Show Notes

In this episode of Career Downloads, Manuel Martinez sits down with Fernando Reyes to discuss his remarkable journey from church multimedia volunteer to Systems Technician II at Clark County.

Fernando shares how his technology journey began with a Windows 95 computer his father brought home, which sparked an interest that would later flourish when he volunteered at his church’s multimedia ministry. What started as helping with video recording evolved into a full-time position where he spent 11 years developing skills in production, IT support, and technical troubleshooting.

Throughout the conversation, Fernando reveals how he strategically navigated career transitions with a clear end goal in mind: working for Clark County. Despite having no formal IT education or certifications, he built his technical expertise through hands-on experience, YouTube tutorials, and guidance from mentors who recognized his potential.

Listeners will gain valuable insights on:

• 
  
• Building technical skills without formal education
  
• Setting concrete career goals and working systematically toward them
  
• Finding and learning from mentors who can accelerate your professional growth
  
• Balancing family responsibilities while pursuing career advancement
  
• Developing communication skills to effectively present technical solutions to leadership
  

Fernando also discusses the importance of character, loyalty, and commitment in building a successful technical career, as well as his future goals to develop his own business while continuing his work with the county.

Whether you’re starting your IT career or looking to make a strategic career move, this episode offers practical advice on career planning and professional growth that you can apply to your own journey.

#CareerDownloads #TechCareers #ITJobs

Transcript

Manuel: Welcome everyone. My name is Manuel Martinez and this is another episode of Career Downloads where each episode basically hit the refresh button, bring on a different guest to learn more about their background, their experience, and really how they manage their career over time to be able to kind of pull out any actionable advice that you can go ahead and use as you’re managing your own career. So for today, I have with me Fernando Reyes and we’re going to talk about his career journey, which I think is pretty interesting. We’ve had some conversations before and he really had a goal in mind, like an end goal, and he just consistently worked to being able to get there. So he didn’t know what was going to happen in between, but again, he was okay with kind of being able to move back and forth and really adjust over time. So I think it will be a good experience and a good story for everybody to kind of listen to. So with that, go ahead and plug in and download the knowledge and I will introduce Fernando.

Fernando: Thank you, Manuel. Thank you for having me.

Manuel: Of course, no problem. Glad you were able to come make it and kind of share your background.

Fernando: Yeah, of course, of course. Thank you. Well, like you said, you know, it’s been a couple of years with career in mind and goals in mind. As you know, as we get older, we start thinking, hey, what do I really want to be at? So about, you know, five, six years ago, I decided to have a goal in mind. I saw a position I liked and now I have that position, but it was not as easy as I thought it was going to be.

Manuel: Yeah, it’s usually, it ends up that way.

Fernando: Right, right.

Manuel: So if you wouldn’t mind, just kind of, everybody can get an understanding of who you are. So if you just don’t mind telling us what your current position is and it’s just a summary of, you know, what your roles and responsibilities are.

Fernando: Sure. So I am a Systems Technician II. That’s the formal position. I’m a glorified desktop technician, basically giving support to end users with, you know, their computer and anything related to technology, printers, conference rooms, anything else like that. And yeah, that’s basically what I do for Clark County. I work for the county. Yeah.

Manuel: And now we’ll go ahead and we’ll kind of start and get a little bit of history about your experience and your background. So if you wouldn’t mind kind of telling me, you know, kind of like where you grew up and then eventually what got you interested into technology?

Fernando: Yeah. So I’m from Mexico, originally. I was born in Tijuana, born and raised there. And my dad introduced me to technology pretty early on. I remember one time he just arrived and got us a computer. It was a Windows 95. That was my first contact with technology as in a computer. Right. And I remember that I always liked, you know, electronics. I think we had LP radio and I would mess up with stuff and I would open the electronics and my dad would get mad because I would just try to fix everything. I think that was my first touch with technology. Finally, he got us a computer to my brothers and my sister and myself. And he just teach us how to use Lotus 1, 2, 3 and printing. And then, you know, came PowerPoint. And I remember he had a, he had us for school encyclopedia. It’s called Encarta. That was back in the day, like with just a couple DVDs and you just put them in, research information to use it. And that’s what I think that was basically my first encounter with technology. And I was fortunate enough to, that my dad provided that instrument and allowed us to learn. And, but, you know, as I grew up, I didn’t really get that much guidance. I said, oh, you can have this as a career. And I think I just went for what I thought was okay. You know, I like, I like animals and I like the sea and stuff like that. And, and I decided to go to college for biology. And that was like, you know, my choice. And so I moved to another city. I started going to college and, and then I moved here and to Vegas. I think it was 2007 on December. I remember I arrived here and, you know, I’ve been a Christian my whole life. And, and I, as I started going to church here, they told me, hey, would you want to help out with the, with the multimedia ministry? That was the, the, where the cameras, the recording, the sound, the lights and all that stuff. So I really got into that. And after I started that journey, I, I, I, they gave me the opportunity to, to be there more time, right. To a point where I was hired by my church to work for them. And I was there for 11 years from that point. And it was just, you know, everything just kind of fell into pieces and I was given opportunities and I, I didn’t say no.

Manuel: And so then when you got that computer, it wasn’t, it was kind of more of a tool, right? It was a tool for you guys to go be able to do your homework, to be able to do research. So it wasn’t like, hey, here’s a computer. And, you know, like you said, start trying to forge a career out of it. It was really like, Hey, this is probably the future. Right. And it just kind of really did not fall behind at that point. Cause Windows 95, that’s around the time. I think we did 95 or 98 is around the time when we got our computer at home. So, you know, again, it was just like, now you can do your homework, you can do your assignments.

Fernando: Yeah, that’s exactly it. And that’s exactly what my dad said. He was very into looking to the future. And my dad was like, Oh, this is going to be the future. So you guys should, you know, take advantage of this. I remember one time he, I got in trouble because I, I took my assignments. I wasn’t elementary at the time. I took it on a paper and printed the paper and the teacher didn’t want to receive my, my paper. And my dad had to go and talk to them about it. But, but yeah, he, he saw the future and, and, you know, he gave us that tool, but that’s about it. You know, he didn’t tell us what you mentioned. Hey, this could be a career for you or anything. Cause he was, he, he, he is an accountant and he, you know, he didn’t really give us any more advice about that. And my mom, you know, same way he, she supported us and he, he supported us as well, but not, they didn’t really give us like a, like a guidance. Hey, you should do this. You just want to choose something, go to college, I’ll pay for it. And that’s it, you know? Um, but yeah, until I got here is where I kind of shifted and I started thinking, Oh, where do I, what do I really want to do? And that’s where everything kind of started to fall, fall in.

