Kicking-off your career in IT

Seven men and women are currently training to become IT specialists at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre. Alexander Darras has just completed his apprenticeship, he’s now joining the archive and backup team and he is planning his future.

Training company: The LRZ trains IT specialists for system integration.
Photo: Adobe Stock

Alexander Darras gives the training at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) a grade of "good" or "B". If he had to make the same decision for a professional training again, he would do it in a heartbeat: "Anyone who wants to train as an IT specialist at the LRZ should be interested in computer and network technology and the configuration of digital workstations, and should enjoy learning," says the newly qualified IT specialist in system administration. "It's not enough to just come to work and do the tasks here, you have to learn a lot and independently." Working, learning and managing independently was particularly important in his training: Alexander started at the LRZ in 2020, just before the Corona closure, which even forced trainees to work from home.

Insights into various IT areas

IT specialists in systems integration plan, configure and administer digital workstations in computer centres, administrations or companies, and in the LRZ also for research and science. They provide computers, notebooks, clients, software and tools, and also advise and support users with technical problems by telephone or e-mail. Training at the LRZ takes three years. Between the theoretical blocks at the vocational school, Alexander rotated through different departments and was able to gain insight into different technologies: from supercomputers to service desks, from hardware to software to online tools, from on-premises solutions to cloud applications. "We learned about cable types, the structure of networks and installed workstations with Linux, Windows or MacOS operating systems and the corresponding software," says Alexander. He and his colleagues also updated the software to ensure that the IT systems remained secure.

After leaving school, Alexander didn't have the LRZ on his radar as a training company. His mother heard about the LRZ from a friend and drew his attention to the computer centre, which provides IT services to universities and scientific institutes in Munich and Bavaria and, as one of three supercomputing centres in Germany, supports science with simulations, visualisations and calculations. "It sounded quite exciting," says Alexander. "And compared to what people from the vocational school told me, the training content at the LRZ was very varied, I got to know more operating systems, programmes and techniques than others in my class."

Learning platform and self-organisation

Thanks to digitalisation, IT specialists in systems administration can do some of their work from home. Because of Corona, Alexander spent the first two years of his apprenticeship working one day a week at the LRZ and the rest of the week at home, setting up his workstation with LRZ equipment. "It's a long way from Ebersberg to the LRZ, so working at home was really good," says Alexander with a laugh. "The LRZ organised the training well with the Moodle learning platform and video conferences, and I still learned a lot." Indirectly, self-organisation was also on the agenda: the trainees had to plan themselves when to solve tasks from the ticket system for the service desk or other technical tasks and when to complete digital lessons. While more senior colleagues at the LRZ usually help the trainees, Alexander and the others often had to find solutions on their own at home. "It was challenging, but that's the way it should be," says Alexander.

His only criticism is the lack of cooperation between the vocational school and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK), which conducts the exams after the training. Nine out of 24 students in Alexander's class failed. "No one knew what was on the exam, not even the teachers. Communication could be much better," the IT specialist complains. "But that's not the fault of the LRZ." On the contrary, at the LRZ the students can test their knowledge again and again and thus prepare for the exams in a more targeted way; all of them passed the exams.

And now: continue learning and studying

Alexander has found his profession: "I enjoy IT, but inventory is hard because you only have to check technical identification codes or numbers." He now works in the archive and backup team at the LRZ, ensuring that research, administrative and work data is stored securely and easily retrieved, that defective drives and media are replaced and that the information they contain is reliably copied. "I'm able to apply some of what I learned in my training here, but I'm still learning a lot of new things," he says. And it will stay that way. In the meantime, Alexander is already planning his next step: from autumn 2024, he wants to study IT forensics at the distance learning university in Wismar, while working part-time at the LRZ: "IT security is part of it, I already found it quite interesting during my training. It will definitely be cool to learn more about it during my studies. (lu)

Alexander Darras, IT specialist for systemadministration at LRZ