Developing a Diverse IT Force, with Matthew B. Parks, Sr.

Show Notes

Matthew B. Parks, Sr., is the VP of IT and Security for The Pace Center for Girls and has been involved in IT since 1995. In this episode, we discuss old technologies as well as mindsets and how they trap the modern IT leader into doing things the same way in an evolving environment. Matthew is bullish on flip phones and a diverse workforce, which he thinks are both going to play important roles in future technology.

Conversation Highlights:
[00:26] Introducing our guest, Matthew B. Parks, Sr.
[04:16] Discussing the technology of the 90's
[05:37] Parks' first computer build
[08:07] Favorite childhood video games
[10:49] Exciting personal tech on the horizon
[16:01] Discussing Parks' worst day in IT
[19:19] Recruiting a diverse IT force
[25:14] Creating well rounded leaders in IT
[37:56] Refining discussions with vendors
[40:08] What to avoid in the IT space
[43:00] How to connect with Parks
[44:42] Closing thoughts

Notable Quotes:
"I always get asked, 'What would you tell your younger self?' Networking and relationships, do it earlier." Matthew B. Parks, Sr. [27:14]

"The motto that I live by personally and professionally is 'If you stay ready, you don't have to get ready'." Matthew B. Parks, Sr. [41:16]

"One thing we need to do is we need to redefine STEM, and we need to embrace vocation." Matthew B. Parks, Sr. [44:57]

Connect With Matthew Parks

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-b-parks-sr-b507a813/
Twitter: MatthewBParksSr

The IT Matters Podcast is about IT matters and matters pertaining to IT.

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Narrator: Welcome to the IT
Matters podcast, where we

explore why IT matters and
matters pertaining to IT.

Keith Hawkey: Welcome to the IT
Matters podcast number 15. I'm

the co host, Keith Hawkey. Aaron
is traveling. So I'll be manning

the ship today. And we have a
special guest, Matthew B. Parks,

Sr. is the VP of IT Security for
the Pace Center for Girls. He's

been working in the nonprofit
organization for over 10 years,

and has been saving the day in
IT since 1995. Matthew, how are

you?

Matthew Parks: I'm well, thanks
for the introduction. Pleasure

being here.

Keith Hawkey: Well, we're
pleased to have you on the

podcast and why don't you tell
us a little bit about yourself.

I gave a brief introduction but
love to hear a little bit about

your background, what you do for
the Pace Center for Girls and

how you got into IT. Okay.

Matthew Parks: So again, I'm
Matthew Parks. I was born in

Jacksonville, Florida, where I
reside presently. I've been in

IT, like you said, since 1995.

And I tell the story that IT, I
didn't choose IT, IT chose me.

It seemed to be a good fit for
myself. There were a couple of

divergent paths that I was
looking at when I was

researching what I wanted to be
in my early 20s and this one

seemed to be the best and it was
a good return on investment, I

would say. Occupationally, it's
treated me well, and has allowed

to have afforded me a pretty
good living. So not only do I

appreciate what IT has brought
to me, but I also evangelize to

others that it is a great path
if you want to pursue a career

that is going to benefit you.

For Pace, again, I'm the vice
president of IT and of security.

So it's kind of in the name, but
I'll go into depth a little bit.

So I have at present a team of
about 14. At the present we,

Pace Center for Girls is a
nonprofit organization that has

been around for almost 40 years.

And in that time, we've helped
40 45,000 young women reach

their potential. What we do is
we help young ladies who have

some type of trauma, and we help
them reach their potential and

fulfill their destiny, as is the
shortest and briefest way I can

put that. We help to you know,
right track them into better

opportunities. They come from,
you know, disadvantaged

situations, in some cases, not
all, but in some cases. And

again, I want to make sure I'm
clear about that because that is

a misconception. And trauma is
something that permeates

throughout all strata of
society. So it's not exclusive

to disadvantaged folks that have
trauma in their lives, I want to

make sure that I'm clear about
that. So in any case, we help to

right track them. And we help to
make sure that they indeed are

ready to meet the next
challenges in their lives. So

that's pretty much our mission.

