Speaker 0 | 00:09.479

Welcome to another Dissecting Popular IT Nerds, where we’re allowed to geek out with fellow nerds and there’s no iScrolls. Today, I’m proud to introduce Jacob Scaliotti, who has just recently hit the eight-month mark as the Director of IT at the Don Chaplin Company. Jacob, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself and tell us what you’re…

Speaker 1 | 00:30.488

first cell phone was sure well hi mike thanks for having me it’s a pleasure to be on here um so i’ve you know been in i.t uh for roughly about 25 years um like you said most recently eight months here at the don shapen company um my first cell phone was a motorola flip 550.

Speaker 0 | 00:54.881

i had that model too oh yeah yeah

Speaker 1 | 00:58.484

so it’s funny because I was uh working as a as a service writer at a Goodyear and the owner had owned five good years and thought it would be a great idea to sell cell phones out of the Goodyear store and he actually did like this huge big bonus Smith plan if you sold I had to sell 10 phones in a month to make bonus

Speaker 0 | 01:28.496

okay i never sold one so because you were it didn’t work out for me i didn’t get bonuses yeah you’re a service writer so you’re too busy trying to describe what the customer it makes this versus uh you know there’s a problem with the front right tire yes

Speaker 1 | 01:47.121

yes it was it was interesting that that led to a couple of uh a couple of discussions on on bonuses with the owner and everything else but that was where it made me decide that Yeah, sales is not for me, you know, but of course, I didn’t learn that lesson then. And we’ll go in further as my story continues. And you can see where I relearned that lesson.

Speaker 0 | 02:11.175

Yeah, well, but, you know, I’m just going to throw a counterpoint out there. I told myself, I’m never going to do sales. And then I’m waiting tables and bartending. And it just smacks me right in the face. Crap, everything is sales. And, you know, when you go in and you’re asking for that bonus, when you’re asking for that raise, when you want this software to accomplish a goal, you’re doing sales, buddy.

Speaker 1 | 02:37.164

Very true. Very true. That is correct. And now that I think about it, I am. I’m selling probably every day to somebody.

Speaker 0 | 02:46.408

You are, for sure.

Speaker 1 | 02:47.528

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, starting off, I was really late. come or two computers i didn’t didn’t use them didn’t have anything to do with them i mean all the way through high school in the college nothing not not not any interest in them at all like i clicked around did a few things um here there but that was about it and then my family decided to relocate to new mexico and my dad started a Yes, a chili processing company. And I went out there to become the production scheduler for this company.

Speaker 0 | 03:33.464

Because I know that there’s a majority of people out there listening. And when they hear chili, they’re thinking the one that ends with an I, not C-H-I-L-E, that green pepper that’s long and burns the crap out of your mouth and is so,

Speaker 1 | 03:48.836

so good. Yes. So actually the way that I usually would. would describe it to people because again you are 100 correct they’re thinking you know like chili chili con carne or you know denison something that effect three beans and hamburger okay so what we basically did is I said you know that stuff that you sprinkle on your pizza the cracked reds right and everyone goes oh yeah yeah I know that stuff and I said okay we take that and we grind it into a powder and add other ingredients to it to make the finished product and then Oh, oh, like the spice packaging. Yes, exactly. Kind of. So, yeah, that’s that’s where it was. I mean, you know, some famous clients we were selling to Taco Bell. We made the meat seasoning for them. We made the hot mild and they only had hot and mild back in those days. And it have the 16, you know, flavors of sauce that they have these days. But yeah,

Speaker 0 | 04:47.971

16.

Speaker 1 | 04:51.433

So, you know, anyway, I go out where we start this company and, um, you know we’re all from California so we don’t really know anybody in New Mexico and my dad reached out to the people that were supporting the computer systems at the company that he had left and said hey I started this new thing why don’t you come and help us and so they were based out of Monterey California they came out set up the network set up the servers did all this stuff and and one of the guys says you know you really need a local person here to kind of just you know keep things running and doing that like spinning on top of the stick yeah exactly you know you don’t want to be calling us from monterey you know all the time and having us fly out here and so i was like quickly threw up my hand and said hey i’ll do it i’ll be the the local guy on site and they’re like okay great so

Speaker 0 | 05:43.783

it started you know something else for the audience here you know when when you talk about flying out here you’re talking about flying out to texas so that you can drive an hour and a half to get to the part of southern new mexico that you’re talking about where they’re growing chili so it’s not a quick and easy little thing i mean we’re and and you know there’s that that saying bfe for bum egypt and i always change it to bfnm because man there is a lot of nothing out here i mean we get some sunsets and and sunrises as you can see the sunrise as my background well you can they can’t but yes you

Speaker 1 | 06:24.012

is that the organs yeah it is it’s the organs i took the picture myself man so right where you’re where you’re blocking on my view or the the the peaks there my parents had a house that their their living room looked right at those mountains nice it was amazing yeah it was an awesome view it was really cool so

Speaker 0 | 06:46.065

we’ll keep going so so that get it over to your local local IT support and you haven’t touched a computer yet pretty much you know so

Speaker 1 | 06:56.083

I you know got got a quick and dirty training on on systems and how to get them kind of set up and keep them running and because I was the production scheduler I worked hand in hand with one of the guys from Monterey to build the scheduling program right which we built it out of Microsoft access uh you know we do right it had all of the inventory it had all the ingredients and you know when you’re dealing with chilies and making that uh those special spice blends you really gotta work focus on heat focus on the color that it looks when it’s a powder and then what it looks like when it’s been mixed into uh liquid okay so taking those attributes plugging them into this uh I mean I was super proud of this database I mean we worked for about a month

