, from watching my dad talk to the PC using machine code to setting up my friend’s WiFi and creating video game servers for friends to use over the lockdown, I’ll always give something a go before (often) resigning it to my much more knowledgeable father.
I’m also a dab hand at finding solutions to things, which tends to be handy in IT.
What’s the best thing about your job?
I’m absolutely loving learning new things and being able to take my own initiative when it comes to problem-solving. Every day there’s something new for me to have a crack at, and I also have a wonderful team of people here who support me if I need any assistance; they’ll also google things for me, which is nice.
What’s been your proudest moment at CYBRID?
I’ve recently been able to run an image of an existing drive onto an external one for backup purposes, it used an external memory stick as an alternative boot device, and it looked like something straight out of a 90s hacker film that felt very techy and IT-esque. It was satisfying to investigate and get working.
Before working at CYBRID, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?
I’ve not particularly worked anywhere too interesting, mostly bar work and customer services, but I can make a mean Long Island Iced Tea, and that’s certainly come in handy once or twice (or thrice).
What’s something new you’ve learned in the past week?
That Yog-Sothoth is the grandfather of Cthulu in Lovecraftian lore. And that Yog-Sothoth is really fun to say.
What are your top three books/podcasts?
I’m not going to lie, I don’t really read or listen to podcasts, however, I do really like movies, so my top 3 movies are: Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Ghostbusters, and Blade Runner 2049.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?
When I’m not working, I do all sorts of things, playing and listening to music, drawing what I can only lovingly describe as creatures/monsters, watching movies and tv, playing video games, Warhammer, Magic the Gathering, kayaking, watching NFL. If a nerd would stereotypically do it, I probably do it.
It’s good to have a collection of hobbies so my wild and easily distracted brain has something to do a lot of the time.