E96 - Ian Strimback at Presidio Federal

Our Head of Enterprise USA, Harry Green was joined by Ian Strimback, the Network Solutions Architect at Presidio Federal. The pair have various conversations surrounding hiring trends in the space, including what they look for in a candidate and the struggles they are facing within recruitment.

Ian has been with Presidio Federal since May 2021 and was recently promoted to Solutions Group Manager where his team designs customized technology solutions in automation, augmentation, cloud, collaboration, cyber security, data center, and digital infrastructure. Presidio Federal focuses exclusively on federal customers and their missions while operating independently, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Presidio Network Solutions.

The seed was planted in IT in his early/mid-teens. He was into PC gaming, and he was playing a game one time back in the day and his computer couldn’t keep up with the different levels. His dad who was in IT added some things to speed the graphics up and it blew him away.

He joined the US Navy and realised he wanted to cross into IT, so he started to prepare to get out. His dad advised him to start reading basic A+ books, looking into troubleshooting concepts and how to work his way around a PC and then once he did that, he said he could join his company. The stars ended up aligning for him, he tackled it and got some experience and some on-the-job training while in the Navy by following the IT team around. He got a job with his dad working on PCS as a PC Technician. His career ultimately took off from there.

He naturally progressed and made the jump into Pre-Sales. During the pandemic, he started to really get into the hybrid role. He was doing delivery but really on the back end was gathering the level of effort requirements, so he was already getting that Pre-Sales experience. His friend who was working for Presidio Federal at the time approached him and said they had their team built and were preaching work-life balance, it was at this point his ears perked up and decided to make the plunge and go for the role.

Being in a high-pressure environment…

Having that previous experience through his various roles prepared him for the Federal world. You have the entire business looking at you, they want o to know why they are down when they are going to come up and what the issue was. You need to be able to fix the problem quickly, fix it correctly and explain what happened in a way where you bring it down to a common language level so you can move forward.

When it comes to certifications, Ian thinks they are invaluable. They show you really put in the time to study something whether it’s Cisco or Juniper and have had some sort of hands-on experience. You can study all you want when it comes to certification but when you get into Cisco or the high levels ones you want to pass those. Hands-on is super beneficial whether it’s a lab etc. It shows you understand the theory of it but also the way it works and connects.

Ian shares some great career advice on where you should start if you’re looking to get started in the IT world. Listen in now to hear it!