We talked to M. Marsh, a Sr. Mac Desktop Engineer in the service industry about her IT career.
When did you start in IT and what was your first position?
- Unofficially I was a Special Ed Bilingual classroom assistant who figured out how to fix ink jet printers in grades 3-5 (ages 8-11).
- Officially I was hired to be the Tech Coordinator at the sister school for 75 classrooms managing a fleet of Apple IIe computers used for keyboarding and had a mandate to get every classroom set up with a modern (1998) Mac connected to the internet via T1.
How has your career changed since then?
- Today I am part of a team of Mac Admins where we provide an Enterprise flavor of the Apple experience using an MDM solution to manage Macs and stay out of the end user’s way. I’m part of a larger Mac community of Admins, where I have found other women to collaborate and have community with. I would be remiss to not include that I make significantly more in what I’m compensated today than I was 20+ years ago.
What excites you about IT today?
- Home automation
- Privacy and how more people and companies see this as something important.
- Technology continues to work towards making things “easy to use” for people like my 70+ year old Mom who discovers new things with her iPhone every week.
How do you stay up-to-date in a field that’s constantly changing?
- Read blogs
- Participate in Meetups and conferences
- Watch YouTubers who focus on new tech in my field
What advice would you offer someone trying to either switch careers or break into the IT industry for the first time?
- Adapt from what you already know.
- Always be willing to learn.
- Learn how the business where the IT is at, works. Knowing that is what will drive the IT and its mandates.
Thanks for taking time to share with us, M. We appreciate you and your time!
The MacAdmins slack is another great resource for learning if you work with Apple devices, and where I originally spoke with M and many other great admins.
