Ryan Powell

Jennifer: Hi everyone, thank you for joining us today. My name is Jennifer, and I am part of the Marketing team at jobs.ac.uk. Today, I’m chatting to Ryan Powell from the University of Derby. Welcome Ryan! Could you tell us a little bit about your role at the University?

Ryan: Yeah, hi there Jennifer. So yeah, my name’s Ryan Powell and I manage the Operations Response Centre Team within IT Services at the University of Derby. So within this team, we provide the network services for the whole university, so all campus’s internet and phone services. We also manage the endpoints as well, so windows, mac and mobile devices.

Jennifer: Okay, well that sounds great. Could you tell me a little bit about how you came to work in higher education, a little bit about your career background?

Ryan: Yeah, sure. I’ve always been interested in education, right back to when I was little, I used to, kind of, go in and try and help out at schools, and just, yeah, I’ve always wanted to, so it was really what I was going to do for all of my life. I graduated uni in 2013, I did go to a Cisco partner, a managed service provider for a couple of years, but I think I very quickly realised that wasn’t really the job for me, and I managed to get myself back into education, more through luck than anything initially in that I had a friend working here who contacted me out of the blue and said, “Are you looking for work? We’ve got some jobs going.” And I jumped at it, and thought, yes, that’s exactly what I want to do. So I took an interview, and thought, wow, that sounds like the place I want to be, and here I am, 4 years later, still going.

Jennifer: Wow, I mean, it sounds like a great place to work, and that you’ve really found something great in working in higher education. So, could you, just, chat to us a little bit about how you think working in higher education compares to working in the commercial sector?

Ryan: Yeah, so I think, a lot of people maybe think sometimes that education is maybe more relaxed,but I can say that it definitely isn’t. So you get that fast paced environment that I think quite a lot of people want anyway. So, for myself personally, I want a very fast-paced environment, things are always changing, and higher education definitely provides that. We always kind of say to people that we’re talking to that it’s like a whole world just within one little bubble, so we’ve got NHS systems for health, we’ve got engineering and manufacturing products and systems, catering and hospitality, so yeah, we’ve almost got the entire world, just within our campuses, and I think that’s one of the things I love about it, that I can have a conversation with an academic looking at, I dunno, a problem with visual studio and then immediately after that I’m talking to catering about some new till system or hospitality management system that they want to introduce. Yeah, that’s what I love most, it’s so varied. No two days are the same.

Jennifer: Yeah, look, it really sounds like a diverse, exciting environment to be in. Would you say that your job is rewarding, or is it meaningful?

Ryan: Oh, yes, definitely! Just to, you know, to see the students coming through the education system, that first day when they arrive as first years, fresher’s fair and induction and enrolment, and, you know, you see them through their 3 or 4-year programme, and coming out as confident graduates at the end, I don’t think there’s anything more rewarding than that, especially being a part of that, whether it’s in a back office doing the networking and the computers for them, or on the front line, helping them with, I dunno, here’s a direction to this particular room or let me change your password for you, just being any part of that, I think, is rewarding enough.

Jennifer: Yeah, and I guess you wouldn’t really find that anywhere other than in a university or in some education, educational institution.

Ryan: Yeah, certainly.

Jennifer: Well, I mean, I’ve heard from many people that working in a university, they’ve had great development opportunities. Could you maybe highlight some of the development opportunities that you’ve had since you’ve been working at the university of Derby?

Ryan: Yeah, certainly, so when I joined the team four years ago, I came in as a desktop engineer. Within my first couple of months of being there, I had the opportunity to fly out to America, and we were looking at a product for managing our mac estate. Through my background in other work, I had a bit of background with it, so I said, “Oh, yeah, here’s this product we could go and have a look at it.”, and yeah, at the time they said, “Yeah sure. Oh look, there’s a conference on, let’s fly you out, have a little look, come back to us, write a report and if it’s right for us, we’ll go for it.” So that was one of the opportunities, and then, as I kind of progressed up the ladder, through to a senior engineer, and then eventually into management, I’ve had further opportunities to get involved in, I actually did a case study a couple of months ago for another product for managing access rights to our computer systems, and through that, again, I was flown out to America to attend their conference, give a little video interview and a testimonial, and then I got to stay and listen to the conference and the keynoters as part of that. So, it’s not flying out and doing these kind of things, we’ve also had in-house training, so I’ve had a week, you know, in a classroom with some of the other guys and girls in the team to have a look at a Cisco phone system, the training opportunities are endless almost.

Jennifer: That sounds fantastic, I mean it really does sound like you’ve had some great opportunities there. One of the other opportunities that is quite unique to working in a university is having access to the university campus and all facilities that it has on offer. Could you tell me a little bit about your experience with those on-campus facilities? Is there, are there places that you frequent or that you use quite often?

