Who am I?
My name is Nicolas Buache, I am born in Switzerland (French speaking part) in 1978.
I'm working in IT since 1999 and obtained different certifications. IT is not only a job, as I started to work (or play) with computers around 12 years old.
I like traveling, to discover different landscapes, cultures and people. I especially like traveling to the US, as every state is different, people are different, there is an important mix of cultures and it is easy to meet people and talk with them.
Few years ago, I discovered a new sport: Triathlon. Even if I am not doing a lot of races, this gives me the opportunity to swim, cycle and run with my friends and spend part of my energy.
I was also a volunteer firefighter during 10 years. I really enjoyed it and tried to be involved in this activity, but this takes a lot of time and it became unmanageable with my job. This is why I had to make a difficult decision and stop this wonderful activity.
As you will see, I like sharing my experiences, my way of thinking and my pictures. I never travel without my camera, trying to take nice pictures to share them with my friends and family.
A very good experience was my MSc in ISM (Master of Sciences in Information Systems Management). I did it online, with the University of Liverpool. This gave me the opportunity to meet students from everywhere around the world and share they personal way of thinking and their experience. I would recommend it, for sure.
I am currently living in France, near Geneva, but I really hope I will be able to be relocated one day, for an exciting job. I really would like to get some experiences in another country. If this could be in the USA, this will be really great as I really like this country and usually travel there few times a year.
Professional experience:
I started my career by unpacking computers, installing them, and replacing old computers with new ones. As I worked for an IT Services company, I was able to evolve very quickly and change of position once or twice a year. My second job was to repair computers and servers equipments for Compaq, before doing desktop support (second support level) for an important company. I then wanted to do something different and joined a software development team, developing websites and web based applications.
I then changed few times of IT services companies, allowing me to continue progressing, discovering new environments and new solutions in IT Infrastructure. I was able to increas my knowledge on computers, servers and backup systems, but I was also able to increase my knowledge on security, network and telecoms systems. A good way of learning or provide a proof that I increased my technical knowledge was to obtain different IT certifications.
It was really interesting to work in IT services companies because it provided the opportunity to work on different technologies and solutions, from small to big companies, in different roles. For some customers, we took charge of the entire infrastructure, when others had their own IT department and requested our services when they did not have the knowledge for the installation, migration or troubleshooting. Assisting IT teams is interesting, but it sometimes requires a high level of knowledge. I was called few times when part of their IT did not work during few days and had an impact on their business, this is where you understand what means managing your stress.
When working for IT services companies, I was able to evolve in different positions, like administrator, engineer, senior systems engineer, product manager, technical manager...
After obtaining a certain level of knowledge, I decided to work for a final international customer. This was an American company, where I was responsible of the entire server infrastructure for Europe. This was really interesting and challenging, because our team was really small and we had a lot of systems and users to manage, implicating a lot of responsibilities. When you do not have enough resources, you need to manage your time carefully and try to manage everything remotely to reduce your travels.
When working for this American company, I decided to do a master online with the University of Liverpool (UK) in Information Systems Management (People, Technology and Project Management). This was very challenging, as I needed to keep the motivation during about two years, work on my studies after work (by night or during the week-end) and study in English (I am a French speaker). I enjoyed working online, and showed my capabilities to learn, keep motivated, manage my time and obtain a high level diploma in a foreign language.
The next job opportunity was really different with all I did before. This requires a lot of different knowledge, in order to define new solutions and standards for a group of ~20 companies, provide third level support on the solutions and manage projects or coordinate tasks with different teams and departments. I can tell that it is not easy every day, because we are working on the infrastructure for everything that is linked to the boutiques or SAP. This means that you need to have advanced technical knowledge on the infrastructure, but also understand what SAP teams are doing, and business expectations. After almost 2 years in this company, I got promoted to a manager position, to take the lead of an existing team, reorganize things, and deliver several important projects.
I currently do not know what will be my next challenge, as I am still working for this company. I know that my place is really on the IT infrastructure, but this could be on technical or management position. People usually tell me that I have a very good team spirit, I am able to adapt very fast on new situations and learn new products or technologies, I usually resist to the stress, and I am well organized and structured. One of my big advantage is to be able to understand very easily the needs of the different people (IT Teams, end users, business, customers...), analyze the situation and adapt solutions or words with people I have in front of me (we cannot use the same language when talking with technical staff, management people, end users or customers).
For sure, my next position will need to be interesting and offering new challenges, with a good balance between my personal and professional life. This will ideally be for an International company again, with an American oriented management style. And we never know, I would maybe be able to be relocated one day in the USA, Canada, or UK. I already had few opportunities, but it was not the good time. You sometimes needs to make some choices in your life, because it is not possible to manage everything at the same time. I managed to get a new job and change a lot of things in my life during my studies (like doing a lot of sport and loosing 25 kilos), but I was not able to manage a relocation at that time.
I am looking to continue increasing my knowledge and for new interesting challenges.
Why this website?
As I wrote, I like to share my experience, my knowledge and my pictures.
This website is a way to share it, not only with my friends and family, but also with anybody visiting this site.
You are welcome to send me your advice or any comment. This website will not make a lot of sense if there is nobody visiting it, coming back again, and providing advices to increase its quality. I will try to keep working on it, to make the content evolve and attractive.
I hope you will enjoy your visit, come back regularly to see the evolution of this website and share your thoughts with me.
Have a great day
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Written by Nicolas Buache
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Created on Wednesday, 03 August 2011
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Last Updated on Thursday, 09 May 2013
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Hits: 2981