Speaker 0 | 07:46.076

getting it and it was pretty awesome so give me the time period that this is too because this this will tell me a little bit about your bandwidth this will tell me a little bit this access it is this was 98 99 okay yeah so i’m really aware of computers myself at that point you know i’ve done but but now i’m going to school for it and and doing working on my bachelor’s so keep going awesome

Speaker 1 | 08:16.012

So, you know, we got it going. I’m doing the production scheduling, you know, doing the tape backups of the servers, kind of getting all that stuff going, designing labels for the Zebra printer for all the barrels of chili in the cold warehouse. And, you know, enjoying all of that stuff, but really just not happy, you know, with the other employees. And just I wasn’t feeling it at the chili company plant. It wasn’t really doing it for me.

Speaker 0 | 08:45.344

Well, and then another fun thing to think about here too, because we’re, I mean, as CIO and director in high level IT, you know, when we start talking about servers and printers and the environment, we’re thinking controlled environments inside of an office. You’re talking about a chili plant. So you’re talking about basically like an open warehouse full of dust, full of chili dust, full of all kinds of different things. And there’s no raised floor. There’s no. i’m i’m betting there was no generator or if there was a generator the computer system wasn’t attached to it because you know absolutely the watering system stayed working not the computer yes okay yeah so um ended up i ended up leaving the chili company uh

Speaker 1 | 09:31.497

and you know was looking for my next adventure right what was i going to do and i’m sitting at home kind of kicking you know kicking some ideas around not really getting anything going and i get a phone call from the gentleman that i developed that that database program with and he’s like i heard the news what what’s going on what happened and so i explained to him you know it just wasn’t for me i didn’t like it he goes well i got to tell you Jacob, in my, all of my experience, I’ve never worked with an individual that picked up computers and this program and everything as quickly and as thoroughly as you did. He’s like, I really see that you have potential in this field. If you like it, maybe you should look at going to a school or doing something to kind of further yourself in computers. And I said, oh, you know, that’s never thought about that. That’s interesting. I said, well, yeah, I’ll, let me, let me think about it. He goes, yeah, you know, call me if you have any questions. I’ll gladly talk with you. So do some research. I find a local school there in New Mexico that has a network operations technician program. So I call him up and I said, Ivan, what do you think of this? And he’s like, yeah, that sounds pretty good. He’s like, go through it, do it. And if you want to move back out to California, if I have anything available for you, I’ll hire you on the spot. And I’m like,

Speaker 0 | 10:54.693

all right that’s all i needed to do so i signed up for the goal was it enemies was it was it the uh it was business skills institute i remember them okay so

Speaker 1 | 11:10.399

business skills institute right little thing kind of like you healed you know just uh you know they did uh medical nursing transcript kind of training and then they had the small little network operations uh program that basically taught you uh basically an associate’s trade school yeah yeah exactly exactly that’s exactly what it was so i’m there loving it enjoying uh learning i enjoy the teacher and he comes and tells me hey we have a deal here since i’m the i teach all the computers but i i manage this network and i’m the support guy and i can hire one person to work with me as like an intern basis I want you. Are you interested in doing it? And I was like, yeah, sure. It sounds like fun. He goes, yeah, you just hang out a couple hours after school. You do young things and you get a little more in depth working with me. I mean, that sounds great. And I get paid. Yes. Yeah. Got paid. So that was really cool because we ended up at that time, the school changed from the little strip mall buildings that they were in. and they had bought this much larger building that had to be retrofitted into a school and so he and i went and we ran all of the cable all the networking through it so i got to learn how to use the telescoping poles and punch down and crimp cables and all stuff and i was that

Speaker 0 | 12:37.961

i picked up from there was invaluable right it was huge and how to climb through false ceilings without breaking through the the tiles

Speaker 1 | 12:50.433

it was that was great um you know graduated from the school got my certificates and started all right timed into the job market where are we gonna go and in New Mexico at that time in Las Cruces there was a you know a little ISP known as zionet yeah that at the time was the largest ISP in in the state of New Mexico and um I fill out an application get called in for an interview and talking with the owner and he says well you definitely have um you know the skills to to do the support job and and we’d love to bring you on he’s like but i see a lot of potential in here i want to start you off in support but with the idea of moving you back into the knock as soon as possible and i’m like oh okay yeah that sounds great you know hey job’s a job right i was like i’m just happy to to get back into working you know so and so i want to throw this out for the audience too this is still

Speaker 0 | 13:47.577

around the time that they’re still mailing us cds of aol for free man just use this just use this oh yeah start the craft man start the craft but so xeonit was a wireless and actually you guys had some wired connectivity at that point too and it was yeah it was the largest um independent because at that point we still had um who was it what were they called then i think it was um century link um was the telco company for the state of new mexico and so they would provide stuff but i mean like you’re talking the p1s for five six hundred dollars a month right

