February 1996 to April 1997

Unlike the post Heald College "graduation" in '81, there was no ceremony for the Novell networking curriculum.  And not having a government job lined up as with the transition between two DOD branches in the past, I was able to procure a private sector job via  Heald's job placement service in '96.

Comart was a small hole in a wall storefront initially operated by an attractive, business savvy Korean woman, Joyce Chun.  The place was located just around the corner from the Hall of Justice in San Francisco.  It was not stocked with items for retail sale and had a staff overkill of technical service salesmen.  There were three techs when I started.  Jeff was the most senior of the techs and his expertise was the Microsoft software line.  Zach and Ken (our inventory control person and unofficial tech) were the "in house" system assemblers.  I was to be the Novell tech, replacing another who found greener pastures.  I was also to give Zack and Ken and hand with system assembly when not servicing as the Novell guy. 

This first private sector job was a $10.43/hr pay cut at $13/hr.  The thirteen federal holidays I grew accustomed to working for the feds was reduced to five, and the five weeks of annual leave was reduced to one.  The salary could not pay all the bills.  I ended up draining all of my savings working at Comart.  But despite all of this, it was a learning experience.  I met clients from all walks of life as opposed to just the military and contractors.  Got my exercise in by walking to most of my onsite clients.  Ken also taught me how to service HP printers.  Although Ken was not certified by HP I felt comfortable with his training.

My notable experiences included.....

• A language school based on TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language).  The challenge there was they had a network which ran a proprietary operating system no one in the office was familiar with.  I interfaced with their previous IT group initially get started.
• An architectural firm in San Mateo where I spent a weekend in the office assembling a new Novell server from parts and the version of the network operating system (NOS), and then installing and configuring the new server onsite.  It was my first server, and it was working flawlessly when I was done.
• A liquor store in Burlingame which I spent all night trying to configure a new system's Point of Sales (POS....could have been called a "piece of s***" system) software.  I had to leave the site as I could not resolve the many issues even after interfacing with the software's technical support team.  Never knew how the problem was resolved, if it was resolved and how billing was handled.
• Putting one of the sales guys in his place when he thought I was taking too long putting a system back together while onsite in front of the customer.  He decided he knew what he was doing when he reinserted the CPU incorrectly to the motherboard and powered up the system.  It fried both the CPU and motherboard.  He was reprimanded by the boss for not doing his job and attempting to do mine as we had to replace the system.  Fortunately the data was saved daily.
• While on a job to install a new printer cartridge and to perform maintenance to a laser printer, I ran into my HS class president, Quincy Yu (S'73).  It was her company.
• For a short time I provided instructions on how to use a computer to one of the clients.  The instructions provided was not through the company and was given after company hours.  I was paid directly by the client at a rate nearly three times that of my salary.  Unfortunately that ended when the customer felt she needed a short break to take in what she had learned thus far.  When she was ready to continue I was not able to provide the instructions as I no longer had the time when I left the company.
• Our sales team was able to convince a church, who already had an IT consultant, to purchase a high end laser printer and its installation from Comart. I was assigned to do the work.  When tracing the network connection I noticed a sub par wiring job.  I ended up complaining to my future boss, the other IT consultant who later recruited me.

Joyce sold the company while I was there.  The new management totally changed the atmosphere of the workplace and had a different work plan.  Zack would leave the company and would be replaced by one of the new owner's acquaintances.  The entire administration was revamped and accounting became more streamlined and was handled by the new owner directly.  Paychecks would now have a stub attached which served as a leave and earning statement.  This was something we did not get previously.

Shortly thereafter I received a call from Benny, the IT consultant who I complained about his cabling technique.  Apparently he appreciated my candid words about his employee and recruited me.  I would be the company's "Accounts Manager", earning considerably more than what I was making.  The counter offer did not even come close.  He also tried to recruit Jeff, but with no luck.  I did not receive a send off party or receive a card from the staff...not that I expected one, but saying goodbye to a higher paying job was something to look forward to.