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IT Computing Vacancies: Web Dev and System Support

Many Companies contact the School of Applied Computing to request Computing Graduates, some recent examples include Waters Creative and HiTech Labs below:

Waters Creative Ltd are looking for a Junior Developer familiar with PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS and Javascript technologies. For more information please click-here. For many more local Web Development jobs please click here: indeed WebDev jobs, Monster WebDev jobs in Wales. For information about the School’s Web Development degree please click-here.

Also Hitec Laboratories Ltd are currently looking for a 1^st Level Support Analyst, to be based at Hitec’s head office in Swansea. Hitec solutions span Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC). The 1^st Level Support Analyst is responsible for providing first line support for Hitec’s Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) solution. The job specification is below, if you are interested please contact Janet Crame (Operations Director) via e-mail janet.crame@hiteclabs.com.

The work is conducted in a dynamic environment with support enquiries being made on a range of issues from product specific support to more general PC and network environment support. The role involves working closely with the Testing and Development teams in order to provide incident verification and progress more involved issues. There is also the requirement to work in collaboration with the Professional Services and Engineering teams within Hitec (Laboratories) Ltd. Initial product training will be given along with any other associated training that may be necessary from time to time. There is also a high reliance on self-training and knowledge gathering particularly for related background information.

Responsibilities include:

Call Logging, Incident diagnosis, Incident verification, working with testing and development teams
Incident prioritisation, Incident resolution, Managing incidents within customer SLAs
Keeping customers updated with progress
Schedule support with other team members
Maintain knowledge base.

Technical Skills/Experience/Understanding Required:

Familiarity with MS SQL Server support
Windows Client Operating Systems
Familiarity with Windows Server Operating Systems support
Databases in general; MS SQL Server in particular
Microsoft IIS set-up and configuration
Windows security and user management.

Personal Skills:

Excellent customer service skills
Strong administration and call-logging, Incident ownership
Able to take support calls and summarise the key issues.
Ability to diagnose and prioritise issues
Strong communication skills
Enjoy learning about new products both from given training and self study.
Have a technical education at HND level or equivalent.
It would be an advantage to have experience in using a bug reporting and management system.

Hours of work: 9am – 5.30pm Monday – Friday, with 1 hour for lunch.
Holiday: 22 days per year increasing to 25 days after 3 years service, plus 8 UK Bank Holidays.
Probationary period: 3 months, followed by a formal review.
Other benefits:Company pension scheme and private medical cover available at end of probationary period. Life assurance & childcare vouchers also available.

For many more local Web Development jobs please click here: indeed IT System Support jobs, Monster IT System Support. For information about the School’s Computing Information Systems & Business Computing degrees please click the preceding links.

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Graduate Profile: Aisha Iftikhar

Q. What was your HE course?

BSc (Hons) Business Information Technology

Q. What is your job title and role?

Multiple business owner: My role is to lead businesses, as an MD Managing Director at Costcutters supermarket and as a Principal at Swansea sixth form College. This involves many different areas including leadership, teacher evaluation, student discipline, staff discipline, accounting and several others.

Q. Could you briefly describe the organization you work for?

Swansea Sixth-form College (SSC) offer a wide range of practical English language courses. SSC offer high quality teaching with flexible study options, in a beautiful environment designed to develop our students confidence and increase motivation. Whether your goal is to improve your job prospects, get a place at university, pass an English language exam, live and work abroad, improve your English for business purposes, adapt to life in the UK or travel and see the world, we have a course to suit you.

Q. Which skills learned at University are helpful to you in your job?

My 3 years at Swansea Met were life changing. The environment excelled my development as a student. The skills that I developed while studying have had a positive influence on my role, personally, my involvement in the community and professionally. Commitment, self-motivation and confidence, all of which are highly valued skills which I gained from my course have helped me in my role as a Principal.

The following two skills which have been vital for my role, which I gained in my course through research, planning and assignments:
1. Knowledge and understanding – Gaining specific knowledge related to a particular subject, for example historical or scientific data
2. Cognitive skills – Thinking skills, such as problem solving, analysis, research.

Q. Do you have a typical day and how would you describe it?

My typical day, as much I would like to say planned and calm, it is as hectic and sometimes unpredictable. There are no two days the same. I still feel I am learning something new everyday. My day can range from staff meetings, student inductions, class monitoring, teaching assessments and auditing. We also take pride in our diverse culture and at the same time our city, and reach out exertions and show off our heritage.