Manuel: And so him being an accountant. So then my guess is that’s probably where he saw it, right? Cause he’s probably using the computer at work to kind of do, like you said, Lotus one two, three and all that, like being able to do Excel spreadsheets and kind of manage it forward. So then biology, and then you ended up coming here. So then as you’re kind of picking up all the multimedia, right, it’s not, it’s not a PC, but it is a lot of electronics. So it’s, it’s technology. So when they hired you on, what types of things were you doing from there? Was it just kind of basic setup where, you know, if you kind of just walk me through what you, the different skills you were picking up in that role?

Fernando: Yeah. So I, there was one, uh, one coworker I had, which basically not my boss directly, but he, he was an authority and he, he, uh, he teached us a lot of me and another, another person, another coworker I had at the time, but I was mostly at the beginning helping with recording during the live services, record, be in the mixer, like, you know, to move the cameras and make sure everything is recorded to a DVD. At the time it was still recording to DVDs. We had a little machine and a little mixers with the screen, with the multi views and everything like that. And that was the basic role. And then I got into editing, you know, editing videos, making, uh, videos. And we had to send them out to like show them on TV on certain, uh, channels. And, uh, that’s where I started getting into computers. Like, oh, why does this program, it’s not as fast when I edit the video and then why, why does it take so long to edit the video? Like, and that’s where I started like doing a little more research and then talking to that person that it was, it was like a mentor. Um, I think, uh, one of my first technology mentors I’ve ever had. And, uh, and he started showing, oh, you know, the computer needs RAM. The computer needs, it’s like, what is all this, you know? And I started looking into it, doing research and until like, uh, you know, I got to build my first computer, uh, and not far along with that, that experience that I had. And, you know, I was, you know, given, uh, recommendations, Hey, we should, we should, uh, buy this computer so we can edit this video. Oh, but it’s too expensive. Oh, but I think it’s cheaper. If we make it. And I seen, you know, that’s when YouTube was, was starting to be a thing So look in YouTube, Hey, uh, you can build a computer like this, you know, follow this tutorial And, you know, that’s, that’s where, how I started getting more experience, you know, from the recording and, and the lights and putting everything together to editing the video and then, you know, getting involved with like, oh, we should have a better computer so we can build one.

Manuel: So then not, and that’s pretty interesting, right? That is instead of just kind of saying like, Hey, this is slow and, you know, having somebody else deal with it. Like the fact that you’ve had that curiosity to start going through and saying, Hey, you know what? Like I’m interested in this. Like, why isn’t this working? I want to make this better. And, you know, during, during that time. So about how much time did you spend doing that role of like editing and kind of, you know, what was that, what was that time span from when you first kind of understood like, Oh, it’s slow because I need more memory, more RAM to, you know, eventually you’re starting to put PCs together. Like, is that like a three months, two months, six months?

Fernando: I think it was probably more like about a year since I got the opportunity. Cause at the beginning it was just like a part-time job, right? I would just go in my spare time. And then there was more of a need. So I started going for longer periods of time until I decided to quit my, my job and then just have that job there with the church. And I think it was probably about a year since I started volunteering. And then, you know, they gave us a chance who wants to be here more involved. I raised my hand and started going more often getting, you know, mentored by, by the people that were already there. And yeah, probably about a year since I started to doing that. And mind, I wasn’t like completely computer illiterate, you know, cause I was always interested in technology. I just never knew it was a career, a career path that you could take. Uh, so I always had like, I remember my first, when I was in college, my mom bought me a Compaq laptop, a 17 inch Compaq laptop. They had the button to open it up still. They’re a square size. And we bought it at Fry’s, which doesn’t exist anymore. But, um, you know, I, I was able to, uh, get that. And I would like to see videos and tutorials and stuff with about computers, you know, and I remember we had Windows XP and how can you make it look like Windows Vista without having Windows Vista? So you download and theme it out to kind of look like Windows Vista, but it’s not really Windows Vista. So I think that’s how, how I, you know, I always had that technology, like sort of like, oh, you need to figure things out. You need to do that technological thinking or, or, or logical thinking of trying to figure things out. Um, and you know, I always like to explore that. And I took advantage when I was given that opportunity to, to help and to work for church. Then I took that opportunity and they gave me the opportunity and also made mistakes and broke things, you know, but they gave me that opportunity and I took it and, you know, that accelerated to, to where I am now for sure.

Manuel: And it sounds like they gave you the ability to kind of make those mistakes, you know obviously without probably the fear of like being fired and saying, okay, you know, nothing that you were doing there probably was like, you know, detrimental.

Fernando: Right. Right. Yeah. I would never like be like, oh, I’m going to completely disarm that computer and break it forever. Like I always like console. Hey, like, I think we could do this. I’m not sure if it’s going to work, but you know, we can try it if you guys let me do it. And most of the time they would, they would say yes.

Manuel: And you mentioned that there was somebody else that was kind of mentoring you, but it. Was it really just you doing most of the work at that point. Um, you know, cause I’m just wondering, you’re doing a lot of the kind of research on your own, but sometimes at least early on in your career, it’s, it’s kind of helpful to have somebody to ask questions. And then at some point to bounce ideas off, like you said, Hey, I want to try this. I don’t know if it’s going to work, but here’s, you know, was it really just, I want to try it and figure it out. Or did you have somebody to kind of bounce ideas and say, Hey, you know what, what do you think about this? And, you know, kind of have that back and forth?