So my part in that is that I
helped to make sure that the

trains run on time and that
they're safe. We make sure that

they that the network is there,
that we have a staff that can be

productive, meaning that they
are able to do their jobs every

day without having to compromise
from a technological perspective

that the technology isn't a
burden to them, that it's an

augmentation to the job in the
work that they do. And we do so

and we make sure that we try to
keep that in as secure

environment as possible. So
along with the virtual security,

cybersecurity, we also handle
great swathes of the physical

security as well.

Keith Hawkey: Well, I certainly
appreciate the good work that

you do, Matthew. And I'm curious
what got a burgeoning a budding

IT leader excited in 1995. What
was the coolest tech on the

block, what was the talk of the
town?

Matthew Parks: I'll tell you the
funniest story back in 1995.

Back when Discworld stone. No
seriously, the most exciting

thing innovations that came out
in 95 was obviously windows 95.

It just hit the market. And so
that was new. And one of the

things that came along With that
is there was a new storage

achievement that had been hit a
benchmark of the one gig hard

Keith Hawkey: One gig hard
drive. I don't think I could my

drive. Right? So I tell that
story because when I built my

first computer, I was working
for it when I say that, um, you

know, I was in tech,
professionally since 1995. I've

been in tech longer than that,
you know, having grown up with

the old trs 80s, from
RadioShack, and colecovision and

those type of things. So I've
been around technology for a

long time. But digressing. So
when I built my first computer

for myself, as a started off as
an assembly Tech and a wire

monkey, for a company down in
Clearwater, Florida, when I was

in school, I wanted to get this
magical mythical one gig hard

drive, because at the time, you
won't believe this, but we were

being sold that, hey, you'll
never fill this thing up. Right?

Yeah, seems ridiculous now. But
you know, 30 years ago, that's

what we were telling people.

Because in fact, we didn't have
anything that could really fill

them at the time. But
programmers and others have

helped with that over time. But
yeah, I have files now that are

a gig, you know, PowerPoints, so
photographs that I have, but

anyway, so we, so I was building
my first computer and I walked

in, and I wanted to get this.

I'd save my money and I was
buying parts a little bit at a

time. And so I bought the Ram
had an old motherboard that I

put together it had a case. And
so the hard drive was the last

piece I wanted it was the most
expensive and I walked in and I

didn't account for the tax. So
because I was short by five

bucks, I wind up having to get
850 megabyte hard drive because

I couldn't quite afford the one
gig hard drive at the time. And

that was back then, that was
$285 as opposed to the $299 it

would have cost for the one gig
hard drive. So that's how much

times have progressed and
changed technology. We work in

an industry where things tend to
get better and cheaper over

time. So it's a it's an amazing
thing to look at when you look

back.

my phone could run on a one gig
hard drive. I mean, our phones

come with like 16 gigs now. It's
standard.

Matthew Parks: And small.

Keith Hawkey: Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
exactly. Well, that's let's,

let's get into running
discovery. This is a session, I

asked you three questions. So to
learn a little bit more about

yourself, and just get the
conversation started. So

entering running discovery. So
speaking of one gig hard drives,

what was your favorite video
game growing up?

Matthew Parks: Favorite video
game growing up? That's a tough

one. I think it was one that was
called in MDK. I have to go

back. Of course it was always
again, I'm older, so Space

Invaders and Galaga and those
type of things. Mortal Kombat.

Going back, Street Fighter,
those type of things. So those

were some of my favorites coming
up. But yeah, there wasn't one.

So yeah, I played even the mike
tyson knockout those type of

things. So those are some of the
ones that I grew up with, you

know, back in the day. And then,
like recently, I've been playing

Ready or Not, is one that I've
been playing a lot. Death Loop

is another one that I've been
playing a lot recently. And so

those are two that stick out in
my mind. Oh, and Gotham knights,

which I'm really enjoying a lot.

So those are two of the ones
those are three that I'm playing

currently. But yeah, I go back a
long way. I mean, I'm a kid of

the 70s so actually we actually
had a we actually played on

myself and my brother on
television. Yeah.

Keith Hawkey: Could you run MDK
on a one gig gig hard drive?

Matthew Parks: Actually, yes,
you could run MDK back then on a

one gig hard drive. Yeah, if it
was pushing it because I think

MDK was like a groundbreaking
graphics at the time, but it was

it was a was a was a pretty
decent video game. And it was

that was one of my favorites
that sticks out in my mind every

time.

