Technology

In my last two posts, A little About Myself and Decisive Direction I spoke a bit about who I am and where I found my direction in life. Today, I want to finish off the three part story with how I started in my career, and eventually landed a role that could not possibly fit me better. This is how I found my way, and hopefully by reading my story, it can help you write your own.

When I first arrived on campus at Texas Tech University with my love of technology in hand, I thought for sure that I knew what I wanted to do. I Immediately started out as a computer engineering major without giving it a second thought. That was until I actually began taking the classes and meeting the people that would be my peers for seemingly the rest of my life.

Now, the classes themselves were nothing I couldn’t handle, but I did notice that I didn’t fit the mold of those around me. My very distinct personality differences were painfully apparent. I began to wonder if I was going to be able to actually persist day in and day out in an industry with people who were quite a bit different than me, even though we had similar aptitudes and interests.

I decided that it would likely be best for me to make a change. I looked at computer science, and a few other technical disciplines before speaking with a friend who attended a different school (while playing a video game, naturally) when I asked him what he was studying. His answer was MIS (Management Information Systems), and after speaking with him about it I decided that it might actually be the correct path for me.

Now, if you have read or seen the movies from the Divergent series then you might understand that the meaning behind the term at a high level is that you do not fit into any one single group. You, by nature, are a generalist, not a specialist. This is the way that I most definitely am, and is in many ways what Management Information Systems is scholastically. Myself and my classmates affectionately referred to ourselves as social nerds.

You see, not only was it hard to funnel us into one particular discipline, but even the universities themselves struggle with the placement of MIS. I cannot tell you how many times I have overheard or been apart of a discussion trying to figure out where it is best to place the MIS major. Should it be in the engineering school or the business school? Should it be somewhere else entirely? Should they create a different school altogether?

The major, by nature, is divergent. Hard to place, and define. This was perfect for me, and I loved every second of being involved in the program.

When the time came to start looking for internships and later jobs, I found that the professional world also struggled to define this individual. I was able to apply for, and get interviews for jobs asking for engineering degrees, computer science degrees, management degrees, marketing degrees (specifically technical marketing). Every kind of analyst you could imagine, I fit the bill for: Business analyst, systems analyst, industry analyst, analyst analyst… you get the idea.

I had no real decision made on what I wanted to do, but at the time I had the idea in my mind that I wanted to be a technical project manager as my end goal because I absolutely loved that class in school. So I set out to find a job that would eventually lead me towards project management.

With the exception of my internship at Ernst and Young LLC where I worked in the IT department, and a bit with the infrastructure group, my first real taste of corporate America came in the form of Tyler Technologies, where I would be what they called an “Implementation Specialist”.

Essentially I would learn their software products, travel around to different client sites, and help implement the software, as well as, train their employees on how to use it. It paid well for a kid right out of school, and I had a knack for public speaking. Taking those things into consideration and the fact that I would get to work right along side the project managers, it seemed like a perfect fit.

Unfortunately it wasn’t, and I learned that things do not always work out the way that you want them to. A life lesson that would teach me what I valued in a job, career, and/or workplace. That is not to say that Tyler Technologies isn’t a great company, they are the job everyone wanted, and I was the one to get it. However, at the time, it just wasn’t the right fit for me personally. I still have many friends over there who love it, and I wish both them and the company as a whole all the best!

I left the company after only about seven months and went to work for HPE as a Business Analyst helping support Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Managed Services (BCRS). I had no idea what any of that was at the time, but it would end up being one of the greatest opportunities of my life.

In my early days at HPE I handled things like procurement, and asset management for the managed services group. Being the young kid on the team I was often tossed a wide range of different things to help out on, but the specific reason I was hired was to help with process improvement. I was asked to look at the things we were doing and try to give a fresh perspective on them.

As time went on I found that the internal processes for quoting hardware took far longer than they should in a company that specializes in data center infrastructure. I had a knack for the hardware side of things, so I decided to get my hands on some of the internal tools and see if I could perhaps build configurations and quote them myself.

As it turns out, checking my work against the specialty group inside of HP, I could! Going forward, I would handle all of the infrastructure configurations for the team of Solutions Architects that worked in the BCRS group, and I loved it. When you take that and combine it with my procurement capabilities and asset management. I took a process that might take a 2 or 3 weeks to complete, and turned it around in a matter of days (sometimes hours).

I received some good recognition for those efforts, and eventually was nominated to help lead a process improvement group internally. Unfortunately the group never really truly took off, but I like to think we got a few good things done while we were working together.

Now for the really interesting piece…

One day I was asked if I could fill in on a call for one of the Solutions Architects who was double booked. I didn’t need to speak, but really just needed to take down the technical requirements of the customer. I of course agreed to help and set off to join the call.