Fernando: Yeah, definitely. I think it was a bouncing back and forth. Uh, the beginning, obviously I was just listening and I would just hear, Hey, this is how this works. We follow this process and you know, that’s how it works. But then, you know, there was, there’s a point where things don’t work as fast as one would like maybe. And that’s where I would try to figure out, Oh, I mean, that’s how you, you tell me the processes, but I found this, what do you think about this process? And, Oh, what do you think about this, this computer? You know, we can use this for this and this, for this, uh, uh, purpose. And it will be like, Oh yeah, I think that’s a good idea. Let’s present it. And that’s how, you know, we started building that relationship for, you know, I trust what you tell me and, you know, I give you an idea and you can hear me out. And sometimes, you know, it will be applied. Sometimes you won’t, but I had those ears open, you know, cause I, I proved myself already that, that I can make things happen. And, you know, I put my effort into things and, and, uh, at some point it was just more like a partnership rather than a mentorship. And, you know, then that’s just went from there and they gave me opportunities and then they gave me more IT roles rather than giving me, uh, just a video role, you know, the production role. And then I started shifting to doing both at the same time.

Manuel: Okay. So then it wasn’t just kind of the editing and it wasn’t just fixing that for the editing. Eventually it became, it’s probably not a big shot, but I mean, they still probably have other computers to where you’re having to go through and manage it. And on the kind of like on the production side, it’s not PC related, but there is a lot of technology. So what was, um, you know, like what was kind of some of the skills? Cause I’m assuming there, you also having to do troubleshooting, like not just PC troubleshooting, but you’re like, Hey, you know, this light’s not working or Hey, with the video signal for this, isn’t it kind of working? So you start to kind of develop those, those troubleshooting skills. Like you said, even if it’s not PC or technology related, they’re still valuable, you know, it’s a valuable mindset to kind of go through. So was there a lot of that kind of going on?

Fernando: Yeah, definitely. Cause, um, sometimes, you know, when something would happen, you have to figure out what’s wrong, you know, obviously the technology process, right? Okay. How do, what, what is the process look like? Okay. So, you know, the light’s connected to this controller and this controller is connected through this cable and the controller has this power connected to this power and the lights connected to this power. So you start pinpointing, okay, the power and the light is fine. Oh, the connection from the mixer to the light is fine. Oh, the mixer doesn’t have power. Why doesn’t it have power if they’re connected to the same source? So you just start looking and trying to figure out how things were. So I, it’s just the technology process, right? Try to figure out what the process looked like and try to dissect that into, okay, what are the points of failure that you can have? And the, it was, it’s very similar, um, very similar, uh, the two, you know, go hand in hand. Cause you know, getting the computers, most of now, most of the things that, that we do now or the production world, like it’s all managed by computers, you know, since, uh, uh, sound consoles to the video consoles, some video consoles are a computer based completely. It’s a computer and you just have an app that works off of that computer. Same thing with the sound boards and, and the light boards as well. Uh, so yeah, it’s definitely, uh, I, I started to, to, I, I was able to learn logical thinking and, and, and, and enhance, enhance that through that process, through, through having that role, which I think was, was also a key thing for me to transition to IT and think like an IT, uh, person, like an IT technician instead of, uh, uh, editor or a producer or, or, uh, technical, uh, director or something like that. So yeah, definitely had a lot of influence, uh, to get to that point as well.

Manuel: And then, so then now you’re starting to kind of expand, you’re doing, you know, you’re still doing the video editing, you’re doing the IT work and what kind of is the next step from there? Like, do you continue to grow more within that role? Do you start kind of deciding that, Hey, you know what? I like this IT as a career or, you know, kind of what’s your mindset as you’re going to that point? Cause I’m assuming at some point you decide it’s time to move on to something else.

Fernando: Yeah. So definitely, uh, I believe there is a point where, uh, I realized like, man, I’ve, I’ve always had this IT passion since the beginning. I just didn’t know, you know, I didn’t know what it was. Uh, and I definitely started shifting from, from that, uh, producer job to that IT job and where I had to balance those things out, right? So I just, I just, um, I was doing both. I couldn’t get out of either because I was the director at that point, you know, a few years later, I was the director of the department entirely of the, uh, you know, to from the live services to the, to produce production, post-production, everything. Uh, uh, I was, I was, uh, uh, fortunate enough to have that role and, and, but I was balancing both, you know, okay, I need the internet to go faster. How do we figure this out? So research, learn, uh, then present and implement, uh, everything. So that’s when I started to like kind of veer off. I, I do like production. I think it’s, it’s a great thing. If, uh, if I would get, um, uh, an opportunity to do that kind of job, I wouldn’t say no. Um, I think it’s something else that I, that I am passionate about as well. But, um, IT, I think is, uh, for me, it’s like my, my favorite child. I love IT and, and, and I love the process and the way that things work. And, uh,

Manuel: I have a question for you. When you, when you mentioned at some point, you know, you’re, you’re starting to just kind of do the PC technician work and you became a director. So what was that process to kind of go through and get promoted? Were you doing that just because you’re taking on additional responsibilities? Did your mentor kind of leave all leave or, you know, how, how did your progression within there happen?

Fernando: Yeah. So there was a point where, where my, my mentor at the time, uh, you know, left the company. And of course I had to take that role completely. And I was the technician for the church in general. Uh, besides being the director of the media department of the production or broadcast department, there wasn’t really like a, like a name or anything. It was just, I was in charge of the whole thing. And, and, and I had, I had that responsibility on me. And now I also had the IT responsibility together and I had to, I had to do both. You know, my mentor had to, had to leave the company and, and I had to take over and make sure that everything that he did, I covered it as well. And he was also, you know, cause he was, there was not an IT position to this day. Uh, uh, my church, it doesn’t have an IT position. It’s just, you know, somebody that is the most technical of all. And he’s the one that handles that. I, right now, like I help, uh, my, my church as a volunteer, I do IT work, you know, whenever we have to do any kind of technical work, IT work, then I, I offer, you know, my volunteer help. But, uh, but yeah, I had to take on, I had to take more responsibilities. Now it’s just my responsibility. You know, now it’s not somebody else’s and they’re like letting me help. Now it’s my responsibility and something goes wrong. And it’s my responsibility. I gotta make sure that it works. I gotta make sure, you know, it’s not a, it’s not a small church. We’re talking about, you know, three to 5,000 members of church and a big church. And when we, we moved from a smaller location to a big location, we had to make sure everything worked. I went through the whole building process with, with, when we built our, our, our building that we are in now. And, you know, I got that experience of like a project manager, you know, like make sure everything works, make sure everything’s connected. Where do you want this, uh, this, uh, RJ45 plugs at, whether you want the server room to be at and be involved in those decisions and make sure that, that everything worked. So I think they baptized me as the, the main IT technician at that time, not per choice, just because, you know, we had to, there was nobody else to do it, so.