Keith Hawkey: Yeah, back when
video games used to publish and

then that was the game. They had
finished the products.

Matthew Parks: Right and the
only thing you had to download

were patches and stuff like
that, but you didn't have a lot

of DLC and that type of stuff
like you do now.

Keith Hawkey: Back in the day,
yeah. There's a game called

Perfect Dark that when I was
growing up, that was more of a

in 64 game. But it was the first
shooting game that had bots, you

could fill that you didn't need
another player. So you could you

could put 30 different bots and
they all had different

personalities. One, one bot and
the match would hide and he

would be a coward, one would be
like really aggressive, one

would play defensive, one would
just jump everywhere. So they

tried to have these, you know,
bots, but yeah, Perfect Dark.

What, question number two, what
exciting personal tech are you

excited about on the horizon?

Matthew Parks: Personal tech
that I'm excited about on the

horizon? That's a tough one. I'm
really excited. I'm really

excited about the direction of
this kind of sounds odd but the

direction or the evolution of
the small little the foldable

phone. I think that that is
something where it's still in a

very mansard state. But I think
it really gives it light lends a

lot of credence to productivity
like I use one for work I've

been using one for work for
several years now. And I've

recently just upgraded to the, I
had the first two iterations of

the Microsoft duo, which again,
from a productivity device, I

find, I think it's still the
best. And I've recently upgraded

to the Pixel Fold for work and,
um, like literally like

yesterday, so I'm still kicking
the tires on it. But it's really

has been from a productivity
perspective is really hard to

beat those form factors. Because
of the larger screen, the the

increased real estate, which,
you know, studies have shown

that increased real estate and
having multiple screens have

increased productivity in the
desktop. So it's a harder sell

for people to under to really
implement them from a personal

perspective and how this works.

And I think part of it too, is,
you know, the developers have to

get on board as far as being
able to make their programs or

applications or apps take
advantage of the extra real

estate. So those are two of the
things that but yeah, that's

that's one of the things that
from a personal perspective, I'm

excited about everything else, I
mean, I've kind of you know, I

kind of sit back and I want to
get a little bit more on but

that's something that really
appeals to me I'm in and to see

if there's something that I
would apply from a personal

perspective. I guess the other
one because I'm a movie guy is

too the increasing, the way that
the price is coming down on

larger screen televisions that
are higher quality, again,

taking advantage of that cost
curve that we have in technology

with things again get cheaper
and better over time. And I

think that's something where
post COVID More people are, you

know, taking advantage of using
their all of these streaming

services to have content so
having a nice theater theatrical

experience at home is something
that I think that I see. It's

something that excites me and
something that I'm constantly

playing around with and trying
to make sure we have the best

experience because we started
going back to movies and stuff

you know, and recently we just
saw Mission Impossible dead

reckoning. Oh, yeah.

Keith Hawkey: Can Tom Cruise
still do backflips and jump out

of planes?

Matthew Parks: Yeah, he's done
all of the areas. Yeah, he's a

60 something but yeah, he's done
the backflip jumping off

mountains and you know, the
fight scenes and stuff then, you

know, again, it is a he's he's
become the American Jackie Chan.

Right where he does his own
stunts for the most part. So

yeah, he's he you know, be it he
says it and you see it and it

shows up on film. That if it
looks like if you think it's

him, it's probably him. You
know, he's flying helicopters

and flying planes and just it's
really amazing that he's kind of

the last action last great
action hero of our time, I

guess.

Keith Hawkey: Yeah, I've heard I
heard that he's never done a

television commercial. He is
only existed in movie like he is

a through and through movie
star. He's only in movies. He's

never done ads for for any kind
of television commercial or

she's never been in a show I
don't think. I don't know if

that is 100% true, but I did
hear that and it sounded right.

So it must be true.

Matthew Parks: Strangely enough,
it does sound right. When you

mention it, yeah. Because even
the only ad I can think of is a

movie trailer for him so or
promoting a show, unless you

count like television talk show
appearances, right? Yeah. But

that's usually promotion of
something. But yeah, as far as

him being a serial television
show or an ad, yeah, I can't I

have no recollection of anything
like that. Even a lot of stars

do that the big stars like, like
Brad Pitt. And so I still go

over to other countries and do
the ads, they just don't do him

in the US.

