Chronicles of a Black Man in IT (The Journey)

By

Robert A.Jackson, Jr.

My IT journey started in high school with a conversation with my mother about what I should study in college. She said, “You love video games. Why don’t you do something with computers?” I took that to heart and decided to enroll in a Basic Programming Class my Senior Year of High School. 

I enjoyed seeing the end result of my coding efforts in this class and decided to major in Computer Science because it would get me closer to learning how to program video games. I don’t remember all of the colleges to which I applied. But, the HBCU from Normal, Alabama sent me a partial academic scholarship to attend. It was not a full ride because I struggled with the ACT but it was the only school who offered me money. 

I started Alabama A&M University in August of 1999 and graduated in May of 2005. I learned a lot about technology in that 5.5yr timeframe. Some of the things that stood out to me was how Artificial Intelligence would be beneficial to society but also how it could be detrimental because it could be misused to fuel humanity’s appetite to be like God. I also learned the attribute of “CYA”. This has been beneficial in the world of IT.

Speaking of IT, I tried several career fields from the time that I graduated in 2005 until being hired in August of 2008. I had lost confidence in my abilities because I was struggling to become a successful entrepreneur and I couldn’t keep a job. At one point, I had seven jobs in one year because I was chasing the bag. My father told me not to give up finding a job in IT. He informed me that sometimes you have to do things you don’t like until the right opportunity comes.

That opportunity came one Sunday when my cousin asked me if I was still looking for a job in IT. I told him that I was. He told me about the job and that if I got the interview that I needed to tell them that I just wanted a chance. In the interview, the Help Desk Manager told me that any man who could work in collections could work this job. The rest is history.

I started with no computer hardware experience to becoming one of the techs that people requested to fixed their issues. This took time but I listened to the guy who took me under his wing. Because of this, I gained my confidence of improving my craft. As time went along, there were several changes in the department and I eventually became the tech that most people came to for help. I started mentoring a young phone tech who eventually worked her way up through the ranks of the Help Desk. My System Administrator promotion last year paved the way for her to be promoted to being the first person to officially become the Help Desk Team Lead. This brought me great joy because she was a mentee while I was on the Help Desk and now she is the leader of this group. All of the hurdles that I had to overcome were worth it to see the progress that I have seen over the years, especially within the last year. 

I hope that this blog shows that if we keep grinding, we will gain confidence. In gaining confidence, we will perfect our craft. In perfecting our craft, we can teach others to do the same. God wants us to do our part to give back to back to humanity.