Speaker 1 | 14:31.091

right yeah yeah so uh right it was one of those things i mean the owner told me like once a month he’d get a call from aol and they wanted to buy the users from him you know he was that he had that many right that they were just like hey we just want just sell us your users that’s all we want we’ll pay you happily and you can move on and go do whatever else you want to do and he was like no no i want to see this out you know and so my first day on the job I go in I get my little training and I’m going to take my first phone call and the first phone call is it’s uh comes through and it was an error it was a dial-up error 650 which I don’t even remember what any of that was now because it was so long ago right but the the support manager the lead right he’s listening in on my call at that time and he comes up and he’s like he goes put the call on hold real quick. So I put the customer on hold and he goes, listen, 650 is one of the hardest things to troubleshoot over the phone. He’s like, if you want, let’s push this off to one of the senior techs and let them handle it, you know, and, you know, and then we’ll just get you another call. And I was like, oh, you know, I was like, oh, I’d rather do it. Let’s just go through it. They had a really good. manual or a space website you know that had all that stuff and he the manager that built it oh yeah it was great i mean they were uh ahead of the game as far as that was concerned yeah for that you know in the early 2000s for somebody to have something like that a a call tree or or a

Speaker 0 | 16:07.444

um just a workflow to walk through the troubleshooting that was you know only like enterprise people had that kind of crap okay keep going sorry you had it

Speaker 1 | 16:16.747

had it screenshots everything i followed walked the customer through step by step what to do we fixed it i was up and running in about an hour he came over the other service manager came over to me he’s like well that took long but you know way to go way to keep through it he’s like you want to you know speed it up next time but yeah let’s go and you know that was called resolution come on yeah just hit it and and you know loved it you know everything was going great there um i then We end up moving, have a new office built, go over there, kind of working. And the owner’s telling me like, yeah, we’re getting close. I’m going to bring you to the back. I’m going to bring you to the back. Like, okay. And there was an NMSU student that was handling all of the networking for the company on a part-time basis, right? He went to school and then he did all the rest of the stuff, you know, and we hardly ever saw him. He’d come in hours, do all this stuff. He was. you know definitely the definition of the boy knock in the server room and slide the pizza under the door type of thing to you know kind of one of those definitely one of those type of guys right but i’m at my desk i can see the time clock and i see him come in clock in go to his office and like five minutes later come out clock out and leave and i’m like that’s interesting i’m like okay keep working about half hour later the owner and everyone comes over to me and they’re like have you seen the guy and i said well yeah he came he clocked in grabbed some stuff clocked out and he’s gone and he’s like oh okay well he quit so we need you in the back right now okay cool so yeah so you know i get back there of course i don’t know anything unix i was all windows trained no network training right it was all cisco stuff i didn’t have any of that either And, you know, the owner’s like, don’t worry about it. I’ll handle all that stuff. He goes, but this is what I want you to do first and foremost. And he brings over a Cisco switch, plops it down on my desk, brings over an analog phone, puts that down on my desk, gives me a book that says VoIP on it. And he says, look at this book. He’s like, plug the phone into that switch and call it so it’ll work. And I’m like, what? You can do that? And he’s like, yeah. And so I’m like, okay. So crack the book, start reading. I’m like, this is never going to work. Like this is an analog phone. This is not a VoIP phone. So anyway, tell him, I’m like, yeah, it’s not going to work. You know, we can’t do that. He goes, all right, that’s fine. And we just start, you know, working on other stuff. I, you know, I think I shared with you, we spent many a time driving around going to, you know, different locations for where we had a closet. you know in someone’s business and we sat about you know six or seven different uh modem banks in those closets and you know get them going um so that was right right towards 2000 and i’m like all right i’m done with new mexico i’m ready to come back to california i was like you know i just i just say i don’t want to be here anymore it’s you know i’m good so i start looking

Speaker 0 | 19:36.367

DSL cable. Oh my God. What do I change there?

Speaker 1 | 19:41.372

Yeah, exactly. And I get a position offered to me to be a level two desktop support for Broadcom Corporation in San Jose, California. And so I I fly out. This is a funny little funny story too. I fly out for the interview. Of course, I’m from Gilroy, born and raised in Gilroy, new San Jose. Very well. I fly in, get to the airport. The company picks me up. We go to one of the locations. I meet some people, do a couple interviews. And they said, okay, well, we’re going to go to the prune yard in Campbell for lunch. and take you by our other offices over there and I’m like oh that sounds great so I jump in the back of the minivan that they had rented and they jump out and we’re at uh so we’re in San Jose I know you probably don’t know San Jose very well but we’re by the airport and it’s you know east of Campbell where we wanted to go they get in and they start driving North on 101 heading to San Francisco and I’m sitting there and I’m like we’re going no wrong way like this i’m like i just know like they don’t know where they’re from because they’re from irvine right they’re from southern california and so they kind of get a glimpse of the driver gets a glimpse of me in the in the rearview mirror and i’m like you know looking around and like trying to see like you know they can see that i’m thinking about something they’re like what you know you okay what’s going on there and i’m like well didn’t you say we’re going to the prune yard and campbell yes you’re kind of going the wrong way then I was like, are we going to a roundabout way that I don’t know? And they’re like, we’re not from here, Jacob. If you know where to go, just tell us. So I’m like, all right, you want to take the next exit, go back. So get them routed over, find our way for lunch.

Speaker 0 | 21:36.640

And paper, folks, there was no Google. There was no Google apps. Come on, we’re talking 2000. Google’s barely coming on the scene at this point. And we still got Ask Jeeves.

