How to Become a Computer Systems Manager

Video Transcript

"I had my own company and I had my own company for several years and my first systems manager job was actually a, one of my customers for a long time, that I consulted with and it just kind of happened I mean I was in on contract with them to do another project, and during that time there was a lot of things happening in my personal life, and my company and the systems manager position opened up where I was consulting and it just kind of, it was a good fit at the time. I may go back to doing my own company someday but, you know, definitely when you run your own company you have a lot of management experience because you have to manage a lot of different aspects. You have the financial, the projects, the people, the resources, all the stuff. You have to, if you want your company to, you know, if you want to pay the bills you have to manage a lot of that stuff. It was kind of a good fit and they had a lot of the projects that I wanted to work on. That's how it just kind of happened. I started as a, crap what did I, I actually started as a data clerk back in, oh man I don't remember how long ago, probably fifteen years ago, and it was a start, it was just data entry, and I had went to school just for computer technology and I just, you know, I wasn't, I naturally wanted to fix stuff. So I started messing around. Every time something went wrong in the office I would fix it and then I ended up getting promoted I think to a land technician or something. I don't even remember now. So, it was very entry level and just kind of bounced around the corporate ladder for a while. Jump ship for awhile and did my own thing like I mentioned and came back and here I am. My first big break I guess was, you know oddly enough I would say that when I left, I was at a previous job as a tier three engineer, and I mean we did a lot of the intercross level support and we supported a lot of our land managers and land admins and stuff, and oddly enough my break was when I left that job because I was so comfortable. We get caught up the convenience of a job and you just, you go to work and one day I just, you start going to work like, "Why am I working here?" You know? But you don't want to leave the benefits and the money, the steady pay and I decided to leave, and I left, and that's when I started my own company, and you know, it's a totally different world, totally different feel. I think even though at the time it was scary, I think that was my break because I was, I started to doing things on my own and it was just a lot more freedom and my attitude was better and I treated people better, because I used to come home and just, you know, mentally brain dead, and then you wake up the next morning and you don't want to get up and I hated that. You know? So, yeah, I think that when I left that job and started doing my own thing I was, it was a, I was much more happy."