Vinnie West
423 Brookline Ave #225
Boston, MA 02215
774-641-0167
vwest@sdf.lonestar.org

Objective
Seeking a position as a Unix System Administrator.

Profile
  • Skilled Unix Administrator
  • Experienced with most major flavors of Unix
  • Reliable and Flexible
  • Learns quickly
  • Proven excellent troubleshooter
Skills and Accomplishments

Technical Skills
  • Able to configure, administrate and troubleshoot many flavors of Unix, including:
    • Linux (Redhat, Slackware, SuSe, Mandrake, Debian, etc)
    • Digital Unix and OSF/1
    • SunOS and Solaris
    • HP-UX
    • AIX
    • SCO
  • Experienced in the installation, configuration, administration and troubleshooting of sendmail, BIND (named), Apache and many other server software packages
  • Proficient in writing perl and shell scripts, particularly those for day to day system administration and CGI scripts
  • Accomplished in installation, troubleshooting, upgrade and repair of server hardware (Intel, Sparc and DEC)
  • Knowledgeable in administration of Microsoft Windows NT including IIS 3.0 and 4.0, FrontPage 97 and 98, and Cold Fusion
  • Experienced in managing security issues, hardening servers and defining policy to reduce harm caused by security problems.

General Skills
  • Creative and regularly thinks 'outside the box'
  • Able to decide when leadership skills are necessary, and lead effectively
  • Adept at explaining technical concepts in non-technical ways, so that average users can understand what their computer is doing


Work Experience

Relevant Experience


IDS Analyst: Veritect, Reston, Virginia (April 2002-June 2002)
Monitored intrusion detection sensors for connectivity and alerts. Informed customers of connectivity problems and potential or definite intrusion attempts and advised customers about potential solutions. Also monitored systems used for monitoring sensors, did basic troubleshooting and informed appropriate parties when trouble with those systems arose.

Systems Administrator: Lightsurf Inc, Santa Cruz, California (Jun 2000-Dec 2001)
Assisted with the planning and deployment of a large scale installation as well as the day to day running and occasional moving of same. Assisted team in planning and design and independently solved smaller network problems and deployed necessary servers. Responsibilities included identification of potential security problems, and designing then implementing solutions for those security issues.

Contractor, Systems Administration: Modis, Palo Alto, California (May 2000-Jun 2000)
Independently planned, wrote and implemented a set of scripts to test for the presence of proprietary information on a recently-acquired company's heterogenous network.

Junior QA Engineer: Cybersafe Inc, Issaquah, Washington (Aug 1999-Nov 1999)
Helped administrate test machines for network security software company. Assisted in designing and building a test network of Unix Systems. Wrote and implemented test plans for software on various Unix-based platforms.

Computer Consultant: Olympia Washington (Dec 1998-Aug 1999)
Analyzed customer requirements and defined goals, designed and implemented solutions, including specifying and acquiring hardware, software installation and customer training. Specialized in Linux based solutions and researching and explaining security issues.

System Administrator: Epoch Internet, Irvine California (Dec 1997-Dec 1998)
Part of a team of system administrators and system analysts that managed a network of over 50 servers including DNS, mail and web servers on platforms including Digital Unix, SunOS, Linux and Windows NT. Tasks consisted of maintaining the servers, setting up services, troubleshooting problems, researching security issues and occasionally building new servers. Assisted in evaluating possible new hardware and software purchases, aided customers with problems too complex for tech support to solve, wrote documentation, designed custom scripts for administrative tasks and trained new sysadmins.

Other Experience

Technical Support Technician: Erol's Internet, Fairfax Virginia (June 1997-Nov 1997)
Did troubleshooting of call-in customer problems largely related to dial-up Internet access.
Technical Support Technician: SSD, Inc Vienna Virginia (June 1996-Aug 1996)
Did troubleshooting of call-in customer problems usually related to personal computer printers.
Computer Repair Technician: CompUSA, Woodbridge Virginia (Dec 1995-June 1996)
Did troubleshooting and repair of IBM-Compatible PCs, Apple Macintosh PCs, printers and accessories, upgrade PCs. Aided customers with answers to technical questions.
Computer Technician: Hacker Shack Computers, Woodbridge Virginia (Apr 1995-Sept 1995)
Built, upgraded, did troubleshooting of and repaired IBM-Compatible PCs.

References on Request