Keith Hawkey: Oh, maybe there is
a loophole. Maybe he has. He's

the face of a soap brand.

Matthew Parks: In Korea or
something? Yeah, maybe? I don't

know. Yeah. But yeah.

Keith Hawkey: The last running
discovery question, what is your

worst day in IT? What has been
your worst day in IT?

Matthew Parks: I'll probably say
the worst day in IT for me was

the day that we I guess,
Presently, the worst day is

maybe about four years ago now,
three, four years ago now. 21.

So three, two years ago, when we
discovered that we had a

ransomware attack. That was
probably, and I it's one of

those things where at the time,
I didn't, I couldn't process

that because I had to go into
action. And my team had to go

into action. So we didn't really
process that as well. But that

and then learning some of the
mistakes that were made to allow

us to be so vulnerable. And
then, as we corrected those

mistakes, learning, also that,
you know, there was some level

of exposure of sort, there had
been some exfiltration of data

that we weren't aware of,
because we weren't set properly

through the security premises
that we had in place, or at

least we were told were in
place. And so yeah, that was

that was a that was a dark year,
I would say. And I couple that

by saying again, we just come up
with COVID. So COVID, we were

surprisingly prepared for the
technology piece, because we had

already migrated to teams, we
pretty much 98% of our our staff

have laptops, because we're
mostly mobile and phones,

probably about 40% of the staff.

So we were able to handle the
stay and work from home orders

pretty well. But it brought in
new challenges and, and brought

in new things. So that was a
dark time because it really

stressed out the team because we
really pushed the limits of a

lot of different paces from a
security perspective. And from a

connectivity and productivity
perspective. It pushed us

really, really stressed us out.

And then coming out of that. And
then you had the ransomware

attack that happened that it was
a I'd say 20 to 21 and probably

you said dark day I probably say
it was probably a darker period

that I had that we came
throuhgh. But you, know just

like anything else, you don't
really appreciate the light

until you've gone through the
dark. So having all of that come

to come to fruition and you
know, coming out on the other

side cleaner, is something that
I really look at and celebrate.

Keith Hawkey: It's, it's an
episode all too familiar with a

modern day IT leader. And if you
haven't gone through one,

Matthew Parks: You either don't
know it or it's coming. So it's

one of those

Keith Hawkey: That's true. So
awesome answers let's uh like to

change gears here. And one of
the qualities that you've been

able to build upon and deploy in
your IT department is how to

recruit and develop a diverse IT
force and benefits it yields are

tremendous and from gaining
different points of view, having

a force that has exposure to
varying degrees of technology,

what does a diverse IT force
look like? In your mind? What

does that mean to you and how do
you go about recruiting?

Matthew Parks: You know, I think
part of it and I think you hit

it on the head with the by
defining it is that the most

important piece of the diversity
is the the diversity of thought

than anything else because by
bringing in people from

different backgrounds, you have
a diversity of thought, a

different, a diversity of
exposure and diversity of

experience that helps to make
for a more rotund and more full

picture of the environment that
you're working in and the

environment at large. So that's
a very important piece to me is

to make sure that we do that. So
in the recruiting part of it is

just making sure that there's a
level of exposure to in your

application, or in the job
description that you post that

is, I guess, more friendly, so
it will be more open to bring in

more candidate. So working with
the, you know, either recruiting

company or your HR to tell them
that, I want to make sure that

I'm getting resumes and
applications from a wide swath

of what America looks like, I
want something that's

representative number one. And
number two, you know, I want to

make sure that we reach out to
whether it be colleges or

schools that we may not have,
that may not be traditionally on

your list of your, from your
candidate pool. Because, to me,

those are opportunities that I
want to at least afford. And

when I say that, you know, it
is, um, I'm going to hire the

best candidate, regardless of
your skin color, regardless of

you know, experience, regardless
of acumen, I want to hire the

best candidate, that is also the
best team fit, right. But part

of that in something that I
learned in my personal life is

that, personal professional
life, is that the interviewing

process is also a learning
experience also, because there

are times when you know, I know
that I may have been

under-qualified for position,
but I was able to get in front

of the recruiter or in front of
the hiring manager, and I was

able to sell myself and my
skills and through that

interaction that was able to
convince them to look at a

different direction to go in a
different target than they may

have already had in mind. So the
opportunity itself, opening the

opportunity, to me is an
important part of the equation.