Speaker 1 | 21:50.110

oh yes good old axe jeez i forgot about that one i need to pull that one out yes so um do all the interviews they say okay well we’re gonna you know we’ll we’ll let you know we’ll give you a call in a couple weeks we’re gonna talk about some stuff and and we’ll get back to you i’m like great i go in get to the airport i walk in i go i brought a change of clothes with me you know so i could fly back in comfort you know back to texas as you were saying um And I’m sitting in the hall waiting, right? I change, I’m in like sweats and I’ve got my bag and I’m waiting in the terminal and I see them like walking around, like looking all over. And so I pop out, I’m like, hey, are you looking for me? Yes. Oh, we’re so glad we found you. Broadcom called us and they want to hire right away and stuff. So the job’s yours if you want it. And I’m like, amazing. Okay, great. Well, thanks. I will fly back and we’ll touch base and get everything going. And no we want you tomorrow job yeah took the job and moved out and um you know been back in california ever since and it’s been great and loved it and that started my my journey at uh broadcom working there as a

Speaker 0 | 23:04.221

level two support um was great really enjoyed it a lot go ahead tell me how did you get off of the help desk what were some of the things that you did what what was one of the first lessons that you learned that helped you get away from um those trouble tickets and and helping people um troubleshoot that that message or that dial up 650 and and um figuring out how to get to where you’re going um what’d you do and what was well what’s the first thing or did you just keep busting ass and they just naturally promoted you well you know

Speaker 1 | 23:44.274

in the beginning I think the owner kind of saw based in our in the interview that I had with them at Zionet in the interview that I had with them and and seeing what I had done at uh Rio Valley Chile and at the school that I had he kind of already had it in his mind that he was going to pull me out of support as soon as possible so I basically did just like you said and that’s kind of been how I have been my whole entire life right I take a job and I try and do it the best of my abilities um you know I just that’s just how I am, you know, kind of how I was raised. And, you know, so I always just kind of hit the ground running and really try and show the company or whoever that hired me, you know, kind of to reassure them as quickly as possible that they made the right choice and they picked, you know, a good employee. So I think that that’s really kind of helped me, you know, kind of along in my career and made things kind of speed up for me when I needed them to. you know, and kind of move me along the route. Because like you said, there are a lot of people that kind of get stuck in that level one and never have that chance or the ability to kind of move out and move on. Was it level two and above?

Speaker 0 | 25:00.161

Were you pushing for those for that next promotion? Were you pushing for that next position or were you just working hard and hoping that they recognized it and rewarded it? Because, you know, that’s that’s something that I’ve struggled with over the years was that, you know, there’s all there’s been organizations that I’ve worked at and I work really hard. And unless I’m out there selling and and pushing them and saying, hey, I want to move up. I want this next opportunity. Some of those organizations just let you work really hard in that same position and just take advantage of it. But so you moved up and you kept moving up. Now, the first couple of them, you’ve already talked about how they recognized it and rewarded it. What about Broadcom? What about the guys after that?

Speaker 1 | 25:48.267

So really, that kind of really solidified with me when. a little bit later on down in my career path when I started working at West Marine. So I got hired to work at West Marine as another, a good level two desktop support person. And I’m like, okay, great. You know, I know how to do this. It’s in my wheelhouse. So I got there and that was my, that was my mindset from day one. I was like, I’m going to get in here and I’m going to just light it up. I want to be an all-star. I want them to know who I am and want me at the company and want to move me up. Right. And so I just approached it that way. And anytime something came up, I volunteered. I’d be like, hey, I’m here. Oh, you need overtime. Yep, I’ll do it. Let me work. You know, any projects that were there, I jumped on those. And, you know, just really try to make myself as visible as possible.

Speaker 0 | 26:49.205

All right. Give me a favor real quick. And this is random. Hold your hands up.

Speaker 1 | 26:54.740

all right i don’t see a wedding ring no it doesn’t fit me anymore thanks mike thanks oh sorry well hey something no it’s all right now no um i am married but yes uh the the ring um does not fit my my uh current hand size right now and um so we we are actively working on getting back into into ring weight we’ll say so that i can get that right

Speaker 0 | 27:23.612

you know it’s not but yes um well i was just checking because i know when i was starting off and i was pushing really hard doing the had that same kind of attitude that you’re talking about of man i was putting in 60 70 hours a week i was going late to the racetrack i was helping them with their websites i was doing all this extra stuff for that recognition to to show that i was there that i was all in and it sounds like you know the same thing

Speaker 1 | 27:53.256

Doing the exact same thing. I was all in. Let me show you. Let me do everything that I can. And I will tell you, there were times where you get frustrated, right? Because you’re not moving and things come up and you try for them and you get passed over, you know? And so that started happening with me there at West Marine and I felt like I was hitting a ceiling. So what’s one way to break through the ceiling? Well, go find another job. right if someone else is willing to give you something more uh you know that’s that’s you know one way of doing it and so that’s what i did is i started looking and i got an offer to work for another company there local came back talked to my boss and said hey this is this is what what’s going on you know i’ve got this other offer they they’re willing to pay me more stuff and they said okay well we don’t want to lose you um You’re doing a lot of work for us on both sides, corporate and store side. So we’re going to make you a desktop engineer. We’re going to have you be in charge of our imaging, doing all of our SCCM work, patching, patching corporate, patching stores. That’s all on you. I’m like, cool. Sounds good to me. Send me off to training for SCCM. Picked up that program. Thought it was, you know, a really great tool. Super expensive, but.

