Final Portfolio Reflection

I will begin this reflection with my career and educational goals as well as my future ambitions. My career goal is to have a job in the IT field helping customers and solving technical problems alone and in a team environment. I plan on working in the greater Madison area. My education is off to a great start with my second semester in a row with a 3.5 GPA or higher. I am going to continue classes at Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC) and I should graduate with an Associate’s Degree in the field of Computer Networking. I chose Networking because I have very good troubleshooting skills. I believe these are necessary in the Networking field. Also networking caught my eye because it is a more specialized career and it is in high demand. I pay great attention to detail and can handle complex tasks very well, so I thought Networking would be a great fit for me. I will be A+ certified before Fall 2010.Then , after completing corresponding classes, I will achieve my CCNA and Network+ certifications. I should be able to accomplish this all because while I am taking the relevant class I can be studying for theses exams as well. I hope to have employment in the IT field within 3 months.

I think technical support fits in with every IT job. It will definitely fit in with mine. It is always necessary to assist customers, or users within a company, with their technical issues. Knowing how to talk with people, using help desk software, and making sure the customer or user is happy with your service is just as important as the ability to fix technical problems. People use computers and people fix computers. It will always be important to know how to communicate with people about technical issues whether they are a novice end user or your supervisor in the Networking department.

My own personal support skills are strong. I used to work as a Service Technician at a heating and cooling company. I would enter into customers’ homes and maintain or fix critical equipment. I learned very quickly my own style of customer service and received many compliments about the way I handled easy and difficult situations. I was able to simplify highly technical issues so that customers’ could understand why they needed to spend money to have me fix a problem or even replace entire heating or cooling units. Because of my background in heating and cooling I believe that it is not a very big transition into a different technical field such as Networking or Support. My Support skills have only improved and I look forward to aiding people with any issue that I’m able to help with.

Support is crucial to becoming an IT professional because no matter what people are involved. Peoples’ skills can range from beginners to experts and it is important to be a part of that team. It is important that you know your role in the IT team so you are able to aid and assist the beginners that need help with technical issues and assist and learn from those who are experts. Technology is an ever growing and ever changing world and I know I have what it takes to grow and adapt quickly to whatever comes my way.

Final Portfolio

My name is Jon Skudlarczyk and this portfolio shows the completed works for the last section of my Fundamentals of Support class at Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC). My goal for my education is to receive my Associate’s Degree in the field of Computer Networking by 2012. I will be A+ certified before Fall 2010.Then , after completing corresponding classes, I will achieve my CCNA and Network+ certifications. The purpose of this portfolio is to show what I have learned in Fundamentals of Support and to share my assignments with all of you. The links below will take you to my assignments.

The 4 P’s of Training

Training Evaluation Form

Technical Writing Document

Technical Reflection

Final Portfolio Reflection

Three links that may interest IT professionals

Tech News

Begin Your Own Education

Don’t Burn Out at Your Desk

Technical Writing Reflection

I have read many technical documents of the course my life. From elementary school to college there is no shortage of technical documents. Technical documents are imperative to the productivity, ability to troubleshoot, and continued learning of everybody in a business environment. As I look back on learning about technical writing I have learned many things.

My initial technical writing document was effective but it seemed like there was too much information. I did a lot of editing. I tried to only use words that were necessary. Also I had to go back and make sure to use active voice. I actually spent most of my editing time changing from passive voice to active voice. After editing the document, the students in class were able to follow the instructions successfully. A person with minimum computer experience should be able to easily follow the instructions. Performing a mail merge is made easy and clear with the instructions I laid out.

If I did not have the limitation of one page I would have gone more in depth with the tasks that Mail Merge can do. I would have told the reader the reader the different types of documents they could create with Mail Merge. I would have given a step by step document on how to complete each one. That way a complete tutorial on all the tasks mail merge can perform would be created.

While writing a technical document I learned that you can eliminate a lot of things to make the make the document as simple as possible. Using verbs and staying away from lengthy explanations is best practice. I also learned that different people have different ways of writing technical documents. One technical document can be written in a different format or style than others. No one way is best because people learn differently. Also I learned about the skills the other students in my class have and variety of skills that are out there. This reflects on the IT industry because in the real world no one person knows everything. It is good to have those “experts” out there to write these technical documents to make work and life easier for the people that are not as skilled as the “experts.”

I see myself creating a range of technical documents. I would write documents on computer hardware and networking for technicians. These documents would be in the form of web documents and web tutorials that employees within my company would use. Also, I would create documents for novice users that are looking to be more productive with the software they are using every day. That means I would be writing simple operational documents and simple troubleshooting guides so users can become more self reliant. I imagine I will be creating documents for training purposes as well.

Writing technical documents is a necessary part of the business world. There is no shortage of technical documents on the web and within any company you or I might work for. I look forward to creating wonderful technical documents in the future.

Technical Writing

How to Perform a Mail Merge in Microsoft Word

One thing Microsoft Word can do is create multiple envelopes at once for the purpose of customer mailings. This document will guide you through the steps of creating the envelopes. In order to begin you need two things.

1. Microsoft Word
2. Microsoft Excel or other data organizer with headings for data i.e. first name, last name, street address, state, and zip code.

Step 1: Open Microsoft Word

• Left Click on “Start”, in the bottom left with mouse
• Left Click “All Programs” with mouse
• Move mouse to “Microsoft Office” and left click mouse
• Left click on “Microsoft Word”

Step 2: Left click the “Mailings” tab with mouse

• “Mailings” tab is located at top of “Word” document

Step 3: Left click “Start Mail Merge” and a drop down menu will pop up

Step 4: Left click “Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard”

Step 5: The “Mail Merge Wizard” pops up on the right. Follow steps in the wizard to complete envelope merge