Manuel: And kind of, I didn’t realize you were doing at that level, right? So they’re building this obviously brand new and having to say, here’s where the RJ45s and server rooms. So how did you, how did you determine that? Like, was it just, you’re still researching online to figure out, Hey, what’s the best place? Or are you kind of going off experience on the last place? Like, Hey, you know, when we set up at the last place, we knew that we had an RJ45, but we’re having to run a 70 foot cable. It’d be nice if maybe we had these every 20 feet, like kind of what was the thought process there?

Fernando: Uh, so it was a mix, uh, past experience. And what would you, what would we want to have, uh, back then, uh, I wasn’t very, uh, knowledgeable in wireless, right? So everything had to be plugged in everything, every office, you know, there, cause there was an office space, there were classrooms. There, there was the creative room we call it because that’s where the editors and everybody else sat, including myself. Well, when we worked at the new building and then there’s the broadcast room, then there’s a sound booth. And then there’s a bunch of, uh, places where we want to put TVs in the future. Uh, we got to think of the future because this building has a possibility of expansion. So you can expand, uh, you can expand east or you can expand south. So we had to think about that. It was just like a thing thrown at us and like, Oh, this is what we want. What do you think should happen? You know, what do you think, uh, how many connections is going to be there? You know? Uh, so we had to just, you know, my mentor was still around at the time. So we just had to, Hey, we, I don’t know, we don’t like this here. We can move it here. Uh, Oh, we need, can we have more plugs and we have more outlets for the power as well in the server room? Like I feel as this is one of the biggest, um, things that we have till now. Uh, not long ago, I, I just installed a server, uh, actual server rack because we didn’t have one. We just had like a freestanding rack. It was not even bolt on the floor or anything with the switches and everything. And one day I realized that we never thought about it and it was just like loose and Oh my gosh, like we have to fix this. So I was like, we, we, I think somebody donated a bunch of racks. Uh, we had them, uh, an old building we had and I was like, Oh, we can, we can use one of those. Oh, I installed a new server rack. It changed everything. And you know, that’s that the experience that you get, right. And the things that you’ve never done before. Um, so yeah, we, we just, it was a mix of everything, you know, how it was before, how we struggled in the past and now the things that we don’t want to struggle in. So how are we going to make this happen? Are we going to, what, what, what steps, what steps of action are we going to take to not go through the same situations we were in before? And I think that’s just that kind of critical thinking that, that we had. And, and, you know, I was allowed to share and express with leadership, uh, to, to make those changes. And, you know, most of the times they say yes, you know, it’s a church, the budget is always a big thing. You know, we’re going to make sure that we allocate our resources the best way that we can not being the cheapest that we, that we can, but something in the middle, something that works for the church and that is not going to break the bank. Right. So, uh, I would like, I like to think myself as a, as a great person to, to get the best that we can with the least amount of money that we have. And, you know, that, that developed that, um, that in me and, and, you know, that’s how we help and how we keep helping to today then and a volunteer at the church as well.

Manuel: And were you involved in the budget process of that? Because I know it’s, it’s one thing and I’ve very rarely have I been involved in those types of projects. And it’s nice to like, well, what do you want? Well, I want connections here. I want all this, but then when they start going through budgets and saying, okay, well, wait a minute to add a drop every 20 feet is going to cost us this much. But if we do it every 40 feet, here’s what we’re saving. So I know you have your wish list and you’re trying to figure it out, but were you also involved in the budget price? Cause you mentioned that you were pretty good at making, doing the best you can with the resources that you have, but were you involved in the budget process?

Fernando: At the beginning, I wasn’t, you know, cause I’m, I’m still new. I’m still relatively new in the IT world, right? In the production world. So it was, uh, suggestions. Hey, I would like to have this. If we can’t do it, we can only give you that, you know, we can only give you this and that’s it. I’m like, okay, we’ll make, can you make it work? Yeah, we’ll make it work. It’s fine. And, and that was basically, yeah, now down the line, uh, when it was closer, when I had a little more experience and then they would like give me more freedom to, okay, we should do this. Okay. How do you think it’s, give me three budgets, you know? Like, so we had to spend three budgets, uh, the worst budget, medium budget and the best budget. Sometimes almost always it was the middle budget, you know, something that I thought was the best thing that we can do. There’s going to last us, you know, a long time and that is not going to break the bank either. And very, very few times it was the, the least, uh, amount of money, the cheapest option. Uh, cause you know, we didn’t want the worst either. As long as it works, right? Kind of thing. So, uh, so yeah, I was down the line. It was a process of trust, you know, prove myself that I could, I could, uh, lead and I could actually suggest something that is, it was going to work. And little by little, I gained that trust and I was able to, to present, you know, with bigger and more expensive things in, in, in the future.

Manuel: And all those kinds of like the presentation, you know, you, you’re obviously you’re proving yourself, but like the, the leadership and the communication, how did, how did that come about? Like, did you still have your mentors kind of helping you? Hey, this is how, you know, we communicate this. Are you just kind of doing it on your own or you’re just pretty natural at, at being able to speak and.

Fernando: Not natural at all. Let me tell you, I’ve always been an introvert, uh, my whole life. And, uh, I was never really taught how to not be so introvert, you know, always been secluded, always with my own thing. And, but yeah, definitely uh my mentor at the time definitely, uh, helped me, you know, try to expose those things. And like, we need to give options. This is how leadership likes to hear things. They need to hear, um, you need to hear, obviously it’s not about how much it was going to cost, but what is it going to do? Uh, and how is it that we cannot do, uh, that with what we have now? So they just want like a, uh, um, a proof of concept in a, in a way like, okay, if we have this new product that we are trying to acquire, let’s say a switch, you know, we have a 24 port switch right now. We don’t have 24 computers. We have 36, so we can’t really work with that. In the other computers, we just have to put a new, a mini switch and that’s going to split the connection. It’s not going to be good for the, for the network. So you need to explain those things. And if we do the 48 port, which is, you know, only going to cost us, uh, you know, $300, then we can definitely use that and get a return on that by not having to buy 10 little switches, you know? So he had definitely taught me how to present those things. And, and, and it became natural to me after, you know, after learning that, but, you know, uh, with mistakes and all, uh, sometimes things work out. Sometimes they didn’t most, most of the times they did. I didn’t make that many mistakes, but, but yeah, uh, you know, it’s a process. You, you, you win some, you lose some, right. And you just have to make sure you do your best every time.

