“What do you want to do when you are older?” It’s a question commonly asked at every key milestone in a young person’s life, but the reality is that a chosen career path can change and switch at any time.
George Swirsky went to University to study Aerospace Engineering, enamoured by the opportunity to solve problems as an engineer and indulge in his passion for planes. When it came to studying the subject, it wasn’t all George hoped it would be.
“The elements of the degree that I enjoyed, were different to those I thought I would. I thought I would be more interested in the design and industry, but when it came to a career in aerospace – I wasn’t excited. What did pique my interest was problem-solving and how technology and engineering could be used in this respect.”
After completing his degree, George began looking for jobs in Cybersecurity, but his lack of tangible experience in computing proved problematic.
“I did a lot of computing at University but I did not have the right skills for directly applying for Cyber roles. I came across a couple of different training programmes and it looked like an interesting route in. I knew the job market was still bouncing back from the pandemic and getting additional training might give me a competitive edge”.
This decision led George to join Sparta Global, but with no available Cyber roles, he entered our DevOps stream.
“I had never really heard of DevOps, but it seemed really interesting and would give me a chance to lean into my love for problem-solving.”
The Academy training programme schooled George in DevOps as a concept and introduced him to the critical tools and technologies involved in the role, focussing on AWS. After graduating from Sparta Global’s DevOps programme, George completed additional Academy training for his first role as a Platform Engineer in the public sector.
“There was a really nice atmosphere between all the trainees in my cohort and we all became good friends. It was a great group to be a part of before I went on to my first client assignment as I was the first Spartan to be placed at BAE.
In my role as a Platform Engineer at BAE, I get to problem solve every day. Most of the time I have solved those problems before and I am extremely confident in the value I am bringing to the team.”
A normal day for George is a mixture of planned work through sprints and BAU requests, keeping track of current projects. But as a key Platform Engineer, George is also responsible for managing and solving ad-hoc tasks that come in; identifying things that are broken or breaking and then diagnosing what’s wrong quickly and efficiently.
“Work can ramp up and go from quiet to busy very quickly – but I have always been confident in managing this workload. This is what we were prepared for in the Academy at Sparta.
Sometimes I will need to escalate challenges to senior stakeholders, and I will work with delivery managers to make this happen. I can do the tasks I am given and I am confident in working with the wider team.”
George converted to a full-time member of the BAE team after 24 months and has a lot to be proud of working in the innovative Department for Education.
“I am proud of the pace of my incident responses and the big projects I have played a part in. I am also about to complete a big project moving infrastructures. This is the culmination of a lot of planning, stops and starts, de-bugging – and a lot of learning. But we are on course to meet a tight deadline and the team will really benefit.
At BAE, quality work is rewarded, a value that was instilled in me during my time at Sparta Global. I knew I had something to prove when I entered a space I didn’t have prior experience in and I was given the tools and opportunity to do that.
I know what I am doing. I am valued and it feels good to be making an impact”.
