What is your role at IntelliDyne?
My current role is IT Support Specialist with the Corporate IT Department. I provide a range of services to all employees at IntelliDyne such as helpdesk/deskside support, VTC, systems administration, and networking. I am also an internal auditor for the Quality Department and participate in external ISO audits as an auditee.
What about your job makes you jump out of bed each morning?
It brings me joy to help others and to learn new things. Solving a problem, assisting in improvements, or being able to learn something new is exciting to me. Corporate IT has given me all of these options plus the ability to use my knowledge in different areas of IT (e.g. Tier I, Tier II, Systems Administration, Cybersecurity, Networking, etc.).
What influenced or drove you to become an expert in your field?
Initially, my love for learning drove me to ask for more responsibility and take any opportunity possible to attend webinars or trainings. However, speaking with my coworkers and my friends pushed me to return to school and complete my degree. I still have a couple of years before I graduate, but each course provides me with new ideas and experience to bring to IntelliDyne.
What was your dream job growing up?
When I was growing up, I wanted to be a veterinarian. As a freshman in high school, I went as far as to prepare by taking the Biology SAT. Sophomore year, I worked as a Vet Tech at a clinic in Northern Virginia. While I was working at the clinic, I learned about the responsibility medical professionals have to help their patients and the hard decisions that must be made, especially by veterinarians.
How has your career progressed here at IntelliDyne?
I joined IntelliDyne as a short-term temp as a Corporate Receptionist. I was recently returning to the workforce after being a stay-at home parent for a year with my twins. Once the short-term ended, I was offered a position in the Human Resources Department as an Assistant. I learned so much about the people and company while working for HR. I was able to gain additional experience assisting on client projects while obtaining my PMP.
After a year, a position opened in Quality as a Configuration Analyst. This position would be part-time at Corporate assisting in auditing and process improvement and part-time on contract as the Configuration Analyst. I applied to the position to gain more knowledge about our business processes while simultaneously experiencing contract work, where I was exposed to a variety of different positions in IT. Even though I am most comfortable in administration, my goal is a career in IT. While working on contract, I was able to experience how different teams worked together as well as understand the different processes and procedures that best supported the client.
During some transitions in the Corporate IT Department, I offered my assistance by providing help desk support to a non-profit client. It gave me the ability to document hours in IT Support and provide my ideas for improvement for the department as well as display my knowledge of different systems and troubleshooting efforts. A position opened in the Corporate IT Department at the end of year, and I applied immediately! My experience in HR and Quality gave me an invaluable foundation for my position.
How have you taken ownership of advancing your career at IntelliDyne?
During my employment at IntelliDyne, I have utilized our Professional Development reimbursement each year. HR and my coworkers provided advice and gave me insight into what paths would provide me more options. During my first year of employment with company, I attended a Project Management course with Northern Virginia Community College’s Workforce Development. This course gave me real-world knowledge of applying project management. Towards the end of my first year, I joined a group of employees and completed a PMP Bootcamp with New Horizons. At the end of the year, I was PMI-PMP certified.
During my time with Quality, I completed a CMMI services course with iPower and received a CMMI Associate certificate. This provided me better insight into our company’s CMMI certification. Later, I was able to take an ISO 27001 internal auditor training with BSI, certifying me as an ISO 27001:2013 Internal Auditor. I took a self-paced adaptive learning course on ITIL 4 Foundations with Learning Tree and passed the exam to become certified in ITIL 4.
After joining the IT Department, I studied on my own using Microsoft Learning and became certified in Microsoft 365 Fundamentals. Speaking with my manager, HR, and coworkers gave me the final push to return to school and complete my Bachelors in Computer Networks and Cybersecurity with the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC).
IntelliDyne has also provided a company library card to access LinkedIn Learning. I have also used our learning subscription options to access ITProTV for training videos on Microsoft 365 and Azure.
What are 3 words you’d use to describe IntelliDyne?
Sincere, Inclusive, Earnest
Which one of our corporate values is the most meaningful to you and why?
Service. All of our values are important to me; however I was raised to consider both sides of a scenario, be calm, bring kindness, and help others by providing excellent service or valuable improvements.
What is one unique or fun fact that others may not know about you?
At the age of 14, the summer before entering high school, I took a cross-country trip with my Grandmother. We drove from Virginia through the Southern states ending in California for a couple weeks, before traveling through the Northern states on our way back home. We were able to visit family all over the US in Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Oregon, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and New Jersey. My Grandmother quickly remembered why being stuck in a car with a teenager for three months was a terrible idea – but I now call her one of my closest friends.