Daniel Flood: Lecturer in Cloud Computing

Daniel Flood

MA Digital Media and Culture, 2019

First job:

Sales Assistant at Sports Direct

Strangest interview question:

If you were a line of code, what would you be and why?

Advice for current students:

Focus on three key things: getting professional certifications, building a strong network, and committing to continuous professional development to stay ahead in a fast-moving industry.

Ambitions for the future:

My primary ambition for the future is to finish my PhD. After that, I would love to explore teaching overseas, and I hope to one day move into a professorial role.

Lecturer in Cloud Computing, Coventry University Group

Describe your current role and what attracted you to it.

In my current role, I led the creation of a BSc (Hons) in Cloud Computing in collaboration with Amazon Web Services. I teach a variety of Cloud services, like EC2, Lambda, and VPC, RDS etc. I also instruct on Cloud automation and DevOps infrastructure-as-code using CloudFormation, GitHub Actions, and the AWS SDK. This ensures students can deploy IT solutions in real-world cloud settings. Early in my career, I was an IT analyst in an office environment. While the work was interesting, I found the day-to-day monotony challenging. The most rewarding part of that job was training new colleagues, which led me to realise I wanted to move into education. Teaching allows me to stay engaged in the tech space, while training young people and talking about technology, which I've always found fun.

What’s your favourite part of the role?

My favourite part of the role is seeing the success of my students. I've designed a curriculum that is aligned with the current needs of the industry, and it's incredibly rewarding to know that the graduates I've taught have gone on to secure positions at major companies like AWS, National Rail, Virgin Media, the UK Civil Service, and Seidor.

What are the key skills you learnt at Warwick that have helped you with your career to date?

While the degree itself wasn't directly technical, it gave me a critical and interdisciplinary perspective on the role of digital technologies in society. This has been invaluable in my career, helping me to contextualise the technology I teach beyond just the code and infrastructure – better understanding how it impacts culture, economics, and politics.

Did you have a specific career path in mind when you chose to study at Warwick?

When I chose to study at Warwick, my role as an IT teacher was already established, so I wasn't looking to change my career path immediately. However, the course provided an unexpected and significant influence on my long-term academic journey. A key part of the course, which delved into analytics and topics like Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Sentiment Analysis, sparked a new interest for me. This dive into data and analytics ultimately led me down a data science pathway. This is now the focus of my part-time PhD, which I'm due to finish in a couple of years. Specifically, my research is on Student Engagement and Higher Education in Programming, which brings together my background in education, my technical skills, and the data analysis principles I was introduced to at Warwick.

What top tips do you have for Warwick graduates who would like to work in your sector?

My main tip would be to build on the strong theoretical foundation you gained at Warwick with practical, hands-on skills. Technology moves fast, so it's crucial to continuously learn and get relevant certifications. For my field, that means getting certified in cloud platforms like AWS and Oracle. I'd also recommend focusing on modern tools and frameworks and familiarising yourselves with version control and CI/CD pipelines. Having a mix of academic knowledge and practical skills makes you a very strong candidate. The job market is tough and even Upper-Second and First-Class students need professional certifications and placements to stand out.

What does a typical day look like for you?

A typical day for me is a dynamic mix of teaching, administration, and research. I usually spend about four hours teaching and running seminars, which is the core of my role. The rest of my time is dedicated to a variety of tasks, including answering student emails, and conducting personal research for my part-time PhD and other projects. This balance of teaching, administrative duties, and personal research is pretty standard for a university lecturer.

What has been your greatest career challenge to date and how did your experience and skills help overcome it?

My greatest career challenge to date was balancing a full-time teaching role with my part-time MA and a separate PgCAPHE (a postgraduate certificate in higher education teaching) all at the same time. It was a really bad idea and my time management was really, really rough. It was an incredibly demanding period. To overcome this, I had to be extremely disciplined and organised. I leaned heavily on my skills in project management and my ability to compartmentalise tasks. I also found that having access to resources like the postgrad hub and 24 hour library at Warwick was essential. This gave me the flexibility to study and work on assignments at any time, and I really do mean any time.

What do you know now that you wish you had known when you were applying for jobs?

Looking back, one of the biggest things I wish I had known when I was applying for jobs is that your degree is apparently just the start. Seriously. While getting a qualification from a great place like Warwick is amazing, it’s only the beginning. I've since learned that building a professional network is what actually gets you through the door and up the ladder. It's a cliché, but a lot of the time, it really is about who you know. For example, I had a student who connected with a guest lecturer from a blue-chip company and stayed in contact. When they applied for a job there, guess who ended up interviewing them? They can be as objective as you want but having that pre-existing relationship and knowledge of what a candidate can do puts them you at a massive advantage. I believe that combining academic qualifications with professional certifications and a wide network is the best way to move your career forward.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given in relation to your career?

The best piece of advice I've been given in relation to my career is a simple one: "You don't ask, you don't get." This applies to everything from seeking out new projects, asking for a promotion, or even just requesting advice or help from a colleague. It's a reminder that opportunities often don't just appear you have to actively pursue them or make them happen. I can tell you from personal experience that this is true. When I was working in an office, if I hadn't told my Course Leader that I was interested in teaching and wanted to explore that possibility, it never would have happened. By simply asking for help and expressing my interest, I was able to open a door to a new career path. It won't always work but sometimes it can change your life.