3/10/15
The internship class was cancelled due to the university correction day, but I continued to shadow my mentors. Jasmine and I reviewed a Help Desk email from earlier that morning from a user who was having difficulty connecting to Virtual SINC Site on his iPad. Jasmine encouraged me to ask myself questions like “What would I have searched or asked for?” and “Where would I look for this info?” in order to build a better problem solving mindset. I found a document on the DoIT webpage giving specific directions on how to use VSS on an iPad and noticed that the information from the user followed these same directions until an error occurred. I felt like I would have been stuck. At that point, we scrolled down to the next reply, which informed the Help Desk that the problem somehow fixed itself and that the user was now able to connect to VSS. However, the person also asked another question eight hours earlier, but still did not get an answer from Help Desk. The email was likely marked as read by mistake, but if Jasmine and I hadn’t checked up on the email, the customer would have never gotten a reply back. It just goes to show that it is important to pay attention to what you click!
After shadowing with Jasmine, I worked in Main with Steven on a regular consultant shift. I complained that the campus res mail room system had been sending me emails at the rate of 1 email per minute, which was quickly spamming my inbox after two afternoons. I contacted their customer support, which was not at all helpful in fixing my problem. It was a good thing that I mentioned my situation to Steven, as he immediately came up with a work around solution. Even though he was not mentoring, Steven taught me about Google Mail filters, which identifies key words in the message body or subject as the emails arrive, then directs them to a separate folder. Not only did this make my inbox more readable, but the filter can also be set up to redirect TLT SUB and SUBBED emails to other folders. It’s a very simple concept that I wish I knew about earlier in the year to better manage my spam. Still, it’s better late than never.
I actually have been learning a lot from other Senior Consultants this week, since Charles and Jenney subbed their shifts out. I shadowed Jenn Yi for Help Desk and Steven for Site Manager (officially this time). Jenn gave me an even more in depth look at the tlthelpdesk email, showing me how to sort individual emails into color-coded subcategories. I was also reminded to ask Tara or Chris for help if I was stuck, or to mark an email as Unread in the worst case scenario.
Steven helped me to set up a Lotus Note account at the account terminal, warning me that I will only be able to change my password if I forget it and that it will take a few days for my account to actually be activated. In the mean time, he allowed me to try the program on his account in order to learn how to print out class schedules if I become a Site Manager. It seems complicated because it requires me to hit print twice, but I believe that it will become second nature once I go through the process weekly next year. We also reviewed how to troubleshoot for NetID and SOLAR passwords, then discussed the different Google Apps.