Manuel: And were you able to be involved in those conversations when your mentor was doing them? Because I know sometimes being able to kind of see that right. And have exposure to, oh, well, that’s what he’s doing. Cause it’s one thing for him to tell you what he’s saying and Hey, you know, you need to tell him this, but were you also involved in some of those meetings? Like, were you watching him? Was he bringing you in and saying, okay, you run this part of the meeting? I’m just wondering how you were, you know, developing those skills.

Fernando: Yeah, definitely. Uh, I was given the opportunity. Um, it was a learning, learning process for sure to, to be able to get to that point. But yeah, um, at first I would just sit in, sometimes I wouldn’t even be in the meeting at the beginning. He’s like, Hey, uh, I’m going to talk to him about this. I like your idea, but let me, let me see where, how, how, how they take it. Right. And then little by little, and he would always like bring up, Hey, Fernando, Fernando told me this, Fernando brought me, brought this up. You know, Fernando did the research for this and little by little, like put in my name in there, you know, they would, oh, so Fernando has that critical thinking, has a logical thinking. He can do research, he can present and make sure that things work out. So little by little, I, you know, I gained their trust to, to do that kind of presentation or that kind of meeting to be involved in decisions and presentations of, Oh, this is what we should do next. And so, yeah, he definitely gave me the opportunity. I owe a lot to, to him. His name is Eric. Uh, I don’t know if he’s ever going to see this or not, but, uh, my first, uh, IT mentor I ever had. And he did a lot of, of, of teaching to me and, and, and gave me a lot of opportunities to mess up and to, to fix things, to, you know, figure out what, what I wanted in life. And, and, uh, when he came to IT and yeah, definitely, uh, definitely a boost in, in, in my career.

Manuel: Right. Well, and not only just giving you that, but being able to advocate for you. Right. And saying, because it’s one thing he could be coming here and, and again, not saying that they were his ideas, but he could have just said, Hey, we, we think we should do this. We think we should do this. Um, but actually saying, Hey, Fernando came up with this. Fernando said something that, and that’s, I think that’s important for, you know, it was important for your, your, your career development, but just for other people in general, like, I, I think that that’s something I try to do, you know, in the little bit of time that I had, you know, as a manager and leadership role is that’s important saying, okay, when it’s a group decision, you know, if there’s three or four of us and we’re all kind of spitballing, it’s hard to say, Oh, Fernando came up with this part. He came up with that part. You do say the collective we, but when an individual has a lot more of those kinds of ideas, I think it’s important that they could be given the credit, right. For that.

Fernando: Yeah. It’s definitely important and definitely boost your morale and your, your, you know, Oh man, I’m doing something right. Right. Uh, obviously, uh, try to not have an identity in that, but know that, you know, where you are valued and you actually, you know, people actually listen to you, what you have to say and what you recommend. And obviously own up to them. Also, when, when you make a mistake, you have to own up to it. You know, that’s something that was very hard for me. Like, not that I wanted to hide my mistakes, but it was like, man, like I messed up, you know, like, oh, now all that trust that I gained already, it’s gonna, it’s gonna decrease at some point, but good leadership, uh, accepts your mistakes and, and they coach you through them as well. Uh, good leadership that only like praises the, the, the good things. It also tries to help you when something bad happens, you know, it’s, it’s not just a correction or, uh, here’s a warning, you know, it’s more like, okay, you made that mistake. I understand maybe this is not something you’ve done before. Let’s try to go through it together. And now that you have this knowledge, let’s try to not make it happen again. Right. Have some grace on, on, on your mistakes. And I think that helps a lot instead of having to just, oh, you did something bad. You’re never going to get this opportunity again. I think that’s something that breaks a lot of people. And they just, you know, that’s why I was there for 11 years, you know, it was a long time, uh, the longest job I’ve ever had. Right. Uh, but they allowed me to make those mistakes and allowed me to, to learn, to go through the process and, and, you know, reaching a, a good level, I think of, of knowledge, uh, when I had to leave and, and, uh, leave a good place, right. And for the next person that I wanted to take over or had to do my job.

Manuel: And I think you bring up an important point is a lot of times we think that that mistake is going to take away that trust or that credibility, but actually owning up to that mistake and, and being forthcoming actually boosts it more in my experience, the times that it took me a little bit, right. It’s, it’s, it’s not that you’re trying to hide it, but you’re just like, oh man, like, you know, I, I built up all this, you know, this trust and now I made this mistake and now I’m going to, you know, it’s going to drop down here and I got to work it back up. And I had a manager at one point that told me, cause you know, I brought it up to him like, Hey, you know, this happened. He’s like, that’s fine. He did really great leadership in the fact that he told me it’s okay to make a mistake. The sooner that you can let me know, right. It’s going to be better, not only for you, but for us as a group, because if I tell you, let’s say Fernando, you’re, you’re my manager and I, I do something and I break it and I go, Hey, Fernando, I messed this up, but we fixed it. And here’s what happened. When people come and ask you, you’re able to say, Oh yeah, we’re aware, right? Like it doesn’t come as a surprise. And then now you and I are starting to establish that trust to say, okay, I know that if a mistake happens, Manuel’s going to come and he’s going to tell me and I can go through and I’ll back him up, you know, when the time comes. So establishing that, that two way trust.

Fernando: Yeah, definitely, definitely, definitely. It’s something that I think every leadership position should know, uh, because you know, that’s the, that’s the difference that you can make in somebody. You know, I was, uh, I was, uh, I had a manager position or supervisor position, uh, and it was a few people and, and, and definitely, I think, uh, uh, I could have learned more, you know, I get, I was given those opportunities and I try to replicate them with them as well. Um, I just feel like supervisors, uh, positions are not for me. Uh, but, um, yeah, but, you know, cause I don’t, I’m not a confrontational person, but, you know, I had to learn how to have those crucial conversations. There’s a really good book called, uh, crucial, Crucial Conversations. And you learn a lot about how people react and how people, uh, and you can talk to people the right way to, and be able, cause you know, you have the, uh, flight freeze, you know, when you have, right in the middle of a conversation, right, you can freeze, you can fly, you can go away. Uh, uh, but it teaches you how to, how to be able to do that and, and not break people. You know, you can talk to people in, in the right way, the respectful way and to get to them and make sure that, uh, they understand that, you know, probably there was a problem or, and there’s going to be probably a consequences sometimes, but that it’s an opportunity to grow and not an opportunity to just give up.

