Who I am?
As with many others in Dundee, I came here to study (at DJ CAD) and did not leave after finishing university. I moved from the north coast of Scotland in 2012 to study graphic design but soon after graduating I realized it wasn’t for me.
After a few years working in the hospitality industry I then took up graphic design again, securing a job for 6 months at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Again, I knew it wasn’t for me pretty much right away, so I went back to hospitality. . . during the blockade. A period that saw businesses open and close, open and close again, I ended up having 5 different jobs over the span of 12 months.
Some time later, I came across the job posting for Web Support Assistant at the University and thought, why not? Everything he listed sounded interesting; I like writing and reading, I’ll find out the rest when I get there. I had never considered a « technical » job before and even though that concerned me, I went for it. So, it turns out that going for something you’ve never planned for or considered in the past, may be the best way forward — a year later I still love what I do.
What should I do?
Caroline Petrie (Web Support Officer) and I are responsible for responding to incoming requests Main Desk (Help4U) from all departments of the University. This could be anything from fixing spelling errors, broken links and updating people pages, to advising on WordPress or creating online forms (using our Gecko form tool). Topdesk is where the support team have our initial discussions to collate all inquiry information, assigning your ticket to another member of Web Services for specialist input if needed.
We have recently helped the content team with the migration of sites to the new content management system (Drupal). It was really eye-opening to see how the different elements of the projects came together. It involved auditing sites to see what content was still in demand. We often came across pages that hadn’t been updated for a decade, sometimes more! We would review and migrate the content and make sure it is readable and accessible. During this process, we will liaise with the relevant school or department.
What’s next?
Getting real data on our customers’ satisfaction levels would be great; currently we can only see how many tickets we complete in a week on Topdesk, but qualitative feedback would be better. This would help me see gaps in my knowledge, streamline the customer journey, and identify common issues that may need more attention.
I would also like to get more involved in content projects. Many of our support activities are closely related and I really enjoyed that aspect of the migration project, seeing a work from start to finish and then providing support for the site once it was completed.
Photo by From Merak ON Unsplash
