Banging Your Head and Crying Under Your Desk You Are Not Alone

Speakers: Andrew Claydon

Level: Fundamental, Lecture

Excerpt: What’s required of a Mac Admin seems to be growing and mutating every daybefore your work load and duties expand out of control, it’s time to ask for help. There is a community of experienced people inside and outside your institution ready to make your job easier but first you need to define exactly what your challenges are and then tackle how to ask for help.

Description: A little over 25 years ago, I started a pretty simple part-time job managing two small Mac labs for a graphic design department. That little job exploded into a more than full-time career setting up Mac systems to support twelve different labs for six departments, encompassing graphic design to music to video and animation. And I’m doing it all as the only Mac specialist on campus. With my responsibilities ever expanding, software and OS constantly changing, and security requirements shifting daily, it sometimes seemed impossible to keep up. But eventually I learned an important lessonI didn’t have to go it alone. You don’t either. There is a vast universe of help located online if you know where to look and how to seek answers. In addition, there are most likely resources inside your own institution that you should be utilizing. Learn how to define your challenges, how to break things down into specific responsibilities, how to assign those responsibilities, and exactly when and where to seek outside knowledge and help.


About the speaker

Andrew Claydon – System Engineer/User Support – Washtenaw Community College

A long long time ago I started a career in graphic design but then along came the Macintosh. In order to use these new-fangled machines, my obsessive brain needed to know how they worked. Soon after, understanding and maintaining a Mac was always a good skill to add to my design rsum. Until one day. Knowing how to use QuarkXpress, Aldus PageMaker, PhotoShop, and font and color management become the additional skills on my rsum. All of a sudden, I was a Mac Admin. For the better part of my career I have been at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I set up and maintain a system of labs for our Visual Arts, Music, and Communications departments. Oh, plus, I am the sole provider of user support for all faculty and staff working on Macs. I am the Mac team, party of one.

This entry was posted in MacAdmins 2018 Sessions. Bookmark the permalink.