Name: Matthew Smith
Major and College: Information Technology at Towson University
Internship Title: Systems Support Intern
Internship Site: CDS Logistics
1) Please tell us about your career goals.
There are many different pathways to pursue in Information Technology. Some that are of interest to me is cyber security, support specialist, quality assurance tester, network engineer and IT support related duties.
2) Tell us about your internship (i.e. day-to-day responsibilities, special projects/clients and work culture).
My experience working with CDS Logistics this past summer has been very successful and was an amazing opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the IT field. Some of my responsibilities involved communicating with the IT team, working between different applications, troubleshooting technology issues, managing inventory, shipping devices, and updating laptops. Communicating and working with the IT team has helped to improve my communication and troubleshooting skills, especially working with different employees to help me learn different apps that employees use to help troubleshoot issues. Some of the apps that I was exposed to and learned was Salesforce, Vison Ops, Mobi Control, Ring Central, Slack, Slab, and ITHub. The most important application that the IT team uses is called Salesforce. The purpose of this app is to communicate to their customers if they run into any issues such as shipping issues, VPN issues, login issues, scanner issues, laptop issues, and printer issues, to name a few. Vison Ops helps to lookup customer information to access and change their permissions/roles. Mobi Control is very important because you can access their devices virtually if the customer is having an issue with a device or application. Ring Central allows the employees to communicate with each other through their computer. Slack is an application like Discord, but it is used for the IT team to communicate with each other about issues or questions. Slab is very helpful for the IT team because it shows articles on how to troubleshoot certain issues step-by-step and other information of devices in the department. This can include all of the IP addresses for printers, creating/setup user accounts, SonicWall VPN, learning how CDS apps work, etc. ITHub lets the IT team create new shipments for customers if they need a scanner, charger, batteries, or sim cards. Working between these applications and learning how each of the interfaces works has helped me to gain more experience with troubleshooting. One experience I had to troubleshoot was understanding why an ethernet cable was not connecting to a desk phone properly. I had to use a tone generator to check for breaks in the cable and locate the wire. After I located the wire, I had to go into the server room to figure out which port that ethernet cable was connected to by using my probe. After finding the cable in the server room, I had to plug the ethernet cable into a different port. Another experience I had to troubleshoot was cleaning an old Dell desktop that was no longer turning on. As I took off the back cover, I noticed that it had a lot of dust inside that needed to be cleaned. After cleaning and removing the dust, the desktop did turn on, but needed to be updated. The last time it was updated was 2018, so it took a while for it to update. My favorite experience of troubleshooting was a VPN issue. The issue was that it was not connecting correctly to the laptop, so I had to check the settings within the app. The issue was that it was connected to a different time zone and the IP address was not connecting properly. I am very familiar when it comes to VPN issues, so I had to change the time zone to EST time and connect it to a backup IP address.
3) Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?
CDS Logistics was on Indeed, which I reached out to the company. I had to go through a couple phone interviews, then meet with the managers. I submitted my application in the month of May.
4) Which of the following resources did you use to find your current experience?
Handshake or other job boards
5) What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?
6) How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?
I have improved myself during this internship by learning how each application works, such as Salesforce, Vison Ops, Mobi Control, Ring Central, Slack, Slab, and ITHub. Learning how the interface of each application was very challenging for me to learn.
7) What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience (i.e. Internship search, Resume or Interview tips)?
For an interview, I would advise the student to research the company before going on an interview. This will help the student to become more prepared for their interview. During an internship, taking notes and following directions helped me improve my ability to learn and communicate with the IT team.