Autor: Son Pham Duy

There are several things I’ve learned during my work experience in Belfast
at the Agnew Group LTD. Working for Agnew was my first time working in the IT department of a private company. Therefore it was new to me to work with deadlines. In the public sector in Berlin you also have deadlines but they aren’t as limited as in a private company.

A very interesting thing was, that at the end of each day we’ve received a mail with an overview of the amount tickets the team has done. This way I’ve been able to review everything I had accomplished each day.

Thanks to my department manager I’ve also learned many networking security aspects which I must keep in mind for my future work. It was my first time to install a network for a site which was still in reconstruction while handling an already operating network. You always had to make sure that the network is operating all the time without shutting down. „Things i learned during my work experience | Departure from Belfast | home sweet home“ weiterlesen

Day 55 25.05.2018 Friday

 

On Friday I had to troubleshoot some apple tv’s because the app they use crashed. They couldn’t display any slide shows anymore. The reason for this was that the apple TV’s didn’t had the recent updates. Furthermore we tested the new network with a voice over ip telephone to discover if there were any problems or blind spots.

I also used this day to gather all signatures for my record book, in which I had to document my work because my company needs them to sign me in for my IHK final exam, where I must proof that my record book is complete.

This day was a very special one because my supervisor wanted Jakob and me to present our presentation in front of the whole IT team. „Presentation in front of the whole IT team“ weiterlesen

Day 52&53 23.05.2018-24.05 Wednesday&Thursday

 

On Wednesday I had many questions which were not related to the work experience but
had something to do with networking. The reason was that I want to deploy a home
server for myself. Therefore I asked my department manager a lot of things regarding this topic.
For Example: about Port Forwarding, DMZ, security/hardening the server and my OS which
I am going to use (Linux)

Afterward I had to erase the old configurations and apply the new configurations of the dismantling network device which I brought with me yesterday. Another task which was to create a network sensor to a switch, to monitor if the switch was still functional. The last thing I had to do was to change the access points IP addresses from a branch (which did not work that well ).
In the afternoon I went to Niall again for a workout. Like the previous times we’ve met at 6 p.m. at the Europa hotel rail station. We started our workout with some mobility exercises for the whole body. Afterwards he showed me how to floss the joints to make them more operational for a short period of time. This workout was mainly focussed on the upper body.

„Spring Continental Market | Last Training session | How to be the strongest version of myself |“ weiterlesen

Day 51&52 21.05.2018-22.05 Monday&Tuesday

 

On Monday Jakob and I worked on our presentation. Additionally, I had to
update the disk space for a server, troubleshoot an ACL Firewall rule with my
department manager, reactivate an account for a third company user for a limited
time and move the network devices which were operating to deploy the new network
design on it.

Unfortunately, we came across a problem because there were some IP conflicts and we had to update the configuration. „Last 10 Days“ weiterlesen

Day 50 20.05.2018 Sunday

 

On Sunday Giang and I had to get up quite early (7 a.m.) to catch the bus for the Game of Thrones Tour at 8.30. The tour was supposed to end around 18.00 o’clock.

When booking a GoT tour, you can choose between different tours. We picked the “Belfast Winterfell Location Tour”. For the Tour you have to pay 45 pound as a student and 50 pound as an regular adult.

With this tour you will visit the “Castle Ward Estate” (Winterfell) where you must
walk 3 km, “Inch Abbey” (The King in the North!!) and “Tollymore Forest” (where
Game of Thrones started) where you must walk 3 km.

The decided to pick this tour because we already saw some of other the GoT locations at the Allen’s Tour.  For Example: The Dark Hedges, Carnlough Habour, the Carrick-a-Rede Rope
Bridge, Giant’s Causeway, Ballintoy Harbour and we saw other locations passing by
on the road (Londonderry, Castle Black). „Game of Thrones Tour – Belfast Winterfell Location Tour“ weiterlesen

Day 49 19.05.2018 Saturday

 

We stayed at the club till the early Saturday morning and didn’t leave until 2:00 a.m.  Leaving the club we had finish our drinks first because you are not allowed to take them outside with you.

Because of the long night we slept very long on Saturday.

Unluckily we forgot to buy something to eat the day before. Giang really wanted to eat fish and chips in Northern Ireland so we went to “John Long”. They serve really good fish and large chips. I have one tip for you: if you buy the battered fish you won’t get as many chips as with the battered fish super menu but you’ll have to pay 3,50 pound less. After the meal, we went to the souvenir shop “Carrolls Gifts & Souvenirs” at the Belfast Centre because everyone wanted to get some souvenir for their friends and family. „Limelight morning | Anticipation of game of thrones tour“ weiterlesen

Day 48 18.05.2018 Friday

 

On Friday I had to depploy the network devices for one branch and prepare the network to ensure that everything was functional. We verified the access point spots again and
discovered that some ap were dislocated.

My supervisor asked us (Jakob and me) to create a 10-15 minute presentation about our work experience, including trained skills, things learned as well as our projects.

At night we visited the nightclub “lightlime”. Unfortunately we went there to early so we arrived at 21:00 p.m. when the nightclub was still closed because of an event. It was a tribute to prince, the singer of “purple rain”. So we stayed at the lightlime pub next to the club. We didn’t know that the lightlime location had 3 areas. One event area, the pub and the nightclub. They are connected to each other so you don’t have to go outside to enter another area. „Preparing Presentation | Limelight Belfast“ weiterlesen

Day 46&47 16.05-17.05.2018 Wednesday & Thursday

 

On Wednesday I left the office earlier because Intern Europe informed me that I had to
collect my „Training Placement Certificate“. This document confirmed that I did a work
experience in Agnew group. At the office, I had to tidy up the server room and get
rid of the stuff that wasn’t required anymore. I helped Jakob to move his devices because he had so many of them.

For this day Intern Europe had also organized a treasure hunt event which I was not a part of because I was to tired. I heard from schoolmates that they had to walk around for 2 hours: from the city hall to the Titanic Quarter. They had to answer questions about certain attractions in Belfast. At the end, they received a free drink and were in a pub. „Training Placement Certificate | Intern Europe“ weiterlesen

Day 44&45 14.05-15.05.2018 Monday & Tuesday

 

On Monday my department manager showed me how to troubleshoot problems with a pc
remotely. Also, we checked for updates for the servers. The reason for that was that on
this weekend there was an issue which had to be solved. He showed me the script they
used to back up the server. Later on, we swapped failed firewalls with new ones
because they’ve been operating for too long already.
On Tuesday we created a Firewall rule for a printer so users could print on the new
printer. We installed a new router and swapped the old one because he
didn’t work properly anymore. There was also a problem with the VPN connection to another department which we had to troubleshoot. „Visit the construction site“ weiterlesen

Day 43 13.05.2018 Sunday

 

On Sunday I’ve visited the Crumlin Road Gaol Prison. Unfortunately, we couldn’t participate in a night/paranormal tour because we weren’t enough people (15 were needed) for the tour. Therefore the day tour was the only possibility.

At the beginning of the tour, we saw the rooms where the prisoners had to take off their personal clothes and let their hair get shaved off. Then they took us to the director’s room and the key storage room. And then we entered the prison.

It was like the type of prison you usually know from movies. I think this was my first time that I saw one from inside with my own eyes. „HM Prison Crumlin Road“ weiterlesen