In honor of Employee Ownership Month, we interviewed Systems Administrator Oscar Rodriguez. Oscar has been part of TechFlow’s IT team for 12 years.
How did you get started in IT?
When I was kid, computers always fascinated me. A family friend gave us an old IBM desktop computer. This thing was massive and it weighed a ton more than it seemed. I used that computer to learn what the components where, how to take it apart and put it back together and made sure it still worked. Ever since then, I knew I wanted to go into the IT field. During college, I was able to get an internship doing IT work and continued from there.
What do you enjoy about working in IT?
I enjoy the ability to solve problems that arise, whether it be for end users or our infrastructure. I work with so many different technologies, incorporate new security updates, and constantly learn new things.
What’s your favorite thing about working IT at TechFlow?
The team I work with is amazing. I like the support I receive from my manager. Since we are a small team for IT, we all interact with a lot of different technologies. We cross-train each other to keep us up to date with the technology and processes. The company as a whole possesses an amazing team dynamic.
What’s a technical problem that you found great satisfaction in solving/overcoming?
Anytime that I’ve had to implement something new to integrate with our infrastructure is always satisfying. Knowing that we are that much better off by integrating the new technologies is rewarding. In IT, we want to stay ahead of the threats that are out there and keep our users, network, and information safe. Recently, a technical issue I was able to help solve is managing hundreds of mobile devices. We had a new need to manage mobile devices for hundreds of field technicians. We created a solution that leveraged an MDM provider and built out security policies to manage the devices.
What are some fun habits you do outside of work?
I enjoy the outdoors. I camp twice a year at different campsites each time. This lets me enjoy different parts of California each year. I also enjoy staying in, watching movies, binge-watching series, play board games and online games with friends.
