Summary of OJT Experience

Summary of the OJT Experience

On-the-job training (OJT) is one of the best training methods because it is planned, organized, and conducted at the employee's worksite. OJT will generally be the primary method used for broadening employee skills and increasing productivity. It is particularly appropriate for developing proficiency skills unique to an employee's job - especially jobs that are relatively easy to learn and require locally-owned equipment and facilities. This is one method by which students is given a chance to apply the theories and computations that they have learned from the school. It also helps the students to acquire relevant knowledge and skills by performing in actual work setting. Colleges and universities require their students to undergo such training within a specific number of hours as part of the curriculum.
Last November 15, 2013 I went to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) in Pasay, Manila to inquire if they are accepting a BSIT Student Trainee. I met the HR Ms. Raquel and she told me that the network department where they usually assign their IT trainees is no longer accepting incoming trainees because they have already accepted too many OJT’s, but she told me to wait and see if she can find a position for me in other departments that is also a part of the Information Technology Services Group (ITSG). While waiting I saw my two classmates Jim and Ronald who are also applying for internship. And like me, they we’re also told by the HR to wait, as she find a department for them. After a while, the HR came back and told us that we will be assigned at the Network and Workstation department. Then, she let us sign the student trainee forms and even asked us when we want to start, I was surprised that they we’re very eager to accept student trainees because some of my classmates are having a hard time to find a host company for their OJT. I felt lucky and happy at that time that I finally have my host company. I started immediately because I need to accumulate a total of 486 hours which in my calculation is around three months
November 18, 2013 – the first day of my On-the-Job Training I came early because I don’t want to give my bosses the impression that I’m a tardy person. We met our OJT supervisor Mr. Dennis Liveta he oriented us about the duties and responsibilities of a Network and Workstation Department employees are. And from what I understand the duties of an NWD employee is to provide solutions for the complaints and requests of the affected users regarding their computers and also they are responsible for the installation, maintenance and support of some hardware and software malfunctions. From the many things he said, one thing that captures my attention and still I can’t forget until now is when he said “I know we don’t have gave allowances on our trainees but we must still try to practice professionalism” I also met the three Job Order Contractors or JO’s who will also be our supervisor they are sir Dave, sir William and sir Nathaniel. During that day we doesn’t have a real work yet, we just did a lot of observation of what we are going to do.

They explain to us about how the system works. And here’s how it is: when an employee have a request about an installation of a software or hardware malfunction they would call the service desk also known as the help desk, and the help desk would try to solve their problem through phone. But if the problem still wasn’t solved or the affected user needed an administrator password that is where we come in, the service desk would now direct the request to us which is called “ticket”. Still in our first day, the supervisor will do the ticketing we will go with them and observe what they do. Our supervisor told us that we can do ticketing alone after a week. The following day, they gave us the administrator password which they said is hard to memorize but not for me, because I have a good memorization skills. They find it hard to memorize because it is called alpha numeric it is a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers with the addition of special characters. It is like that for security purposes. So that they can assure that the only ones who can access the administrator are the ones who are authorized to it. They explained to us why they avoid unauthorized access because they might install unnecessary programs or applications and any other things that the user should not be configuring or doing in his/her PC. They advised us to memorize the password instead of copying it from a piece of paper while ticketing because a user might get to it.
But not all the duties in the workstation are all about tickets, there are other tasks that we do in our department, most of the time we reformat a computer or re-image. Re imaging is like reformatting except it is faster and it is like restoring the computer but the restoration will be coming from a source (another computer).and those unit that we reformat or reimage are the computers that needs to be surrendered. When a GSIS employee has a new computer his/her old pc needs to be surrendered. Out of curiosity, I asked one of my bosses that when a computer is surrendered where it goes, he told me that it will be donated to the public schools. And also some of our tasks there are scanning, filing, sorting and printing papers. And also as an OJT we are the one in charge of answering the phone every time it rings, we were taught how to answer the phone promptly by starting the conversation with a greeting and asking them who are they looking for what you could do for them.
After a week we can now go ticket by ourselves. The most common ticket for me would be printer sharing, we have two types of printer in GSIS, one is local printer and the other is network printer. Local Printers are the type of printers that are connected directly to one single computer or laptop, typically it can only be accessed by the user to which it is attached but it can be shared by the user so that other users can have access to it. Other users can access the printer by typing the IP address or computer name of the computer to which it is attached in the run command, just right click the shared printer then choose connect. And the other one is the network printer, it is the type of printer that is connected to a computer network and it can be accessed by many different computers. To connect a desktop to a network printer, first you need to print the configuration sheet because in the configuration sheet you can find the IP address of the printer. Then, on the start menu choose device and printers, click add printer then choose local printer, on the dropdown list box choose standard TCP/IP then type the IP address of the printer. Other types of tickets, are requests of installation of applications needed by the GSIS employees. All of our installers can be accessed through \\192.168.123.235 or \\nwd_server. It is the IP address and computer name of our server where all of our needed applications are stored. In our server, the applications are organized into folders. The most common applications that we install are the applications located in the GSIS Standard folder. All of the applications there are installed in almost every of the computers in GSIS. Some of the applications there are Java, JZip, Adobe Reader, SAP GUI, TMS and others. While the other one is the software for SRF folder where the applications stored there can only be installed to some specific employees of the GSIS. The anti-virus used in the GSIS is the Symantec endpoint protection. I never had the chance to ask why they use Symantec among the other anti-viruses and I’m curious why they chose it. During my first week, I had my first ticket I was able to do the job properly. But during that time when my boss instructed us with the solution and that solution doesn’t work I am very hesitant to apply my own knowledge or come up with a new solution thinking that I might worsen up the problem. So I have to go back to our station and ask our boss of other alternative solutions. In that way, I take too much time just to solve one problem. And also there are some instances that when we came to the user and solve their problem, sometimes they also have other concerns regarding their pc which they also want to be solved and since we are only instructed with the solutions on their current ticket we don’t have any idea on their concern. Our boss instructed us that if we know what to do we can solve it then, but if we don’t we can just tell them to request for another ticket so that we can get back to their problem right away. As weeks passed, I have a lot of experiences in ticketing. And experiences teach me a lot. I am now familiar with a lot of problems or concerns of the users. I am now confident, I can move freely. I can now apply my own knowledge to the concerns of the users. The only problem I’ve encountered at that time, is that some of the users aren’t cooperative, while others are pressuring you, kept telling you that you need to fix the problems immediately. And also sometimes even though you followed all the procedures correctly still the problem wasn’t solved. All in all it was a great experience for me. It was challenging and fun at the same time. I’ve really enjoyed my time there. My internship at GSIS taught me a lot. I learned about professionalism, I have gained a lot of knowledge. My skills such as intrapersonal and communication skill have improved. And I give a lot of credit to my bosses for teaching me a lot of things although sometimes they are moody I understand. Before I finish this summary report I would like to thank my host company and my bosses, when I came here I have a little knowledge and ideas of what to experience in work but after this internship I can say that I am now equipped with skills and experience and I can say that I am really ready now for the next chapter in my life which is being an employee. And I can say that it’s really a pleasure being a trainee at the GSIS. This is one experience I would definitely cherish.