Speaker 0 | 29:18.268

really really good tool for for what what you need it for and i’m guessing this is around 2010 we’ve done a bit of a jump here because i i think sccm really really started to come to the forefront around then yes yes so you’re

Speaker 1 | 29:34.112

right yeah i i i for for time purposes i jumped i jumped a little bit yes we’re about so yeah right around 2010 um that was coming but that was probably a good five years for me at west marine when that happened So I’m now the engineer, working along, doing great. everything’s going going you know I can’t I couldn’t ask for anything more right I love my job the people there was being well taken care of was being compensated well and company gets acquired and I’m like this was total shocked everyone because it was it was a publicly traded company and so we were not this came totally out of left field it was bought by an equity firm the equity firm comes in and they said We’re going to own you all. We love what you’re doing, West Marine. You guys are awesome. We want to keep you for five years, and then we’re going to sell you off. But we see your vision. We love your vision. It’s great. Keep moving forward. We’re going to help you get there and stuff. This sounds good. I just keep working along, doing what I’m doing. And in about year three of this five-year deal, my feeling is it’s not going quite to plan. Now, I’m not, you know, I’m not the executives, I’m not over there, but from my point of view, from what I’m seeing, it doesn’t feel like it’s going to plan. And I’m getting worried that, well, maybe they might sell sooner or in two more years when they sell, who are they going to sell to? And am I going to be in that equation or are they going to go to a company that already has an IT department? They’re not going to need a desktop engineer. They’re not going to need my role. Right. And so I start to get nervous and I’m looking at.

Speaker 0 | 31:25.730

And I’m sure they’re not giving you equity. So at that point,

Speaker 1 | 31:29.674

no, no, it wasn’t getting any wages. There you go.

Speaker 0 | 31:33.117

Enjoy.

Speaker 1 | 31:33.577

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 0 | 31:34.918

Be proud.

Speaker 1 | 31:35.539

So I do some research and I realize if I reenter this job market today with what my experience is and what my title is, I’m going to be making significantly less money than what I’m being paid. and i’m like this you know it’s a it’s you know it’s a good problem to have right i mean you’re getting paid well but i’m starting to worry about this because i’m like well shoot how am i going to take care of my family and everything else with i’m making you know 15 000 less a year you

Speaker 0 | 32:07.181

know i you know i don’t know you know i got nervous so i started looking again especially in california and it’s not it’s it’s cheap out there no no worries 15 000 less no biggie yeah yeah you know

Speaker 1 | 32:21.092

Exactly. So you just don’t you don’t have the pool in the backyard, but you still have the backyard, right? You know, the mud. Exactly. So I start looking and I get an offer from a small company and in Hollister that does circuit board manufacturing. And they they asked me to come out and do an informal interview on a Saturday. So I’m like, yeah, sure. No problem. Go out there, meet the guys, talk with them. They’re great. They give me a tour. I’m looking and I’m like, holy crap. they got a lot of work they need some help because this is all like consumer goods this is like refurbished stuff from amazon right i’m not i’m like i don’t see anything that’s like that i’m used to seeing coming from a west marine you know 4 000 employee company with support centers and distribution centers and all this stuff i’m like and so you guys are you know ow right so They make me an offer. I go back to my boss. I say, hey, this is the deal. He’s like, wow, man, I don’t want to lose you. I need you. You know, I have plans for you. You know, dude, I said, hey, I want to stay with West Marina. I love it here. I love working for you. I said, but this is my problem. And this is my concern. I was like, so please don’t come back to me with more money. That’s going to kind of compound. the problem, right? I’m looking for maybe a title change, something that’s going to help me kind of build up my resume in the event that something happens and I re-enter the job market, I’ll be paid for what my skill set actually is and the jobs that I’ve had in the past. Okay, I get it. I understand. Let me see what I can do. Perfect. He comes back at the end of the day and he says, well, there’s a policy with this company that… only management that if you’re in management you have to have a college degree you don’t have a college degree and I said you are 100 correct I do not he says so I can’t put you into management and I and I go I understand I said you know and he goes it’s not me I don’t have a problem with it I don’t care either way I said no I understand I know it’s not you thank you here’s my resignation good luck to you right turned it up yep and headed on over to Hollister and now I’m the guy, right? They’re calling me director of IT. and i’m like holy uh i’m like well systems engineer the director of i.t yeah well yeah yeah exactly so i’m well that’s what they’re saying they’re calling me director of i.t right but i’m like i go hey wait a minute director would kind of lead you to believe that maybe i have some people working for me so i’m going to give myself this title instead i’m going to be the i.t operations manager because that’s what i really liked that’s what i really wanted to focus on was operations and infrastructure. Okay. Because they had a guy that knew software and he kind of handled a lot of stuff, but they didn’t have anybody that knew infrastructure and operations. And I was like, so that’s it. So I gave myself that title, put it up there. I’m like, this is great. Love it. Started in, you know, built up the inventory, built up the I’m sorry, the infrastructure from scratch. But, you know, switches, servers. backup solutions, NASs.

Speaker 0 | 35:58.347

Good question on that. So that right there is typically one of the largest challenges that we face in our careers. So how did you sell that? What were those discussions like? Because did they recognize how much of a cluster it was and they were willing to, or did you have to convince them?

