Around 15 years ago, fresh out of high school, I started my long arduous journey in the world of Information Technology. I got my start working as tech support for a local community college. At the time, I was really green and unsure if I could make it in the industry. There was so much to know and I knew so little. Luckily, I had a friend working alongside me who was a lot more knowledgeable and gave me the help and encouragement I needed to persevere. Since that early beginning, I made it my goal to learn as much as I could about IT in as many areas as possible.
I advanced from that minimum wage support job to positions that included designing wireless networks and building enterprise server environments while constantly developing my knowledge and skills along the way. As I got more confident in my technical abilities, I started looking at the business aspects of IT. I talked with coworkers and customers and learned what motivates people and what it takes to build a successful company. Even if I was at a place that “didn’t get it,” I made sure I understood what those businesses were doing wrong.
I continued my climb up the IT ladder and made it to a well paying IT Engineering position at a fairly large corporation in Hawaii. Even though I was proud of how far I’d come, I started to realize that the problems I dealt with at the corporate level were the same ones I dealt with at smaller companies. Only at the corporate level, these problems seemed to be exacerbated tenfold. The same complaints I heard when I was just starting out, were echoed by my current coworkers. I saw that almost all of these complaints stemmed from a lack of strong leadership. I didn’t just see the discontent in the people around me, but from the contractors I worked with as well. It seemed like just about everyone around me was unhappy with their jobs and a lot of the time it showed in their work. It was hard to find people who cared about what they did and that realization was very discouraging. Even though I vowed never to let any discontentment I had affect what I did, the stress of dealing with corporate life and feeling like all my efforts weren’t going to amount to change, led to me leave the best paying job I ever had.
I was planning to take a few weeks off to relax and reassess what I wanted in life, when a former coworker called and asked if I could help out his sister’s business with a server issue they were having. I agreed and took on this little mini project. Even though it was a small job, I started to get that fire in me again as I saw all the things I could do to improve her environment. Shortly after, I got a call from another friend asking my help with a systems upgrade. After that job, it dawned on me that I should take everything I learned about IT, business and life, and show the people of Hawaii that there are still people who want to do things the right way. I want the companies I work with to see that I’m not just knowledgeable in my craft, but that I’m committed to doing my very best no matter how big or small the job may be. Anyone who’s been in the business world for a while knows how hard it can be to find people you can trust and depend on.
This little summary of my life is probably not what you were expecting to read, but I feel its important to know who I am as much as what I can do. If you were looking for a summary of my technical abilities, check out the link below or Contact Me if you’d like a copy of my Resume.
See my Technical Skills