IT Skills

							Geoff Kippax
23rd June 1980

2 Charlesworth Park
Haywards Heath                                                            Tel: 01444 413807
RH16 3JG                                                       Email: jobs@geoffkippax.com


Personal Statement
Throughout my education and beginnings in full time employment I have developed
excellent IT skills, confidence in communication, and strong academic skills particularly in
maths and science. I balance this with social activities including music and cinema, and a
strong involvement with the local church.


IT Skills
I have been interested in computers from around the age of 10, and have pursued this
interest to degree level. My favoured aspects of IT are troubleshooting and databases. My
troubleshooting experience is mostly in software, but does sometimes extend to the
replacement and of hardware components if necessary. The database expertise is
channelled toward database design; beginning with an analysis of the database
requirements, leading into design, and finally into creation of a new database. Most of my
database work has been using Microsoft Access, but has sometimes extended into direct use
of SQL.

As well as the technical IT skills, I am also very familiar with more standard programs such
as the Windows operating system (versions 95 to XP), and Microsoft Office (including Word,
Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook; versions 97 to 2002). This is reflected by my ECDL
certificate, and completion of the ECDL advanced Word Processing, Spreadsheets, and
Presentation courses.



Leisure interests
I enjoy playing the piano as a relaxing leisure interest in my spare time, and have composed
some music of my own at GCSE, I have continued this in a less formal manner purely for
enjoyment. I also extend my musical talent into a church context where I provide a leading
role as part of the music group. Church members frequently comment on their appreciation
of my music.

I have am currently a leader of my church based on my loyalty and commitment over
several years; my thoughts and ideas as young person are well valued.

Cinema and films also play a large part of my leisure interests as I enjoy action films, which
provide an amusing contrast to our daily lives.
Travel
Over the last few years I have been to France, Northern Ireland, and Morocco. French was
one of my stronger subjects at school; I studied this to AS-level. I have enjoyed
experiencing life with a French family and the challenge of understanding and speaking
French in real life situations, rather than sticking with the rather narrow textbook examples.

Northern Ireland and Morocco showed some stark contrasts to my known way of life;
visiting Belfast and experiencing the hostility but at the same time looking at the artistic
murals was very unusual. In Morocco the relaxed attitude towards details such as
timekeeping made it amazing to understand how life could possibly continue without a little
order!



Work experience

Rewards Training Recruitment Consultancy
June 2004 – present
ICT & Processes Coordinator

Two and a half years into my time at Rewards, following the departure of the IT manager, a
vacancy arose to maintain and develop our IT systems. The first 9-12 months of this work
largely involved stabilising the variety of PCs, servers, and software levels in use throughout
the company. I also implemented a VPN-based WAN to connect our different sites; this was
a major step forward as each office increasingly needed to communicate and share
information between sites.

Work since then has largely focussed on development of databases, in all possible areas:
relational design, data migration, user interface design, and reporting tools. There has also
been the inevitable day-to-day troubleshooting of desktop PCs. There are approximately
140 PCs throughout the organisation.

Future projects include the replacement of the server infrastructure and an upgrade to our
level of office software.


January 2002 – May 2004
IT Trainer/Senior IT Trainer

At Rewards I began by teaching the use of computers; including Windows and Microsoft
Office. I have developed a flair for explaining potentially confusing concepts such file
management, mail merge, spreadsheet formulae, and databases. I also quickly took control
of managing the evening classes, including providing a crucial link between the daytime and
evening staff, and a common tutor for the evening class students.

Since then I have moved on to assist in writing new training materials, and conducting and
formally marking examinations to an appropriate and consistent standard. It was also
important to convey bad results in a sympathetic and constructive manner.
NatWest
August 1999 – December 2000
Cashier

As a cashier my job here was to process customer’s deposits, encashments and bill
payments. It was important to ensure that cash was accurately counted and all transactions
appropriately recorded. Identification checks were particularly important when dealing with
large withdrawals; developed the skill of ensuring that customers were neither frustrated not
offended by this.

This job was a very positive experience as it was my first full time role, and I discovered the
enjoyment of working as part of a team.



Sainsbury’s
December 1998 – September 2001
Administration Clerk

This job supported me through my University degree, my main duty was price control. This
is a quality control position in which I learnt the importance of consistency between the
prices and special offer information displayed in the store to customers, and what they are
actually charged at the checkout.

I also built a good relationship with the checkout team, and learnt how to use internal
telephone systems to transfer calls. As this job was mostly evening hours, I often worked
as the only member of staff on my department and found this useful as I was able to plan
my own time to complete my duties by the end of my shift.



Education
University of Sussex: BSc (Hons) in Computer Science.

Haywards Heath College: Applied maths, computing, physics A-levels; and French AS-level.

Oathall Community College: Dual award science, maths, statistics, English, English literature,
French, German, geography, and music GCSE’s


Beginning with my GCSE’s, my strengths have always been academic subjects such as
maths and sciences. I continued and to develop these subjects at college, where I also had
the opportunity to begin studying computing which had been another of my interests for
some time. I also chose to continue French at AS-level as it had been an enjoyable subject
at school, and I had done extremely well; it seemed a shame not to continue this.

At the University of Sussex I specialised in computer science which taught me not only some
specialised logic, maths, and data analysis courses, but also the way people interact with
computers, and the importance of understanding what we are trying to achieve as well as
methodical ways to achieve these objectives.
Professional Memberships
I am currently an Associate Member of the British Computer Society (AMBCS)



References
For respect of their privacy, the names and addresses of my referees are not made
accessible on the Internet. However I am more than happy to supply details to genuine
prospective employers.

A reference from the manager of NatWest bank, Crawley, is also available.