Speaker 1 | 36:17.198

Neither.

Speaker 0 | 36:19.539

They didn’t understand it. You didn’t have to convince them. Okay, now I’m up.

Speaker 1 | 36:24.406

Now you’re listening, right? Okay. So I get in sitting there. I’m two weeks in to the job and I sit down to bring in the CEO, the engineering operations manager, vice president, basically to the company and the other guy that was doing the IT stuff, the software guy that I mentioned before. We go into a conference room, bring up slides. I’m like, okay, this is the The NAS that I want to buy with these hard drives is going to give us this amount of storage. And this is the backup solution that I want to do that’s going to provide us with this functionality. So for our data and our systems. And they kind of look around, look up at the screen. They’re like, okay, we’ll think about it. We’ll get back to you, boss. That was the answer that I got. I’m like, okay, all right, cool, thank you. you know, have a nice day. I go back, start working. Next week happens. We’re now in week three. And I get a phone call that says, hey, internet’s down. And I’m like, okay, well, I just, you know, I just dropped my son off at school. I’m on my way. I’ll be there in about 20 minutes. And they’re like, okay, well, I was just called to tell you that the internet was down. I said, okay, thank you. I appreciate it. I’ll be right there. Great. Hang up the phone. I’m driving in. Like I said, I had about a 15, 20 minute commute. About 10 minutes into the commute, I get another call from him. Hey, internet’s down. I said, yeah, I know. I got the call. I’m on my way, you know, and stuff. So get there. And I make my way to the back. I get into the server room and there’s another gentleman in there and he’s looking at the NAS that… was there that they had in place which was you know consumer one that you would you know like you would have at home for your deeper game and knew what you were doing right you would have that but you know uh definitely a a desktop model not rackable and anything like that right and he said he’s pointing he goes this is the problem and I’m like okay good thing yeah go ahead clear out of my server and take a look and see what’s going on I log into it and it’s uh won’t take the password hmm that’s interesting i’m like okay well let’s just try the default password just for you know see what happens right and so of course i log in with the default password and it takes me right in and it’s there’s no data there’s nothing it’s completely reset and i’m like well this is weird and you know come in and they said yeah um we gotta we got a problem this this this you know this system you know we lost all the data

Speaker 0 | 39:22.500

I’m like okay all right let’s you know was Dave just in here so um or wait that kid from zionet the one that clocked in was there for five minutes clock out walk away yeah

Speaker 1 | 39:37.890

no he was uh he was still somewhere back in in New Mexico I think but um so anyway i didn’t have to i didn’t have to sell it i didn’t have to do anything they quickly came upon the decision themselves that oh we’re in a whole problem here and we need to listen to this guy he we hired him for a reason and let’s see what he can uh if he knows what he can do you know and stuff and so um after that little hiccup and incident there with uh with the data uh that was pretty much all all i needed and uh after that it was basically they told me anything you need you just come and let us know and and i’ll tell you yes or no and all right in all fairness told me no one time so that was it He said yes to everything else that I asked for.

Speaker 0 | 40:29.372

There’s the three ways. And forgive me because I mentioned two of them. It was like, you got to sell it to them. They recognize that their own problems. Or the third one is you go through a disaster and they realize, oh, maybe we should pay a little for our infrastructure. I can’t tell you how many times that checkbook.

Speaker 1 | 40:53.819

Yep.

Speaker 0 | 40:54.599

Yep. in the middle of a disaster but five minutes after it closes and and i’m like well do you want this to here’s what i need to keep this from happening again nope we’re good wait yesterday was fly anybody in from anywhere to fix this and today no not even gonna not even gonna let me come on this is only we lost a lot more than that yeah never mind

Speaker 1 | 41:22.276

keep going okay yeah so yeah one time you know so one time he told you know why one time one time he told me no so um the company there they it was a circuit board manufacturer they dealt with uh with aerospace government we were getting a lot of we didn’t have a lot of customers at that time but we had a salesperson that was really trying to get into that market and so She keeps sending me these cybersecurity questionnaires over and over again. I need you to fill this out. I need you to fill this out. And I’m like, okay, sure, I’ll fill it out. But it’s going to be no’s for most of these things because we’re not doing these. So it’s just not going to happen. I need you to fill it out. Just don’t worry about it. Fill it out. I’ll make a deal. So I’m like, okay. So I take the initiative and I say, I need help. We need to be CMMC certified. And so I reach out, I get, find a couple of companies. One does, gives me a pitch to come in, do, you know, do an overview of our systems and really help us to get to the point where we would be ready to be CMMC certified at the level that we needed to be. And they were only going to charge us like $14,000 and change, right? Which is steel. I mean, just a steal. I was out, I buy companies. I talked to other people. They’re like, oh my God, if they’re going to do it for that price, what are you waiting for? I’m like, yeah, I know. I just need to get my approval. So I go talk to the CEO and I’m like, hey, this is what the deal is. This is what I see. I think we need this. This is what I’m proposing to you. And he’s like, yeah, I don’t want to do that. He’s like, I’d rather just give you 14 grand to buy another server. I’m like, thank you. I appreciate that, but another server is not going to help, right? I kind of need this. And he’s like, he goes, I don’t know. What do you think? And I said, okay, I’m gonna make this easy for you. If you want this business, right? If you want that, if you want those government contracts, you want that Northrop Gunman stuff, you want that stuff. If you want it, we got to do this. If you don’t want it, then just tell me you don’t want it and I’ll walk away. He goes, I don’t want it. See you later. have a nice day thank you please just tell your sales team to not send me requests to fill out cmmc questionnaires because we’re not going to be cmmc certified oh yeah yeah no problem that lasted a week and then you get a week into that fill us out again fill us out again come on oh just you know fill it up oh okay all right you know so but that was the one time you know and it wasn’t even really a hard no it was a no, I’ll give you the money, but I’d rather give you the money to do something else with it. And I’m like, yeah, but that doesn’t help. I want to see a thing.

