Mike Carlson

Background

About Mike Carlson

First and foremost, I love technology. Everything about technology. Especially the geeky backend things like databases, servers, networks and trying to get everything to work together. I am completely self-taught. If there is a piece of technology that I get stuck in my craw, I go out and buy a couple books on it and then go down the rabbit hole learning it. And as I have learned new skills and technologies, I have used these to move my way up through the IT ranks organically. A few titles I have had are Web Developer, VB Programmer, Network Admin, Windows and Linux Systems Admin, SQL DBA, VMWare Admin, various Senior Support Engineer roles and IT Manager. This same self starting, go getting, always learning attitude has lead me down many different paths with lots of different technologies. I am always learning something new and experimenting on my home network. My passion for technology pours over immensely into my work. I love to dive into customer problems, troubleshoot what is going wrong and find a solution. Or if there isn't a solution, building a reproducible scenario that is sent to developers to fix and then applying the fix to resolve the customers issue. If you want to see me get excited, give me a problem to solve or a technology to learn. Outside of work I am a musician, I play guitar in a few projects. I've been playing since I was a pre-teen and love it dearly. I'm also an avid golfer. Getting out on the course is a great way to be social with friends/co-workers and is a healthy distraction from pecking away at a keyboard all the time. I think you need to have a good work/life balance to avoid the dreaded burnout. Skills/Interests: SQL Server/MySQL, Active Directory, Windows, VMware/ESXi, FreeNAS, Linux (CentOS/RHEL/Ubuntu), Python, ASP, IIS, NextCloud, Zimbra, MacOS, Apple hardware (iPhone/iPad), Logic Pro X, Final Cut Pro X