Student Technicians
The University provides limited computing support for students' privately owned computers. This support is provided as part of the Student Networking service in the form of a Student Help Desk. Student Technicians are employed by the IT Division in order to ensure that the functions of the Student Help Desk are carried out.
From time to time the IT Division advertises for new Student Technicians (). Anyone interesting in applying for this position should be aware of the job requirements, which are detailed below:
Student Technician Job Description
Student Technicians are expected to work at the Student Help Desk in order to ensure that the functions of the Student Help Desk are carried out. Whilst the exact timing and duration of this varies from person to person as well as from term to term, each Technician is expected to work at least one two-hour shift per week during normal University terms. At times, Student Technicians may be requested to optionally perform duties outside of their normal shift.
Student Technicians are expected to be conscientious, possess organisational skills and have a robust personality in order to ensure that the Student Help Desk is run in an efficient manner. Student Technicians should possess both general computing and computer networking problem solving skills.
Student Technicians are expected to be familiar with the University's ICT best practises, policies and limitations and use this information to inform their actions and advice. Student Technicians should especially take note of and familiarise themselves with the:
- University's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP);
- Student Networking service in general; and
- terms and conditions of the Student Networking service.
Shifts at the Student Help Desk are allocated at the beginning of the year by the Student Networking Coordinator, and may be negotiated. If a Technician is not able to make one of their scheduled shifts, they are expected to make arrangements in advance for another Technician to stand in for them. Where this is not possible, they are expected to let the Student Networking Coordinator know, in advance, that they will not make their shift and that they are unable to find a replacement.
During each shift a Student Technicians is expected to:
- be present at the Student Help Desk for the full duration of their shift;
- attend to students who visit the Help Desk;
- assist students with any software-related problems, particularly but not exclusively those relating to the use of the University's network, to the best of their ability;
- be aware of, and respond to, requests for assistance that come to the Student Help Desk via the University's request tracking system;
- log all jobs that cannot be completed in-person or within a single shift with the University's request tracking system;
- follow normal escalation procedures, which may vary from problem to problem, when unable to resolve a problem themselves;
- where the Student Help Desk's hours coincide with a formal booking of the Union public computer lab, and in the absence of a Lab Assistant on duty during such occasions, to assist users of the lab in resolving major problems affecting the smooth running of the event and/or inform the IT Division of such problems as appropriate;
- handle all requests courteously, timeously and efficiently; and
- leave the Student Help Desk in a reasonably clean and tidy state at the conclusion of their shift.
In order for the Student Help Desk to provide a reasonable service, it is important that Student Technicians have some basic technical skills. It is therefore expected that Student Technicians are familiar with at least the following technical considerations:
- install and configure vendor supplied network card drivers;
- configure a computer's TCP/IP networking such that it is able to be obtain network settings via DHCP;
- install anti-virus software and configure it such that it updates itself regularly;
- configure Windows 2000, Window XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 computers to use the University's Windows Software Update Service (WSUS);
- configure Apple Macs to use the University's Apple Software Update Service (Apple SUS);
- configure popular web browsers to use the University's automatic configuration script such that they are able to use the University's proxy servers to access the Internet; and
- configure popular e-mail clients so that they may be used to retrieve and send e-mail to and from the University's IMAP and SMTP servers.