Speaker 0 | 44:19.807

I don’t want to know about, you know, yeah, yeah, you know,

Speaker 1 | 44:26.411

he thought, you know, he got more focused. And that was part of my problem, right? Because, you know, you know, it was me trying to sell it to him. And he got really focused on that this was a gap analysis, right? And I’m like, it’s not, yes, they’re doing that. But it’s so much more than that. And he’s like, no, he’s like, why can’t you do it? Can you do it? And I said, sure, I can do it. Give me a year to study, get certified, figure out all I’m going to do. And oh yeah, by the way, while I’m doing all of that, who’s going to be doing my job? right keeping the lights on keeping the infrastructure going and doing all that stuff because i can’t do both right that’s not gonna it doesn’t work that way right you know i’m gonna need that time and he’s like ah i don’t want it we don’t want to do it never mind you know move on and stuff i’m like absolutely i will gladly move on you know because uh nist 800 171 and cmmc are not they are not fun you know those things are the one things that that make me stay up at night you know

Speaker 0 | 45:26.174

I was talking with a couple of the other co-hosts. We’re texting back and forth, talking about some topics and everything else. And I’m starting to think that needs to be one of those little subtopics that we hit up. You know, all of the organizations that are now getting nailed by this because the due date has passed. And anybody that’s dealing with the government, anybody who’s a secondary or tertiary level of a government supplier needs to be NIST 800-171 certified. And if you don’t know what the hell we’re talking about, guess what? If you’re dealing with government agencies, you will.

Speaker 1 | 46:03.115

You’re going to learn real quick. You’re going to learn real fast. Absolutely.

Speaker 0 | 46:06.717

And you’re going to have to, and it’s going to, it’s probably going to come in before AI gets to your organization.

Speaker 1 | 46:13.002

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, thankfully, thankfully now I moved on to the Don Chapin Company. And. We don’t have to deal with any kind of compliances or any kind of things like that. We’re, you know, a paving, grading, construction company, you know, so I can just relax and focus on making the company as efficient IT-wise and as profitable IT-wise as they can be.

Speaker 0 | 46:46.467

So what’s something unique about the environment that you’re dealing with? With the Don Chapin, what’s… What’s different for that organization than all of the other experiences you’ve had working with infrastructure, building the help desk and and deploying new solutions and selling these kinds of things? What makes Don Chapin more than just, you know, makes this more than just that IT job of making all the blinky lights blink?

Speaker 1 | 47:14.220

Well, you know, that that’s so one of the things that that. I’ve had to learn real quick because this was my first time in construction or dealing with ready mix concrete. So I’m quickly having to learn all of the softwares and the tools that they are currently already using. But that’s not really unique. That’s not really different than anything else. I would say probably right now in the first eight months, the most unique thing that I’ve been having to kind of get familiar with and understand is we have some pretty remote sites um some sites that are uh only run on solar and that’s it you know and learning how to optimize your systems and keep you know run as lean as possible power wise so that you can get through the the full day um and night and night exactly and night you know going through so um that’s been that’s been fun that’s been an interesting um that’s kind of journey for me yeah you know and and so uh uh it’s great we’re we’re looking at putting in um a new a new system at at some of these sites that uh can be um you know kind of like automated right so you know uh they’ll be able to someone can just you know the truck can pull up get loaded hit the scales everything, you know, we’ll have cameras. They take pictures of the license plate of the truck, of everything. You can process the payment, make sure that the load is right, print out the receipt, send the driver on their way, you know? And so it’s really cool. I’m really, really digging it. And I’m very, very glad that I made the change to come over to this company because they’ve treated me great. And I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Speaker 0 | 49:16.358

So if there was something that you want to tell somebody who’s trying to figure out how to get off the help desk or how to get into that director, how to go from the operations manager into the director role, what was the hard learned lesson that you’d give them?

Speaker 1 | 49:37.195

Well, you know, I definitely hit a wall because I didn’t have the degree. Right. And so that really held me back. Right. So that that did hold me back, unfortunately. So anyone that’s starting off, if you if you. you know, if you want to kind of, you know, if you want to move up, you want to do that, if you have the ability to get the, you know, have that education part of it, I would say definitely put the time in. It will help you in the long run. I feel that I’ve been blessed and have been lucky to, you know, well, lucky and blessed, but also I did put in a lot of hard work and I did, you know, I really made myself visible as best as I could, right? And so i would say if you can get the education because that’ll definitely help um you know on paper but if you want off that help desk be as visible as possible right make sure that you’re that you’re in a good way your boss in a good way absolutely in a good way yes you know but it was you know it it got to that point where you know i at you know back at like west marine all of the executives they just wanted they well just send jacob because he’ll fix the problem i know him i know he’ll fix the problem so just send jacob right and so i then quickly became the you know executive support the white glove person that you know that that you’re there and you know would pop my head in and sneak around the ceo’s desk and you know fix his password real quick for him and slide out before you know anyone really knew what was going on you know and and just kind of sit there and go i’m not listening to what’s going on even though i’m hearing everything that’s being said i’m not you know

Speaker 0 | 51:21.460

don’t worry it’s not gonna not gonna not gonna go past my ears i guarantee it yeah cool well let’s let’s break in a a moment of fun so random access memory you know we’ve heard this on a couple of other segments so if computers could talk what

Speaker 1 | 51:38.495

do you think they’d complain about the most i know what mine say what would yours say yeah you told me yours and it was really good i’m not gonna because i want to i seriously

Speaker 0 | 51:48.784

I know mine would say that’s not how it’s spelled, dumbass.