I also think that from the
candidate perspective, it helps

them so that they have a diverse
experience when it comes to job

searching. And they're asked
those questions, you know, the

live fire questions, you can
simulate this but you know, it's

hard to do when you're when
there's nothing really on the

line. Whereas, you know, when
you put it out there, you know,

is you've got that's your shot,
right, you've got to shoot a

shot. And it's really a thing
helpful for beneficial so even

if we don't bring them in, I
feel that that's something that

helps enrich the candidate for
the next opportunity is that

they were able to sharpen their
iron against our iron.

Keith Hawkey: Yeah, yeah, I I
couldn't disagree with anything

that you said. And especially
what was stuck to me is that the

the computer science departments
differ university to university.

So if you have a handful of
universities that are your

favorites that you select from,
you're going to be receiving a

handful of thought patterns that
are derived from these

universities and B if the
different personalities the

different exposures yet widen,
widen the scope of the

universities that you're
selecting from, widen the scope

of the geographies and you're
going to have a team that has

more experience and exposure to
a wider swath of IT and

technology and cultural
experience which I think is

applicable to IT as well. It's
almost like it's like those

people that know multiple
languages are able to think and

cross pollinate ideas perhaps
more effectively than those that

know a single language like me,
for the most part. Yeah, I

completely agree. So after you
have on-boarded a, one of your

new IT employees, what, so much
of the IT role today is

developing people skills and
it's communicating a vision to a

board, communicating not just
the bits and the bytes and the

the technical know how of of how
this is going to optimize a

computer process. It's this
affects the bottom line at the

company, it's developing a
relationship, it's understanding

the politics of the situation,
how do you go about training a

traditional, more technical
minded, from a diverse

background individual into a
well rounded leader that can

communicate a vision to the
likes of a board?

Matthew Parks: Now that's a good
question. I actually do a talk

on that. It's called from the
from the Help Desk do the Big

Desk. And we actually go
through, it's the actual name is

from the Help Desk to the Big
Desk, started from the bottom

now we're here type of thing,
right? So we, what we talked

about in that is we go through
that path, because what you said

is something that's very
important that people don't

really consider, there isn't a
direct business correlation to

leadership in IT, there just
isn't. Where if you think about

the accounting department, for
example, there is a direct link

because of the way that they
interact with the business. You

can go through a myriad of other
departments, you know, whether

it be HR or any of those and
those actually have a more

direct path to that leadership,
business leadership than it does

in IT. So it does take
additional cultivation, because

most of the IT folks are,
overwhelmingly, I don't want to

over generalize. But
overwhelmingly, the numbers show

that we're mostly introverted,
that we mostly myself included,

it also shows that we tend to
not, which means we don't tend

to naturally build
relationships, which is an

important piece of the business
piece. It's something that if

it's that question, I always get
asked a What would you tell your

younger self? Networking and
relationships, do it earlier.

Learn that. Something I'm trying
to help, you know, my son and

others who are coming into this
to understand. So yeah, well, as

we talked about, that we
discussed, the relationship

piece, we talked about the need
to learn how to zoom out and

look at it from an
organizational perspective,

because again, we're task
oriented, right, we have a

ticket comes in, and we need to
solve this for this ticket. And

we tend to zoom in from that
perspective, and we have to be

able to zoom out and look at it
of how this one ticket affect

this much of the productivity,
and this productivity affects

this particular location. And
this location affects the rest

of the region and the rest of
the organization. So being able

to zoom out and know that, you
know, this one thing that you're

doing today, contributes to the
greater productivity of the

organization, the greater health
of the organization. And then

from that perspective, looking
around and saying, how do I, my

first you have to understand,
how does your IT department,

what cog on the wheel are you?

