Growing his Skillset with Opportunities & Trust – Spotlight on Phil L.

According to Phil L., there are three things a person needs to grow their skillset. One is the space to try something new. Second is having available resources. Third is having the organization’s trust that there will be a positive outcome that benefits the company, the client, and the individual. 

Phil is an Implementation Engineer Level 1 in VC3’s US West region, but it’s only been three years since he started his IT career answering help desk calls and solving issues on the user level. It wasn’t long before he was promoted to the escalation team, where he took on the complex issues and problems that needed a deeper dive into the root cause. 

“Phil is always looking for the right thing to do,” said David C., Phil’s Supervisor, “He has the trust of both me and the team to get the job done and he reciprocates that by making sure he’s hitting any deadlines and communicating with the client and the team.” 

Learning by Doing is How to Move Forward in IT 

 Phil feels fortunate to have had a stream of opportunities to develop his career. He says that learning by doing is the fastest and most efficient way for anyone to move forward in the IT field. The most important thing Phil learned from his troubleshooting experience, however, was how to see a difficult matter through from start to finish. 

 “Even though things would sometimes take a very long time, or they would be out of my skillset, it was a requirement that you stayed on it until it was resolved,” said Phil. “A problem didn’t just go away. You had to figure it out.” 

 These days, the things that Phil is figuring out involve extensive IT environment changes that affect an organization as a whole, not just individuals. The projects he works on could be building infrastructure or setting up a new software application or migrating servers to the cloud.  

 Autonomy and Teamwork 

 Part of Phil’s day is spent collaborating with team members and coordinating with clients. However, the bulk of his time is spent working autonomously to proceed through his tasks in the project plan and create the documentation needed to share his knowledge about the environment in order to manage and support it. 

 “It’s a very independent role the majority of the time,” Phil explained. “I do enjoy that there’s a level of trust where you’re allowed to take the reins and do what you need to do, and we always have a support system.” 

 Confidence from Experience and Insight 

 Phil’s short time on the implementation team has given him a new perspective on the types of problems he used to tackle when he was finding solutions to issues. He’s recognized that when you build something from the ground up, you gain an intimate knowledge of the platform, how it works, and how everything is connected. Phil has gained confidence from the insights he’s gained through these experiences. 

 “This role has really built my confidence since most of the integrations that I need to make are big picture changes that affect whole organizations, which is still a scary thought,” said Phil. “I have some fantastic coworkers and they’ve always been so helpful when it comes to teaching me things that I don’t know or assisting me if things aren’t working as expected.” 

 While Phil enjoys the opportunity to learn something new as challenges come to him during the course of his workday, that’s not actually his favorite part of his job. He gets fulfillment every time a project is implemented, and the client says ‘Oh, everything is so much better now.’