Speaker 1 | 51:54.728

Yeah, you know, I think, man, that’s a tough, that’s a, I really wasn’t expecting it. And you gave me, you know, ample time to think about it, you know, and everything. And I mean, it’s definitely not, I mean, the only thing I can think of, it’s not nearly as clever as yours, but it would be like, you know, would you quit turning me off and on?

Speaker 0 | 52:16.984

Okay, so I got another one for you then. What’s your favorite tech-themed dad joke? And so I just had to look one up. So I chat GPT to the rescue. Why do programmers always mix up Christmas and Halloween? Because OX31 equals DES25. You got to be a real nerd for that one.

Speaker 1 | 52:44.295

Yeah, you do. That went over my head.

Speaker 0 | 52:48.318

Yeah, I’m thinking octet 31 equals decimal 25, you know, getting back to these characters.

Speaker 1 | 52:58.166

Yeah,

Speaker 0 | 52:58.747

I got you. I got you. But man, that’s,

Speaker 1 | 53:05.893

yeah. I don’t know if it’s a dad joke, and I don’t really know the whole gist of it, right? But I’ll try and get through it as best as possible. possible right but one of my old bosses kind of told this joke and i know i’m going to murder it but it doesn’t matter because the punch line is is is the hill kicker anyway right but it’s you got you got uh you know a physicist doctor

Speaker 0 | 53:31.189

and your director of i.t right they’re all going out to this doctor the director of i.t wait isn’t the physicist the doctor too so a doctor doctor and a

Speaker 1 | 53:42.136

Dr. Dr. Nerd sure yeah right so all right I told you I was gonna murder the drug I wasn’t gonna tell you anyway right so they all go they’re going out to get a lunch right they go they get in the car took the key and turn it nothing happens and you know the doctor’s saying oh well we need to you know we need to get in and look let’s get open up the engine let’s figure out what’s going on maybe there’s something with you know with the cranks or the pistons not working right and i said no no no no no the air fuel ratio is off that’s that’s what’s wrong that’s why it’s not starting and the i.t director says hold on let’s all get out of the car and get back in and try it again windows windows reboot i got it i got it that one works all right yeah kind of kind of a dad joke there but yeah yeah well the kids would be like oh god dad

Speaker 0 | 54:37.560

Either that or they’d be like, huh? I don’t get it.

Speaker 1 | 54:41.843

My Chromebook always works. What are you talking about?

Speaker 0 | 54:44.124

Yeah. My iPhone. I don’t have to do that, Dad.

Speaker 1 | 54:47.326

Yeah. Yeah. You turn it on.

Speaker 0 | 54:50.148

Why? Okay. well hey as as we wrap this up what’s what’s something you want to promote you got anything that you want to tell us about anything that you’re trying to upsell anything to help with that that um getting back to ring size ah well you know that that’s that’s unfortunately that’s all on me that’s you know well that’s the law of the fallen man and you’re supposed to head somewhere else with this yeah

Speaker 1 | 55:14.836

i know yeah i know well um so i would say probably the one thing because you know i i help i help out my wife as much as i can and um she is an amazing um crafter and creator um i know audience can’t see but you can see behind me you got uh you know so yeah that right there right on my my wife made and the other one next to it there she did those those are both um

Speaker 0 | 55:49.526

3d yeah 3d paper art and that’s picture yeah that’s awesome man yeah so if i thought of that where do i go how do i find it well it’s real easy just look up island girl mick that’s

Speaker 1 | 56:04.971

her hand island girl mick short for like mickey okay island girl mick if you look up that she’s the only one

Speaker 0 | 56:15.186

that’ll get you to her you know her instagram or tick tock or you know her square you know her uh shopify her etsy store all that great stuff so yes right on all right well thank you very much jacob it’s been a great discussion it’s been fun to talk about and and find somebody else that knows what it’s like living out here in the uh bfnm but i’ll probably still

Speaker 1 | 56:41.682

miss is chilly man i i can go down the street and get some of the good stuff sure can oh man yeah they’re that is the one thing i would say that i do miss the most about las cruces is definitely the food there’s some great spots there um so yeah i know them all all

Speaker 0 | 56:58.869

right well as we come to the close You know, I want to invite all of our listeners to comment, rate the podcast on the iTunes store or wherever you’re grabbing the copy of the podcast from. We really appreciate the support of the program and the time you invested in the Nerding Out with us geeks. So thank you very much, Jacob. And let’s get this thing promoted for you.

Speaker 1 | 57:19.085

Right on, brother. Thanks, Mike. That was great. I really enjoyed it. Thank you. Thank you