Unveiling the Mind Behind the Website: My Journey into IT, From Passion to Profession

Hey hey, visitor!

Thanks for visiting and for wanting to know about my professional journey. My name is Emmanuel Cardenas, but I like to go by Manny.

The Beginning

Let's get started from the beginning. I became curious about IT during my first Network+ class in high school. While taking the course, I saw that the concepts made quite a lot of sense. I've always liked technology, but to that extent, I had never seen it. From there, I had wanted to be a neurosurgeon, getting into the medical field. However, I started to drift in that direction once I saw how conceptual and mesmerizing IT was. I had already messed with my school laptop (not school-owned) at home. From upgrading to Windows 11 beta at the time, swapping out its hardware, fixing software issues, etc. I realized that's the direction I wanted to dive deeper into.

After that semester, I picked up more IT-related courses: A+, Linux+, and server administration. I also developed a better bond with the teacher teaching these courses and got to see the backend of things quickly. Also, I learned how they managed the infrastructure as the school I was at decided to use all Mac devices, deviating from the standard Windows devices that other schools within the district used. I learned early how they connected the OSX server to the district's AD domain to server profiles and Mac devices lent to students. Also, it taught me how some corporate services can't be reached externally. So, we had to set up roaming profiles on the Macs to make our profiles work. I was so engulfed by the amount that went into the system engineering and administration for the entire school, which was only managed by two systems administrators at the time.

Advancement

After high school, I immediately entered Salt Lake Community College to pursue a computer science degree. Wanting to further the knowledge I had gained from home and high school into a career. I could see where I wanted to go, and the ambition I had wouldn't keep me sitting on my butt; I had to get out there. I attended SLCC for about three years, most of which was general education, but when I did have my IT-oriented classes, I was always so excited. They were the only classes where I never had a bad grade. When I transferred from SLCC to UVU for my Bachelor's in IT, I was so grateful to see that I had more IT, CS, and networking-related courses than general education courses. I was so excited that I dived in immediately. Utilizing all the resources I could, such as Azure's education portal, which allowed me to download a Windows Server version to learn. My PowerShell class that got me into scripting. My server administration courses as well, for Windows and Linux, teaching the foundamentals, but also the experience I learned from the professors was priceless. However, I also enjoyed learning from my course about different cultures within technology. It helped me throughout my career to understand that we all come from different homes and to respect one another in the field. I finally finished my Bachelor of Science degree in IT in December of 2020. I had already had an internship before graduating, which turned into a full-time job. I'll discuss that in my professional experience.

What does My career mean to me?

As I've traversed my career through startups, I've come to acknowledge that I don't want to progress my career for money but for the intangible aspects of our field and culture. I have and want to continue utilizing my experience to help those who are coming after me. To help them get their way into IT as well, because I've always had the mindset that witholding experience, information, or knowledge is so bad and toxic to a team. How can my team move forward if I don't share my knowledge? How can I assist someone in their career if I don't give them a hand? How can I ever help drive company objectives and missions forward if I'm not a team player?

For me, it's all about understanding the human element of any team. Help each other whenever possible, teach when those who are curious want to learn, and help a team member realize their own potential and worth. Above all else, we are all in this together, whether that person is within my team or department. We all stand as one, so let's move together as one!