Geoff Sdano

What do you do?

Currently I work for Wonderware Midwest in Brookfield WI as a Technical Sales Engineer. Wonderware provides automation software to the manufacturing industry – everything from simple control of machines to full control of entire factory floor operations. As a sales engineer I do technical presentations to customers, introducing the Wonderware software portfolio and architecting the system that gets implemented into their plant. I’m also part of a team that focuses on data modeling and analytics. Companies are beginning to understand the value of collected data, and we work to help them make better business decisions with it.

How did you get there?

The path to get to where I am today involved three parts – education, experience, and connections.

My education started in high school. I became interested in computer technology while taking many of the technical classes offered at WHS. I especially enjoyed classes in computer networking technology. This was influential in my choosing to study Information Technology in college. I did a four-year degree at UW Whitewater where the variety of technical classes (networking, security, project management, etc.) provided information that was quite beneficial for me after I graduated.

I worked for most of my time at UWW in the faculty Information Technology department learning how to troubleshoot and implement computer systems. This job gave me the ability to apply the information I was learning from my teachers and the experience needed to set me up with jobs after college. After graduating I worked for a distributor of Microsoft software as an IT Support Specialist doing network implementations throughout North, South, and Latin America. I setup new offices, troubleshot IT tickets, and trained the staff on how to use our technology. During this time, I began working towards my CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) certification.

Where I am today happened due to a personal connection that I had made during my work in college. A colleague of mine reached out and mentioned that there was an opening for a technical position where he worked and asked if I was interested in joining.

What advice do you have for current computer science students?

Try many different things in the computer science world (programming, networking, data modeling, security, etc.) as this will help you to decide what you truly enjoy doing. It will give you diversity among other computer science students. It’s also important to make sure to build personal connections and a strong network of people. Often this can help you to get places in your career that you may not otherwise have been able to.

Contact information:

linkedin.com/in/geoffsdano

Posted January 14, 2019