Work Expericne

[danclark8]

Hello everyone

We have a student from a local school coming to do work experience in our IT department in the new year.
Have any of you had this before and have some advice on what to get them doing? They will be limited on access rights for obvious reasons so I’m worried they’ll just spend a week watching over us and not experiencing much. Any advice?

Cheers

[maxsec]

answering the phone and logging new tickets.

Building up laptops to the SOE

Depends how ‘good’ they are, maybe checking documentation up to date (ie can they follow he SOE build instructions and so on). Checking inventories…

[Gary-D-Williams]

To expand on Martins list:

Laptop/desktop audits

Unpatching unused cables under desks.

Stock room clear ups

Basic admin - taking calls, etc

Installing a new starters computer

Shadowing another helpdesk person on calls.

[caitlinjackson]

I am actually very interested in this discussion…

Being that I am an entry level addition to the I.T. department where I work.

I was an intern on job attachment for six months, they decided to extend my contract twice after and its almost a year that I have been here.

[georgemcfarlin (Snufykat)]

Documentation, basic network functioning, new user creation, new email account creation. I am not suggesting you let them loose with the access needed to do all that but include them in the process and explain how all the different parts work together etc.

[scottalanmiller]

What YOU are doing will be a major part of the question. For a lot of interns, shadowing can be very valuable, especially at the beginning.

[lahimakonem]

For the love of all things IT, please dont have the kid spend all the time packing the store room updating inventory, going through spreadsheets, etc… i hated my very first internship because of this …thats what they had me do all day for 3 months. I hated it, and i really dont wish it on anyone else.

Instead, have them image pcs, (ask them to create a custom image??), do basic installs?, reset AD passwords, take phone calls…during down time, have them install a clonezilla server…or have them pioneer that wiki that you have been procrastinating on. Its imporntant that they participate in stuff that matters. There is nothing more frustrating than spending 8 hours a day and feeling like youre being asked to do things that dont really matter.

The best way would be to ask the intern to write a list of what they want to learn, then you can see if thats realistic or not…but dont have them spend days in a dusty store room taking serial numbers off!

[rmuniz9336]

Actually put them to work. Figure out something that’s not that demanding, but at the same time you’ve put off and go from there.

Also ,logging tickets is a great place, and then give them a few how-to’s to handle the lesser but constant problems. Will make them feel pretty good.