How do you fit into the
organization past, present and

future? Then where do you fit in
your IT department in your

contribution to the department's
greater contribution. So those

are the things that you have to
learn from a leadership

perspective, because you have to
think beyond yourself beyond

that ticket that you're working
on today. You have to be able to

think more organizationally. And
then you the other piece is

learning that, you know, you
have to go from that operational

to tactical to strategic, to be
able to move into the different

strata of leadership in
organization. One of the thing,

you know, Admiral Grace Hopper,
she had a quote that says that

you manage things but you lead
people. And you know, that's one

of those important distinctions
that you don't, all managers

aren't leaders. You can have
great leaders that were great

managers, but inherently all
great employees don't make great

managers. And all great managers
don't make great leaders,

because it's a specific skill
set. Is there some innate

qualities about leadership that
are there? There are, I think, I

think that you can make a good
leader, but I don't know if you

can make a great leader because
I think that You know, it's kind

of one of the examples that we
talked about in there as we we

use, but I juxtapose Michael
Jordan and John Elway, and we

talk about their careers and you
know for who they are in their

respective sports, they are
considered some of the best if

not the best at their position.

And not just the position, you
know, some of them are

considered, you know, Michael is
considered the greatest

basketball player by many. John
Elway is considered one of the

greatest quarterbacks, which is
the top position in football.

And so there is that argument
the whether he can be considered

among the best ever. And you
look at their transition into

the executive part of the game.

So that's one of the things that
I take apart is, you look at

Michael Jordan's path to that.

And, overall, overwhelmingly,
he's been one of the worst

executives in the history of
basketball. And that is not you

know opinion, that is something
you can look at every level he's

participated in, and his level
of success or lack thereof. Then

you take John Elway, and you
look at what his level of

success, to where he was able to
build a team, got it to a Super

Bowl, and the sport that he
played in respect. And so as you

look through that, you look at
how they were able to achieve

that. And what that means is
that just because you had

someone who was great at their
particular field of study

doesn't mean that that
translates to them being able to

bring others along, because
that's what leadership is.

Leadership is that you have to
convince others that this is the

path you have to provide a
vision for others to follow. And

yes, there may be times when you
have to jump off that horse, and

you may have to go fight
yourself. But for the most part,

you're actually now in a
position where you have to lay

out the plan, and a vision for
others to follow. And then you

have to track and project
manage, if you will, how well

that vision has been followed.

Keith Hawkey: I love what you
said, I wonder, I'm going out on

a limb here, if any of that has
to do with the role of a

quarterback on a team, compared
to a point guard on a basketball

team. If the skills that you you
gain, being being the

quarterback of a football team
where you, you're now making the

calls, but you are calling
audibles. A lot of times you are

the center cog of the offense,
you have to earn the respect of

of your linemen who are
protecting you, they have to

have an emotional connection to
protect you in a lot of ways

rather than mechanically just
doing the job. You have to build

relationship with your
receivers, you have to have a

different type of relationship
with the running backs that

you're handing the ball over to.

That idea popped in my brain. I
don't know if it transists at

all. But it is interesting to
think about if you're a career

quarterback, you are in some
ways, having to manage a

multitude of relationships on a

Matthew Parks: Yeah, you do annd
I think that's part of it. But I

team.

mean part of it also, because,
you know, one of the other

things we talked about is, you
know, in a smaller degree, it

depends on you know how long
I've been paid to do this talk.

So you know, it goes from an
hour to 75 or 90 minutes. But

when we talk about this, but,
you know, we also talk about,

you know, someone like Matt
Millen versus someone like Jerry

West, and again, flipping the
basketball football analogy, if

you will, and even comparing,
you know, someone like Jerry

West and Michael Jordan,
because, you know, Jerry West

Hall of Famer, world champion,
greatest point, one of the

greatest point guards of all
time, transitioned into building

one of the greatest teams of all
time with the Lakers, and then

went to other teams and was able
to help build them at least into

into competency if not
proficiency and relevance. So it

is a thing where there there are
some there are some innate

qualities to that position, if
you will, but in fairness,

Michael Jordan was a shooting
guard, not a point guard, but he

was the undisputed leader on
that team. You know, they all

look to him and they follow his
ethos into the battlefield or

onto the court. So, when we look
at those things, you look at it

again, even in the same sport,
you look at someone like Jerry

West versus Michael Jordan, or
you look at someone you know,

who was a leader in his position
from a Matt Millen who's you

know, again, Hall of Famer, that
type of thing. Terrible

executive with the Detroit
Lions. I mean, they had a what's

called the Millen Man March in
Detroit to fire him. Those type

of things. Versus again, someone
like an Elway and it So, you

know, trying to pick those
analogs, where you have some

successes and some failures.

