A Day in the Life of Symon Turner

We shine the spotlight on members of Team ai to learn more about their roles, what it’s like being part of the team, and what training and development opportunities ai offers. This month, we sat down with L2 Support Analyst, Symon Turner.

What made you choose to be a Support Analyst at The ai Corporation?

I’ve worked in support since I graduated from University. I have a Master’s Degree in Post Structuralist Political Theory but I am obsessed with SQL, so when ai was looking for an SQL-focused support person, I was happy to work for a company that also tackled fraud.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I spend a lot of time on Teams – as someone with dyslexia, I like to explain things visually and therefore, I am not far from a screen share or a PowerPoint slide to illustrate my latest ideas, in fact if I bring my notebook and a pen, RUN! 

I create Jira tickets for our developers and I help L2 colleagues out with most SQL-focused queries, by getting them to run an SQL profiler or I build new functionality in azure monitor using KQL. This is done by mixing in a fair share of PowerShell. And that’s me. 

What is your team like?

I wear many hats as an L3. I work for the snappily-named deployment and SME team (I am the SME subject matter expert), but I also support product, our system architect, and head of infrastructure. 

I work closely with my fellow L2 Support colleagues. They’re an eclectic bunch focused on their customer and their product. They are committed, dedicated and eager to help fix the issues. This fix-it ethos is what  ties us together and what motivates us. See an issue and fix it- that’s us, and we are proud to do that.

How do you ensure you keep your training and knowledge up to date?

Well, I enjoy a challenge, so I am currently  learning about new logging logic – which  helps build my PowerShell knowledge. It involves learning to write the additional information to a log and write CPU % and then trigger SQL and push that answer to the log. There is always a developer willing to help me out which is great. Before I started azure monitoring, I’d never heard of KQL, and I did not really know what azure was. This newfound knowledge has helped me create user stories for developers to work on. 

What’s the best part about your job?

I love problem-solving, and I also love building things for support; in the end, the support team will have the most use out of the azure monitor I helped build.

What’s your proudest moment at ai so far?

I have two (great surprise): 

1: Improving the transaction time for one of our fuel-retail customers. There was an archiving issue which I was able to resolve with the help of our system architect. 

2: Creating the first azure monitor workbook and seeing support use it. 

How would you describe ai in 3 words?

Focused, dedicated, complex.

What do you enjoy most about working for ai?

My beloved support department, my fellow L3 support colleagues, the variety and the challenge. I have progressed more in the four years I’ve worked here than I have in the rest of my career.