This half hour call turned into nearly two hours long due to an argument about a few different technologies. I will not go into the details here, but I decided to chime in with how I would approach the issue, and to my surprise… everyone agreed with me!

Word quickly got around to my boss, who got in contact with me to tell me my role had changed (without my input, which was the best move of my career. Thanks Mark!). I was now a Solutions Architect! To which I replied, what does that mean exactly? Little did I know this would end up being the absolute most perfect role for my personality. I have never been more fortunate in my life than in that moment. I had finally truly found what I wanted to do with my career.

The next six months to a year were pretty tough as I adjusted, but I had a wonderful friend and mentor to help guide me down this path. I could never repay him for all of the help he gave to me in my early days as an SA.

Fast forward to today, and I am nearing the beginning of my seventh year in the industry, and still love what I am doing. Most of my time was spent at HPE, but the previous two and a half years I have had the great opportunity to work for a smaller company in Unique Digital, where I met some of my closest friends, and some of the brightest people that you could ever ask to work with.

Like with all good things (and this blog post) the time has came to move on, as I will be progressing my career into a more senior level role at another company that will have it’s own set of challenges and experiences, but that I am very much so looking forward to the new endeavor. (At a minimum this has already happened, and I am either still there or have progressed further onward!)

I am going to have the opportunity to see many more technologies and hopefully bring some high level discussions in future blog posts with all of you because of it (finally something industry related). This marks the end of who I am, how early decisions guided my path, and how I got to where I am today.

I hope that the recurring theme is apparent in these posts. Finding your way is much less about your skills, but rather the people you choose to surround yourself with, being able to recognize yourself and where you fit, as well as, getting a bit lucky along the way. I know I sure have!

Now that you know who I am, and where I come from it is time to start pumping out some worthwhile content for everyone. Some of this has already been done, as I am the co-host on a new YouTube video series called SEV Ops (Short Educational Video Operations), which I would encourage you to check out, and comment on. Feedback on any and all content is always welcome.

I really appreciate you for sticking it out this far, and look forward to what is coming next…

Best,

Russ

Happy whatever day, and welcome to the second post of a three part series of who I am!

In my previous post I started by introducing myself. The theme of this, my second post, will revolve around how I found my direction. We will move further along down the path I took to get to where I am today, and see how even the early decisions we make in life can have a great effect on our career. Fair warning: long post ahead…

Growing up I was always extremely competitive. I played every sport imaginable (turns out I had a real knack for basketball), and had four other siblings to always compete against. If you were to ask them about myself and competition they would just scoff in frustration. I grew up winning at most everything I set out to be good at, and as with most people… when we are good at something we tend to enjoy it more. In my case, it caused me to constantly seek out competition and constantly improve myself.

I built my first computer from scratch in 7th grade, and while at the time I wasn’t aware of the nerd I truly was due to my complete consumption with the game of basketball, I would soon find out what I really was meant to do in this crazy game we call life.

One day in 8th grade a friend in my neighborhood invited me to what he called a “LAN” party. A party to play computer games in the same room as your friends essentially. Yes, we bring our entire computer (no flat screens or gaming laptops back then) over, connect them to a LAN (Local Area Network), and fire up some multiplayer games. Initially I thought this was absurd and a waste of time, but after riding my bike over to his house to see what was going on I eventually folded. I would end up going home to pack up my computer, and head back over to his house. At the time, I didn’t know it, but this was a decision that would change the entire course of my life.

Up until that point I was certain that basketball was my ticket, and most of my friends at the time were not influencing me to go down any other road. This LAN party, however, would be an eye opener for me.

Once I returned back to my friend’s house and setup my computer I eagerly jumped into the game they were all playing, and was instantly hooked. It was highly competitive, skill based, and gave me the opportunity to master something new. Not only was the game new, but the core group of people at this event was relatively new to me as well. I was familiar with everyone there, but wouldn’t have called them all my closest friends at the time. These guys were much more nerdy than my typical jock friends I had associated myself with leading up to this point in my life. (Remembrance from a middle school point of view of course)

As the night went on we played several different video games, and in the course of changing things up we all had to help each other out to get things up and running. That is when I noticed something very different on my friend’s computer. His games all looked different than mine: smoother, crisper, and much clearer. I was immediately curious and asked him what was going on. He then explained to me that his computer was purpose built for this type of event and had much more horsepower than mine.

If you are still with me then you have made it to a turning point in my life.

The moment he said those words to me I became obsessed with trying to make my games run better on my machine, but being in middle school with no money I had to rely on making the best with what I had through software optimization. After all of my research I would eventually make the games run a bit better, but never like my friends PC. It was clear I needed new hardware.