Manuel: So what, what did you end up doing? So now you’ve spent 11 years there. You’ve kind of, you’ve developed a pretty good career. Obviously you’re growing leadership skills, um, you know, budgeting, you know, project management, technical skills, um, even on the production side, right? So you, you’re learning quite a bit in this role. So what makes you decide after 11 years that it’s time to move on to something else?

Fernando: Yeah. So this was in, in the middle of a COVID, there was in the middle of COVID. So there was a lot of factors, uh, but I think the main factor was that I, I wanted to grow more. I wanted to, to be able to achieve more. And I felt that being at the position I had, it was going to be a slower process. You know, mind, I’m already married at this point. You know, I met my wife at church. I, we married and, and, um, I have two kids now. So I had to think like, Hey, like I need to do better. How can I do this? You know? Uh, and it’s not like church doesn’t want to give me an opportunity to do it. It’s just, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s not, it’s not going to have that much of a role to, to make you grow more in, in my role, you know, as a, as a technician, as an IT. So I, I decided, you know, uh, I need to go corporate and see what I, how I developed there. And so I started thinking, I started looking at postings of IT, you know, mind, I don’t have an, uh, A+ or Net+ or no, any kind of certification at this point. I never finished college. Uh, I never went to college for IT. So, and, and you get scared, you know, you start seeing all this posts. Oh, you have to have two years of, of college, or you have to have a Bachelor of Computer Science. So you have to have this certifications. So I got like, man, like, how am I going to do this? Like, that’s why I think, because I thought about, uh, searching for a better opportunity way before, uh, COVID happened. I just never, never pulled the plug because I was scared that, man, I don’t have none of these qualifications. What am I going to do? All the experience I have is here. And yeah, it’s maybe a lot of years, but, uh, you know, it’s a shared role between production and IT. And I, it’s not like I’ve installed big servers or anything like that. Um, so it was a scary transition to have now that, you know, I have a wife, I have a kid, uh, a baby just born, you know, and I, I can’t, I, that’s stability. I need stability. I cannot just go on and make, quit and then find a job a year later. I need something now. So I, in the middle of COVID, I remember, uh, just browsing around. I had taken the decision already and, uh, I saw a posting for, uh, a job at Asurion, uh, which is like insurance company that does a lot of, uh, uh, phones. They work with AT&T and, and Verizon. And it’s, uh, it’s, uh, it was a IT customer, a customer support as a position. It was phone calls. You know, you had to be an agent, you had to, you know, troubleshoot with them, uh, cell phone problems. And, um, so I was like, okay, like I have some phone experience. I can, uh, I feel like I have good customer support, you know, in church, we deal with a lot of people, learn how to speak to people and stuff. So maybe that, that helped me be a good customer, uh, a specialist or something. So I took the job, uh, and I went to the interview. I took the, I applied to the job. I took the interview, um, I built bilingual. So that helped that, you know, they were looking for bilingual people for the job. So I, I was able to get the job, the interview, uh, my first interview, because, you know, I, I never interviewed to work for church. I just like, Hey, a volunteer. Oh, now you have a job. That’s it. You know, it just happened. And now I have to go to this interview. I’m like scared. I’m nervous. I don’t know what, what am I going to say? So I started looking for videos and trying to educate myself to have a good interview. And so I went to the interview. The interview was great. My interviewer was amazing. Uh, I remember her, uh, Cindy Campbell, I have it as a connection in LinkedIn as well. Uh, so, you know, I got the job and then I went through the training process. Everything was great. And, you know, that was my first corporate job and not necessarily an IT position, but it was, it was, I see customer relationships and, and how to be able to report with people, which I think is very crucial when you are in an IT position as well. And so I was there for a year. Yeah.

Manuel: A question I have for you there is, so it’s, it’s your very first interview, right? You haven’t had to do this before. So what was the process that you went through to try and like prepare for that? Right.

Fernando: Man, it was, it was the, the most I can remember about this process is I was scared. I didn’t know what was going to happen. Like, you know, you, you are afraid of failing. You know, you’re afraid of not making it. You’re afraid of not getting the job. You know, there’s a chance that you’re going to reject you. You know, that’s not going to happen. And you start putting those things in your mind and it doesn’t help. It doesn’t help. So, you know, I was trying to do my best and how to be able to compose myself, how to, to, if I don’t know an answer, just be honest. Oh, I don’t know how to answer that. But I, I did find a lot of resources online, you know, to do. And then there was, I think there’s a video on YouTube where it’s a mock interview where they just ask questions and you pretend you answer them. So I, I found that video and, and I, it was like a IT, um, it was a phone agent, uh, interview mock mock interview. So I, I, I remember watching that video and they were asking the questions about the experience, about what you know, and, and it was a mock interview because, you know, the other person can’t hear you and they can’t hear your answer. But, but I remember putting that video up and just train and just, uh, preparing for that interview and just answering the questions, try to, and you notice, you know, if you, you want to like, uh, uh, you know, stutter or do a, uh, uh, so you just teach, they teach you how to, there’s a lot of resources online. And I feel like if you, you really want something, you have to make sure you do your best for the failure not to be on your side. And that’s something that gave me a lot of peace. Like, okay, like I’m going to do my best. If I’m not for the position, then it’s not for me. You know, if they don’t choose me, then it’s not for me. And there’s going to be another opportunity. So I just went through that process. Like, and for to my surprise, I did get the job.

Manuel: And that mock interview, when you’re kind of going through it, you mentioned, right, it’s only a video, but were you answering the questions out loud? Or were you just kind of listening? Because I’ll tell you early on in my career, I would think of questions, but a lot of it was just, I would think it through. And, you know, I’ve talked to other people and it wasn’t until later on in my career where I started to kind of go through and go through questions and answer them out loud. And it’s very different. Like you can have the idea of what you want to say, but when you actually go to say it, like you said, sometimes you’re you’re stuttering. You’re like, I have the thought, but I haven’t actually said it.

