Larry McFarlin

My parents bought our families first computer in the summer of 1995… shortly after I moved out of the house. My first true personal interaction with computers didn’t come until around 1997 when a friend called to let me know that he got (literally) a truckload of old computer equipment that OSU was throwing out and wanted to know if I was interested. We pulled systems apart, plugged different components into different slots, and fried several pieces of equipment trying to figure out what worked until we finally got a couple of systems alive to play with.

Fast-forward a couple truckloads of computers later to mid 1999. My current job of delivering pizzas for The Shuttle and mowing yards for my dad wasn’t cutting it (no pun intended). I decided that I really liked computers and starting talking shop to a good friend that happened to be a manager in the tech support department at Creative Labs. I went in for an interview with him and a couple other tech support managers to find out just how much I knew about computers… which was very little (One question I remember flubbing was “Do you know what PNP means?”). My buddy called me a couple of days later to tell me that tech support was not for me but they were hiring in customer service and was wondering if I might be interested.

I worked in customer service for right around a year before I had picked up enough knowledge to make the move to support. I worked in support for almost 4 more years advancing to the highest obtainable level of Support Advisor – TSAIII. This allowed me to obtain an abundance of troubleshooting/customer service skills, HTML/graphics design experience, and obtain a CompTIA A+ certification.

Since then, I have worked for Geek rescue in Tulsa as a computer technician and DCA in Cushing as a technical support engineer before starting here in the Interworks networking department under the direction of Blaine Stephens in April, 2008.

Everything I know in the IT field has been learned through personal trial and error experiences. In the last year alone, I have obtained a tremendous amount of server technology and Enterprise level troubleshooting knowledge. In the near future I plan to obtain Network+/Server+, MCSA/MCSE, and CCNA certifications and eventually complete my degree in MIS from OSU.