So begins my transformation into the proud technology nerd I am today. I spent the next few years in a near constant research mode learning about computer hardware, and the software it interfaced with. I would become familiar with every piece of architecture within my computer and design the machine that I would build once I had the funding to do so. It wasn’t until 2 or 3 years later once I had a car, job, and time to save that I was able to make my dream a reality.

That was the day I built a computer faster than all of my friends, and twelve years later I have never let go of that crown.

Throughout that time my knowledge of technology: its origin, design, application, and direction grew exponentially. This was the first time something had ever felt so natural since the first time I picked up a basketball. I had turned my analytical approach to sports into something that would eventually fester myself a career in technology.

I gained more than a new passion that day as well. Something that is just as critical to my success as the time and effort I spent expanding my knowledge. Not to discount my original core group of friends (whom are still my friends today), but that day I aligned myself with the group from the LAN party was the day I surrounded myself with some of the most intelligent people I would likely ever know. This is why I truly believe that surrounding yourself with the right people is critical if you want to be successful when embarking on any endeavor throughout life.

Early in life, sports taught me about: hard work, pushing myself, teamwork, leadership, trust, and how to pick myself and others up from failure. These are qualities that we can learn in life through a great number of different avenues. Once we have them all we need is to figure out a direction to point ourselves.

On the day that I made the choice to attend a LAN party I caught the first sense of that direction. I gained a new passion, a desire to expand and improve my knowledge, a new core group of people that would surround me with greater intellectual challenges, and a first taste of the rest of my life.

That direction would eventually send me to Texas Tech University alongside many of those same friends, and would fester into a degree (MIS) that fit my split personality of jock and nerd better than anything I could have ever imagined.

Funny how a simple choice in life, that may seem meaningless at the time to an unsuspecting middle school kid, could have such a great effect on the outcome of someone’s life. I see that moment reflected in the mirror of the decisions I make every day and it always makes me crack a smile.

Thank you so much for sticking it out this long! Believe it or not, this was actually the abbreviated version… Did this moment ever happen for you or are you still looking for it?

I hope this post is able to help some people realize something they may have missed. It wasn’t until many years later that I found where the turning point in my life was, and how fortunate I am to have the people in my life that I do. It is never too late to find your direction!

In my next post I will begin moving into the start of my professional life, and complete the trilogy of how I got to where I am today. After that the real fun can begin… Cheers!

Best,

Russ

Welcome to the first of a three part series where I write about…myself! (So that perhaps you can learn more about, and potentially from, me)

I often times float around LinkedIn and various other social media sites for much of the same reasons that other people do. I am looking for insight, industry trends, information, different perspectives on a particular topic, or maybe I am just outright bored.

I am a liker and a sharer on social media, but do not often make comments. The short format that a comment inherently is doesn’t quite allow for me to get my entire thought out there in a way that I feel I could make a meaningful impact, which is why I am now writing this post.

I have decided that in order for me to properly be able to share my thoughts with those of you that follow me I am going to have to change the avenue in which I take to do so. Thus… the RAC Scale Blog!

In this initial post, I figured it would be good for me to introduce myself.

My name is Russell Cantwell, and I am currently a Pre-Sales Systems Engineer at Unique Digital Inc (This is not accurate, I am in a new role with a new company, but at the original time of writing this post I was at UDI. Still love those guys over there!). In my day to day operations I help my team navigate the intricacies of the entire sales cycle while providing technical leadership and direction. Throughout this process I am genuinely interested in the value I am bringing to both my team and the customers we support.

I find this line of work very rewarding due to the flexibility, opportunity, and dynamic environment that it offers. I have the opportunity to better myself, work with some of the most intelligent people on the planet, and stay on the forefront of the technology that I love. All of this while forming long lasting relationships with colleagues, partners, and customers that very few working environments are able to achieve.

It truly is a wonderful spot to be in if you have the right personality for it (I plan on writing a post on this topic in the future!), and have the ability to adapt to near constant change. This could never be understated since you are looked at to make precise and confident decisions for your team and your customers regularly. We will save this discussion for another day though…

In my personal life I am: a husband, brother, son, uncle, athlete, gamer, reader, movie buff, eSports evangelist, and overall technology enthusiast. I have a great many interests, and even more thoughts. I look forward to sharing them with you all, and encourage your participation throughout this journey.

In my next post I will dive a little deeper into my hobbies, interests, life, and how it all come together to put me in the position I am in today. So many people struggle to figure out what they want to do in life.

Perhaps my perspective can help enlighten how the things we go through in life can affect us in ways we never thought possible, and can help us define our eventual destination. Cheers!

Best,

Russ