Ryan: Yeah, well certainly the coffee shop, I think we, kind of, well, when we’re back on campus we’ll probably come in in the morning, round about half past eight, there’s a little message that goes round on the Microsoft teams channel. We’ve got a group called “Coffee”, and someone will post a little coffee emoji and within a few minutes, we’re all down at the coffee shop, saying good morning and grabbing our drink. And that’s just a good place to kind of socialise, get an idea of who is in, and any problems that we’re looking at. It’s just a really informal morning meeting nowadays. Aside from that, it’s brilliant to just be able to go to the library, obviously we can take books out and DVDs and anything else that the library and the resource centre have to offer. So, definitely take the opportunity for that, and read whatever you want to, whatever you can.

Jennifer: Could you tell me a little bit more about the campus, and what it’s like working at a university campus?

Ryan: Yes, certainly. So for ourselves, our data campus is split across a couple of sites within the main Derby city centre ring road. So, our Kedleston Road site is our biggest site and has the main library and learning centre facilities. But we also have several other sites we can go to, and it’s within a short walk, so it’s all very convenient to come down, and we have a bus route, and free bus travel for staff and students. So we can just jump on a bus, or have a walk through the park to get there. So it’s all lovely. Trying to think what else to say, if I’m honest.

Jennifer: No, that sounds brilliant. And, what is it that you like most about working at a university?

Ryan: I think, it’s definitely the diversity of people on site. It is a very busy, vibrant environment, and like I say, just walking through the main atrium, you can see all the groups of staff and students together, having lunch, talking, meeting. We’ll sometimes deliberately hold a team meeting or a management team meeting down in the atrium so we can just be amongst the hustle and bustle of everybody. For ourselves in It, it’s also a great way to just see or hear of any problems. So you might just sit at a table and you can see a little group of students next to you going, “Oh the wireless isn’t working” and we can have a quick look, and we can go, “Oh, you know, don’t worry, we can have a quick look at your computer for you. Let’s sort it for you here and now and save you a trip to the service centre to get that resolved.” So, it’s just, yeah, it’s a brilliant way to hear of any problems and get them fixed before it becomes an issue for staff or student.

Jennifer: That’s brilliant and quite unique. So instead of being stuck in an office all day, you actually get to go out there and talk to the people who you provide the service for.

Ryan: Yeah, definitely. I think sometimes you get the perception that IT kind of sits in the basement and don’t ever leave, but for ourselves, we definitely don’t want to do that and we make an effort to be out. We hold information stands every couple of months within the atrium or across some of our other sites and it’s just an opportunity for students to come up to us, ask any question about IT that they think of, so you know, it could be “Can you help me connect to the wireless?”, it could be “Oh, I’ve never quite understood how this bit of a programme works, can you have a look with me?”, and it just means, again, we can get out there, show the friendly face of IT, and that we’re not just the goblins that sit in the basement.

Jennifer: Yeah, I mean that paints a very different picture of what I think a lot of people do think about when they think about a career in IT. It sounds actually very exciting. What has been your career highlight while you’ve been working at the University, and why?

Ryan: Ooh, well, so I think certainly it is just the opportunity to make that difference. So, like I mentioned when I first came in, and was asked to manage the mac estate at the time, it was one where there was a lot of complaints from students, things were difficult to use, there were lots of problems, and just having the opportunity to come in, have a look what they’re seeing and then making that solution to resolve it form them. Then again, hearing the feedback from academics to say, “Wow, that has never been more stable, which, you know, students are working much better now, and it’s really made a positive impact to their education”.

Jennifer: Ah, that sounds fantastic! So, would you recommend working in IT in higher education?

Ryan: Yeah, I couldn’t recommend it more, to be honest. It’s not something that I would ever say, “Oh, don’t even give it a try.” I’ve had lots of friends that I’ve said, “Oh, just come to university, have a look at it, see what you think”, and they’ve all gone, “Wow, that’s a brilliant environment.” It is so busy, so vibrant, there’s people everywhere, you can just feel that although it’s busy it’s a family, community feeling. Yeah, I couldn’t even think of another environment that matches it.

Jennifer: That sounds fantastic! So last question for you today. For anybody who’s considering a career in IT in higher education, what are your tips, or do you have any advice for those people?

Ryan: I think just follow your dream, and follow your heart. Yeah, if you want to, kind of, if you want to make a difference, if you want to see the next generation growing and maturing, definitely get in and have a look, and I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Jennifer: That sounds brilliant. Ryan, thank you so much for your time today, we really appreciate you joining us and giving us your perspective on working in IT in higher education. And for anybody who’s considering it, as Ryan said, higher education is a great place to be, so think about moving your career into a university or into higher education. Thanks so much for joining us today, and good luck with your job search!