Fernando: Yeah. And, you know, I’m English. It’s not my first language either. So I had to make sure that I do my best pronunciations and my accent, you know, try to hide it as much as we can as I can. And that was my thought, you know, I know I don’t have to hide it, but you know, you were so nervous. And so in the moment, like, oh my gosh, I’m going to sound very Mexican, you know, because I’m Mexican. You’re going to sound very Mexican and you just want to try to, you know, okay, you’ve got to be calm. But yeah, I would definitely, me, I answer the questions out loud whenever I saw the video. And at first it was just like, very like, not knowing what to say. But then, you know, the more I hear this video, the more I hear the questions, and trying different videos. Because if I only train for that video with questions that are realistically, they’re probably not going to ask me in the real interview. So I just went through a series of videos trying to answer the questions and to be a surprise question. You know, it’s not a question they already know. It’s a different question. So go through that question, answer out loud and notice, okay, you do a lot of this. You just, you stop aloud and don’t say anything. So just try to train yourself to interview, basically. And yeah, that’s basically the process that I went through for that first job that I ever interviewed for.

Manuel: So then now you get the job. And what was, was it exactly what you thought it might be as far as just like, oh, I’m just spending the time helping somebody troubleshoot over the phone. And what was that like? Because the very first job I had was something similar, right? It was a help desk. And it was doing remote, like answering the phones, and someone would call that their computer wasn’t working. Now, it’s one thing when I can go through and troubleshoot and figure it out and I’m on my own. And all right, well, let me plug this in. Let me go through. But now you’re having to visualize, okay, what are they doing? I’m explaining it this way. Are they getting it? Because I’ll tell you, one of the biggest challenges, I still remember the call to this day, and it’s been over 20 years, is I had somebody go through and I told them to go through and reboot the computer and, you know, hey, can you turn it off and turn it back on again? And they were like, yep, well, I’m doing it. And I was like, okay, let me know when it’s back on. Oh, it’s back on. And I didn’t understand how it was able to reboot so fast, right? And I was like, well, what’s going on? It took me a while to figure out that they were just turning the power off on the monitor. So then they would, you know, turn it off. They’re like, okay. And I was like, all right, go ahead and turn it back on. All right, well, let me know when it boots. Oh, it’s up already. It’s at the same screen. And I was just like, okay, wait a minute. What button? You know, so then you have to learn how do you ask the proper questions to understand what they’re doing? What are you seeing? So is that something, is it a similar experience?

Fernando: Oh yeah, definitely. Because you have people calling and, you know, there’s Apple phones, there’s Blackberrys, there’s the Android phones. So it was a mix and I have no much, I never had an iPhone. I’m not, I’m team Android completely. So I’ve never had an iPhone, but I had to learn how to use an iPhone. I had to learn how to go through and they gave us on training, they gave us emulators so we can go through the iPhone and the process and how, what it happens when you update, when you do this, how to turn them off. Because now, you know, the phones that had the button, the home button, physical, you can just hold it and reset it. But now there’s no home button. So how do you do it? So they had a good resources, a good knowledge base. I remember they had us type the question and then we’ll just see what processes should look like. And then, you know, with time you remember, oh, I remember this issue so we can go through this. But yeah, definitely. I remember, you know, similar situations like, oh, can you restart your phone? Can you call me on your landline? Do you have a landline even? Because you know, nowadays most people don’t have one. Or do you have another cell phone you can call me from or that I can call you from? And to troubleshoot the phone we are on that you have the issues with. And yeah, go through the process and you tell them, can you restart the phone? Okay, lock it, unlock it. Oh, I already restarted it. Like, that was too quick. Like, what are you doing? You know, trying to pinpoint, relay the message you have to turn the phone completely off and then turn the phone on again. Like, it’s not lock and unlock. And you explain that process to people. And you do it in the nice ways because, you know, it can be frustrating that you feel that you’re explaining things right and you’re communicating the right way. But for them, you’re saying something completely different. So figure out how they listen to you and the level of knowledge that, you know, usually elderly people, they have less experience with the technology. So you have to be even more patient with them and try to explain the things as simple as you can do. And I remember, this is my first experience with a remote tool and it was a LogMeIn and I believe you can have people install, go to a link that you send them on a text message and they will open this link and then you can remotely access their phone and be able to move things around. Right. And so it was a good way to help people that didn’t really know what to do on their phones. And with Android phones, I believe I had a little more experience because I had an Android phone. So I was able to go through the process a lot more easier than an Apple phone or Blackberry. So that was like, they were in the dying period already where everybody was switching from Blackberrys to, to Androids or Apple phones. But yeah, definitely a similar experiences there when you, when you mentioned this experience with your user 20 years ago.

Manuel: So then now as you’re going through and you’ve, you’ve got this role, you’re picking up the skill, the communication skills of really being able to explain things to somebody. So then what’s the, what’s the next step, right? Because, and I guess another question that I have even before that one is, as you’re kind of answering this, if you don’t mind at some point, let me know, this is the point where you start to have that end goal in mind of this is where I want to be.

