| Grainne Curran -- IT Troubleshooter
By Imelda Murphy and Francis Murphy
Bit by bit, the Big Dig is progressing. To Grainne Curran, it seems that
there is as much data as dirt being moved about.While state-of-the-art
Computer Aided Design is enabling the construction of a 21st Century Boston,
it's the problems caused by working with 20th-century PCs that keep Grainne
busy.
From Inagh, County Clare, Grainne took a circuitous route through Australia
to Boston. After graduating from University College Galway in 1987 with
an Honours BA degree in sociology, politics and philosophy, Grainne applied
for visas to the US and Australia. As her application for the Donnelly visa
was pending, she received a visa to work for a year in Australia. As she
headed down under, her Donnelly arrived. After a year of work experience
in Australia, she moved to Boston. That was 1989.
She worked in various clerical positions around Boston then saw an advert
for a database entry position with the CAT/P, The BigDig, in 1994. She thought,
"since the position was located downtown, I'll go for it." She got the job
and has been employed on the BigDig since.
DOS to Windows
Engineers would forward data to the CAT/P, and she would enter it on
the project's computers. She later moved to the Computer Department just
as they were changing over from a DOS to a Windows-based system. Things
were so hectic there that she almost quit her first day.
Now she troubleshoots for the engineers from her position on the IT Department's
HELPDESK, as they struggle to keep the equipment functioning. Field engineers
are required daily, sometimes several times a day, to forward reports on
the progress of their work to their companies and centrally to Bechtel,
the BigDig's manager/general contractor. Hardware and software problems
frequently frustrate the required flow of information from engineers, who
sometimes are not as adept with computers as they are with excavators.
"I get an average of 400 calls a week from the field," says Grainne.
"If I cannot diagnose the problem and propose a fix over the phone, I don
my hardhat, jump in my pickup and head for the field. "
She has visited each contract site on the project, as part of her job,
to keep the bits of information flowing. "Sometimes it is as simple as showing
them how to double-click slowly. Other times it's a faulty mouse or degraded
hard drive," Grainne states. Her job must be a bit like being in customer
service at AOL, but AOL doesn't do the service calls on the sites that she
does.
Quincy
Grainne commutes into Boston from Quincy, a neighbouring city just to the
south of Boston. Quincy claims to be "the City of Presidents" as (until
recently) it was the home of the only father/son Presidents (Adams). Another
wing of that same family is the inspiration for Boston's award-winning beer,
"Samuel Adams."
Grainne and her husband, Bernard, from Blarney, County Cork, have three
boys, Conor, age 7, Sean, age 2, and Kelan, age 1. Bernard helps with the
boys as best he can when he is not working as a painter/decorator. His two
brothers also live in Greater Boston. One owns the pub,
The Thirsty
Scholar the other is Manager of Sales in the US for
Baltimore Technologies,
an Irish e-security company.
"My husband and I take our three boys home yearly to see their grandparents,"
Grainne says. More BigDig on IrishAbroad.com |
