Internships lead Ryan to full-time IT role

Studying

An Open Day opened Ryan’s eyes to what we could offer. He visited our Markeaton Street site - where our Computing courses are based.

“I was impressed by the quality of teaching and facilities and could envision myself studying here. The courses I selected reflect my personal interests and aspirations to work within the IT industry.” 

He was interested in computer networking, computer science, and cyber security. And he decided to study BSc (Hons) Computer Networks and Security as it reflected his personal interests and aspirations to work within the IT industry.

After finishing his undergraduate degree, Ryan decided to continue studying and joined our MSc Cyber Security course to broaden his knowledge about subjects within this field. He also qualified for the alumni discount and was familiar with the lecturers who also taught him at an undergraduate level. This made him feel confident in the quality of the content that was going to be delivered and where he was going to study. 

“The MSc Cyber Security programme was really good. It covered some aspects of cyber security that I learned at an undergraduate level in a deeper level of detail. It also introduced some new modules such as ‘Enterprise Security Management’ where I designed cyber security policies that were compliant to the ISO2700x family of standards. Another favourite module that I took was ‘Security: Attacks and Countermeasures’ where I learned how to conduct penetration tests and also what the associated countermeasure would be to protect an organisation against the attack.” 

Support and Guidance

The Careers and Employment Service played an instrumental role in rounding out Ryan’s CV whilst at university with some good work experience. Ryan undertook the ‘On Campus Internship Scheme’ and was placed with the marketing department to create cyber security awareness materials that could be delivered to organisations that are partnered with the university. 

Additionally, he applied through the Student Employment Agency to become a temporary Service Centre Analyst within the university which he did as a part-time job with the second-line IT team alongside studying for his MSc which gave Ryan essential practical skills and industry experience.

After graduation

Ryan now works full-time within the technical second-line IT team at the University of Derby as an Operations and Response Centre Delivery Engineer. Working across multiple campuses, he provides support in-person and remotely to staff and students. 

“The University started my career by both providing me with an initial foot in the door and now through promoting me into a position where I can lead on delivering technical projects undertaken by the university to support staff and students. Studying at both undergraduate and postgraduate level provided me with the technical knowledge to competently perform my role from the start.”

Ryan is excited about his future at Derby and is going to continue his professional development by working towards getting IT certifications from companies such as Cisco and Microsoft. He encourages anybody thinking about studying at the University of Derby to go for it. It’s a friendly place to study with lots of opportunities and you might even still be here after graduation, just like him.