Fernando: That’s definitely at the end of my Asurion job. After having some time, like, man, I can’t do this forever, right? No, I, you know, the whole point of you looking for a different job is that you were going to advance. So how is that going to look like? And okay, what would be the ideal job for you? You know, you don’t have a lot of IT experience. Maybe you do, but not the experience that these companies need. So what are we, what are you going to do? And it was a lot of thinking, a lot of trying to project and have a vision of like, okay, this is, this is what you need to do. So I believe, like, after I had my insurance job, because, you know, in the end, it turned, it turned into a sales job, because, you know, it was mostly helping people with their phones and, and figuring things out for them. And in the end, it turned like, oh, you know, you need to sell the service. So when it turned into a sales job, I was like, I don’t want this. You know, I was on top of my production on, on the Vegas location for the AT&T team. I was like, top 10 on production-wise, you know, because how many people you help, how many, because it was praising, you took very little time to help them. How many calls you answered, they, you know, all those metrics that they put for call centers, right? And when they turned to sales, I was like, boom, bottom. I was like, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s not motivating at all. Like, you’re kind of like, man, like, I was doing so good. Like, you know, I’m at the bottom, I’m at the bottom of the team. So I don’t, I don’t like this, you know? And, and you have to sell. It was not an option. You had to offer services every call that you, that you took. So I was like, man, this is not for me. Sales is definitely not for me. It never been. And so I believe that I, I think my one year anniversary in LinkedIn, somebody reached out from, from Randstad. What’s the name of this? It’s a recruiting company, Randstad Technologies, I believe it’s called. And they just messaged me through, through LinkedIn. Hey, like we have, I always updated my LinkedIn profile for whatever job I was doing or whatever I did. And then they had a, uh, uh, Configuration Technician position. That’s what it was called at CDW. And that’s the, the warehouse that they have here in Vegas. And so I was like, oh, you, would you mind, uh, you know, having a call with me to discuss this contract? That would be a contractor. And it’s like a three month position. Uh, would you like be interested in hopping on a call? And I was like, yeah, let’s do it. And that was at the point where I’m like, man, I need to find another, another job. And who, this person comes in like, oh, this must be a sign, you know, for, for a different you know, to take on your actual career that you want to go to. And so I, I took the call, it went really well. And they, they offered me the, they gave me an offer. I accepted it was more, more than I was earning at Asurion as well. And, uh, there, I believe that that was my first technical, technical job I had because it was all about configuring, uh, either computers or phones. Uh, it had to, with imaging, I did imaging at that company. It was a production line, basically, like, you know, it was a long bench. It was like, I believe five or six benches and it was a line for yourself. And then you had to pick orders. You know, there was a, a line of boxes and you went and pick up boxes and like, oh, this order has 10 computers and this order has that many phones. And this order is something that a bigger batch is a hundred computers. So you had to go and pick what you need. And they printed out a, a, um, I think, I don’t even remember what the name of the page was, but you printed a page and it told you the process you needed to go through. And then it was like, uh, a pallet for a hundred computers and you need to change the RAM on all of them. You need to upgrade the RAM. So I, that was my first technical job. You know, I don’t, I, I know how to install RAM. I know how to do this. So that’s where I, I transitioned from a, you know, customer support role to an IT job, I believe. And I got that job. I, um, I worked there for, I believe it was like five months. Um, it was a very tough schedule. It was like 4 AM to 12 PM or 1 PM or something like that. And I didn’t have a car at the time. It was only one car for my wife and myself. I had just recently had to move in with my mom. So it was like a whole different situation that I was in. And, um, and, but that job at CDW, uh, it landed me the next opportunity. But being at that job at CDW was like, man, this is what I want to do. This is what I want to do, like focus on. I want to do PC. I want to do configuration. Uh, and, and so I started doing that and I started looking for jobs. Okay. What are the requirements? And I saw a, I remember, I saw the Clark County job when I was at CDW, I saw the Clark County job. The first posting I saw was, Clark County Water Reclamation as the name of the branch of the city. And it was with the water district basically, um, waste management, I believe, but they needed a, a PC technician. So I started seeing the qualifications and I don’t meet them. Like I am, I’m like man, I shouldn’t even apply to this cause I don’t think I’ll make it. And, uh, so my shift focused to that. How do I get this qualifications? How do I get this experience to be able to get this job? So I, when I was at CDW and it was five months and, uh, a, I didn’t, I didn’t want to work there anymore, but I, I didn’t want to be without a job either. So I was like, man, I need to find a job. And my five month contract ended and then didn’t want to renew my contract. So I was without a job for, I believe like a month. And then I found after that, after CDW, after figuring out, oh, this is what I want, this is what I want to achieve. Then that’s when I, I tried to find jobs that helped me with that. And I was fortunate to find, uh, this, uh, it’s a small, uh, I don’t know if maybe small, medium size managed services, uh, company, IT company and name is Stimulus company, amazing people. I love working there. It was a very short job though, but it got me with, it gave me more experience that, that I could have gotten anywhere else. I believe great people. I had a different mentor there. His name is, uh, uh, Jesse. He was my system. Um, what do you call them? Sys Admin. He was my Sys Admin because you, the company basically, you know, service a bunch of different people, different customers, different needs, different companies. And I got to work with tax tax offices, real estate offices. Uh, I even work with, uh, um, I don’t know if I can mention that one, but work with another company that was very different, very far. And, uh, so I got to have a mix of experience where I could fix computers, but I also had to deal with customers and be able to build rapport with customers and be able to relationship with, with, with people so I can help them with their computers. It was half remote as a hybrid job. That was my first, uh, every time that I was able to work remote at a company. So I remember I was at the office, um, Monday and Friday, and I was remote Tuesday through Wednesday, and I was able to work from home, right? And go to the ticket, ticketing system. Much of, most people must know, uh, what is this? ConnectWise is, uh, it’s, uh, uh, um, where you put tickets in and you handle accounts and you put your time, make sure you put your miles if you drive to a location. So I learned a lot with them, the great people to this day. Uh, I have a good memory and had a good time with them, but that’s where I found that shift. When I work from CDW to Stimulus Technologies, they’re like, okay, you know, I’m going to in then right direction. So yeah, and everything started to fall in place.

Manuel: So then you’re going through and you’re looking at these qualifications. Was it experience qualifications? Was it skill set? Was it like, Hey, you need to have these types of certifications or was it, you just need to have this type of knowledge? Like what, what were some of those gaps that you were working towards?

Fernando: Yeah. So I did mix a mix of everything. Cause you needed obviously skills that I didn’t yet have. And you also, you know, uh, um, experience or two years of college, you know, but I’m, I don’t know, I’m not going to college right now. I can’t go to college. Maybe in the future I will go and try to do something, but right now I can’t. I don’t have the time to go to college. So I decided, okay, let’s try to find jobs that will give me those skills. And so, yeah, that’s what I did. I, I, that’s where I found, um, um, Stimulus. I found that job and they gave me the skills, most of the skills that I needed for Clark County, which was, uh, imaging. They use a lot of, um, um, um, I forgot this, uh, SCCM, you know, to control computers, to have, you know, Active Directory, all those things that I didn’t yet have the experience to, I got that experience there. So I started to do that and I started to gather those, but yeah, it was a mix definitely of,