Today we have a brand new student case study to bring you. We had the opportunity to sit down & chat with Robert Scott, in a few weeks he’ll be entering his final year, let’s go and meet him & hear about the journey he’s been on over the past few years.
Hi Robert, it’s great being able to chat with you today! Please tell us the course you study & what year you are in?
I am studying Computer Networks and Security and I will be entering my final year in September 2020.
How many of our award levels have you completed & when did you achieve these?
I have completed all 4 awards, and these are the following dates for all 4:
Bronze: March 2019
Silver: March 2019
Gold: March 2019
Platinum: July 2020
Out of all the online resources we offer via our website, which is your favourite & why?
My favourite resource from the Graduate+ website would be LinkedIn Learning as in the past couple of months, I have been connecting with fellow students both from BCU and from other universities so I could build my network map of associates who have similar passions to me and also having the opportunity to be contacted by people who are wanting to understand the current position students are in, followed by offering them additional opportunities to excel as a university student.
Furthermore, the online LinkedIn courses are a great feature to explore as there is a whole variety of topics that are based around various computing and business courses.
You tell us you recently completed your placement year working as a network engineer, tell us more about the experiences you had there?
I remember starting off with understanding how the telephony systems worked followed by understanding the procedures that were the foundation to how the operations are carried out e.g. a customer needing a handset in an office for a new starter and understanding which department they are in followed by the location of the office and where to install the telephony lines to.
Second would be learning the network switch/router operating system as I discovered that although I was learning the Cisco IOS operating system at university, I also learnt that companies wouldn’t always be using Cisco equipment as HP and Nortel were other vendors that develop command line interfaces that do have similar syntaxes that Cisco has. It was mostly easy to understand how to configure these types of network switches as the commands were mainly shorthanded as opposed to partial commands from a Cisco IOS device that are long handed.
Lastly, was the building and installation of network racks. These would house all the networking equipment and patch panels so it would be easy for a network engineer to identify where the ports need to be connected to by labelling a combination of these ports.
You mentioned you also worked previously for your faculty as a Student Demonstrator assisting 1st year students. What did you gain from this experience?
From experiencing the role as a Student Demonstrator, it was a fantastic opportunity to work with the 1st year students as I felt that having the support out there to those who need it makes a big difference to that individual.
I gained a lot of confidence and leadership skills from this role as in the beginning, I remembered thinking about what experiences the 1st year students maybe having and by having the ability to demonstrate to them the topics that they were learning about, gave myself and them clarity and a lot more of an understanding on what they need to learn from a practical approach. It also allowed me to further enhance skills that I had gained from working part-time in previous jobs.
In your downtime you mentioned you love visiting the Malvern Hills, what else do you enjoy doing alongside your studies & other commitments?
I enjoy travelling to new places that I have never been to before; I like to play computer games followed by hanging out with friends.
If you had to give advice to a new 1st year student who was interested in getting involved with Graduate+, what would you say?
I would say that it is a fantastic opportunity to get involved in the various activities that Graduate+ has to offer, it also allows you to understand how to become more employable for your future career and where you want to be. Being interested in the field you want to be in, gives you the confidence and motivation to explore more opportunities.
Finally, what does the future have in store for you Robert?
I would see myself becoming a network engineer or instructor as I have a passion for learning how the backbone of the internet is made and how in the future, we could make it effective. Also having the opportunity to teach other people how the internet is made allows for more collaboration on various areas to how we can make the internet effective.
Robert really has taken every opportunity given to him since starting his journey at BCU. If you’d like to speak to us about your story please email the team at graduate+@bcu.ac.uk and we’ll get back to you.