Name: Kimbol Soques
Title: Systems Administrator/Network Manager
Company:Athens Group
Contact:
kimbol_soques@athensgroup.com
How I arrived at my present job (academic and other influences): Roundaboutation. I got my BA in English Lit with a minor in history & education, found out that teaching inner-city middle school wasn't for me, and did a series of temporary jobs. One of them, a clerical position in the training department of a Fortune 100 tech firm, turned permanent. While working there I noticed that no one was taking care of the PCs in the office -- in fact, my co-workers seemed afraid of them! Since my boyfriend for the second half of college was an early Microsoft Windows proponent (he had been a tech support intern since high school), I had been exposed to tech support while trying to use his computer. ("It's saying Unexpected Application Error again!" answer from another room -- "Did you reboot the box?") I felt sorry for these computers, and started taking care of them. It gradually grew from there into managing a mixed PC/UNIX LAN, and then into the central IT group for that company.
My present position I found out about while taking a former co-worker of
my husband's to lunch. I thought I was picking his brain about the local
job market -- I was in the last semester of my Masters' -- but he started
selling me the job and the company
How I organize my day:
It doesn't seem to organize, but that's because it's interrupt-driven.
I get into work at about 7:30am, start looking through my email, and check
on the backups. I then try to remember - sometimes I have a list - what the
top priority is - assuming the backups are fine! IS management is all about
knowing what is essential to the functioning of the company, what supports
the users' productivity, and looking out to see what the network needs in
the future to continue to keep the company running smoothly. That means my
priorities shift hour by hour, depending on who shows up outside my office
with what question.
If I need to think and/or plan, I stay home until I'm finished or it's
10 AM, whichever comes first. I have my home phone number and cell phone
number on the door to the server room just in case, but I've been called up
(business hours or off-hours) maybe five times in the 20 months I've been
here. (This is EXTREMELY atypical for my position!)
Amount of time spent working daily (at home and office):
Seven hours, give or take. Athens Group places a high priority on life
balance and schedule flexibility.
What I do to get myself thinking creatively:
First I find a quiet space. Then I dump out (write down/sketch)
whatever's already in my brain on the topic, so it doesn't get in my way. I
try to brainstorm after I get the roadblocks cleared, just to be sure I'm
not missing anything brilliant ;).
My problem-solving strategy:
State the problem, define the boundaries (verrry important in sysadmin
- includes time allocated), do research. Find a possible solution, test it,
and loop #3-5 until something actually works OR I hit a boundary.
Some problems that I get aren't worth solving due to resource
constraints (i.e., my time). Most of my customers (co-workers) understand
that when I frame the news in a cost-benefit statement. It helps that we're
employee-owned -- it gives a concreteness to wasting company resources.
What I do to relieve stress:
Hug my kids! Before I had kids, I'd swim a couple of miles.
My hero, mentor, or person I most admire and why:
I've been a member of a professional women's group called Systers for
about ten years, so I have TONS of terrific role models there :). In a
practical sense, the guy who hired me into the central IT group at that big
company was my mentor for five, seven years -- we think similarly, and
approach corporate life much the same way. My mom's my role model for
standing up and speaking my mind -- that and for Machiavellian behavior ;).
What I do to mentor those who work for me:
Ha! We have a flat organizational structure, so I don't have any
direct reports. In general I try to be approachable and answer anyone's
questions. I really try to talk about my career experiences to younger
women (if it comes up), since when I was sixteen I never in a million years
would have thought that this would be my passion.
How a negative event changed my life in a positive way:
The day my older daughter was born a major reorg went into place. My
new boss and I turned out not to work well together (understatement). I had
returned to work at the beginning of Q4 (October); over the year-end break I
realized that I had been seeing-red, spitting-mad angry for at least one
week out of each month of the quarter. That was **NOT** why I went back to
work after the baby was born, so I knew I had to make a change.
I quit work and got my Masters', something I'd been wanting to do for a
while.
What inspires, motivates, or gets me excited about my job
on a daily basis:
The rush of figuring something out. Sometimes I get to combine that rush
with the aesthetic pleasure of designing some network infrastructure --
first figure out how all the parts work, and then how to pull it together in
an elegant way.
Survey filled out on February 19, 2002.
Last Modified:
Location: www.acm.org/crossroads/dayinlife/bios/kimbol_soques.html