Q. What aspects of your job do you enjoy most?

My job role highly motivates me, I do enjoy all aspects of my job.
It’s a huge responsibility being part of such a successful college and to be responsible for so many different people. I love learning and meeting people.

Q. Do you have any advice for students who would like to start a Career?

Your whole life is a learning curve, the biggest challenge is in within yourself. Always take issues/problems as a challenge, remove all barriers.
Set high goals, you should never be able to accomplish your goal, you should get nearer and nearer each time. If you think you have reached it, then you haven’t set a high enough goal, the sky is the limit.

Commitment, reliability, humbleness and honesty to yourself and your job is your key ingredient for success.

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Deborah Roberts: Web Developer @ DAC

What was your HE course?
The course that I did was BSc (Hons) Web Development.

What is your job title and role?
My job title is web developer/technical auditor at the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC). My role varies to include design and development of small SME websites, Mobile Apps, technical auditing, accessibility testing and reporting on larger websites including clients such as Channel 4, Money Advice Service, HMRC, Lloyds, Santander and many more.

Could you briefly describe the organization you work for?
The organisation I work for deals with the accessibility testing of digital products to WCAG 2.0 standards. We have a team of expert testers that have a range of disabilities and use various Assistive technologies to ensure that these products are accessible and inclusive to all.

Which skills learned at University are helpful to you in your job?
The skills that I learnt at University that I have found help me are web design and development skills, report writing, how to research and meet deadlines and the final project that I undertook relating to accessibility and accessibility guidelines.

Do you have a typical day and how would you describe it?
I can be involved in any part or all of the process depending on how many audits are on-going. I could be working with the testers where I analyse code as they find accessibility issues with a website or mobile app in relation to their assistive technologies. I will then find the reason for the problem and offer companies a solution for fixing it.

I will then complete a technical audit and compile a report. This process is then followed up with a conference call with project managers and developers/designers to discuss a way forward for compliance.

I have also been involved in training developers, designers and project managers in creating accessible products, selling the service to clients and presentations.

A colleague and I also developed the Accessibility ‘hub’ for Virgin Media’s website.

What aspects of your job do you enjoy most?
I do enjoy getting out of the office and visiting companies all over the UK and seeing how they work. I have recently been to HMRC offices after being involved in a piece of work for them, along with Channel 4, ITV and Virgin. But the part that I like is the analysing of code, finding the reason why a screen reader for example is not working with the code and finding a way of fixing it. It is also nice to see the fixes that I have suggested being implemented and no longer causing my blind colleagues an issue.

Do you have any advice for students who would like to start a Career?
Yes, work hard and stay focussed, if you’re determined you’ll get there.

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‘Exo Minor’ & ‘Happy Rainbow Bird’ by ChaosTrend

Founded by one of our School’s Enterprising Graduates Darren Adams, Swansea-based Games Development Studio Chaos-Trend are proud to announce their new game “Exo Miner” on Steam Greenlight. Exo Miner is a procedurally generated, action based mining, exploration, construction and defence game.

Travel to unexplored sectors of space, claim new sectors for mining, set up defences, buy new ships and drones then customise them to fit your play style. Define patrol routes for protection or attack claimed sectors. Defend your own sectors from rival companies and leave your mark by building the biggest space mining corporation in the galaxy. Can you build a corporation to rival the mighty Europa Mining Company?

Watch this space: They are currently busily developing Exo Miner and some of the content is not yet final. They will be updating this page as often as possible with new info and content.

Chaos-Trend have also recently released a new game titled ‘Happy Rainbow Bird‘ 🙂

Flap those wings, gain some height and use your skill and judgement to get the highest score you can as you Guide your birdie through the many pillars of doom.

The Game is available Now on Google Play and iTunes.

Chaos-Trend are a small but well established Games development studio in Swansea, Wales. They have been running for over 5 years and have successfully released many games across many platforms. The core team consists of Graduates from Swansea Metropolitan – University of Wales Trinity Saint David that have obtained degrees in game programming and design. The founder members of ChaosTrend are: Darren Adams, Russell Drodge, John Franklin, and Ian Malsbury. There are now five in the Team, one being a former Creative Assembly programmer who worked on the award winning Total War series. They have written their our own game engine and tools from the ground up, and love to dream-up and create new and exciting games. For more information please click here.

