65 lines
4.4 KiB
TeX
65 lines
4.4 KiB
TeX
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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% LETTER INFORMATION
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% All of the below lines must be filled out
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%-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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% The company being applied to
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\recipient
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{}
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{Freedom of the Press Foundation\\49 Flatbush Avenue \#1017\\Brooklyn, NY 11217\\U.S.A.}
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% The date on the letter, default is the date of compilation
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\letterdate{\today}
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% How the letter is opened
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\letteropening{To the Infrastructure Team,}
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\letterbody{
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My name is Ethan Paul and I am interested in working in a position on the Infrastructure
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Team at the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF). In my eleven years of professional
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experience I have worked in a wide variety of positions including as a Tier I support
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technician for a legacy institution that supported thousands of clients, a systems
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architect and administrator for an internet service provider, and a single-member IT team
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for a small startup company. Throughout my career what I have enjoyed most from my work
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are the opportunities to meet people, understand their technical challenges, and work to
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build and deliver solutions that help them to be more successful in their jobs. While I
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enjoy solving technical problems, it is the relationship between technology and people
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that has always been of greatest interest to me.
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\\\\
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Projects like SecureDrop and the Press Freedom Tracker exist at this intersection where
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technology and people collide. This intersection- ideally beneficial but too often
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confounding or exploitative- is already quite difficult to navigate for many people and, as
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technology continues to evolve, will only demand ever higher amounts of technical knowledge
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to properly manage. This makes the work of specialist groups all the more important:
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organizations like the FPF provide the essential service of helping people better
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participate in our continually digitizing world by making technology and technical resources
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more accessible and navigable. The FPF and similar organizations also stand in stark
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contrast to companies that ostensibly provide the same service, but only for their own
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benefit rather than that of their clients, customers, and community. The commitment to
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providing enhanced access to technological resources for the principal benefit of its
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clients and community is what appeals most to me about joining the team at FPF.
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\\\\
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One of the most interesting and fulfilling projects I have had the opportunity to work on
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during my time in the technology sector was the implementation and support of a network
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monitoring system for my company's wireless network infrastructure. This project allowed me
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to work with and learn from experts in different fields as I coordinated the system's design
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across several engineering departments while continually working with the Network Operations
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teams to understand how they needed the system to function in daily use. While the technical
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work for the project was interesting, by far the most engaging part of the process was
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understanding the needs and limitations of the people using the system so that I could work
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to improve its utility. This exposure to other teams and specialties helped me to develop a
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better understanding of the business, build a plethora of diverse relationships, and gave me
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more opportunities to expand my technical knowledge than I ever would have found working
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alone.
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\\\\
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After eight years in the technology sector I am fortunate enough to have the flexibility to
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shift my career path away from technology for technology's sake and towards technology for
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the sake of people. Working in an environment where I can make contributions to complex
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technical systems, learn from experts in a diverse set of fields, and have the
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confidence that my work helps to fight inequality and improve free access to information is
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a dream opportunity. I have admired the FPF's work from afar for long enough that the
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prospect of working with the FPF feels almost surreal. And yet the Infrastructure Team
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combines two elements that are very important to me: improving people's relationship with
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their technology and promoting digital freedom for people everywhere. For all these reasons
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I hope you will consider me for a position and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
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}
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