Tom Gillies

I'm Tom Gillies and I have been a Business and Technical Analyst in the Information Technology industry for the past thirty years. My courses are based on my real-world experiences. I am teaching as I wish I had been taught. My objective is to give you enough knowledge to make you reasonably self-sufficient, and enough experience to give you reasonable confidence, while understanding your limitations. I think you will find working at your own pace liberating and you can contact me during the course if you wish to. I started my working life as an engineer. I have a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Aston University in Birmingham, England. As a result of my work as an engineering designer, I became interested in computing and eventually I joined IBM as a Systems Engineer, working in pre-sales for customers in the aerospace industry. Within IBM, I moved to a consultancy group and worked directly for customers as a Business or Technical Analyst for twenty-five years. I served a wide variety of customers from large “blue chip" corporations and government departments to start-ups. I have designed, developed and maintained computer systems, large and small, on a wide variety of platforms. In my experience of the Information Technology industry, I have found that some skills have been of lasting value. SQL is one such technical skill. Problem solving, some analysis techniques and the so-called "soft skills" are others. All of these improve your ability to communicate with both the business and technical staff make you a more valuable member of a team. I live in the Republic of Ireland and, when I'm not working for Customers, or writing and supporting courses, I am improving my skill in the Russian language.