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Upcoming Events @ TechHub Swansea

FEBRUARY19 – User Expereince: Getting Closer to the Customer

This half-day workshop provides an overview of User Experience and why it is an important consideration in the development of products, systems and applications. A series of presentations outline real-world implementations and case-studies by leading internationally renowned User Experience experts.

FEBRUARY24 – Growth Hacking Workshop

Join us at TechHub Swansea for a workshop on Growth hacking with founder of True Up, Liam Reynolds (trueup.co.uk)

FEBRUARY26 – Business in Focus : Start Up Business Support and Pizza! Members Only

Start Up Business Support and Pizza! Join regional sponsor of TechHub Swansea for an afternoon of business support and pizza, get practical support and guidance, FREE, for all members.

FEBRUARY28 – The Big Tweet Easy

TechHub Swansea have gone all roaring ’20s and are thrilled to invite you to our exclusive prohibition party. …it’s a strictly need to know event, so ‘speak-easy’!

MARCH8 – Raspberry Jam (picymru.com)

Have you heard of the Raspberry Pi computer? Do you want to know more and see what others are doing with this amazing low cost device? Come along to the Swansea Raspberry Jam event and meet other Raspberry Pi users

MARCH12 – Avoiding Penguins and Pandas – How To Stay Ahead With SEO

As a start-up you need to plan for future and your future success. Getting your website found online by the right people is a huge part of modern-day marketing and being listed for the correct keywords by the search engines is essential.

MARCH17 – Creative briefing events – Digwyddiadau briffio Creadigol

The Welsh Government Creative Industries team is busy doing a series of regional briefing events across Wales. The events are a brief presentation on the support available from the Welsh Government to creative sector businesses and a plenary, followed by the opportunity of 1:1 half hour slots with Welsh Government Business

MARCH26 – Growing and Organising your Engineering Team Advice Clinic

Growing and Organising your Engineering Team Advice Clinic

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Computing Student Archie Watt @ Google TC Summit

Name & Course: Archie Watt (2nd from the left above) Graduated with a HND in Computer Networks in 2013, now on final year of B.Sc. (Hons) Computer Networks, tells us about his time at Google’s

Background / introduction: I originally went to Google’s Webmaster Forum (about four years ago now) to ask a few questions of my own. In doing so, I came across some questions asked by other webmasters that I was able to answer, so I decided to stick around after participating a bit. Since then I’ve learned a huge amount from the forum (and still do every day) which enables me to answer a wider range of questions. After a couple of years participating, I was asked to join the Top Contributor (TC) programme, and then earlier this year was invited to the TC Summit in California.

When/how long for: the summit took place between 30^th September & 3^rd October.

The TC Summit is a biannual event hosted in California, where Google invite all TCs from around the world to thank them for the support they provide to their users. Over the course of three days, TCs were able to meet various Google engineers and product managers for a series of workshops and the opportunity to provide direct feedback, as well as see demos of new products (such as Google Glass).

The Experience: I really enjoy participating in the forum, not only because I learnt so much from there, but also because it’s always motivating when people thank you for fixing problems and giving advice. The summit was great as I was able to meet a lot of fellow TCs and Google employees who I’d previously only known online.

Skills Gained: the webmaster forum receives questions on an extensive range of topics, so you can gain skills in a lot of areas by participating there, such as accessibility, usability, content management, malware & keeping your website safe from hackers, information architecture, server management, dealing with search engine penalties, best practices for building international websites, getting sensitive content removed from search results, and more. Since Google’s search algorithms are constantly updating, it’s also a good place to keep up to speed on the latest developments and trends. The summit also offered the opportunity to learn new skills and build upon existing ones.

The TC Programme: Currently, the TC programme consists of nearly 600 people around the world, and covers 26 different languages. Collectively, the TCs contribute close to a million posts to Google’s help forums every year. Google’s Top Contributors (TCs) are the front line of support in Google’s help forums. TCs are hand-picked by Google staff for demonstrating expertise in a particular area or for a particular product (such as webmaster support or Gmail).

