Module 4: IT Job Interview

I pulled aside a friend of mine by the name of Mike Dopp, whom works as a Senior Systems Administrator for a company that manages video phones for the deaf and hard of hearing. He is in charge of the large enterprise networks and servers that manage the businesses systems, as well as the customer’s video conversations, and other inter-company interactions. Amidst managing the enterprise systems for the company, he also manages the roll out and creation of new projects based on the businesses needs.

On the management side of Mike’s job, he is in charge of many different parts of the company, making sure everything in the company works together. Some of these parts include but are not limited to: 

1. The systems that manage the purchases of video phone equipment that customers make;
2. The telecommunications customer interactions that give the customer access to technical support, billing, and service support;
3. Managing the communications between the company’s devices to ensure a smooth experience;
1. For the company while they provide the services;
2. For the customer in using the services and contacting the company if a need arises;
4. The acquisition of new technologies to benefit the company to keep them technically up-to-date.

One of the main purposes of acquiring new hardware is to roll out new company projects, which is the other half of Mike’s job. Mike is informed of a new project and is asked to find new technologies that would be the most productive to do the job correctly and in the most efficient way. His job is to research equipment and recommend what would be best for the project and then the company considers his suggestions, weighing them quite heavily, and makes a purchase. The next part of his job is to prepare that equipment to be used for the job needing to be done. Normally, he would have to install the operating systems and all the programs separately but Mike actually wrote his own distribution software for the job. This software allows him to input the computer’s information that he’s distributing the software to, such as MAC Addresses, IP Addresses, etc. and where to get the software from. He is able to then run his program and theoretically he could go to sleep and wake up the next morning, having rolled out a new project without much hassle. His expertise didn’t just come overnight and he’s worked a lot to get where he is now.

I asked Mike what he had to do to get into the job he is doing now, his response, “I started when nobody else was doing it.” He started just playing on his personal computer to learn what kinds of things he could but he really got started when he entered the professional market. His start came from a small computer company doing repairs, both hardware and software, and building computers. Now we got a little distracted while talking tech so I never really got a timeline of the jobs he worked at while in the IT field. He did tell me that, over his IT career, he’s gone through 8 jobs usually due to a better offer from another company whom was trying to acquire his expertise. As far as education, he went to school for web development at Weber State and never finished but did complete a certification program for computer programming. His experience precedes him, he actually at one point got a job offer from GE and at the end of the interview they asked him if he had a degree, he said no but that he had ‘this’ much experience. They said they would get back to him and hung up. 15 minutes later they called him back, asking if he would be willing to get a degree if they hired him and paid for the schooling. He said that he would be but later ended up turning the job down, for reasons unknown to me.