Helping His Colleagues, Serving Alaskans

Most people who work in an office environment can relate to that sinking feeling when their computer freezes right as they’re about to hit save on an important document or when a file mysteriously goes missing.

At Alaska Housing Finance Corporation’s Anchorage headquarters, desktop support team employees like Mike bring their expertise, professionalism and service-oriented mindset into those stressful moments, ready to help their colleagues find solutions and get the job done.

“Recently, I couldn’t access an important document and there was a sense of urgency about it,” says Stacy Barnes, director of Governmental Relations and Public Affairs. “I called the IT help desk and Mike responded. He came in calm, cool and collected and retrieved the document. But what I really appreciated is that he took the time to follow up with me the next day.”

Mike, a desktop administrator III in AHFC’s Information Technology department, has been with the corporation for a little more than a year and enjoys making sure that others have the tools and support they need to do their jobs.

“In IT, we provide a lot of tools and resources for the people we work with so they can actually help the community,” says Mike. “Indirectly, we really affect lives.”

A Day in the Life

Mike and the rest of the desktop support team make sure all AHFC computers are running, ensuring the machines are up to date and have the right security standards. He says that his work entails extensive research, digging into the logs and evaluating patterns in computers that are displaying similar issues.

“It’s like forensics. We basically do some sleuthing to figure out what is going on with the machine,” he says.

It’s a satisfying and engaging career for Mike, who likes to learn and research topics to find a solution to a problem. That natural inclination is part of why he says he “grew up on a computer,” learning to code and building programs. Mike later ran his own business, repairing PCs and building websites. By joining AHFC, Mike saw an opportunity to be part of a team he enjoys while using his skills and experience to help others.

Recently, Mike was instrumental in implementing a systems upgrade and migration on about 500 computers.

“It took a lot of research. We had to find what was currently compatible, or not compatible, with that upgrade and determine the risks of those upgrades on some of the machines. We have some software that is proprietary for our needs here and there was risk upgrading software without knowing it was going to be compatible with that later operating system. It was satisfying to complete the migration successfully.”

Using His Skills to Serve Others

When an employee from another department runs into an issue and calls the help desk, Mike pivots away from his regular work to help his colleagues get back on track.

“I enjoy knowing that when someone calls me with a problem that is affecting their work, they know they can trust me to fix the problem for them. I've got a good record of success. Knowing that I can actually help them is what keeps me coming here and doing my job.”

He says he values those face-to-face interactions with his colleagues. Not only as an opportunity to get to know his peers better but he also gets a chance to learn more about the varied work of AHFC departments and gain insight into the broad range of work the IT department is supporting.

“I’m still learning what people do, so going into other departments and seeing what they do, learning more about what we offer as an organization is really neat,” says Mike. “We provide tools that help get people into homes, we’re helping to get people off the streets, we help people to be able to plan their futures.”

“Working in the IT department is a privilege,” says Mike. “We have a really good team that stays busy and knows how to get things done. Together, we make a difference for the people that we work with and, ultimately, the Alaskans we work for.”

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Hear from Mike in his own words: