Work Experiences
Introduction
Welcome to Joel Caldwell's Skill Showcase, a platform dedicated to showcasing and sharing my diverse skill set. This is the space where I highlight my professional journey, expertise, and passion for creativity. Through this portfolio, I aim to provide an insight into the unique value I bring to the table. It's a place where my work speaks for itself, telling the story of my dedication and commitment to excellence.
Hi, I'm Joel.. I am a determined and dynamic person with a very open mind and a love for learning.
My experience as a Manager has not only given me a substantial amount of unique experience in the creation of Power BI models and other data demonstration methods, it has also given me a direct insight into the workings of each business I have been a part of, having this general knowledge and experience gives me a unique edge due to my understanding of all roles and the different data a company works with, it has also given me substantial experience working with people with differing skill sets on a computer, being able to translate requirements into technical specifications, and vice versa, turning technical specifications into a language end users can understand.
Personality
I am a little different in how I approach things, I like to focus deeply when I work, but similarly i like to rest when i'm not in work; however if it calls to stay in work for an hour once the day finishes to finish something off, i'm content doing my part, I'm not much for banter in an office generally, I tend to stay focused in the office rather than chatting, I prefer my own space to create. i can't stand gossip and whispering.
I am grand working in a team and i'm more than happy to put my opinion in the mix when there is something to say but i'm not one to overshare, i do get passionate about how things work and explaining the details of this however and i get a great kick out of making something work and understanding how it works, it is my personal belief that understanding a process can allow a person to apply the knowledge to something completely different, if all we understand is the A to B that is all we are left with.
What i need from a job
I would like to have a bit of leeway with working hours, when i start and when i finish, as much as i am dedicated to my work I am also a believer that there needs to be time to conduct life, i may also need to have some travel to and from Northern Ireland, but more than content to work remotely or in another office if required, i believe compromise from both angles of a working setup is important.
My Experience
My experience in this field has been a very varied selection, i take pride in my ability to very quickly understand and learn new systems and programs with a lot of depth, i have self taught myself various languages and methods at this stage including SQL, Powershell, DAX, M Language, VBA, Java, HTML.
McLernon Computers
My first experience of IT was working with pharmacy software systems and hardware for 7 years, this initially started as a call center position and over time I ended up not really answering calls anymore, instead I became a point of contact for all members of the business, trainers, engineers, programmers and support staff, this is due to the method at which i learn, i like to understand and that made me a middle man for the business to get answers quickly, this along with my youthful experience of being a waiter gave me a very good base on customer service.
As part of my role from a SQL server perspective I was installing and configuring SQL server on end users computers, taking and restoring SQL backups and implementing test systems, resolving data integrity issues and occasionally creating scripts to fix underlying problems with data, I chose to teach myself how to work with SQL in this role in order to progress within my career, this eventually got to a stage when i taught other staff members how to use SQL in order for them to be able to help end users better also.
I was required to troubleshoot issues end users had, this may have been a hardware issue in which I would talk through a resolution and how to fix a piece of hardware by hand (printers, computers, monitors, scanners etc) if this were problematic an engineer would be scheduled to call to replace and install a new piece of hardware. Software could also be problematic on the machines, this may have been a user profile corruption, a printer driver, the odd time there were encryption viruses, issues with using the core system whether it were a training issue or a problem when trying to run through a process. there would even be times where there were issues with the software system integrating with the pharmacy robots or the governing bodies software and this would also require understanding these external systems. 1 particular problem I faced was with the scanner method in the program, there was a way to work with these but the information had been lost to time. I continually reviewed this issue for 2 years in my free time until I eventually came to the conclusion as to how to install the scanner methods correctly, this allowed colour and added functionality, it also allowed other scanners to work with the system.
The role Involved training end users and internal staff on the systems or hardware that were installed, this occasionally involved training the trainers also, i enjoyed learning the new methods and aspects of the software when they came out so gave me a good ability to take up this role where required.
There were issues as new versions of the programs were released, I would also use free time to identify issues which caused the system to crash unexpectedly, this required test script writing and thinking outside the box to identify how to recreate the issues for these to be fixed by one of the programmers.
Reporting was a big aspect of the pharmacy systems also, one part of this was to understand the internal reporting tools used by the program; however due to learning SQL also this allowed me to product advanced reporting within the system for end users.
New Software skills learned in this role:
- SQL Programming Language
- SQL Server Installation, Configuration and Backups
- Basic Excel Formula
- McLernons Pharmacy Software System
- Windows Operating Systems
- Network / Firewall Software Configurations
New Hardware skills learned in this role:
- Computers / Laptops
- Network Hardware and Cabling
- Label Printers and Configuration
- 2D Barcode Scanners
- Pharmacy Robotic Systems
- Mobile Stock Taking Units
CTS Projects
My next experience was that of a Manager in IT within the Housing Maintenance and Repairs sector, this was a very fast paced role a lot of the time, with some complex tasks needing performed, in my role as manager i had up to 2 staff members at varying points; however i didn't just manage people, my role included project planning, api building and instructing to build, software development and creation, app building, testing, new office provisioning, HR improvement, Power BI developing of which one of the modules allowed us to win one of our contracts, training, hardware upgrading, to name but a few.
In this role I had worked with various housing associations in Northern Ireland, NI Housing Executive, Triangle, Habinteg, Clanmil and Radius, working with various systems in the housing world – Orchard, Omniledger, Rubixx, Civica CX I had used these directly through client portals, and also in viewing data and tables through API interfaces, Rest, Soap and sFTP. As part of my role I also managed the changeover of our own internal platform from Accuserv – MRI to Totalmobile.
I created numerous mobile forms and methods through Totalmobile and implemented the download of Totalmobile database through Azure Blob storage, uploaded the data backups into an external AWS SQL server and directly reported on the information here in order to compare against our clients Civica CX database which i pulled information for through a Soap API structure, i then combined the 2 datasets against each other to give an accurate representation of the working interface, showing if there were any errors or mismatches between our system and the clients system, I wrote the programming myself using Powershell to handle the movements of data and Power BI as the means of hosting and managing the data into a convenient and easy to read system.
Power BI was also used as an official model for one of our contracts in which the client used the model as their official KPI scoring facility per month, I actively worked with the client to build the module as they required, gathering specifications and turning these into a convenient and functional model hosted in our Microsoft 365 platform and made available to the client.
My role here also included getting cyber essentials for the company for 3 years running, this was a challenge in itself to make sure hardware was still under support, software versions were updated, ensuring there were no holes in our networking and systems, updating passwords and ensuring complexity, managing and monitoring email protection and antiviral softwares.
New Software skills learned in this role:
- SQL Programming Language (Advanced)
- Microsoft 365 / Azure Platform
- Advanced Excel Formula
- VBA
- Office Suite (Advanced) Inc Project, Visio
- Windows Servers & Group Policy
- Automation systems
- Power BI
- API Methods & SoapUI
- Powershell
- Android Studio
- VOIP Systems
New Hardware skills learned in this role:
- Business Multi-function Printers
- Site Provisioning
- Communication Devices
- Mobile Phones and Company Management
- Servers & Network Cabinets
- HR Finger Print Scanning for Clocking in
- Deskphones
Flanagan Flooring
In my last role in Flanagan Flooring, this experience had me working again all aspects of the business, there were security systems (Heimdal) and networking, a substantial warehouse environment with WiFi used as the method for hand held scanning guns to connect with the business systems. There was a self replicating server setup primarily with Windows Server 2019, offsite backups, users with mobiles, Windows and MAC Desktops & Laptops, a barrier system to get into the grounds and a VOIP system within the business, this was the general setup across 5 locations.
I built a SQL server to connect the existing ODBC system into, running conversion scripts through Powershell, to allow for a convenient reporting suite for end users to connect to.
I spent a substantial part of my time building a Power BI model specifically for converting information from a legacy system to a new combined ERP system, this was a substantial model which took 9 months to complete, with 120 data sources and copious hand written DAX columns, with some M Language and pre-import modification to produce the required results, The reason i had chosen to go down the Power BI route is because, as the only IT person employed with the business, to get the system from the multiple locations out of the old framework took at minimum a month due to the complexity of the data and the amount at which this had to change; however this needed to be refreshed in a day once we had hit the go live time. This process took a lot of collaborating with different team members to get a workable finished product.
I had also used Power BI as a tool to host sales information and key customer details to the sales representatives on the road in order for them to have customer likes, dislikes and facts before they entered the building, some of the sales representatives used this module as a key resource for their day to day duties.
New Software skills learned in this role:
- ODBC Methods
- SQL Import Methods
- Power BI (Advanced)
- Server Systems (Advanced)
New Hardware skills learned in this role:
- UniFi Networking
- Mac Systems
- Roll Cutting Hardware
Questions & Answers
- What projects have used APIs on? What did you do?
Instructed to build, tested, problem resolved and built my own APIs within integration methods whilst in CTS, we were connecting with one of our client databases and through this I had instructed a third party company to build the module based on the information found through the APIs, I had constructed workflow Visio files to demonstrate and instruct how this should be done, as part of this though as well I constructed my own SOAP APIs through powershell to extract the information through the clients system to build a Power BI module which compared both systems - the clients system and our own - to highlight where the errors lay between the interfaces, allowing users to move on jobs correctly where they had gotten stuck due to an error in the coding structures.
Within CTS i had also worked with 3 other integrations using sFTP & Rest API systems, this again was a matter of planning the framework and instructing the development with third party companies.
I also built my own API methods in Flanagans, I adjusted a pre-existing sFTP method connecting to our mobile platform; however I also built a module, again through Powershell, connecting to 2 REST type systems, extracting newly created orders from one system, checking in the new system for if the order existed, if not there attempting to create it, if this failed I would send the error reports through Microsoft 365 email service to the users in charge of that set of information.
Finally in both of these positions, i used the Graph API to manage a number of processes like email methods and reviewing information within the 365 platform.
- Have you managed large data sets?
The largest dataset management that I have worked with to date is the dataset used in my last company Flanagan Flooring, I was in charge of managing the the data transferal from their historic system primarily exported through ODBC to the new system, populated using csv import files, the biggest challenge however was the number of sources for data as some of this was stored in Excel files, ODBC, direct program export and more convenient information I had already built into a self populating SQL database for the purpose of handiness.
- How would you performance tune a slow dashboard in PowerBi?
In the case of the ERP changeover in Flanagans, everything was different between the new system and old system and i faced a number of troubles with refreshes, I tried to keep data relationships simple with no many to many connections and piping these through fact tables where i could. I handled as many connections as I could through power query in Power BI, I had some heavy duty information formatted through power query and formula based Excel files also so as not to overload the Power BI models, tried to keep DAX simple but with 3 possible sources of the same information with 3 different priorities, within 3 differing subsidiaries this was fairly tricky. I didn't use performance analyser too much as part of this process, but in previous cases it has been useful to identify which aspects took to most time to load.
- What projects are you most proud of?
CTS winning a substantial contract due to my adapted use of our existing system for the client and building a Power BI KPI Dashboard and Reporting System which won us the contract.
Definitely the ERP conversion Power BI, this was 9 months of hard work turning a data extraction and conversion method which would take a solid month down to just 8 hours from start to finish, this allowed the system to go live in a single day with perfect accuracy financially, and with a good collaborated set of products, stock and stock locations.
Minor project but building my own integrated job management platform through Microsoft forms, power automate and teams planner, this also sent back responses when jobs were completed on the planner page.
Planning, Buying and equipping the new site in CTS.