Part 2: Technology and adversity

What's the most pressing daily need in an IT job?
Staying abreast of the technology. IT jobs should be easy if the person in the job is making full use of the tools available.

Why do you think it is integral for an IT person to stay ahead of his/her own technology? Do you have a specific example?
Voice over IP is a good example of that because, in our case, we have a number of employees who home-office in various parts of the country and we do a lot of conferencing. And voice over IP is a solution that is very new that we're implementing with our new network. It's going to end up saving us quite a bit financially and even as little as two years ago it wasn't available.

What do you think of the phrase, "Opportunity often comes very well disguised as adversity" in regard to your job?
I think it is key to understand that in my specific job I am going to learn more by having problems, than in not having them. When something doesn't work in a network or with a system, I often learn something fundamental about what makes it work when I fix it.

Do you feel that companies underestimate the importance of a strong IT department in day-to-day operations?
Smart companies don't, because what it really affects is the efficiency of your day-to-day operations. Everything is running behind whatever you are doing but if it isn't running or isn't well maintained that will catch up with you very quickly and it can be very costly.

In your opinion, from a business standpoint what's the best operating system to have?
Windows 2000, and the reason for that is say what you like about Microsoft, they're fairly universal, and it's also much more stable and has a lot more bells and whistles than any of the prior Microsoft Operating Systems.

What's a specific "bell and whistle" that you most like about it?
Offline file synchronization because it prevents a lot of the version control problems that occur with multiple users sharing files in a network environment.

What's the upside to the dot coms and a downside in relation to an IT job?
The upside would be that dot coms are well backed starting out and are very generous with salaries and stock options and of course by the nature of their business they need good IT people. On the other hand, sometimes their business model is not a viable one and you certainly have to evaluate that before you go to work for the company or you have to be prepared to have the floor drop out from under you.

Continued...