Greg Altman

Greg is currently leading the Infrastructure team at Strike Construction. He has implemented Cato Networks, migrations to RingCentral and M365, Mitel phone systems, VS Code, Storage Spaces Direct clusters, and various Azure services. A problem-solver at heart, Greg has a breadth of knowledge that enables me to communicate with people at all levels of business effectively.

Stop Acting Rudderless and Reinvent Your IT Career with Greg Altman

From rudderless to reanimated: Today on the podcast, Dissecting Popular IT Nerds, we’re going to hear how to put meaning back into what you do at IT. 

 
Experienced IT manager Greg Altman decided in his 50s to drop his job of 29 years for an exciting change. Join Greg and host Phil Howard as they share what it means to feel healthy pressure versus bad stress and explain why you need to consistently ask yourself “Why am I here?”
 
 
Discover the effects of opportunity, what role this senior technician is going to take in the future, and even talk about motorcycles.

Do not fall into the golden handcuffs of complacency.

3 Key Takeaways

  • How to lock-pick the golden handcuffs of complacency
  • Why your life should have more pressure but less stress
  • How Greg adjusted from hands-on problem-solver to manager and delegator

Listen To The Full Episode Below

Stop Acting Rudderless and Reinvent Your IT Career with Greg Altman
Dissecting Popular IT Nerds
131. Stop Acting Rudderless and Reinvent Your IT Career with Greg Altman
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Episode Show Notes

[0:54] Greg explains the concept of more pressure but less stress
  • Working in IT for over 30 years
  • There’s pressure to get a lot done and things ride on your performance
  • There’s stress, which is a result of a lack where you know you’re going to fail
[2:55] Some of the most stressful moments that they have had
  • For Phil: working for retail serving coffee
    • Acting as regional manager and stressing because of strict upper management
    • The effect of changing the cards into focusing on how it impacts his life
  • Moving to a Cisco startup sales company
    • The success was very clear
    • Why he hates pecking up to the hierarchy
[8:00] Greg worked himself out of a job without realizing it yet
  • Working in a space with no appetite for technological improvement
    • Investing in the budget with the hopes of making off of new opportunities
  • “Why am I here?”
    • Taking three soul-searching trips about work
    • The focus moved their money and efforts onto other things
    • Trying out some marketing innovation ideas
    • People didn’t know how the IT department could help make their lives better
    • Feeling a little dead inside about his job
  • Phil takes a “COVID sidetrack”
[21:00] How stress moves from lack of meaning in the job to new opportunity and pressure to succeed
  • Somehow that kind of pressure makes you come alive
    • Loving every minute of not being able to keep up
    • “Everybody’s on the same team. It feels like we’re all working together for the good of the company.” -Greg Altman
[23:40] Greg’s “sidebar”
  • Working in a small IT department with new technology
  • That tech gave him the experience to be confident in his new job
[25:00] Operating “Rudderless”
  • “My biggest adjustment has been from being the guy who weighs in on stuff to a lot more coaching and delegation.” -Greg Altman
  • The difficult decision of going from manager to CTO
  • He was at his previous company for 29 years!
[30:00] Think of how the tech changed while Greg was at the company!
  • What’s going to change even further in the future?
  • What kind of roles are senior technology executives going to take?
[34:00] What are we doing?
  • Greg’s side gig writing articles for a motorcycle website
  • How the boss found Greg
  • Phil’s plug: he’s looking for writers!
    • Where Greg got his writing experience
    • The similarity between writing and typing
[38:00] Greg’s long-term retirement plans
  • RV and motorcycle, travel
  • Supplement income by writing articles about things
  • Phil shares about a camping spot experience in Colorado
  • Greg’s experience laying a motorcycle down
[42:00] One last piece of advice Greg would give to those in the IT world
  • “Do not fall into the golden handcuffs of complacency.” -Greg Altman
  • Don’t be okay with your tech skills today or they’ll be out-of-date

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