And, you know, breaking those
down and seeing how, what were

the commonalities of why they
were a success, and what were

the commonalities of failure. So
bringing it all back in, part of

it is that with us, I'll use
myself as an example, I honed my

troubleshooting skills,
troubleshooting skills, to a

very fine point. So that means
that I had to have that ability

to remove everything else, and
you know, identify what the

problem is. So through all of
the noise to hear the signal. So

that's an important piece. But
going and ascending into a

leadership perspective, that's
not necessarily a skill that is

a translatable skill per se.

Directly translatable skill, we
talked about that too, as far as

you know, is that what skills
are transferable directly, and

which ones are indirectly which
ones you may have to push back

on? Because, again, I don't do
board level circuitry anymore,

going back to you know, that
level of troubleshooting? I

don't, it's not part of my role.

So how do I keep my razor sharp
for the next haircut, then, you

know, I had to figure out those
type of things. How do I

continue to cultivate that in
myself? But also, you know, what

skills do I transfer? You know,
do I transfer? Yes, I don't

necessarily have to troubleshoot
those type of problems, but the

troubleshooting skills, I
learned, they're transferable

into corporate and
organizational issues, that if

there is something coming up,
you know, listening to what

people were saying, because
again, that's something you

learn from the Help Desk. If
you're effective, you have to

learn effective listening. So
part of the effective listening

is listening to what folks are
saying, discerning what the

signal is, versus the noise,
trying to get to root problems,

root causes, and then solutions
that will help to and not

treating, not treating symptoms
but treating causes, all of

those things can translate into
how you can operate a business.

And so those are the pieces that
you have to take with you.

Unfortunately, there are other
pieces that you will that may

attribute a little bit, there
are pieces that may get dull

over time, and you'll have to
find ways to sharpen. So for me,

that's my research time. So I
bring in new products to the

organization and I, you know,
may purchase them, and I'll

experiment and try them out to
see because it's been an

overwhelmingly that's benefited
organization, because when

something comes up, or we go
into this type of thing, oh,

yeah, I have a hardware solution
for that. So I find ways to keep

that sharp in mind, because
that's just a desire that I

have, because I get that
question a lot. Well, you don't

troubleshoot anymore. So yeah, I
don't, but being able to look at

these new technological
innovations as they come in and

new solutions as they come in.

It also helps with something
else that is beneficial is, it

helps with my discussion with
vendors. Right. Because when I

deal with vendors, a lot of
folks that sit in my chair, they

don't have the same ability to
really discern what they're

being asked or what they're
being told or what they're being

sold. And so being able to ask
deeper, more probing questions,

being able to push them into
more comfortable positions to

have to answer. And then being
able to really evaluate whether

I'm getting that value. That's
something again, that I picked

up from my days at the help
desk. That helps me to now

perhaps, move the organization
toward or away from particular

vendors, because of the acumen
that I've built over time. But

again, those are those skills
that you have to figure out that

okay, I have this set of
particular set of skills to

quote taken, and now I'm going
to apply those here and how do I

apply those and where to apply
those. And so that's where, you

know, the whole leadership thing
though, so you have to find it

in you folks to and your people
and give them and stretch and

challenge them to see where they
have opportunities because

again, you know, we have someone
who may just be on the help

desk, but putting them on
projects, will give you an

opportunity to see okay, can
that person manage the project?

That is an important skill that
is and that is not cultivated

enough in IT presently from my
humble opinion, if they can, you

know, can they self manage, how
was your time management? So

that's what you see what those
things are. And those are all

translatable skills that can
help them ascend from the

management and then later into
the leadership. You know, it's a

long winded answer, but,

Keith Hawkey: It's all valuable.

And, you know, in the same
stroke of explaining, you know

how to conceptualize and view
the IT role today, we're coming

up toward the end of the podcast
and before we leave, I like to

ask one question, I'm actually
going to flip it around a little

bit than the traditional way we
ask it. In the same vein of what

you should be doing, as you want
to develop your IT career, if

you could display a message on a
billboard, around the world,

that's IT, the industry, middle
of the road, and yet towards the

end of the career, would be
disseminated to everyone in IT

of what to avoid? What not to
do, that can get you into

trouble. What would your message
say?

