Part 1: Rock and Roll, and the road to IT diplomacy

Are there any similarities between the world of rock and roll you play in by night and the tech world you play in by day?
I get to wear jeans to both gigs. And I have found that the technical knowledge has helped me along as a musician, and conversely being able to sit back and play guitar is a great way to not think about servers for a few hours.

How do you de-stress from your job?
I get on my bike and ride around the Austin Town Lake at lunch. I'm training for a 150-mile bike run right now so that's really my focus and riding the bike really takes the stress out of my day. I find that if I ride for an hour during mid-day I can often solve a system problem I've been grappling with, sort of like your dreams, in that some solutions are always going to come to you when you're not looking for the answer at all.

What is your background in IT, how did you get to this point?
I've always been interested in computers and always have had an aptitude for them. I got a job as a Systems Support Specialist in a large company in the manufacturing sector. That's where I got the basics of problem solving computer and technical issues as well as learning about working in a networked environment. I advanced in that company and started working freelance, and that led me to my position with KCG.

What do you think is the most important quality for an IT person to hold?
Diplomacy.

Why diplomacy, can you be more specific?
Sure, you can have all of the technical skills in the world but what working IT is really about is supporting people that don't have those skills and don't really have the downtime to learn them. What we do is to provide the tools for people to do their jobs more efficiently, with less manpower, and to be able to accomplish things they otherwise couldn't by using technology. And the way to do that is to put a human face on that technology, so that the end user can accept it without becoming a computer expert. So ideally, your IT staff are diplomats, they're the go-betweens from the computers and networks to the end user.

Continued...