Project A Description

I am a Senior System Administrator at CAS here at UNT. I’ve worked here since 2005 when I started out beneath my capabilities as a part-time help desk technician. It didn’t take me long to attain a full-time position and make my way to where I am today. During my time at UNT, I’ve trained several technicians to be more than just a technician. The end goal was to prepare them for real work by giving them real-world scenarios working on projects that we had real needs for. Every year at UNT, we have a required, annual employee review. Mine was two weeks ago, where I received another excellent review. In that review, I was commended for the effort and time I already put into cross training and development of my coworkers with skill sets that are in my direct purview. Due to my excellent performance, I was asked to take on another role for my team. I was asked to be the training coordinator for my team; which would orchestrate the training and development needs of the team so that we were properly cross-trained and could back each other up when one of us takes a vacation or is pushed in front of a bus.

I’ve accepted this role, and I have decided to kill two birds with one stone. I will start working with Chris W. to design a program to cross train our other teammates to ensure that we’re all covered, in the event of a vacation or tragedy. Chris and I have known each other for almost the entire time I’ve been at UNT. He started as a part-time tech shortly after I did. His problem is very familiar to me, as we share the same problem. We are both very good at our job but don’t have a lot of experience with the roles of our colleagues. Likewise, our colleagues can’t completely fill our shoes when we’re on vacation; so, we always come back to a heavy workload as we get caught up.

I’ve never planned training for anyone else. When I do it for myself, I’m the SME and I can pretty much shoot from the hip. The biggest challenge I expect to face will be seeing it from his point of view without trying to get him to change his processes. When I see something that isn’t done the way I would do it, I have to remind myself that it’s okay. We all do things a little different, and I can’t always have everything built around my vision for it.