The Webmaster Central forum: specializes in troubleshooting technical issues with websites, which can include usability, website security & cleaning hacked sites, problems getting indexed and/or ranked in search results, using Google Webmaster Tools, removing content from search results, and more. Since Google’s search algorithms are opaque and highly dynamic (hundreds of changes every year), most of the facts are unknown to outsiders, so helping users in the webmaster forum is a unique challenge when compared to other Google forums, since the people helping here are not supporting a product with clear help documentation, all they have to work from is their own professional experience.

To learn more about the summit, check out the post about the event on the official Google blog. You can learn more about the TC programme in general here.

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Graduate Profile: Thomas John

What was your HE course/s and when did you graduate?
I studied the HND Computing and Information Systems course, and after graduating from the course, I enrolled on to the 3^rd year of the BSc (Hons) Computing and Information Systems course before graduating with a 2:1 Degree.

What is your job title and role?
I am a Software Tester for a company called Dezrez Services Ltd which is based in Swansea.

Could you briefly describe the organization you work for?
Dezrez Services Ltd provides Software Services for Estate Agencies to help the Estate Agencies deal with Sales, Lettings, and also Property Management. The company also offers Support for the Software. A few products that Dezrez have include:

Dezrez PM (Property Management)
iPad Valuation App
Website in a Box
Template Designs
Mobile Dezrez

Which skills learned at University are helpful to you in your job?
After graduating from University, some skills have really helped me in my role. With the Assignments and the Final Year Project deadlines, I have learnt how to meet deadlines of Testing Tasks, Testing Activities and Sprints. This has really helped me deal with Testing Tasks and Testing Activities that are set for me. Also my Final Year Project has helped me as I understand the need for Usability within a Software program and how important it is for the Software and for the User.

Do you have a typical day and how would you describe it?
My day would normally involve testing the Property Management software package that Dezrez have developed. I would use TFS (Team Foundation Server) to look at a Task Board to see what Testing Tasks I have been assigned to Test and then I would record any Issues (Functionality, Usability, Compatibility, Design, Spelling/Grammar) or Feature Suggestions in TFS and the Dezrez CRM System. When a release is performed for new functionality and fixes to go up live, I would perform a Test Plan to make sure that functionality already in place has not been affected by the new functionality.

What aspects of your job do you enjoy most?
I enjoy the challenge of helping the company find issues within the software, helping the company release the software, and that it is suitable and ready for release. I also enjoy working for the company and learning new techniques for testing the products that the company provides.

Do you have any advice for students who are currently studying their HE course?
I would say when an assignment is handed out, start on it as soon as possible. Use the resources that the University provides (library etc.) and the time in which there are no Lectures or Tutorials wisely to do research for assignments, and also take the opportunity to learn some exam preparation techniques. Also if doing a Final Year Project, I would start the Project as soon as you can as I completed my Literature Review at the start of January and that gave me time to make amendments to the sections and also start the Implementation stage early which was really helpful.

In a summary please write a little statement that explains the positive aspects of your experience at University and whether you would recommend it to anyone in the future:
When starting at University, I was a little nervous with the change from College. But the University, the Support, Friends and also the Lecturers made me feel comfortable after a few weeks, I settled in great and worked hard to gain my HND. After gaining the HND, I realised that I wanted to do further education and decided to enrol on the 3^rd year of the BSc Degree and it was the best decision I have made. I have made some great friends through my 3 years at the University, and I have also developed myself further as a person through the experience. I recommend the University highly as it a great place to study and I have learnt so much there.

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Watch this Space: Exciting New Courses

The Team at the School of Applied Computing have been busy updating all existing courses and writing a lot of exciting new ones*. The School’s undergraduate portfolio is being greatly extended with 7 new courses:

Applied Computing
*Business Computing
Business Information Technology
*Cloud Computing
Computing and Information Systems
Computer Games Development
*Computer Graphics & Visualisation
Computer Networks
Computer Systems & Electronics
Electrical & Electronic Engineering
*GIS & Environmental Conservation
*Mobile Computing & Application Development
*Robotics & Intelligent Systems
Software Engineering
Web Development
*Wireless Communication Systems

WATCH THIS SPACE ;-). For more information please click-here.

* Subject to validation.

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Video: Discover University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Learn more about the Exciting Changes within Welsh Higher Education and the Newly merged Swansea Metropolitan University and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the exciting plans for the future – check out the Discover University of Wales Trinity Saint David Video below as the Vice-Chancellor Prof. Medwin Hughes explains all: