Pushing Past His Comfort Zone – Spotlight on Mitch O.

When Mitch O. is interviewing job candidates, he likes to point to himself as an example of how a person can advance their career. He started out as a level one technician at a Duluth, Minnesota managed service provider straight out of college, and now he’s the Service Director for the US Central Region of VC3.

Mitch started his career 15 years ago when he walked into the CW Technology offices as a new college grad with degrees in both Information Systems and Business Administration. He asked if they were hiring. They offered him a part-time job, but Mitch needed full-time work. It wasn’t long after that when the company came back and asked him to work full-time on the service desk and that’s how his career got started.

Seized Opportunity When It Popped Up

As the years passed, Mitch jumped on opportunities when they popped up. He went from service desk to system engineer and took on work as both a field and project engineer. When the company grew to the point when they needed a team lead for the service desk, Mitch at first said “no” but changed his mind when he was convinced that his talents extended beyond technology.

“Four different individuals tried to convince me that I would be a great manager and I said no to three of them,” explained Mitch. “Then David Manion, the owner of CW Technology, told me that I needed to get out of my comfort zone.”

Mentors Recognized His Potential

The reason why he did ultimately travel outside of his comfort zone was because he had mentors like Manion who believed in him and legitimately cared about him as an individual. They saw the potential in him when he couldn’t see it himself.

“One thing I used to do was to hold on to the things that I was really good at, and I was always kind of afraid to do something a little bit more because I didn’t know if I was going to be good at it,” said Mitch.

It was a different story when CW Technology was acquired by VC3, and a regional manager position opened up. Mitch jumped at the opportunity and landed the job.

Enabling the Success of His Team

As a Regional Service Director, Mitch oversees the service delivery function within a specific geographic area. He’s involved with the administrative activities that come with management, but what he likes best is being an open resource for the service desk people he manages and doing what he can to enable their success.

His supervisor, Nathan Eisner, VP of Service Delivery said, “Mitch is always the first one in line to help another person or team. He’s positive and constructive but also challenges things when he should. That recipe plus his passion for what he does makes for some lively conversations.”

Contributing in a Bigger Way Because of VC3

Those lively conversations are only possible when there are trusting relationships and when people feel that when they speak up their input will be taken seriously. Right now, Mitch is contributing to the integration process for the VC3 service desk that now spans the US and Canada.

“VC3 didn’t come in and say, ‘This is our way of doing things,’” said Mitch. “I like being a part of the creation and continuous improvement that’s happening now. I’m doing all these things that I’ve never experienced before, and probably wouldn’t have experienced them had it not been for the acquisition of CW Technology by VC3.”

It’s hard to believe that Mitch once wanted to stay in his comfort zone because today he thrives by pushing his limits and he’s helping others do the same thing. He knows the value of mentoring and now it’s his turn to make sure that everyone in his team has someone who believes in them.