Sam Thomas

College Major: IT Business Management / computer science minor  

Title: System Engineer  

Company: Trilliant Health  

Professional Industry: IT Infrastructure  

What is the day in the life like at your job?

a. Create new servers  

b. Implement new services  

c. Troubleshoot various issues (server, network, computers)

d. Manage users / user computers

e. Manage office/Azure network (switches, firewall, etc.)  

What do you love about your job?  

a. Getting to try new technologies   

b. Helping people each day  

c. Each day I learn something new  

What is challenging about your role?  

a. Keeping up with new tech 

b. Time management / issue & project prioritization  

What are the benefits of working in this field?  

a. High demand in an expanding area  

b. Work from anywhere (home)  

c. Many areas (Infrastructure, App development, Big Data, etc.)  

What experiences did you have that prepared you for this role?

a. Networking class  

b. Programming classes (if you want to go into programming)  

c. Business communication class  

d. Internship (most valuable, do many)  

What do you see happening in the future for these types of careers?  

a. Expansion. Tech is growing and Devs & INF support will be needed to grow it.  

What should a student know about your field?  

a. For Infrastructure:  

i. Learn Active Directory & windows domains  

ii. Learn Windows, MacOS & Linux  

iii. Learn SQL  

iv. Learn Azure, AWS & Google cloud, Office365 & G-suite  

v. Learn networking (Switches, Vnets, routers, etc.)  

vi. You’ll probably start in end user support and work your way up.  

What advice do you have for a student considering a career in your profession?  

a. Take Leanne Smith’s mentoring class.   

b. Get many internships (various types of IT, Qind what you like)  

c. Do what you enjoy, hopefully it’s tech stuff