I have reached the 150 hour checkpoint in my internship with Apple Federal Credit Union. The IT service desk has been a very great experience so far. Mostly due to the amount of information that I have been able to learn and internalize. This is due to the nature of the “hands on” work that I have been exposed to.

I have started to increase the amount and difficulty of the tickets I am picking up from the queue. By doing this I have exposed myself to more systems and gained a deeper understanding of past systems. With the increased difficulty I have had to start working with different teams within our IT Ops department. Teams such as system engineering, cyber security, and the enterprise apps team.

Also, since I have been taking on more tickets I have begun to learn the art of time management better. Balancing multiple tickets at once can quickly overwhelm you if you are not organized. Even if you are prepared you can still get flustered due to the timing of the requestors. This is because sometimes you might pick up a ticket and the requestor doesn’t respond to you immediately so you take another ticket. Once you do this a couple times it’s almost like they all collaborate against you and respond all at the same time. This surprise factor can lead to lulls and rushes of work that you will experience day to day. 

I have also received a bunch of great advice from everyone around me on career path and the tech industry as whole. One of my biggest questions that I wanted guidance on was on what certifications I should focus on. In one of my weekly 1 on 1 meetings I brought this up to my manager and he gave me a solid roadplan that I could follow if I wanted to. As well as his own opinions and viewpoints on the industry as a whole. I am very grateful for the tips he has given me and that he will most likely continue to give me while I am here.

Another opinion that I think is very important in this society is that of a contractor. For this check in I will interview a contractor on the service desk. His name is Westlein Basinger….

Q: What is your contracting company and where have you been before this role at Apple

A: Fortitude Systems is my current contracting company and I have been at 1 other contracting company called AppleOne. My previous employer had me work for IBM at one of their data centers and did various decom work. AppleOne was the better company onna personal level but Fortitude Systems was better in the professional aspects.

Q: What got you and kept you in the IT industry

A: What kept me in IT is the close relation between the IT field and life; As life/IT changes you must also change as well. 

Q: What are some of the drawbacks of being a contractor in the field

A: Some of the drawbacks are the lack of benefits from your contracting company. If you were an employee, you would get a full benefits package instead. Contractors are very limited when it comes to benefits like PTO, sick days, or vacation hours. I am also very expendable to a company because a company can fire me on the spot if they wished to with no questions asked. I am also paid less because of the splitting of money between my contracting company and myself. Also, a company can nearly extort you by never hiring you full time for the job just to have you for cheaper labor.