Work Experience Students coming to Big Wet Fish is nothing new and sometimes yes they do make the coffee!! But in this instance we have a work experience placement student with a difference and we’re pleased to introduce you to Mark.

Meet Mark McClean – A cPanel user for 4 years, Mark is an 18 year old student at the Northern Regional College in Newtownabbey in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Mark has finished his first year of a BTEC Level 3 Course in Information Technology. Mark called our office in September 2014 and asked if we had any Work Experience Placements available as his timetable meant he had no classes on a Friday and he felt getting some real world work experience of an extended period would assist him in gaining employment once he had completed his course – smart guy and thinking outside of the box – we love to see that. Mark made the effort and was willing to work for free and develop his skills in the world of hosting support.

We gained someone who had been using cPanel for 4 years so was excellent at delivering Level 1 Support to clients in the use of cPanel & WHM and its features. The exciting thing is with Mark’s extensive knowledge of cPanel and WHM and the opportunity he had of coming to the cPanel conference this is the springboard to move his skill set in cPanel and Linux to the next level.

Mark is everything that any employer wants! He is reliable, dependable, trustworthy and has had 100% attendance since starting his placement with us. Working for us effectively for the past 12 months as an unpaid placement student we wanted to try to do something to say ‘thank you’ and the make Mark fully feel a part of the Big Wet Fish Team.

So ‘Operation Denver’ was born! Thanks to the Northern Regional College for allowing Mark a week off from his course to attend the conference. Thanks to cPanel for sponsoring Mark’s ticket to the conference and to Big Wet Fish for paying for Mark’s flight and accommodation Mark is now at the cPanel Conference.

We want to thank Adam French, Stephen Brent May and the entire cPanel team for making this happen.

‘Operation Denver’ Itinerary (not too shabby for your first time in the USA!)

• Long Haul from UK to San Francisco
• San Francisco golden gate bridge, Alcatraz etc (one day)
• Road Tripping across the USA to Denver – stopover in Salt Lake City Utah
• 3 days at the cPanel Conference in Denver
• Road Tripping to Las Vegas (one day)
• Road Tripping to Los Angeles
• Flight SFO to New York – flights chosen with a 23 hour layover
• Day in Manhattan – 9/11 memorial to pay respects then a day having fun in NYC!
• Back to Porridge, NRC Course and lots of sleep and jet lag