Sacramento Service Manager Jumped Majors To 'Geek Out'

Gary Tousseau is the service delivery manager that manages the Sacramento client base for All Covered. All Covered is a division of Konica Minolta, which is an IT managed service provider that includes proactive and reactive support, cloud servers, cloud email security, cloud backup, and cloud-hosted exchange email services.

Tousseau's formal degrees include a number of educational IT programs at community colleges ranging from basic networking, Novell Certification program, and Microsoft server and management information system courses.

What inspired you to enter this field?

"Like many young adults, I jumped majors. At one time, I considered majoring in architecture and electrical engineering. Somehow along the way, a college friend and I started building PCs in his dorm room. We started to 'geek out' and try to make the best PC with our limited budget. Of course, this all happened when the dot-com age was starting to really take off. Some of the other college guys suggested we take some IT programs and get into the tech industry as soon as possible, so my friend I did and the rest is history."

What advice can you offer others entering the field of informational technology?

"Technology is always changing and there is always something new. Always be curious and be broad with technology. Learn not just in the classroom but in your own garage, personal lab, articles online, and even YouTube. Learn more than just one operating system, for example: Linux, MAC and, of course, Windows. Drive to understand what it means when you hit send on an email message and how that message was delivered to the recipient. The need to have a good understanding on how everything connects to form the internet is key to understanding many other facets in IT. Overall, have passion, always tinker, and keep learning how technology works."

What does it take to be successful in IT?

"As much as education plays important role to open doors, there is a need to have a 'can-do' attitude. You need to have a values and skills around ownership, honesty, reliable, enthusiastic, communication, attention to details, and a drive to tinker with technology."

Karen Hansen M.S. Earth Sciences, has been writing about earth and the environmental sciences for Examiner.com since May of 2010 in addition to having been an educator and consultant who has facilitated over 200 courses for a private university. Karen loves to learn and write about clean disruptive technology and policies and the people on the planet too. She lives and works in Sacramento, CA. You can find her work at SF Solar Energy Examiner, SF Environmental News Examiner and Environmental News Examiner