Matthew Parks: The motto that I
live by personally and

professionally is "If you stay
ready, you don't got to get

ready". So the other side of
that, I would say is that, you

know, don't stop evolving, is
what I would say, because this

industry, the one thing about
this industry, unlike a lot of

industries that are present is
that, you know, for the most

part, there are new challenges,
and maybe new grants and maybe

new roles. But you know, and
again, this is no disparaging

against accountants, but pretty
much that job is the same. They

have new things that they have
to learn over time, new tax laws

and that type of thing. But the
actual day to day thing, right,

is the same. We don't teach
technology the same way we did

you know, when I started. When I
started, we were doing board

level troubleshooting with logic
probes and stuff. And then once

I got into the workplace, in 95,
we were swapping out those same

boards that we were trying to
troubleshoot. We don't solder

onto motherboards, for the most
part for not in a commercial

environment. You may do that in
personal or research, but not in

a commercial environment, you
don't do that anymore. So just

thinking in my own past of the
things that I've had to learn

and change and evolve and adapt,
I would encourage anyone to, to

not stop evolving to, to not be
stagnant. And because if you

are, this train is going to
leave you it is definitely going

to leave you and you're going to
be in a in a much less

successful place than you
intended when you started.

Keith Hawkey: Matthew Parks,
thanks for joining the IT

Matters podcast, how can our
listeners find you?

Matthew Parks: Hey, I tell you,
first of all, LinkedIn is a

great place. I'm there. So you
know we connected. There's also,

well, it's not Twitter anymore,
right? It's X.

Keith Hawkey: Why? Why?

Matthew Parks: Fun fact, by the
way, that X that logo, if you

look at it, and you've been in a
game as long as I have, that X

logo showed up, you asked about
95, there was a program that

Microsoft used to use and they
still made but it was a scaled

down version of Windows that was
intended it was kind of their

version of a version of the
Windows and Windows server

called X server. Yeah, yeah,
it's the if you look at the

logo, it's the same logo. When I
looked at it, I was like I've

seen that before. And then I
started looking at other folks

who are gray beards like myself,
and we're all like, yeah, that's

the X Window logo. But I
digress. So Twitter is a great

forum to find me there. And of
course, LinkedIn is also a great

place that you want to hit me
up. And, you know, those are two

main places I would say, to look
for me.

Keith Hawkey: Well, we'll make
sure to include those in the

show notes description. Thanks
again, Matthew.

Matthew Parks: Thank you so
much, Keith.

Keith Hawkey: Continue saving
the day and IT. The job you do

is invaluable and really
appreciate what you do on the

nonprofit side. It takes a
special type of soul to help the

youth in our very young woman,
so.

Matthew Parks: I appreciate it,
but Keith if I can get a couple

of seconds just to wrap up on
something that we discussed

earlier. Again, when we talk
about you know bringing in

disadvantaged populations of
minorities into IT, I think,

just really brief. One thing we
need to do is we need to

redefine STEM and we need to
embrace vocation, again, because

the vocational jobs that we have
thrown our nerves up at, a lot

of those are STEM jobs. Right?

You know, you have to know a lot
of math, a lot of engineering,

to be a carpenter, to be a
plumber, to be a mechanic. And

those jobs are very high paying
jobs. Also, we need to expand

that umbrella in IT because I
mentioned earlier project

management, that is a very
crucial role to IT, and to

organizations in general. So we
need to do that. Representation

is important, exposure of our
young people to the field is

important, and investment both
at the governmental level for a

lot of these disinvested
environments that folks are

coming up in, that will be
helpful and of course, the

business community because
again, there are almost a

million IT jobs that are open
today and we don't have enough

people to fill them. So
businesses and government

investment into that because
when we talk about not only IT

we talk about cyber, it's
becoming a national security

risk now not having enough cyber
people, not having enough people

in IT in general because we're
losing, we're stagnant in our

lead in the IT space. So I just
wanted to throw those up before

we leave as just another aside,
sorry to take up that time.

Keith Hawkey: Yeah, no, all
great points and well received.

We'll post where to find you,
Matthew, in the show notes and

hope to have you back. Thanks
for joining.

Matthew Parks: Anytime. Thank
you, Keith. I appreciate the

time.

Narrator: Thanks for listening.

The IT Matters podcast is
produced by Opkalla an IT

advisory firm that helps
businesses navigate the vast and

complex IT marketplace. Learn
more about Opkalla at

opkalla.com.